TravelingPenguin

Wednesday is our day to tour and eat lunch at Wallkill and tour Patterson! We had to rent a car and drive about 2 hours to get to Wallkill and then drive another hour to Patterson, and afterwards drive 2 hours to get back to the city. But after all the walking we did Monday and Tuesday it was kind of a nice break! Wallkill is where most of the literature in the world is published. It was awesome to see how it comes together; from the research, to the art, to the actual printing press, and shipping to the congregations. We also were able to eat lunch there thanks to a loving sister who is a friend of my aunt. It was an amazing experience to enjoy a meal with the Bethel Family and see ... read more

Since it was raining this morning we decided that, instead of exploring SoHo, we would go to The American Museum of Natural History. After a brief subway ride (during which we did NOT get lost, we just had some trouble finding the right take-off point for a certain line) we arrived and boy was the line long! It stretched almost to the end of the block, and we're talking NYC Avenue block. Fortunately the line moved rather quickly and we were inside in no time. Once inside we made jaunts through several of the main halls (of which there are 45), our favorites being the Marine Life, the Meteorites, The Gems/Minerals, and the Dinosaurs. We were even able to catch a show at the Hayden Planetarium! After this we were of course very hungry, so we ... read more

The trip starts with a 5-1/2 hour drive to Seattle. Started out fine, the usual boring drive West. The real adventure came when Google Maps told us to turn off into Nunamaker Road right before Dayton. This turned out to be a 5 mile drive on an unpaved road that took us through a single-lane tunnel but eventually wrapped back around to the state highway. It was a 45-minute short cut. Then it was a beautiful sunny drive until we reached Snowqualmie Pass. According to the driver, "visibility is crap." We stopped and got gas and the snow was falling, so I decided my bladder could wait the extra 50 miles to SeaTac. We made it through TSA without incident and had some food and drinks at the Africa Lounge. With 2-1/2 hours to kill we ... read more

Day 5-The final full day of our vacation & the last chance to have a go at the mountain. Today all of the boys decided to go to the mountain, even the one who doesn't board or ski. I guess hanging at the lodge alone sounded better than being with 3 girls all day? So we girls had another lazy morning, but eventually decided to get dressed and head to town since it would be our last chance to shop and get goods from the bakery! The only problem: it's New Year's Day! Almost everything in town was closed...only 2 shops were open plus the drug mart and a few cafes. Even the grocery store was closed! We laughed at our obliviousness and decided to go check out the shops at the ski lodge. It would ... read more

Day 2 was quite a long day but a great one! It was full of fun, friends, and excellent reminders to be thankful to Jehovah for His beautiful creations. ? We started off with everyone staying at the condo (a day of rest for the skiers and snowboarders). So we me breakfast, ate together, and spent the morning talking, playing games, and just generally enjoying each other's company. Once we got a little stir-crazy, we ventured into town (taking 2 cars) and the other half of the party was able to see the cute little town of Kimberley. We showed them the bakery and the cute shops, and we drove to the next town over to explore the Marysville Falls. The "big falls" were about a 5-min trek downhill and were mostly frozen over, but were ... read more