East Coast Trip day 4 Hanover County

We spent a day out in Hanover county driving around that beautiful peaceful country side. We stopped at a place that gives a kind of insight into the Amish way of life. There were these chickens wandering around the grounds and this one was just too cute to not get it's picture taken. We took a wagon ride around the neighborhood with tour guide explaining the specifics of the Amish Religion and culture. The whole area looked so peaceful and quiet even the areas that weren't so Amish in population. I commented to Brad that I could really like living somewhere like that with a seeming slower pace of life.

World's best Phillie Cheesesteak

Tamara took us to this steak place, across the intersection is another steak place that claims to be the most famous cheese steaks. We are literally lined up into the street. Evidently this is common place because the traffic didn't seem to be all that bothered by having to swerve around the line. The owner of the place is a staunch supporter of police and fire fighters, he has bulletin boards going down both sides of the building that are covered with the shoulder patches of police forces, sheriff departments, and fire departments around the country. The sandwich was fine, it was the atmosphere that was really fun.

East Coast Trip day 3 Philadelphia

Tamara, Brad, and I spent the day in downtown Philadelphia. The first thing we did was take a "Duck Tour". These are tours where they use vehicles patterned after WWII amphibious assault vehicles. We drove around the historical areas of Philadelphia and then out onto the river. This nice gentleman was our captain and tour guide.
This girl was another of the captains and is evidently a huge Phillies fan. She said she always wears fun socks like this, "no point in being too grown up".
This was the crew of a Norwegian tall masted ship that was in the harbor. They were out site seeing just like us.

Don't know where this guy was going, but he was certainly dressed for a special occasion. He was also striding along quite determinedly.



This gentleman was our tour guide of Independence Hall. Needless to say not only did we get great information, but we were able to hear every single word he had to say. I think he must have trained with a professional voice coach to be able to throw is voice around a space so completely.
Independence Hall
"Duh, daaa, Duh, Daaa, du, du, du,du daaaaaa (Anyonelse hear the Rocky theme)
Just what every city needs a giant clothes pin.
I loved all the intricate architecture of downtown Philadephia.
This couple was getting their wedding pictures taken on a median in the middle of the street, I loved the juxtaposition of the wedding and urban surroundings.
It is a little hard to be able to see the exact perspective but these cars are parked in the median of a 4 lane road. Evidently there isn't enough parking along the sides of the street. Later on down the road there was even a gulf stream trailer parked in the middle of the road.

East Coast Trip Day 2 Atlantic City

We decided to use our second day of our trip to take it easy and just do some low key site seeing in Atlantic City. This was partially motivated by the fact that Brad and I watch "Diners, Drive- Ins, and Dives" and there area couple of restaurants from the Atlantic City area that have been featured on the show. I loved this sign so I had to takes it picture. All I can say about the Board walk in Atlantic City is that it is kind of like a nightclub it shouldn't been seen when it isn't crowded and at the wrong time of day. If all the booths had been open we could have had our palms read and gotten a massage about every 50 feet, and of course purchased tacky t-shirts in between.
A casino called "The Resort" was being picketed by Union Organizers when we were there, I tried to be sneaky so I wouldn't get anybody angry. I though the casino was pretty creative to counter act the protestors chants they piped out over their sound system some employees chanting "We love Resorts".
Just struck me as picture worthy.
The seagulls were pretty entertaining both of these guys were eating their lunches and the seagulls were all trying to stare them down to get a bite. They literally just sat their completely still and watched these guys eat. You can't see it but down on the sand there are even more just staring up hoping these guys will drop a morsel of food.



"Maui's Dog House". So Yummy definitely worth the drive and by far the best hot dog ever.

Awesome french toast, little tiny, tiny diner with people you can tell have worked together and known each other for years. Next it is on to downtown Philadelphia.

East Coast Trip Day 1 NYC

About a month ago Brad and I took a trip back east to visit my sister Tamara, see some old friends, and do some site seeing. I of course took my fun camera with me and came back with piles and piles of pictures. So now you will get to see the pictures and a running commentary on what we saw and did. The trip was a lot of fun, but I think we tried to cram too much into too few days. From September 22 - 29 we went from NYC to Philadelphia to DC and back to NYC.

Brad and I flew into NYC on the red eye and arrived at JFK airport at 6am. We met Tamara at Penn Station and spent the day being total tourists. As you can see below we even did the quintessential carriage ride through Central Park. The theme of the tour was all the famous spots that had been seen in various movies.

I saw this sign as we were taking the train into the city and I just thought it was hilarious and ingenious how they used their wall space.

After central park we went downtown to the site for the twin towers to see the 9-11 memorial. On our way we stopped in at the church right near the site that had been used by the rescue and relief workers right after 9-11. The inside of the church has become more of a community center and 9-11 museum than a church at this point.
The inside of the church has become a memorial in its own right where they have displayed numerous of the mementos that were left at the site and sent during the time of the recuse efforts.
The view below used to have the twin towers behind the steeple.
There is an old cemetery out behind the church, these ribbons have been tied in the trees. If you can't read the text on the ribbon it says, "Remember to Love".
Later as we were walking from the 9-11 memorial down to catch the ferry out to see the Statue of Liberty, we passed this square filled with food carts and trucks providing lunch to all these construction workers. These construction workers are working on the reconstruction at ground zero. I had to take a picture because it struck me as a beautiful relationship that out of such tragedy could come such activity and prosperity for so many people.

The eternity pools are amazing at the 9-11 memorial. They are constructed in such a way that unless you are looking down on them you can't see the bottom. Circling each one are the names of all those who died on 9-11. It was nice that they made a memorial that was not static but would provide constant movement and sound.

All around people had left flowers and small american flags as mementos.
This tree is the only one that survived 9-11. As you can see they have gone to great lengths to help it survive, and protect it.
The view of the statue of liberty from the ferry.

We got tickets to be able to go up inside the statue to the top of the pedestal. I had to take all kinds of pictures because I was just in away of how it was put together. Of course it was also fun to take a picture of the lines and light and shadow it included.

It was pretty windy on the pedestal and you can see NYC in the background.

The absolutely amazing few from Liberty Island. Trust me I have a lot of other pictures but rather than torturing everyone with them here I am going to put them on my facebook page. I promise I will provide documentation of the rest of our adventure but I didn't want to overwhelm anyone, including myself. Needless to say I have a lot of pictures to go through.

Halloween Birthday Paty

This last saturday I decided it was time to christen our house with a halloween party. Given that my birthday is right before Halloween this has always been one of my favorite holidays. And of course there had to be costumes. My niece Kelly came up for the weekend and my friend Erica came up for the day. Brad even managed to survive having his hair sprayed purple in honor of the occasion.

Who knew a witch, Amelia Bedelia, and a geisha girl could be such good friends. I was impressed with Erica's ingenuity with her costume. She says she has been using it for years and frequently will use it when she goes in to work with her kids classes and teaches them cooking. Brad's niece looking adorable in her little red riding hood ensemble. She had fun running around all night and charming everyone insight.

Can't you tell how excited Brad was to have a house full of people and purple hair as well. At least he tried to get into the spirit of the occasion with a skull t-shirt.
Who knew the green lantern would enjoy playing Wii games so much. It kept him occupied for most of the evening and so kept the destruction to a minimum.

Here we are again, hair is courtesy of Kelly. I promise she really tried to show me how to do curls with a flat iron, I will just have to keep practicing.
Brad's sister Angie and his sister in law Katie. Angie channeled her halloween spirit with spiderweb earrings, and Katie took her inspiration from lady gaga. Fortunately she decided not to go with the meat dress.
Friends for longer than I care to admit but since I am turning 36 and we were roommates in 97 I will let you do the math. We are both doing weight watchers and have lost a combined 37 pounds in the past 3 months. Go us. As Erica puts it she just has two babies worth of weight left to lose.
As you can tell we were all mesmerized by the Wii I think this was the point at which the boys were discussing the it isn't cheating just because you are winning.
Who me?