Best Places in the USA

Kentucky - Puzzled by Kentucky

2011-05-03T19:16:00.000-07:00

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In Kentucky we went to a most puzzling place. Kentucky was a great state. We went to one of my favorite restaurants, Puzzle Fun Dome, and the Kentucky Derby Museum.

One of my top restaurants is a fast food chain, and that chain is Culver's. Yes, Culver's is a top restaurant, and not just because of the ice cream. No, they know how to make some good burgers. Unlike McDonald's or Burger King, Culver's has a good balance of flavor. The bun to meat ratio is perfect. Then you throw some ketchup, mustard, pickles, and onions on, and you have an awesome burger.

However recently Culver's has decided to go crazy and put the ingredients on the bottom of the burger, instead of the top. This throws off the whole taste because if it's on top then you taste a perfect mix of burger and ingredients. If the ingredients are on the bottom, then the ingredients overtake the meat, and you just taste ingredients. If you get past that matter though, it's a great place. I especially like how they have an ice cream flavor of the day. My favorite flavor is Boston Cream Pie.

Puzzle Fun Dome has nothing to do with puzzles; however, it has a bunch to do with fun. Puzzle Fun Dome has a nine hole indoor mini golf, some inflatables, a movie theater, a rock wall, glow in the dark basketball, mini bowling, and arcade games. Chloe and I spent most of our time playing on their awesome inflatables. My favorite one was a regular jump house without the net. Then you add two sticks with cushions on the ends instead of weights. You would swing your "weight" at the other person and try to knock him or her off a cylinder. I had so much fun whacking Chloe off of the cylinder. They also had a large slide and an obstacle course jump house. The nine hole mini golf course was really lame, though, compared to all the other activities. One hole was being fixed, and the whole course needed repair. The rock climbing and glow in the dark basketball were fun though.

The Kentucky Derby Museum is the number one hands-on museum on the trip. They had two amazing hands-on exhibits there. The first one was betting stations. You pick which horses you thought would get first, second, and third. Then you receive your ticket and watch a video of the horse race. If you picked one of the horses right, the TV would show you how much money you would have won. I could have spent hours playing that, but unfortunately they had the videos on a cycle, so you watched about seven videos, then they repeated. Their second amazing hands on activity was horse racing. They had a plastic horse with a TV screen in front of it. You had three buttons. One made the horse move right, another made the horse move left, and another made the horse go faster. Because of that button, I won almost every time.

Kentucky was a blast. We experienced Culver's, derbys, and domes (oh my!) It still puzzles me though, how I lost that last race.

-The Son

Kentucky - Where the Kids Learn to Bet on the Ponies

2011-04-30T20:15:00.000-07:00

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Have you ever bet on horses a million times and didn't even have to pay a penny out of your pocket? I did in Kentucky. In Kentucky we visited Kentucky Derby Museum, Louisville Slugger Museum, Zaxby's restaurant, and Puzzle's Fun Dome.

The Kentucky Derby Museum was awesome! They had a ton of interactive exhibits. My favorite exhibit was a betting machine. First you place your bet on the horse you think will win and which horse you think will get second and third. Then you sit down on a bench and cheer them on to first, second, and third place. Levi and I played it for half an hour. Another fun exhibit was three plastic racing horses that you ride and try to beat your opponent.

The Louisville Slugger Museum was much better than I thought. I thought it would be boring because I'm not really into baseball. They had awesome batting cages! I'm not as bad at hitting a softball than I thought! I made contact with every ball except three. The Louisville Slugger Museum which we were able to take a tour of makes wooden bats.

In Kentucky we went to a huge church. It was the biggest church I've ever seen! Last week over sixteen thousand people came to the Saturday and Sunday services. I really liked the service because it had some humor, and I actually understood him. If we end up living in Kentucky, I would love to go there again.

Zaxby's was a delicious restaurant. They are famous for their chicken, but I think they should be famous for their sauce. It's called Zax sauce. It's the best sauce I have ever tasted! Trust me, I have eaten more sauces than you can count. The sauce is hard to explain what it tastes like, so I won't. You have to go there yourself to find out.

We went to a place called Puzzle's Fun Dome, and it was fun. They had five inflatables. One had two cylinders, and one person stood on each one. Each person also gets a plastic stick with two very soft and big pillow like ends. Then they fight and see who falls off first. They also had Cosmic basketball which is glow-in-the-dark basketball.

In conclusion Kentucky was one of my favorite states. I would highly recommend Kentucky Derby Museum, Louisville Slugger Museum, a big church, Zaxby's, and Puzzle's Fun Dome. By the way, I still have eight years until I can even think about real betting.

-The Daughter

Indiana – Speeding Through the Hoosier State

2011-04-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

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Highly visible with Donate Life magnets displayed all over it, our van does turn some heads. Needless to say, I don’t want to brag about exceeding the speed limit, or the next thing I know we’ll have every state trooper on the lookout for us. Let’s suffice it to say, in honor of the Indy 500 Motor Speedway, we wanted to speed but rather maintained a law abiding speed throughout the entire Hoosier state. In fact, the only thing speeding in Indiana was the time.

Here are some highlights from our speedy week in Indiana:

Best Tourist Spot: Indy 500 Motor Speedway. The Hall of Fame Museum located inside the track could have been dull for those of us who aren’t particularly into racing - if it weren’t for the docent. Once again, the docent saved the museum with interesting stories. For example, we were looking at the “tropical rose” race car, and the docent walked up and told us about the recent pink race car in support of breast cancer awareness. The driver, whose name was Lloyd, was all decked out in pink from the car to his helmet. Appropriately they nicknamed him “Pink Floyd.” Wouldn’t it be great to have a blue and green Donate Life race car?! I'm not sure about a good nickname for the driver yet, though...

Most Family Fun Spot: The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. While Levi is getting too old for most children’s museums, this one held his interest, and of course, Chloe loves them. The Children’s Museum of Indy always ranks high in the list of the best children’s museums, so when some friends talked about meeting there, we jumped at the opportunity to see them…and go to the museum. Before we knew it, we had spent all day at the museum! There is so much to see that it really requires a full day.

Worst Closure: The Grounds Tour at the Indy 500 Speedway. The tours don’t operate in rain or snow, so imagine how disappointed we were when it snowed the day before our tour! Sadly we couldn’t ride the bus on the racetrack nor stand at the brickyard for pictures. Worse yet was knowing that we just missed it.

Most Beautiful Sight: Freshly fallen snow. Something I’ve never lost in adulthood is my love of waking up to freshly fallen snow. I especially love to see it still falling…when I’m at home, that is - not on a trip driving a minivan around the United States! I’m awful with measurements, but I’m guessing there were a few inches. Chloe was dying to have a snowball fight, so we bundled up with what little snow clothes we had and threw some snowballs around in the hotel’s courtyard…fun.

Best Meal: PF Chang’s. Their lettuce wraps are delicious, especially with that sauce they whip together at the table. In fact, they’re so good, I’d put them in one of the top 10 meals we’ve had on the trip!

Worst Meal: Hardee’s. We were short on time, so we desperately grabbed something to eat at the only place around – Hardee’s. As we sat down, Chloe commented, “I feel like I should be old and drinking coffee to eat here.”

New Foods: Chocolate marshmallow topping for popcorn. Oddly we’ve only seen this popcorn shaker flavor in Indiana. It sounds disgusting but think caramel corn or kettle corn. Yum.

A First for the Trip: Doing a puzzle. We were thankful that we were able to set up a table at the IUPUC campus in Columbus to sign up organ donors and raise awareness for organ donation. At a nearby table, a puzzle was sitting out for anyone who wanted to help assemble it. Since it's not something we can normally do on the trip, Levi and Chloe enjoyed working on that puzzle the entire time.

Biggest Revelation: On Mike’s birthday, we did something unusual and went to see a movie. During Tangled, there’s a scene where Rapunzel has the same fear that I have occasionally: what happens when your dream is over? Flynn responds, “When this is over, you'll find a new dream." So simple, so powerful, and yet so comforting. We are living a dream on this amazing trip, and when the trip is over, we can dream a new dream.

Biggest Twinge of Homesickness: Being so close to home was just weird. All we had to do was hop on I74 and be in Illinois in a couple of hours. (We didn't, but we could have.)

Best Drive: Meridian Street in Indy. Seeing all the historic homes, especially in the evening when they were lit for Christmas, was beautiful.

Worst Drive: The drive over from Ohio was snowy and a little slippery. Welcome to winter in the Midwest!

Biggest Surprise: You can do that with gingerbread?!? After attending the wonderful Christmas event at Conner Prairie Interactive History Park, we enjoyed browsing the gingerbread houses on display and voting for our favorite. Chloe’s favorite was the giant gingerbread cup of hot chocolate. Mine was the gingerbread library with all the antique looking books made from fig newtons! They're so cute. Be sure to check out the pictures.

Biggest Disappointment: The cold. We were taking a risk spending a week in Indiana in early December. It was cold and even a little snowy while we were there, but it certainly could have been worse.

Funniest Memory: Comedy Sportz - their Christmas theme show. In one game each player took turns singing one and only one word of a Christmas song for as long as they could go without messing up. That was harder than it sounds! Try singing just “Rudolf” and stopping before “the red-nosed reindeer.” We played our own version driving in the van. It’s amazing how often you don’t know the next word, or you sing two words because they flow together. We laughed and laughed when we duplicated this game in our van!

Worst Memory: Mike’s sickness was lasting much longer than it seemed it should. We started to worry that it was something more serious and wondered what that meant for the rest of the trip. We just had to leave it in God’s hands though. As it turned out, he recovered from the nasty bug and is fine.

Best Memory: Laughing with friends. We hadn’t laughed with good friends in so long! It was wonderful that our friends drove over to meet us at the museum and then hang out afterwards. I’m thankful for their friendship. Our values are so close to each other, and it’s awesome spending time together as iron sharpens iron.

My IN Hike: What pipe dream was I thinking when I hoped to hike in Indiana in December?!? It snowed 2.5 inches when we were there, and we surely don’t have room to pack boots in the van!

What We Did Miss: Holiday World, Indiana Dunes, West Baden Springs Hotel, and so much more all recommended to us.

In Summary: The week we spent in Indiana went speeding by, but you certainly didn’t see a minivan with Donate Life magnets speeding by on your roads!

-The Mom

Indiana - The Way to the Boy's Heart is Through His Stomach

2011-04-27T19:37:00.000-07:00

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In Indiana we saw what it was like in the 1800's. Given the time of year, we were also doing some special activities. We went to ComedySportz, Conner Prairie Interactive History Park, Indianapolis Speedway, and Father's birthday activities.

ComedySportz is a great idea. It is a funny competition of comedy where they have two teams. Personally I prefer Second City from our Alaskan cruise. Since ComedySportz had a score board, they could keep score throughout the evening. That made it a little more like a competition.

After that is Conner Prairie. Surprising as it is, Conner Prairie is actually a historic town that has houses where you can walk inside. We can't tell you how it looks in the day, but we do know how it looks at night because we went on their candlelight tour. Because they only have it during winter, we were blessed to be there at the right time. Luckily, the only bad part about the tour was the cold.

The rest of the tour was really fun. They had volunteers that were stationed at every house along the walk. After telling you their names and giving you information about the house, neighbors, city, or almost anything, they told a riveting short story about the town or neighbors. Every house had a different story. Tending to her sick husband, the wife told us her story. Where in another house, the topic was a family getting ready for Christmas. Surprisingly, in one house there was even a party which means they provided us with hot cocoa and a ginger cookie. Because of the food, the tour went up another notch for me.

Apparently the Indianapolis Speedway is a big thing. I don't know much about race cars. Seeing the evolution of the race car was really cool though. The first race cars were pretty scary and, well, old. Chloe complained that they didn't have seatbelts. I liked the bullet cars from about 1970. Chloe and I also were able to sit in a model race car. It actually had enough legroom for me and a five year old kid to sit in there. Since then, I still haven't learned much about race cars.

My dad's birthday happened while we were in Indiana, and that was one of the most fun days on the trip. First we ate at P.F. Chang's China Bistro. Since they have some of the best sweet and sour chicken ever, I think they are in my top three Chinese restaurants. My mom and dad always order the lettuce wraps. Watching the movie Tangled in 3D was fun as well. Apparently they have improved the 3D technology from the old green and red glasses. The movie didn't use much 3D, but the parts that were in 3D were really good. That was my favorite part about the day.

Lastly dad took us to the Melting Pot for dessert. Since we had already eaten dinner at P.F. Chang's, we just ordered their chocolate fondue dip. That was amazing. I loved the rice crispy treats dunked in chocolate. Wishing I could have that again is easy.

Indiana was loads of fun. I loved Dad's birthday, ComedySportz, Conner Prairie, and the Indianapolis Speedway. Now I just want to see what it was like in the 60's when my dad was born.

-The Son

Indiana - Snow Day...No Way!

2011-04-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

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Have you ever ice skated with no skates or had a snow ball fight sitting down on ice? I did both of those things in Indiana at the Children's Museum. In Indiana we also saw Comedy Sportz and Tangled, the movie.

Usually I hate watching sports, but Comedy Sportz was so funny mostly because it wasn't sports. It was comedy. There were two teams with four people on each team. One team was the blue team, and the other team was the red team. Then there was the audience who actually won the competition. That's right, the audience got the most points. Sadly, we didn't get the trophy, but we did get the satisfaction of beating the experts. At the end of the games the referee presented the blue team with the trophy, and then in slow motion all the people started fighting. Even that was funny with everyone walking around in slow motion ripping the other team's hair out.

One of the games was called, “The Do Run Run.” It was a fast song where each person had to rhyme with a one syllable name that they picked out in the beginning. For example, they would start with Sue. Then the first person would say, "I met a girl on the street, and her name was Sue.” Then the next person would say, "She gave me a clue.” Then they would keep going and going until someone messed up or took too long.

On my dad's birthday we went to watch Tangled. It was pretty good, but there were tons of songs. Rapunzel's hair was 70 feet long! I wish I could have hair like that. She had people braid her hair, and they put little flowers all over it. She lived in this huge tower. Oh, wait I shouldn't tell you any more. You'll have to watch the movie.

We ice skated on our socks at the Children's Museum. It was really fun because some friends met us there. My favorite part was the snowball fight. The girls dominated the boys, and the kids dominated the adults. Some of the boys started to cheat and stand up when they were supposed to sit down. The girls still won though.

Overall Indiana was pretty fun. I don't really want to live there though because it’s not really an interesting state. I would highly recommend Comedy Sportz and the Children's Museum. By the way, I forgot to tell you the snowballs were just cotton balls, well, the snowballs at the museum, anyway, and the ice wasn't real ice.

-The Daughter

Ohio – A Thankful Time

2011-04-25T12:28:00.000-07:00

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We were able to spend Thanksgiving in Ohio visiting family. It was wonderful to spend the holiday with family, but Thanksgiving really shouldn’t be once a year. After you've had a transplant, it should be every day. Each and every day we should give thanks to God for Annie, our hero. Without her desire to be an organ donor, Mike wouldn’t be here today. I wouldn’t have a husband; our kids wouldn’t have a dad. Isn’t that worth being thankful every day…even the days we don’t see eye to eye?

Here are some highlights from Ohio:

Best Restaurant Meal:  Skyline Chili. Let’s be honest here: the best meal was my mom’s lasagna, even surpassing Thanksgiving dinner, so I had to create a new category under the circumstances.

We stopped at Skyline Chili because of its notoriety but were a little skeptical; however, no beans won the kids over immediately while the cleanliness of the restaurant (at least this newer location) impressed the adults. While it definitely has a different taste, the chili was good. It’s almost BBQ-y loaded with shredded cheese, but it was good, fast, and cheap! Chloe said it was her favorite restaurant, surpassing even Panda Express.

Worst Meal: The one where we ran out of Mom's leftover lasagna. Her lasagna, salad, and garlic bread with homemade apple pie for dessert is my ultimate comfort meal. We ate like royalty, not just once, but several times...until we ran out of leftovers.

Biggest Surprise:  Jeni’s ice cream. Jeni calls it "artisan" ice cream. It's certainly not your typical ice cream, that’s for sure! We sampled unique flavors like salty caramel, chocolate cayenne, sweet potato marshmallow, and buckeye…after all we were in Ohio. It was interesting and fun to try, but we all agreed that we prefer traditional ice cream. Sorry, Jeni.

Biggest Disappointment: How quickly the time with family went. It was great to see family and spend Thanksgiving together at my sister’s house...Thanks for hosting us!

Most Beautiful Spot:  Columbus Zoo Wildlights, the zoo’s annual Christmas light display. The lights were pretty, but the light show reflecting on the lake was spectacular! Synchronizing the lights to music just added to the beauty. We watched it several times, and Chloe and I could have stayed longer. It was a treasured moment breathing in the crisp air, viewing the lights, hearing the music, and sipping hot chocolate with the kids...ahhhhh.

Best Tourist Spot:  The National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton. Sadly we had to cut our visit short due to bad weather. Mike and Levi were sorely disappointed since they were of the opinion it was the coolest museum ever. We didn’t even have time to ride a bus to see Kennedy’s Air Force One because they spent so much time ogling at the planes. Chloe was upset to find that half of the exhibits in the hands-on area were out of order. The ones that did work were fun, though, like the exhibit illustrating how the tail hook stops planes during landing on an air craft carrier.

Worst Tourist Spot:  Anywhere close to a mall on Black Friday!

Worst Drive:   Rush hour in Columbus the evening before Thanksgiving. I’m not sure what we were thinking driving then!

Biggest Twinge of Homesickness: Cookie decorating. Our family is huge into Christmas cookies, especially the decorated ones. My mom surprised us by baking a batch to decorate while we were together. It was nice to continue that treasured tradition together, especially since we wouldn't be baking any cookies this year.

Most Fun: Blue Jackets hockey game. Our brother-in-law hooked us up with suite (and sweet!) seats. It was so much fun! The kids now say hockey is their favorite spectator sport because of that experience and the fast pace of NHL hockey.

Funniest Memory: Playing the game Catch Phrase with family: guys vs girls, of course. This game always has us laughing!

Worst Memory: The service advisor came over and sat down next to me to discuss the results from our vehicle’s inspection. Anytime they sit down, you know it’s bad news…

Best Memory:  Decorating my sister’s Christmas tree with her. We haven’t decorated a Christmas tree together in 20 years. Chloe and I really enjoyed it. Maybe it’s because we didn't have a tree on the road, but I think even if we did, we’d still enjoy it! Chloe got right in there and helped with the branches, lights, and everything. The best part, though, was knowing we wouldn’t have to box it all up after Christmas. ha ha

My OH Hike:  Nothing. We were too excited being with family.

Biggest Revelation: Kids grow so fast! We totally missed my nephew as a baby. He’s walking and starting to talk now. He was so much fun - and such a cutie! It makes me realize how quickly Levi, Chloe, and even yes, even my nephew will be off to college...Now that’s a scary thought!

What We Did Miss: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum, C.O.S.I. Museum, Cedar Point, Young’s Jersey Dairy, Hocking Hills State Park, and others all recommended to us.

In Summary: We're thankful for so much but especially Mike's donor, Annie, his life saving transplant, our families, and a great week in Ohio. Our only problem was not eating any Buckeyes - the chocolate peanut butter kind, that is!

-The Mom

Ohio - A Real Blast...Literally and Figuratively!

2011-04-23T20:21:00.000-07:00

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Have you ever been to a hockey game that whenever the home team scored they fired a cannon? We did in Ohio. In Ohio we visited a Blue Jackets hockey game, the Columbus Zoo, and my aunt and uncle's house.

The hockey game was so much fun! My uncle works at a ticket station. He gets extra tickets in good seats a lot. Our seats were in a larger area with more space and comfortable chairs. At our seats we also had little TVs that we could watch the hockey game on if we couldn't see it. I think hockey games are definitely my favorite sport to watch. The Blue Jackets didn't win, but each time they scored, someone fired a cannon.

The hockey game was a match between the Blue Jackets and the Red Wings. Now, I know what you're thinking: Red Wings is a really weird name for a hockey team. Their mascot was of all things...an octopus! (The Blue Jackets mascot is a cannon because they tried to do the Blue Jackets thing for the Civil War, not yellow jackets wearing blue jackets.) During little breaks in the game, sometimes they would have kids around eight or nine years old come out on the ice and do a short hockey game.

We went to the Columbus Zoo around Christmas. They had a light show, hot chocolate, Christmas lights, and hot cider. The light show was incredible! One of the songs the lights were coordinated with was from Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I don't know what it is called, but it's my favorite Christmas song. The hot chocolate was delicious! We didn't get to see too many animals since it was nighttime, but we did see monkeys on a playground specially built for them. It looked like a extremely fun playground, so fun I wanted to play on it. Some of the monkeys were playing tag, and that was fun to watch. The Columbus Zoo was the best zoo on the trip!

My favorite part about seeing my aunt, uncle, and cousin, aside from seeing them, was helping them put up their Christmas tree! I had a lot of fun at their house, and we even had some media come out to their house. We had our Thanksgiving meal at my aunt and uncle’s house. The media ran a huge family clip, and out of everyone there, they wanted my dad to stir the potatoes! (My dad never helps with the Thanksgiving cooking.)

Overall Ohio was amazing! I would recommend going to the Columbus Zoo especially around Christmas and to a hockey game. Oh, I forgot to tell you that the cannon didn't have a real cannonball in it.

-The Daughter

Ohio - This Museum Really Was the Bomb

2011-04-22T15:02:00.000-07:00

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Imagine yourself enjoying some nice chocolate ice cream when all of a sudden, it gets really spicy. If that happens, you must be at Jeni's. In Ohio we did many fun things. One of which was see the Columbus Blue Jackets play. We also went to the Columbus Zoo and Jeni's Ice Cream. Another great thing we did was go to the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

The Columbus Blue Jackets are Ohio's National Hockey League team. They play at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. We were able to go because of my uncle's job. After watching nonstop fun, I have to say that hockey is my favorite sport to watch. I'm a major baseball fan, and I like to watch a little football too, but hockey is non-stop action. What also made it fun was the executive seats we sat in.

The Columbus Zoo was started by the famous animal man, Jack Hanna. Sadly we arrived a little late in the year to see many animals, and the animals we did see were indoors (except for the penguins). Luckily though they had Wildlights. Wildlights is millions of Christmas decorations in the zoo. Every half an hour they also had lights that were coordinated to music. I especially like the light show because they played Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Then we walked around the zoo looking at lights.

Jeni's Ice Cream is an ice cream shop with a twist. They change up the flavors. For example they have cayenne chocolate which is cayenne flakes in chocolate ice cream. Another wacky flavor they have is salty caramel. The ice cream wasn't bad, but when I think of ice cream, I think of rich, creamy vanilla or smooth chocolate not salty caramels. If you're in the mood for something different, though, Jeni's is the place to go.

The National Museum of the Air Force is one of the best museums I have ever been to. They had thousands of planes from the World War II Flying Fortress to the B2. Half the time you would look up and see the under side of a wing, instead of the ceiling. Another cool part was looking at all the planes my dad had built models of when he was a kid. I was able to sit in the cockpit of a Thunderbird and some other airplane I can't name. In the first plane's cockpit there were millions of switches and buttons. They even had an ejection lever which didn't work. The second plane was a two seater. It had fewer switches and buttons, but you also couldn't see out of the plane. You had to use radar to see. While I would have loved to stay the whole day and look at the planes, we had to leave.

Ohio had fun stuff from planes to lights. Another great activity was the hockey game. Most of all we had some spicy chocolate.

-The Son

West Virginia - Where Congress Used to Hide

2011-04-16T18:50:00.000-07:00

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In West Virginia there were no Hatfields or McCoys around those parts. Instead we met great people, like a lady whose mother had passed away recently. Her mother, a registered organ donor, was older, but her tissue was still able to be used for burn victims. The lady was thankful that her mother was a donor because it made such a difference knowing her mother was able to help people.

Here are some highlights from West Virginia:

Best Meal: Z Brick Oven Pizza. Z’s pepperoni roll was surprisingly tasty. I normally don’t like pepperoni, but this was so light on the pepperoni, that it really tasted more like salty cheese bread, and that I do like!

Biggest Surprise:  How moist a biscuit can be! Tudor’s Biscuit World has the largest, moistest, most delicious biscuits I’ve ever had. Typically I’ll pass on biscuits because they’re so dry but not Tudor’s. I was wondering if I’d be full after eating just a biscuit sandwich, but considering they were the size of a hamburger bun, I was plenty full.

Biggest Disappointment:  The cost of admission to the Cold War era bunker under the famous Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulphur Springs. It was $30 apiece and hasn’t gotten good reviews on Trip Advisor since a different company took over the tours. We just couldn’t justify that much money with such bad reviews, but I would have loved to see where Congress would have stayed all safe and snug during a national emergency. It seems appropriate for Congress that they would be holed up under a fancy resort, spending our tax dollars like crazy, even in a crisis.

Must See Thanks to Hollywood:  Marshall University’s memorial fountain. It honors the football players and staff that died in the tragic plane crash that inspired the movie “We Are Marshall.” Actually we didn’t know it was a fountain and couldn't figure out what it was until we learned that every year, on the anniversary of the crash, the fountain is turned off until spring. We also had fun tossing a Nerf football on the Marshall University quad on such a nice sunny day with the leaves rustling under our feet.

Worst Closure:  Beckley Coal Mine. It’s sooo West Virginia, but we were too late in the year.

Most Beautiful Spot:  New River Gorge and the famous bridge spanning it that’s in practically every West Virginia photograph. With the late afternoon sun shining on it, it was beautiful. I can’t imagine how stunning it would have been two weeks prior with all the fall leaves still on the trees.

Best Tourist Spot:  Mountain State Miniature Golf. Normally I don't choose a mini golf course for the best tourist sight, but at this course each hole represented something unique for West Virginia. What a great idea! The course needed some repair, but it was fun playing all the state themed holes.

Worst Tourist Spot:  Tamarack. Basically it’s an arts and craft bazaar for local West Virginia artists. We breezed through because we just aren’t shoppers. There’s only so much room in the van, and that’s already taken with our suitcases and other necessities.

Best Bathroom:  We’ve used far more gas station bathrooms than one person should in their entire lifetime; however, at an Exxon in White Sulphur Springs, we experienced one of the best bathrooms on the trip. It was bright, clean, and even had toilet seat cleaner!

Best Drive:  Through the mountains at sunset.

Seen on the Drive: Driving through West Virginia, we noticed three things over and over and over again: cemeteries, churches, and gentleman's clubs.  We're not sure if there's any connection between them or not...

Funniest Memory:  Driving down the road Chloe said, out of the blue, that when we have a house again someday, she wants to have a sign in our yard so we can write messages on it. We didn’t understand what she was talking about, so she said, “You know, like…(reading a nearby marquee) Dancing Girls Apply Within.” Somehow, I don’t think that’s the actual message she wants to communicate on our yard sign!

Worst Memory: Removing thorns. The disc golf course we played through the woods was impossible. Attempting to retrieve his Frisbee, Levi ventured into a nasty sticker bush. I’m not sure exactly what kind of plant it was because we just call them “sticker bushes,” but they’re nasty in West Virginia. The thorns penetrate through your jeans!

Best Memory: Playing catch in the hotel room with a soft ball and saying something we were thankful for every time we dropped the ball. We played for a long time because we have so much to be thankful for!

My WV Hike: Actually we attempted several places. Beartown State Park was a little, hidden gem, but a ½ mile boardwalk trail was just too short to be a hike. Our second attempt was the Greenbrier River Trail, which is a very nice rail trail, but it made us want to bike, and the bike rental shop closed at 1pm. Lastly, we tried Greenbrier State Forest, but as Chloe mentioned the bear signs and hunting zones frightened us from hiking. In a last ditch effort, we pulled out the frisbees and went disc golfing at the course in the park, and we finally achieved my hike! The views and golfing were nice, too.

Biggest Revelation:  That’s why they call it the Mountain State! The entire state is hilly - mountainous, I guess you could say...

What We Did Miss: White water rafting, Carnegie Hall, Cass Scenic Railroad, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Blennerhassett Island where Aaron Burr plotted to take over the government, Beckley Coal Mine, and others all recommended to us.

In Summary: West Virginia, we didn’t see any feuding, just mountains and great people!

-The Mom

West Virginia - Mountain Momma Take Me Home...But Not to the Opera

2011-04-14T16:57:00.000-07:00

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West Virginia showed us some of the best of the "West." In West Virginia we went to one of the most interesting mini golf courses. We also went to a disc golf course and Tamarack.

Mountain State Miniature Golf is a mini golf that is unique to West Virginia. They are the first course we have ever seen make holes that have something to do with their state. It was so creative.

The first hole had a bridge to putt over. It was a bridge found in West Virginia. My favorite hole started with putting through a toll booth. Then you hit your ball down a series of ramps that are parallel to each other. If you make it down that before you reach five shots, then you face another toll booth, and then you finally reach the hole. The other neat part about this hole is the detail they put into the toll booths. They even had an EZ Pass lane. The only problem with the course was the greens were a little torn up. Besides that I give this course a four and three fourths out of five.

Greenbrier State Forest was one place that Mom wanted to go hiking. While the hike was lame, the frisbee golf was really fun. They had eighteen holes, but the back nine were under construction. It was still really fun though. On one hole they had a super steep drop. Another hole had you throwing your frisbee 500 feet. One problem with the course, though, is all the thorny plants. The second problem is the signs that tell you what to do if you encounter a bear. It was really scary because of the thought of being attacked by a bear.

Tamarack is one of West Virginia's top attractions. I call it Public Enemy Number Three a.k.a. an art gallery. Public Enemy Number Two is the opera. (I love it when the fat lady sings.) Public Enemy Number One is any formal ceremony. Anyway it was packed. The food line was a thousand people long. The price for a magnet that was shaped like the state was fifteen dollars.

West Virginia had great golf and my number three enemy. It also had some boring hikes and a great mini golf. I think West Virginia showed me the best and the worst of the "West."

- The Son

West Virginia - We Couldn't "Bear" to Go Hiking There

2011-04-13T20:14:00.000-07:00

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Have you ever been to a miniature golf course where each hole represented something from that state? We did in the most surprising state in the whole world...West Virginia! In West Virginia we visited Mountain State Miniature Golf and Greenbrier State Forest, and we ate at Tudor's Biscuit World.

Because Mountain State's mini-golf holes were so unique, that was my favorite course. The holes were not as well maintained as we like them; although, the uniqueness of the holes made up for that. Every hole on the course had something to represent West Virginia. I don't know why this would be in West Virginia, but there was a hole where you had to putt through the toll booths.

Oddly enough at this golf course I bought my second and last mini-golf ball. My first golf ball was from Michigan. At that mini-golf course you pick a ball in the beginning, and when you're done, you get to keep it! That ball had a yellow base but had splotches of purple, pink, and green everywhere. My second mini-golf ball I bought because it had a twenty dollar bill inside a clear coating! (I also bought it because I lost my first ball, but now I found it.) Mountain State Miniature Golf is by far the best mini-golf of the trip!

At Greenbrier State Forest there was a tremendous amount of signs saying "Watch out for Bears" or "Hunting Area." Those signs scared us quite a bit. We decided to disc golf instead of hiking. The disc golf was pretty fun. Of course I didn't even play. I just followed along. There were hills made of something like broken up cement, and what I did there was just jump from pile to pile.

I can't believe that someone would name their restaurant Tudor's Biscuit World. Besides the name, the restaurant still wasn't all that good. I do have to admit they were the best biscuits of the trip, but that's because the only other biscuits we've had were at our hotel's free breakfast.

Overall West Virginia was surprisingly fun! I would highly recommend Mountain State Miniature Golf in Beckley, WV, and disc golfing at Greenbrier State Forest in White Sulphur Springs, WV. Even after forty-six states of mini-golf, West Virginia's is still the best.

- The Daughter

Virginia - Those Coins Don't Make Cents

2011-04-12T20:24:00.000-07:00

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Virginia’s slogan "Virginia is for Lovers" is appropriate for us since we had our first date of the trip there. A full 6 months on the road with all 4 of us together 24/7 is a lot of family time, so needless to say we were excited about our date.

There’s a lot of pressure when you’re going out on your first date in 6 months. What do you do? Go to a movie? While it would have been nice to see a newly released flick, it just seemed wrong. After all we'd finally have a chance to talk without little ears listening in on our conversation, but we'd be in a dark theater where conversation is frowned upon. Go bowling? Now we enjoy bowling, but we can go bowling in any town, in any state across America - with the kids. So what did we do without the kids that was uniquely Virginia? We strolled the Virginia Beach boardwalk and then went out to dinner at a restaurant the kids wouldn’t enjoy nor could we afford with them along, and we chatted...without little ears listening.

Here are some other highlights from Virginia:

Best Meal:  Siagon Pearl in Williamsburg. Some friends came out to Virginia to meet us and offered to watch the kids one evening so that Mike and I could go out - thus our first date in 6 months. We scrambled at the offer and rushed out the door before they could change their minds! Dinner at this nice Vietnamese restaurant was delicious. Maybe the meal was so wonderful because we were finally alone. It's hard to tell. In fact, we may never know, but we’ll remember it fondly regardless.

Worst Meal:  City Dogs in Richmond. When asking our hotel desk clerk about dinner options, she recommended finding a place on Cary Street. It was a nice area of town with mostly pricey restaurants. We settled on City Dogs, the only one within our budget. It was housed in an eclectic, old building and served hot dogs and beer. Neat place, but let’s face it, it was a hot dog.

Biggest Surprise: We were shown our first Southern hospitality at Art Connected in Stafford. I wasn’t familiar with Southern hospitality, but after Art Connected, I’m a fan! In fact, if Southern hospitality were on Facebook, I’d “like” it. Frida, the owner, is such a sweet, southern woman. While we were there, she invited a few of her artists to meet with us, and they even prayed for us. We are so thankful to Frida for hosting us and donating artwork, which we later raffled at an event.

Biggest Disappointment: Missing the Christmas lights on the Virginia Beach boardwalk. As we were strolling along the boardwalk, they were setting up for Holiday Lights. Now we have Christmas light displays in Illinois, but they’re not cute beach themes, like Santa fishing and surfing, along with a Nativity in the sand, and you certainly don't drive on a cement boardwalk to view the light displays. Needless to say, we were disappointed to read they didn't start until after our week in Virginia was over.

Best Bribe: Before meeting up with our friends, we volunteered at the Donate Life booth at the marathon in Richmond. We had bribed our kids by telling them if they weren’t helpful at the booth, we’d torture them by taking an extra long time on the way to meet our friends. For example, we'd splurge and eat at a sit-down restaurant and then stop at the local grocery store before meeting them. It may sound awful, but it worked! Levi and Chloe were extremely helpful during our entire shift at the busy booth keeping the supplies stocked on the table and never once asking, "How much longer?"

Worst Closure:  Amazingly nothing, but we did run out of time at Mt. Vernon. George Washington’s home is perched atop a hill overlooking the Potomac. We toured the home and grounds, but our favorite part was the education center and all the movies therein, which are wonderfully educational. In addition, they aren’t shy about talking about George Washington’s belief in Providence either. Sadly we had to rush through the last half of the museum because it was late in the afternoon, and it was closing. In hindsight I wish we had spent less time looking around the grounds and more time in the museum.

Most Beautiful Place:  UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing) Memorial Garden. The garden is designed so that you purposefully walk through the different sections, thus leading you through organ and tissue donation symbolically. First off is the Wall of Tears, representing the shedding of tears by the donor family. Then is a water sculpture which represents organ donation itself. Next is the Wall of Names showing the diversity of organ donation. We found “Anne” which was the closest we found to Mike’s donor, Annie. The Butterfly Garden represents new life through organ donation. Lastly is the source of the water, the fountain that drops a single drop of water at a time, causing a ripple effect throughout the entire Memorial Garden. It was very touching and beautiful.

Best Tourist Spot:  Yorktown Battlefield National Park. It’s all about the tour guide, or in this case, Park Ranger. The ranger talk was captivating. We learned that a sudden storm prevented Cornwallis and his men from escaping via boat across the York River, and therefore Washington won the Battle of Yorktown. It’s yet another example of God helping Washington and the colonies win the Revolutionary War. After the ranger talk, we explored the trenches and even had a picnic lunch on one such trench used for defense in the Revolutionary War.

Worst Tourist Spot:  Historic Jamestown. It’s confusing because both Yorktown and Jamestown have a national park and a living history museum. We opted for the national park in both cases because, first of all, it was free due to our national park pass, and for the most part you can’t go wrong at the national parks…except in this case.

Based upon the park ranger’s recommendation for our limited amount of time, we skipped the movie. Mistake #1. We’ve found as we’ve traveled to the historical sights, it’s best to watch the movie. When you watch it initially, it lays out the background and history for you, but enough travel tips...

Interestingly enough, up until a few years ago they thought the original Jamestown settlement was located in the adjacent river. Just recently, they discovered the actual site of the settlement near the river in the national park and are still in the process of excavating it. It sounds exciting, but all we could see were ropes and a museum full of artifacts behind glass display cases…rather boring if I may admit that honestly. If it weren’t for the beautiful sunset over the river and the numerous deer in the park, we’d have set a record for being in and out in record time.

Best Drive: Colonial Parkway. It’s actually a road maintained by the National Park Service which connects the 3 sights that make up the historic triangle: Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown. No semi trucks or billboards are allowed on it, and the speed limit is reduced. Because of the beautiful fall leaves, I didn’t mind the 45 mph speed limit. In fact, it was rather refreshing.

Worst Drive:  The traffic was horrible in Arlington City, even on a weekend. The culprit was a busy Costco causing a parking and driving nightmare for several blocks. I can’t believe the town allowed Costco to build in the middle of the congested downtown area. With everyone doing their weekend shopping, the gridlock was worse there than in nearby Washington politics.

Biggest Twinge of Homesickness:  Watching the kids playing with old friends was heart warming but sad, too, knowing it would only last a few days.

Biggest Revelation:  That’s what’s on the back of the nickel! I never realized it was Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home, on the back of a nickel. How strange that a President’s private residence would be on the back of a coin. Once again, though, I loved seeing it with my own 2 eyes: the Little-Leaf Linden tree from Europe that swooped down on the front lawn, the European design alcove for the beds, the spinning door in which the servants placed food for Jefferson and his butler to serve the guests themselves so that no servants could hear the private conversations...what an amazing place! I guess it makes "cents" that it's on the back of a coin.

Most Fun Spot:  Playing hoop and stick on the grassy knoll at Colonial Williamsburg. It was fun racing Levi and Chloe. The thought crossed my mind that we were playing the same games children played, probably on that very knoll in front of the palace, in the 18th century. Our clothing was different, but the goal was surely the same: to keep your hoop rolling farther and faster than anyone else’s. Some things never change.

Funniest Memory: Scribblish. If you can imagine the telephone game marrying Pictionary, Scribblish would be their offspring. In this game, it’s always funny to see how something as simple as a can of soda, for example, can change into something as ridiculous as a monkey taking a shower. We laughed for hours, but I guess you had to be there…

Worst Memory: Saying goodbye to our friends after several days of hanging out together. Before they left, the weather was nice and sunny, but after they left, it changed and turned cloudy and rainy which accurately reflected our moods the rest of the day.

Best Memory:  Having an argument with Mike and realizing we both “win” when we both lose. I know that doesn’t make sense, but it was the best example of arguing and then immediately resolving it that I can think of in our 19 years of marriage. We both “won” by neither of us trying to fight for ourselves but rather working together to come to a compromise, and we both walked away happy and unified in our marriage. This is what God designed for marriage, and it only took 19 years to realize it! We're a little slow...

My VA Hike: A 4 mile loop trail near our hotel winding through the beautiful fall foliage. Fall is my favorite season, and hearing the leaves crunching beneath your feet is one of my favorite sounds.

What We Did Miss: The Christmas lights at Virginia Beach, Yorktown Victory Center, Jamestown Settlement, (the living history museums not the national parks), and others all recommended to us.

In Summary:  Virginia, you are for lovers… and families and adventurists and historians. There is such a variety of things to see and do!

-The Mom

Virginia - Where Jefferson Went Wii, Wii, Wii All the Way Home

2011-03-31T18:27:00.000-07:00

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In Virginia we held a competition to see if Jefferson's house was better than Washington's or vise versa. Both had equally stunning views, but only one could become the next Founding Father Feud Winner! We also went to Yorktown and United Network for Organ Sharing.

Monticello was one of my favorite Founding Father's homes. Considering the fact that inventing was one of Thomas Jefferson's favorite activities, it is not surprising that he invented many things. Amazingly he invented a giant clock. It was powered by cannon balls and gravity, and it surrounded the doorway and showed the date and time. He also had several other inventions. Because I love reading, I enjoyed his invention for holding books the most.

Mainly the tour consisted of the house. Jefferson collected many different things from books to Indian spears. Putting his bed in an alcove that let him access his observatory on one side and his bedroom on the other side is a great idea. In his dining room he had another great invention: a conveyor belt that brings the wine up from the cellar without having to bring a servant or slave into the room. That would go great in my room for getting soda to drink. I wish I could have browsed through the house longer.

History tells us that the Battle of Yorktown ended the Revolutionary War, not counting a couple of sea battles fought after it. Fighting in Yorktown, you would experience mostly cannon fire. Although the tour guide didn't directly say so, God was the real victor of the battle. Amazingly the British had almost escaped across the lake when suddenly God sent a storm to destroy the ships of which none survived. After going on the tour, it amazes me how God made Washington and the French win.

Surprisingly the tour was one of the best tours of the trip because of how much information he gave us. Climbing up the trenches was my favorite part. Despite the thorns I did it anyway. While the tour was great, the only problem with the tour was the cold weather. I had a blast, which was a huge change from dreading it beforehand.

United Network for Organ Sharing or UNOS maintains the transplant waiting list. The list is completely automated, and it says who obtains which organ. Waiting on the list is what my Dad did for six weeks. UNOS gave us a tour of their facilities. Inside was mostly computers and cubicles. Outside they had a beautiful fountain with names of about a thousand organ donors. Finally my Dad found the first name of his donor.

Surprisingly Mount Vernon is very different than Monticello. It is much bigger, and you can do much more at Mount Vernon. The walk through the house was pretty boring. Walking through the slave quarters and other parts of the farm wasn't much better. Because there were no actors, there was no one to ask questions about the place. Considering both houses, I would rather go to Monticello than Mount Vernon.

In Virginia we did more field trips than any other state. I had fun everywhere, except at Mount Vernon. If I were Jefferson, I would try to invent the Wii.

- The Son

Virginia - Did Humpty Dumpty Sit On a Ha-Ha?

2011-03-30T18:10:00.000-07:00

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Don't fall down the Ha-Ha Wall! In Virginia instead of falling down the Ha-Ha Wall, we helped at a marathon where we passed out t-shirts. We visited Washington's home and Jefferson's home. We also saw one of my best friends!

Have you ever been to a marathon and didn't run in it or watch anybody in it? Obviously, we didn't run in the marathon, but we did pass out goodies from Donate Life. Because Levi and I were refilling the supplies, I had more fun than I would have if I were handing out items to people. Basically Levi and I would just make sure that nothing was running low such as pom poms, lifesavers, and key chains. If anyone was on team Donate Life, it was also our job to find the right size t-shirt and give it to them. Our job sounds pretty simple, but the place was very busy the whole time we were there.

Washington's home was huge! He also had an awesome yard. I can't imagine how great it was to play games like tag and stuck in the mud. (Stuck in the mud is like freeze tag). Washington's home had six bedrooms, a huge dining room, and a cozy living room. My second favorite part was their porch which went all the way across the house. My favorite part was the Ha-Ha Wall. The Ha-Ha Wall was a wall in the backyard that was basically a cage for their animals, but you couldn't see it. It was named the Ha-Ha Wall because everybody who came near it couldn't see it and fell down into the grass on the other side. Then of course everybody would laugh. There were also a couple of really funky trees.

Monticello was what Jefferson's home was named, and let me tell you Monticello was remarkable! It had a lot of contraptions, such as in the living room there's a holder just big enough for a wine bottle. A servant downstairs would put a wine bottle in and pull down on a rope which would make the wine go upstairs to Jefferson. They also had a hidden staircase that was like a revolving door. On one side there would be a small staircase, and on the other side there were shelves. Jefferson had a very beautiful view from his house.

In conclusion Virginia was one of the most fun states, but I don't really want to live there. I would highly recommend Washington's home and Jefferson's home. Remember, don't fall down the Ha-Ha Wall!

-The Daughter

Washington D.C. – Can’t We All Just Get Along?

2011-03-28T19:54:00.000-07:00

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In a city not known for its bipartisanship, we all got along really well. Well, except for that time we “had a discussion” about where to turn to get to the hotel, and that time we argued in the rain about eating lunch, oh, and that time we “discussed” what to bring in from the van, but other than that DC was full of compromise...in our family at least!

Here are some highlights from Washington, D.C.:

Biggest Surprise: There is so much to see and do in Washington, D.C., and much of it is free! It really is worth a week’s vacation.

Biggest Disappointment: The National Archives. I wanted it to be like the movie National Treasure, full of adventure and excitement, but even the movie at the National Archives was boring, and we normally find the museum movies interesting. Can you believe Nicholas Cage didn’t narrate it?!? Regardless you have to stop and see the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. That’s rich history!

Biggest Revelation: The first floor of the White House isn’t a museum! I didn’t realize that after the tours are over, they unroll the carpets, put away the ropes, and use the rooms for press conferences, sleepovers, and under the current administration, numerous concerts according to what we were told when we made several inquiries of the Secret Service agents of whom you’re encouraged to ask questions while on the White House tour.

Worst Closure: Nothing was closed, but our Senators and Representative weren’t in DC because we visited too closely after the election. Fortunately because we contacted them ahead of time, we were still able to take a tour of the Capitol Building conducted by a member of their staff, and it was fantastic. We stood under the dome and expressed amazement at how large it is. We learned about, and tried out for ourselves, the acoustics in the old Congressional meeting room allowing John Quincy Adams to hear private conversations across the room. We sat in the gallery of the Senate and pictured history taking place, and we walked via the tunnels below the street. Unfortunately, we didn’t rub elbows with anyone famous since they were all back home.

Most Beautiful Spot: Arlington National Cemetery. Yes, it is in Virginia, but it’s such a DC tourist sight that I included it here. I’ll risk sounding like my daughter here: it’s huge! All the white tombstones in perfectly straight rows, contrasted against the meticulously manicured green lawn and orange fall leaves were striking. It’s humbling to see how many have died for our country, our freedom. Thank you!

Best Bathroom Stop: The Smithsonian Institution Building, the one that looks like a castle, is mostly just an information and administration building, but they do have nice bathrooms, a model of the city, and a fun touch exhibit in the lobby. The kids loved playing on the giant touch screen where you used special tools to paint and even build a fire. I’m really not sure what that has to do with anything informational, but they had fun, none the less.

Most Fun Tourist Spot: Spy Museum. It was interesting seeing all the spy gadgets and such. We especially loved the beginning of the museum where you felt like you were preparing to be an agent. It's just too bad they couldn't keep the theme going throughout the entire museum.

Most Boring Tourist Spot: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. For a museum, it's pretty boring because there aren't many interactive or high tech exhibits, but I love how the movie Night at the Museum has spawned an interest in history. Our kids were excited about going and seeing the parts in the movie. Skip the planetarium movie about the Black Hole. It wasn’t worth the money, and it wasn’t the least bit educational.

Most Moving Tourist Sight: Holocaust Memorial Museum. When you first enter, you pick up a card with an identity on it. The museum is very well laid out, and you even see an actual train car which carried thousands of Jews to the concentration camps. Unfortunately, we arrived late in the afternoon and didn’t have much time to really delve into it. Whatever amount of time you spend in the museum, you can’t help be stirred at the end of the museum when you find out what happened to the person on your card.

Funniest Memory: We saw news coverage of two guys who’d travelled to 24 states selling a million dollars of advertisements on their trailer in support of small business. Levi responded, “Oh yeah. I’d like to see them get to Hawaii.”

Worst Memory: Waiting in line to get through security at the White House. We had previously set up a tour through our Senator and were assigned a time, but we still to wait outside for about an hour to go through security….in the bone chilling rain. We all huddled under one giant umbrella and played the Name Game to pass the time. I find it amusing that you can’t bring cameras, chapstick, a purse - anything other than your cell phone, wallet, and car keys, but you can bring your pointy umbrella! I guess that speaks more about the weather in DC than anything.

Best Memory: We had the privilege of being on live TV promoting organ donation in the DC area. We arrived at FOX 5 and were ushered in what seemed like a huge garage to wait in the “green” room which was a glorified dressing room – beige at that. Finally we were led into the production area, another garage type room not at all like you see on TV where there are cameramen and producers milling about. Here there was one producer and one cameraman. That’s it.

Not surprisingly, most of it was computerized. The cameraman sat us on the red love seat and chair, hooked up our mics, and had us be quiet for the next 20 seconds until the show’s host came over to join us on the red furniture. Seeing things like the foot pedal she used to control the words on the monitor was exciting to be a part of! What’s funny is that she focused on asking the kids questions, and they were the stars of the show. Levi used a superhero analogy, and Chloe said it was a privilege to be doing this. Way to get the word out about organ donation with the cute kid appeal!

My DC Hike: While sightseeing one day, we walked nearly 11 miles all over the city! 21,870 steps to be exact seeing the Washington Monument, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Capitol Building, Holocaust Memorial Museum, and so on. Needless to say, we all slept well that night, even in a hotel bed.

Best Views of the City: From the Washington Monument. Be sure to reserve your tickets ahead of time. It's only $1.50 per ticket to do so, and it ensures your time slot. Hope for a sunny day because it has great views of the Capitol, White House, Lincoln Memorial, and DC in general.

What We Did Miss: It’s hard to believe that with all we did, we still missed so much including the National Cathedral, Jefferson Memorial, Bureau of Engraving & Printing, National Zoo, and others all recommended to us.

In Summary: Washington, D.C., we had a great time visiting your numerous sights and rich history. Being we're smashed together 24/7 in a minivan and hotel room, we had no option but to work out our differences and come to a compromise. Mmmh, maybe we should stick Congress together in a minivan until they agree…

-The Mom

Washington D.C. - There's a New Star in Town

2011-03-27T18:30:00.000-07:00

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Have you ever walked twenty-five thousand steps in one day while you were sick? I did in Washington D.C., and my feet hurt so badly once we were finished! In D.C. we went to the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, the Spy Museum, and the Fox News studio.

The Washington Monument was amazing! They used to let you walk up or down the stairs, but people started carving stuff into the walls. Now the only way up or down (if there's not an emergency) is the elevator. It was a beautiful view at the top.

Reaching the top of the stairs at the Lincoln Memorial made me pant like a dog who just ran twenty miles. After all I was sick. Lincoln was huge! Because the Lincoln Memorial was in one of my favorite movies, I enjoyed it more than I would have if I didn't watch Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. I loved just sitting on the steps looking at the Washington Monument.

Walking into the White House was weird and exciting at the same time. To think that you're walking on the same ground that the most famous person in the United States walks on is incredible. We saw the Green Room, the Red Room, the Blue Room, and the dining room. Seriously, I'm not kidding about all the rooms with colors for their names. The weird thing was you couldn't bring anything into the White House not even chapstick, but you could bring any kind of umbrella you wanted. Which do you think is more dangerous: chapstick or a pointy umbrella?

At first I didn't think that I was really going to like the Spy Museum, but it was unbelievable! After you pay, you go into the briefing room and watch a short movie. Then you come out into a room with a bunch of different names on the walls, and you find one to memorize. After a few minutes they take you into another room that shows you different spy stuff like picking locks, finding hidden messages, and blending in with the general public. I was expecting to go on some sort of secret mission. They also had a little tunnel with a window to crawl through, but you had to avoid being seen through the window. If we had enough time, we would have gone on a GPS mission where you go around D.C. looking for different clues to solve a "mystery."

Live TV wasn't new, but being in studio was awesome! They talked to my dad for a minute or two, then they flipped over to Levi and I. We were the stars of the show. My mom said that it's because it means more coming from kids then it does coming from adults. I guess I believe her, but I also think it's because I'm so much more adorable than them!

Over all D.C. was pretty fun. I would definitely recommend the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, and the Spy Museum. Remember don't go to D.C. when you're sick or when your feet, legs, or knees are sore.

-The Daughter

Washington D.C. - Government Secrets

2011-03-23T19:23:00.000-07:00

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The District of Columbia was a fun week. We went to the Lincoln Memorial, National Archives, Smithsonian Institution Building, US Capitol, Washington Monument, and the White House.

Walking up the steps to the Lincoln Memorial was really cool. It is one of the first things that pop into my mind when someone says, "DC." On the steps I enjoyed sitting and looking at the Washington Monument. Since Lincoln is from Illinois, he is my favorite president. His statue was huge, and in person it was that much larger. Mostly I've seen it in movies.

Inside the National Archives was really cool. Looking at the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution was a highlight of the week. Since it is a storehouse of history, it is that much cooler. My favorite subject in school is history.

The Smithsonian Institution Building is the castle on the National Mall. Despite being an information center, it does have one fun thing. I call it an iTable. Playing many games on the iTable was fun. Since it has a touch screen, you can play special touch games, but you also can play a painting game or do a puzzle. The point is that it was awesome.

I was surprised by how big the Capitol Building was. In the Capital Building we were able to go to so many places, like the Senate Hall. Thinking back, my favorite place was the old Congress meeting room. Apparently the room is shaped so that from John Quincy Adams' desk, he could hear private conversations from all the way across the room. Since it was so unbelievable, we tried it out, and it worked.

From the top of the Washington Monument the view was amazing. Since it is right next to so many other famous places, the view was even better. Thankfully they had an elevator, and Mom didn't make us do the stairs. I read about the history while we waited for the elevator. Sitting down after walking all around Washington helped my tired legs.

Waiting in line to tour the White House is terrible. The only thing that could make it worse is rain, and guess what it did while we waited to tour the White House! After you make it through security, it isn't that bad though. Since we have been to many museums, my dad decided to ask questions of some Secret Service agents. Apparently they have had to arrest someone for peeing in a corner of one of the rooms in the White House. That is why my dad and mom make Chloe and I ask questions whenever we visit a museum. You never know what you will find out.

D.C. was a great district, and it was that much better because it involved my favorite subject, history. I really enjoyed all of the activities. I would rather go someplace with beaches and not as much politics though. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go to the bathroom in a corner.

The Son

Maryland – Mary Had a Little Land

2011-03-19T19:03:00.000-07:00

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Mary had a little land, but fortunately for us, it wasn’t white as snow while we were there! Maryland is small enough that we were able to see the coast, Baltimore, and the Patuxent River Naval Base. A friend on Facebook graciously set up a speaking opportunity for us about organ donation at a Cub Scout pack meeting on the Naval base. We performed a superhero skit to explain to the scouts how being an organ donor is like being a superhero, and Chloe went all out getting a Wonder Woman costume and dressing her part. Usually a Donor Awareness Patch is awarded the first time a scout is successful in getting an adult to become an organ donor. We hope that we not only entertained the scouts but also assisted them in earning their Donor Awareness Patch.

Here are some highlights from our week in Maryland:

Best Meal: Pasta Mista in the Baltimore suburb of Timonium. Their tomato basil bisque was excellent, my favorite soup on the trip! It had tortellini and red pepper flakes for a bit of a kick. I actually asked for the recipe - it was that good, but that’s a family secret. Best of all, it was a real pleaser for all of us, which is highly unusual that a restaurant is a home run for all four of us. Here Levi discovered ranch dressing on a pizza and thought it was a match made in heaven, on the level of peanut butter and jelly for most kids.

Worst Meal: Fractured Prune, a donut shop in Ocean City. I wrote in Delaware's blog how disappointed we were that we couldn’t eat at Fractured Prune, so we were excited to find one open in Ocean City. For the first time, not only on the trip but probably in our children’s lives, we actually went out for donuts for breakfast! You’d think this would be the best meal in Maryland, especially since they have different glaze flavors, like caramel, peanut butter, chocolate…oh my! Unfortunately, we were disappointed in the donuts themselves. Even warm, the cake donut didn’t compare to Krispy Kreme’s warm, melty goodness. In addition, the flavors of the cake donut with the glaze and toppings just didn’t gel together for us.

Biggest Surprise: The horses really are wild! We went to Assateague Island National Seashore to see the infamous wild horses. As usual, we made our first stop at the visitor’s center. Newly constructed, it has a touch tank where the kids were happy to stay all day. Eventually, we pulled them away from the crabs and drug them to the movie. We learned the horses receive no food, water, or even healthcare, other than a birth control vaccination. In order to control the horse population, the park ranger shoots the mare in the rump with an injection to allow her to birth only once in her lifetime.

Biggest Disappointment: Not being able to stay longer on the beach in Ocean City!

Biggest Twinge of Homesickness: Nothing. We had gotten a free upgrade to a corner suite on the top floor of the ocean front hotel - and was it nice…Off-season has its perks! How could we be homesick falling asleep while listening to the sound of the waves?!?

Worst Closure: The flight simulators at Patuxent River Naval Air Museum. Unfortunately, the simulators were only open on the weekends. Levi was pretty bummed. Chloe, however, was excited just to be able to sit in an airplane since she’s the only one of us that qualified by being lighter than 100 pounds.

Most Beautiful Spot: Sunrise at Ocean City. We wanted to awaken in time for sunrise, so I set my alarm; however, I awoke with a startle, thinking we had missed the sunrise because it was so light in our room. Discovering we hadn’t missed it, it was just very bright already, we sat on the balcony enjoying the beautiful sunrise. Once again, I couldn’t stop taking pictures. Don’t worry, though, I didn’t put them ALL on the website.

Best Tour: Patuxent River Naval Air Station. We were so thankful to receive a tour! We were able to see where they test new planes and even go inside a plane from the 50’s, which was actually used in Vietnam - and they still fly it! Seriously, it looked like the airplanes we see in museums, but they still use this one. How scary is that? While we were inside the cockpit, the flight engineer came in for a preflight so that they could take it up and refuel a plane in mid-air.

Biggest Revelation: In the Navy they still fly planes used in Vietnam?!? We can’t cut anymore Defense spending because they need planes that aren’t like the ones displayed in museums!

Best Tourist Spot: Inner Harbor, Baltimore. They’ve done a commendable job of making the Inner Harbor a great place to eat, shop, sight-see, and relax. We walked around, and Levi picked the food court for lunch. We sat outside overlooking the harbor while eating, so I couldn’t complain.

Best Memory: Fort McHenry, where the battle took place that inspired the Star Spangled Banner. Much to our surprise, it wasn’t a Revolutionary War battle but rather the War of 1812: a war we almost lost. Washington, DC was already captured when the battle at Fort McHenry took place.

Francis Scott Key was watching the battle from onboard a truce boat and later wrote about it. It was pretty moving when the 15 minute movie in the Visitor’s Center was over, and the curtains parted, displaying the American flag waving in the breeze while the Star Spangled Banner blared from the speakers. A true American moment.

Funniest Memory: We rented a surrey (4 person bike) to ride down the Ocean City boardwalk. Stopping for some Thrasher’s infamous French fries, I’m sure we consumed more calories than we burned! Levi was quite a ham by hopping off the surrey to jog alongside it and hand me a fry - if that’s any indication of how slow we were going and how few calories we were burning.

Worst Memory: Almost getting in an accident on the interstate near Baltimore. A car just stopped in the left hand lane. The car behind him swerved into my lane to avoid him. Luckily, I had room to swerve on the shoulder. It was our closest near collision on the trip, and it had my heart racing. I’m not sure if it caused a pile-up or not, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t.

Best Drive: The one in Assateague Island National Seashore. I prayed God would let us see wild horses. We were barely over the bridge onto the island when we saw two horses in the marsh. We kept driving and saw two more right beside the road, feeding on the grass. It was reminiscent of Yellowstone with the buffalo right there on the side of the road, stopping traffic in both directions.

Chloe had gotten a 100% on a quiz and turned in her reward to ride in the front seat all that day. Since she was in the passenger seat, she was in charge of taking pictures. Most of her pictures focused on getting a pile of horse poo in the shot. Since it was literally all over the park, it wasn’t too difficult.

Worst Drive: The one to Baltimore where we almost were in an accident on the highway as I mentioned in my “Worst Memory.” In addition, we saw multiple highway signs that said to report suspicious terrorist activity to a hotline. How much scarier can the drive get?!?

My MD Hike: Ocean City Boardwalk. It’s not every day that we Midwesterners get to walk on a beach boardwalk, so it was a fun “hike” for me.

What We Did Miss: Crab pretzel from Nick’s, Annapolis, the Naval Academy, Baltimore Aquarium, Babe Ruth Museum, Camden Yard, and much more all recommended to us.

In Summary: Maryland, you may have a little land, but we thoroughly enjoyed our week there and hope your Cub Scouts are still signing up organ donors!

-The Mom

Maryland - Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head

2011-03-18T18:55:00.000-07:00

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I'm Wonder Woman! Seriously, in Maryland I dressed up as Wonder Woman the whole week. We also had fun playing at beaches, going to a Navy base, and seeing horses.

We went to Ocean City, and the beach there was beautiful. We had a hotel right on the beach. Our hotel room even had a balcony! It was the coolest hotel room we have ever had. It had a living room, a kitchen, a Jacuzzi, two TV's, two DVD players, and our own private staircase! It also had a shower head that was directly above you, but if you think that sounds like a good idea, it's not. It felt like raindrops were falling on my head. There was no pressure at all. When I get out of the shower, I want to feel clean. There is no way you can feel clean after this shower.

We played on the beach a lot. I built Powhatan's Indian village. (Powhatan is Pocahontas's dad.) My dad and I built a volcano in Hawaii. We weren't actually in Hawaii. We just pretended that the volcano we built was in Hawaii. The volcano was three feet tall. That's as tall as my waist! I didn't think we could build it that tall, but we did it. We actually did it, and it didn't get washed away until morning. I'd say we built it pretty strong.

The Navy base was really cool! We were touring an old 50's plane. Then suddenly a man walked in and said, "Better get out. We're going to take this baby for a spin." My favorite kind of plane is the one that you hear about a mile away. We actually saw a couple of them flying. It was pretty tough to spot them, but eventually we found them. My dad could never find them.

In every state I want to see an animal that I don't usually get to see. For Maryland my animal was horses at Assateague Island National Seashore. The Assateague horses looked like ponies, but they were full grown. I can't imagine what a baby Assateague horse would look like. The horses were wild. The park rangers don't do anything. They don't feed them, shelter them, or even help them when they're hurt.

In conclusion Maryland was pretty fun, but not as fun as Delaware. I still wear my Wonder Woman outfit as much as I can.

-The Daughter

Maryland - A Suite Time

2011-03-17T18:27:00.000-07:00

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In Maryland we had a "suite" time, and yes, I will continue doing word plays. Maryland was a busy state. We went to a naval base, stayed at a "suite" hotel, ate at an amazing restaurant, and enjoyed a donut shop.

The Patuxent River Naval Base is, of course, a naval base. The one problem with it is there are no big battleships. I didn't even see a cruiser. Instead they have some awesome planes. We did a Donate Life event with a person whose husband works in the naval base, and he gave us a tour. It was really cool. We saw some radar planes and even some old 1950's fighters. We even were able to go in a old Vietnam airplane refueler, but we had to skedaddle out of it because they were going to take it for a spin. My favorite part was watching some planes traveling at the speed of sound fly overhead.

In Ocean City, Maryland we stayed at a gigantic Holiday Inn next to a boardwalk. It was fourteen stories high. We were upgraded to a corner suite that had two TV's, an ocean view, a kitchenette, and a jacuzzi. My favorite part was of course the jacuzzi, but I also liked falling asleep to the sound of the ocean. Another advantage was the closeness to the beach. Almost every day I went down to the beach with my mom or dad, and we built sand castles. The waves at that beach get really high, and when I say "high," I mean huge. Those three days were probably some of my favorite on the trip.

Another great place we went in Maryland was Pasta Mista. Pasta Mista is an awesome restaurant if you want pizza, pasta, or soup. We went there almost every day that we were in Timonium. They had so many different foods to order. One thing that made them shine was their different flavors. For example they had a chicken ranch pizza. They also had a spaghetti pizza. Another amazing food they had was their tomato basil soup. That was the stuff of legend. It had a little kick along with some soggy croutons, which were delicious, and some tortellini. I usually ordered the chicken ranch New York style pizza along with a cup of tomato basil soup. I would definitely recommend this restaurant to anyone in Timonium.

Fractured Prune is a donut shop that is very popular in Maryland. They carry many good donuts like the OC Sand. They allow you to design your own donut too. We ordered half a dozen donuts, and he baked them fresh for us. We each designed our own and then ordered two predesigned donuts to sample. The donuts weren't bad, but I have to say that when it comes to donuts, Krispy Kreme has spoiled us.

Maryland was yet another beach state. With all the good pasta and donuts I would put Maryland as one of the "suitest" states yet.

-The Son

Delaware – I Scream, You Scream, Chloe Screams For…

2011-03-16T18:51:00.000-07:00

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Delaware is nicknamed the First State because it was the first state to ratify the United States Constitution in 1787, and after staying there for a week, we agree it’s tops! We loved their beaches and had a great time.

Here are some highlights from our week in Delaware:

Best Meal: Our 19th anniversary dinner. It happened to be Chloe’s turn to pick the place to eat, and she chose Moe’s Southwest Grill for dinner. If it wasn’t Kids Eat Free night at Moe’s, we’d have overruled her, but we hate to pass up a deal like that.

Many sibling arguments have been solved in our family by having the person who picks the restaurant also choose the table where we sit. Conveniently located near the wall-mounted TV, Chloe chose her booth. Hers and Levi’s eyes were glued to the Disney channel. After 5 minutes of staring at the whites of their glazed over eyes, Mike and I brilliantly moved across the aisle to our own booth. How romantic was that? Our own booth at Moe’s, and just to be really crazy, I ordered a fish taco. No holding back on our 19th anniversary!

Worst Meal:  Fractured Prune, a donut shop that’s been featured on the Food Channel. It was our worst meal simply because they were closed. The sign said they were only open on weekends in the off-season. Noooooooooooooooooooo! By the weekend, we’d be in another state! Surprising as it is, I was disappointed the donut shop was closed. After all with a name like Fractured Prune, could this donut actually be healthy?

Biggest Surprise: We loved Delaware and seriously considered moving there. Before the trip, I never would have guessed Delaware would be the place we’d choose to settle down! We finally had to rule it out, though, because we want to be near a transplant hospital, and the only transplant hospitals are located in Wilmington and Newark, which is too far from where we’d want to live near the coast.

Biggest Disappointment: Not being able to rent bikes at Cape Henlopen State Park. The Nature Center was closed in preparation for a Halloween event, so the bikes weren’t available either. We were so disappointed that we left. In hindsight, we should have stayed and hiked around, but we were on a quest to bike that day, and bike we did on the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk. It was so fun biking on a boardwalk!

Biggest Twinge of Homesickness: Seeing the annual Christmas cookie recipe books and magazines out on store shelves (already in October!) and knowing I wouldn’t be baking any Christmas cookies this year brought a moment of sadness for missing out on that annual tradition in my family.

Worst Closure: Air Mobility Command Museum in Dover. They’re closed on Mondays. You think I’d have checked into that before driving an hour to get there! As our favorite comedian Tim Hawkins says, “Good information…too late.”

Most Beautiful Spot: Bethany Beach boardwalk, especially at sunset. It’s one of those quintessential boardwalks with the clock and lights. Adding to its charm is the grass covered dune, and the nice, clean beach made it a real winner. We absolutely love it! Be sure to check out the pictures.

Best Tourist Spot: DiscoverSea Shipwreck Museum in Fenwick Island. Surprisingly, the museum is housed above a junky tourist shop, but the museum is free (donations are accepted) and definitely worth the stop. It’s interesting to see the items they’ve recovered (see Levi’s blog for his favorite item recovered), but it’s talking to the director, who’s also the diver and archivist, that is most intriguing. He’s more than happy to answer questions and just offer information in general if you’re willing to listen.

Best Memory:  Meeting wonderful people. One lady we spoke with has a sister-in-law who just donated a kidney to her mother-in-law’s doctor. How strange, complicated, and cool is that?! Her mother-in-law has had cancer and been in chemo off and on for the last 13 years, but all the lady could talk about was how amazing her mother-in-law is and what great faith she has. Wow! You have cancer for 13 year, but the conversation isn’t centered on your illness but your faith. That’s my goal, but I keep getting sidetracked on goofy things!

Worst Memory: The reality of the half way point of the trip set in. It’s quite sad, actually, that it’s going so fast!

Funniest Memory: Crossing the Delaware/Maryland state line 4 times in a matter of minutes. That in itself isn’t funny. In fact, it almost sounds like a worst memory, but it’s not. See Chloe has a tradition of screaming, “We’re in (state name),” when we cross into each state. We were in Delaware for the week, but we accidentally crossed into Maryland not realizing we were that close. Chloe screamed, “We’re in MD!” I did a U-Turn and crossed back into Delaware where Chloe sceamed, “We’re in DE!” Finally we pulled into the mini golf parking lot but discovered they were closed that day.

If that were the end of the story, that may not even be funny, but as we pulled onto the road, we couldn’t turn left due to the median. We had to go right into, you guessed it, MD. Chloe screamed; I did a U-ey; we drove back into DE; Chloe screamed again. Believe me, she has that loud, ear piercing, girly scream, and for some reason, her screams are getting louder and more ear piercing as the trip progresses. That’s one thing that will be nice when the trip is over: no weekly screeches.

Best Drive: Driving thru Bethany Beach and the quiet resort area. We saw the large, blue herons flying and the canals in the subdivisions for the boat owners to drive their boat right up to their dock in their own backyard. It was a nice, relaxing drive, in the off-season at least!

Worst Drive: Levi in the lead for our bike trip down the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk. The ride was great, but I fear for the day he gets his drivers license. He was a crazy biker, weaving in and out. I’ll hate to see what kind of driver he is in 3 years! Levi made me nervous a couple times with his Ninja bike moves, so I can’t imagine how nervous I’ll be when he’s behind the wheel of a car with me in it!

My DE Hike: Walking along the beach in Rehoboth Beach. Since they have miles and miles of beach, I opted to walk along the beach for my hike. We walked and walked and walked without having to stop because of the beach ending or where you were restricted from walking on it. I’m not sure if all Delaware coastline is public, but there seems to be a lot of it anyway. It was a great, long hike just walking down the beach. While the kids played, Mike and I talked about his love for mountains versus my love for the ocean. He likes mountains because they remind him of God’s enormity, and I like beaches for God’s endlessness and power.

Biggest Revelation: When it says $4.99, it’s $4.99. There’s no sales tax! We bought a new camera to celebrate our anniversary, that and the fact that ours was dying. If there's one thing you need on a trip around the US, it's a good camera.

What We Did Miss:  Many restaurants all recommended to us, along with the Air Mobility Command Museum, Cape Henlopen State Park, and Fractured Prune, among other things.

In Summary: Delaware, we’d love to live there, so could you please build a transplant hospital near Bethany Beach, like real quick?!?

-The Mom

Delaware - What's in a Name Like Slaughter Beach?

2011-03-15T14:18:00.000-07:00

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Do you know how to tell if someone's not from Illinois? Bring up a conversation about Illinois, but make sure they're the first one to say Illinois. If they pronounce it with an "s" at the end, then you know that they're not from Illinois. If we don't go back to Illinois, I want to live in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Below I will be talking about Rehoboth Beach, Bethany Beach, Slaughter Beach, Golf Down Under mini-golf, and last but not least Moe's.

Rehoboth Beach was really fun! The beach was huge, and the waves were as big as elephants! We found a bunch of rocks that the waves washed up on, and we played a game called "Condos." In the game Condos we had to make and protect a condo. To protect it, we had to build walls and trenches. We used the rocks as well as sand to make walls.

Bethany Beach had even bigger waves. They were as big as three elephants! Bethany Beach was my favorite beach ever! The sand was litter and dead horseshoe crab free. At Bethany Beach we played don't touch the water. (It's self explanatory.) We also tried to collect shells between waves.

Slaughter Beach was my least favorite beach. It had dead horseshoe crabs everywhere; the beach smelled like dead fish; the water was brown; the beach was full of rocks instead of sand; and it was on a bay not the ocean! Slaughter beach really lives up to its name.

Golf Down Under mini-golf was really cool. I didn't win, but I beat the lowest girls' score of the day and got to ring a bell! Golf Down Under was Australian themed. It had kangaroos and koalas. The person in charge said that we could play again because business was slow. On two different holes each time we played, I got a hole-in-one!

Moe's is my favorite chain restaurant. Moe's is Mexican fast food. I always get the kid's cheese quesadilla. We went to Moe's so much that my dad was starting to get bored of it, but I could eat there every night!

In conclusion Delaware is definitely on our list of places we might live. In Delaware I think I heard the most people pronounce Illinois with an "s" at the end than I've ever heard in one state! There were people pronouncing it with an "s" right and left.

-The Daughter

Delaware - Sea Shells on the Sea Shore

2011-03-14T18:19:00.000-07:00

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If you want to look for shells, then Delaware is the place to "sea" shells. Delaware was one of my favorite states. We went to the beach almost every day. We also ate popcorn and had a smoothie.

We went to several beaches in Delaware. My favorite was Bethany Beach. All we did was collect shells, but it was fun because of their huge waves. They have better waves than California. Plus the game Chloe and I played is perfect with the waves. How you play is you try to gather shells while the wave hasn't come in. When the wave comes, you run away to not get wet. Chloe and I collected millions of shells, only a few were whole ones though.

One other beach we went to was Rehoboth Beach. At Rehoboth Beach there was a boardwalk that was about a mile long. We loved their beach because of the special game we played there too. It's called "Don't Get Wet and Protect Your Name in the Sand With Rocks and Water All Around You." It's really fun because you have to strategize where you are going to build a wall or a ditch. We played the game twice at the same rock pile. The game changed because of the blowing sand over night.

Slaughter Beach is the third and last beach we went to. Now I don't know why people name beaches "Slaughter" because who wants to go there? The beach was just as bad as its name. It was not well maintained at all. They had millions of horseshoe crab skeletons lying around. It was also a rocky beach with small sharp rocks instead of sand. The water itself was dirty, and it also had a rotten dead fish smell. Plus to get to the beach you had to walk through dune grass. That beach was definitely not my favorite.

Fisher's Popcorn is of course a popcorn shop, and they do make really good caramel corn. They don't make strawberry flavor or chocolate just caramel and regular, but that was some of the best popcorn on the trip. Another restaurant we ate at was Greenman Juice Bar and Bistro. It didn't have very much room and only had eight tables. We ordered sandwiches and one smoothie to split. I got the Eco Chick which has the two essentials. It had chipotle mayo and chicken on it, along with some other ingredients. It was a good sandwich. The only problem was they didn't make the chipotle flavor stand out. The smoothie we ordered with our meal was really good though.

DiscoverSea Shipwreck Museum was a museum devoted to shipwrecks. They had many different items there from gold coins to a centuries old ear wax picker. The owner was a great guy. He scuba dives for the artifacts himself. I liked looking at their items from the SS Republic which is the ship that the Titanic replaced. He even had a camera that had film he developed, so you can see the pictures.

Golf Down Under was a fun and difficult mini golf course. Of course I won that mini golf course. My favorite hole was a straight hole that you had to hit it up a hill at the end.

Delaware was a sandy state. Delaware was also a great food state. We had a many things to see but not as much as we "see" shells.

-The Son

New Jersey - Pizza Study Funded with Taxpayer Dollars

2011-03-13T14:19:00.000-07:00

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New Jersey is the Garden State, but for us it was sick bay since we passed around a flu bug pretty much the whole week we were in Jersey. Because of this, we didn’t see Snooki or any of the Jersey Shore – either the cast or the beach. Fortunately, we were staying in a hotel with a kitchen so we could heat up plenty of chicken noodle soup to aid our recovery.

Here are some highlights from what little we saw of New Jersey:

Most Authentic Meal:  Pizza. We’ve been down this NY style pizza road before, but I’m just not a fan of it. You’re probably wondering why on earth we ordered it yet again. To be honest, we just didn’t realize we’d be getting NY style pizza in New Jersey. I mean, it seems as if NY and NJ are always ferociously arguing they're two distinctively different states, so shouldn’t they have two distinctively different pizzas???

Maybe it’s because I grew up in Illinois that I don’t like NY style pizza. Now that would be a great research study! I should get a government grant to study if the style of pizza you like depends upon which part of the country you grew up in...it sure sounds like something the government usually funds with taxpayer money, doesn’t it?

New Foods:  A cupcake shot. It's simply a "shot" of frosting - no cake at all…mmmh, the best part!

Biggest Surprise: There’s more to Washington crossing the Delaware than the pretty painting we all know. We went to Washington Crossing State Park where we closed down the Visitor’s Center talking to the knowledgeable and friendly state park employee. The museum itself was lame, but the movie “Ten Critical Days” and the enthusiasm of the historian made up for the lackluster museum. We learned so much about Washington and his men crossing the Delaware River on Christmas night 1776. For instance, I didn’t realize this was a turning point in the war since both the British and the colonists thought we had lost the war prior to this skirmish. We also learned how brave Washington was riding between the British line and ours and how God’s hand was evident in our victory of the war with the weather playing a factor as usual in the Revolutionary War.

Biggest Disappointment: The event that Donate Life NJ set up fell through. We appreciate that they tried to set something up though.

Biggest Twinge of Homesickness: It wasn’t bad being sick in a Staybridge Suites, especially with our free upgrade to a two bedroom suite. Having 2 bedrooms, 3 TV’s, a living room, and a kitchen made being sick easier to swallow than all being cooped up in one hotel room; however, there’s just something to curling up on your own couch with a comfy blanket and your favorite mug full of hot tea that helps the healing process.

Worst Drive: Every drive in New Jersey! Can I just tell you that the roads in New Jersey are crazy? Apparently in NJ, they have never heard of the Cloverleaf design because you exit and do all sorts of swirly gigs before you get where you’re going - that is IF you can figure out where you’re going. We almost ended up in NY! Interstate 95 splits into two, but both roads retain the exact same name. How on earth do you know which one you want?

In addition to the highway madness, the roads are just as insane. They have businesses up and down the sides of course, but you can’t cross the center line. Now we’ve experienced this before where you advance to the next stoplight and do a U-Turn; however, the NJ roads didn't have stoplights. The only way to get over to the other side of the road is to go up to the next "exit" and come back going the other way. This caused us grief several times.

New Jersey is known for its diners. In fact, it's credited with the birthplace of the diner restaurant, so of course we wanted to try one. In fact, we saw a great looking diner we wanted to try - on the other side of the road. No problem because we thought we'd figured out these NJ roads: we'd just take the next exit to go back to it, but the next exit wasn't for 30 minutes! Another night of chicken noodle soup... Driving in NJ is exactly the opposite of Utah, which according to USA Today is one of the least stressful states.

Best Drive: The ferry ride to Delaware where I didn’t have to drive on those crazy New Jersey roads! The ferry was very nice, clean, relaxing, and just the right amount of time: not too long that you were bored stiff or too short that you didn’t even get out of the car. I recommend it for your next trip from NJ to DE.

Funniest Memory: Mike and I hadn’t seen an “adult” movie (by adult I mean PG-13 without the kids) since before the trip started nearly 6 months prior; however with our own bedroom at the hotel, we rented Date Night with Tina Fey and Steve Carrell. Even though in some parts the language was raunchy, we were laughing more than we’ve laughed in a long time…I wonder if it was really that hilarious, or if we were just starved for a funny, date movie.

Best Memory:  Mike and the kids taking care of me when I was sick. One night at the Staybridge’s complimentary weekday dinner, they served me everything I needed and more. I mentioned that hot tea sounded really good on my sore throat. Since there wasn't any sitting out near the coffee, Levi took it upon himself to ask the hostess for some. That was so sweet! Sometimes it takes being sick to realize how truly blessed you are.

Worst Memory: As we, one by one, slowly passed around the sickness, I realized how little of NJ we were going to see.

Worst Closure: Nothing at the time, but it’s a shame that Pine Creek Mini Golf Course closed permanently at the end of the 2010 season. The owners retired. It was the longest mini golf course we’ve experienced, not the number of holes but rather the distance between each hole. All 28 acres of the grounds were beautifully landscaped.

My NJ Hike: Grounds for Sculpture. I chose this for my hiking place partially because it wasn’t very strenuous, which is just what the doctor ordered for all of us recovering from our illness, and partially because it seemed appropriate for the Garden State. Grounds for Sculpture is basically a large park with sculptures all over, some tucked in hidden areas like the bamboo and others displayed prominently in the grass.

It was fun to walk around and discover the art. My favorite artwork were the sculptures of people, as you can see from the pictures.  The abstract works are the ones that befuddle me, and the naked women “art” is just awkward and inappropriate with kids. I’m still not really sure how we get away with calling it “art” and putting it in public places, but I’ll get off my soapbox. We had a pleasant afternoon getting out and walking around Grounds for Sculpture on a beautiful, sunny day.

What We Did Miss: Eating at a diner, the whole Jersey shore, Battleship New Jersey, Princeton University, and others recommended to us.

In Summary: New Jersey, we followed in your footsteps keeping with a small budget in your state. I wish I could say it was in Governor Christie’s honor, but it was really because we were too sick to get out much in New Jersey. Hopefully someday we can return to see the Jersey shore.

-The Mom

New Jersey - The Semantics of Grilled Cheese

2011-03-11T10:11:00.000-08:00

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Have you ever sat in a hotel room working for one week, occasionally going out? We did in New Jersey. In New Jersey we visited NOTHING. We only ate and worked in New Jersey. Some places we ate at are The Pop Shop and the hotel's free supper.

The Pop Shop is a restaurant that was on the Food Network on Bobby Flay's Throwdown. They competed for their grilled cheese, which I don't really think was worthy of being called "grilled cheese" because it had stuff other than cheese like turkey, bacon, and avocado. I did like their atmosphere, though. It was like a bar that gave you shakes, and their shakes were delicious.

Staybridge Suites, which we stayed at in New Jersey, is the best ever! They always have free breakfast, and they also have free dinner on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Every day their supper has a different selection, but usually they have salad and chips no matter what's on the schedule. One of the nights we were there they had taco night. We also keep a full supply of popcorn with us in case the supper doesn't look good.

At this particular hotel we got a free upgrade to a two bedroom hotel room. Unfortunately Levi and I still had to sleep in the same bed, but we did have a separate bedroom from Mom and Dad. The hotel had a mini basketball court that we played knockout every morning.

Overall New Jersey was quite boring because we were sick and it rained 24/7. Even though New Jersey was really boring, I got way ahead in school!

-The Daughter