We got up early enough to be at the mall when it opened. Sam had saved lots of money over the past year just for this day. We also gave her money to shop for school clothes, although, I didn’t see a whole lot of school clothes being purchased. We stopped for lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. We had some garlic shrimp, some fried shrimp, some shrimp salad and a po’ boy shrimp sandwich. It was all good. After our lunch, we based our server’s tip on how well he knew Forest Gump trivia. He did extremely well and received a good tip. Sam had fun and we stayed until about 6pm, that was when she ran clear out of money and Jason and Carrie ran out of energy. Luckily, Jason had found a coupon ... read more

Well, we finally returned home at about 4PM today. We left Niagara Falls at about 8:30PM and it was mostly smooth sailing the whole way home. We had about a 20 minute wait at the border, but breezed through when it was our turn. We didn't even get searched or anything! All told, we travelled 4,210 miles for our trip (You do not want to see our fuel bill for the trip), our fridge started working again on the way to D.C., we found 49 state plates (found Wyoming on I-75, less than 100 miles from home), 3 provinces, and never did find the elusive South Dakota plate! Thanks to all for reading this blog and especially thanks to those folks who let us stay with them: Claudia, Eric, and G/G Hansen!... read more

Don’t feel like writing anymore today. Here’s what we did today: Packed up and left DC at 8:45AM. Stopped at Hershey’s to see Chocolate World. Took a tour and bought out the store. When leaving Chocolate World, finally saw a Delaware plate bringing our total to 48 plates. Can you guess the last two we need? Stopped at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Went to campsite, cooked hamburgers, and went to bed. For more, see pictures. ... read more

We saw an Alaska plate and we’re up to 46 total plates. Our tour of the Capitol building this morning was with Jennifer, an intern from Grosse Pointe, who is a senior at Duke in Political Science. She was quite new as an intern and couldn’t tell us any secrets or dirt on anyone! We got to sit in the gallery and listen to the senator from Florida talk about the “brouhaha” caused by talk of offshore drilling in his state. We didn’t stay long, but did get to see where our own Michigan Senators sit when they are there. Only a few senators were actually there today. We bought a 2 day pass to ride an open top bus and learned how to duck quickly. The bus was open-topped and was 14 feet above street ... read more

We did a walking tour of the formerly walled part of Charleston. We followed the AAA guide as it described various historic spots and buildings. The earthquake bolts really intrigued Carrie. Buildings after a major earthquake in the 1800’s (approx. a 7 on the Richter Scale) had almost destroyed many buildings, but earthquake bolts saved the day! Some of our pictures show these very large bolts that truly saved many historical buildings in Charleston. It was slightly cooler than Florida, but still too hot for these northern birds! There were so many historical things to see in Charleston that there was no way to see them all in one day. After a light lunch at Diana’s Café, we headed off for a carriage tour of Charleston. Our driver, Sherry, was very knowledgeable and funny. Her family ... read more