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Published: April 3rd 2010
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Well, we are on our last leg of the trip!! Yesterday, we spent a full day in the city. We rode the Metro to Arlington National Cemetery. It was a beautiful day and people were everywhere. We were able to see John F. Kennedy’s grave and The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We also saw the changing of the guards and placement of the wreath by a group of high school students. It was great for the girls to see such an important part of history. Tony packed our lunch, so we enjoyed some sandwiches and drinks while sitting and enjoying the view. After we left the cemetery, we jumped on the Metro and went to Smithsonian’s American History Museum. We enjoyed seeing the First Ladies’ gowns. Some were beautiful (Jackie O.) and some were awful (Hillary Clinton). Julia noticed that two of the First Ladies had her same name - Julia Tyler and Julia Grant. She was so excited until she realized that they weren’t the most attractive women! We also visited the Pop Culture exhibit and saw Dorothy’s ruby red slippers and Apollo Ohno’s skates from the 2006 Olympics. They were so long! We decided to leave because everyone
was “museumed out”. We went back to the campground and cooked a thick crust pizza over the fire. While we waited for the coals to heat up, the girls made us some pretty creative appetizers to fill us up with pepperoni and mozzarella cheese! We ended dinner with some tasty apple turnovers. The temperature was perfect for camping!
This morning, we drove to the Thomas Jeffersonville Memorial and The Tidal Basin to see all of the cherry blossoms. The Jeffersonville Memorial was built in 1938 and the bronze statue of Jefferson was added in 1947. We also stopped next to the basin to take some photos of the cherry blossoms. They are in full bloom and are gorgeous! The cherry blossoms were a gift to the U.S. from Japan in 1912 to enhance the friendship between the two countries. The National Cherry Blossom Festival is taking place right now in the city and there are many activities going on. After Tony and I both stubbed our big toes on the sidewalk (my right and his left) we jumped in the VW and drove to Georgetown for shopping and lunch. I bought a new raincoat and top. I doubt that
I will need the raincoat for the rest of the trip - it’s 72 degrees and sunny right now. We ate lunch at a great restaurant called J. Pauls. Their specialty is fish, so I ordered a crab cake sandwich and Tony ordered blackened Mahi Mahi tacos. The girls ordered - of course - chicken and fries. We were so happy when they brought us a basket of soft pretzels before our meal. We were starving! Julia said that she could stay and eat pretzels there all day! Once we were stuffed, we jumped in the bus and left the city.
After driving in several hours of traffic, we stopped in The University of Virginia to stretch our legs and see the campus. Tony and I agreed that the students looked way too young (or are we just getting way too old????). We camped in a great location a few miles off of the Blue Ridge Parkway called Sherando Lake. The only negative was that it was bear country and the girls were pretty scared. They didn’t even want to make a campfire. They thought that it would be a better idea to just sit in the camper bus
the rest of the night. We ended our last night camping watching a slide show on the DVD screen of our trip. We covered a lot of ground in just seven days! It’s hard to believe that our Spring Break trip is almost over.
Our most important necessities on this trip have definitely been our electronics. I have no idea how our parents took us on trips without 3G phones, GPS systems, laptops, Ipod touches, Nintendo DS-Is, satellite radios and DVD players. I also enjoyed the propane Buddy heater at the campgrounds when I got out of the showers to heat me up. Julia couldn’t live without the prizes from the closet and her stash of apples. Madi was happy as long as her Ipod Touch was always charged. Tony seemed to always like proving to me that his Motorolla Droid was more advanced than my HTC Droid.
We all agreed that climbing to the crown of the Statue of Liberty was the highlight of our trip. We were disappointed that we didn’t make it to Quebec, but it gives us something to look forward to down the road. We did have a few regrets in NYC. We
never did see The Apple Store, FAO Schwartz store or Little Italy. If we would have had one more day there, I think that we would have seen them. Tony is concerned that our girls might be getting too big for us to fit comfortably in the little orange lunch box. Either that - or the girls in the family just pack too much junk!! The girls made us promise that our next family trip doesn’t involve too much driving or walking. I think that’s pretty fair although, I think that we agreed to that after our trip to the northeast last summer! The next small trip we have planned in the camper bus is to Kelly’s Island in the summer. The girls can’t wait to go to Cedar Point!
Final stats from the trip:
We drove a total of 1,580 miles. We were in the camper bus a total of 32.5 hours and our average speed was 48. 6 miles per hour. We spent $282.60 on gas for 98.8 gallons at an average of $2.86 per gallon. Total lunch box travel mileage over our last three big trips has been approximately 7,454 miles.
We found almost all
of the state license plates on this trip, except for Alaska, Hawaii, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico, Nevada or Wyoming.
This is Aimee, signing off until I blog again . . .
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