Colonial Triangle, D.C., N.Y.C. and Good Friends

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The next part of our adventure takes us to the east coast, so after some time in the lower states, we decided we would take advantage of our country’s historical greatness by visiting the Colonial Triangle in Virginia.
We headed up to Virginia after leaving from Charleston. This is a beautiful drive; lots of thick trees and lushness. The colonial triangle in Virginia consists of Jamestown, Yorktown and Williamsburg; three of the original colonies of the U.S. We headed to Jamestown first where we were able to catch a walking tour that a very charismatic colonial tour guide was giving. He told us all about how the people lived when they first came to our country. Jamestown was the first colony founded by the settlers. We learned that they arrived in the largest drought the area had encountered in 800 years, and therefore had a pretty rough go of it at first. We learned that cannibolism was very prominent and that there was no fresh water to drink, so they had to resort to mixing booze and sea water (to kill the germs). This of course made them die of dehydration, but at least they were very happy doing it! We then headed off to Yorktown to see the battlefield that the battle of Yorktown took place on. This was the final battle of the American Revolution. Williamsburg was next, and we didn’t get to stay very long because we had to keep moving on to D.C., but this town was simply adorable! The College of William and Mary was there. They also have a colonial style town set up with colonial style peole to match. We really wanted to stay longer and look around but had to be heading off to meet up with my friend Sonya in Washington D.C. It was very educational and cool to see all of that history, though. We both agree that seeing history first hand is a lot neater than reading it out of a text book! I bet we will both remember the things we learned there a lot longer than the things we learned in High School from a text book. I guess that’s kind of the point of traveling, anyways.
We arrived in D.C. late on a Thursday night and met up with my friend Sonya from Cyprus. It was so great to see her! We went out for a drink at a bar in Arlington (where she lives) and then called it a night as we had tons of touring to do the next day! We woke up early to find it gloomy and rainy outside, but strapped on our walkin shoes anyways, found some rain jackets and an umberella, and set of to conquer our nation’s capitol! The walk from Sonya’s house to the metro station had our shoes pretty damp, but little did we realize just how we would be by the end of the day. Our mission was to see the Holocaust museum and possibly some other stuff if we had time. We had heard that there was always a huge line to get into this museum, but we were fired up to see it. When we walked out of the metro and onto the Mall lawn in D.C. there were litteraly sheets of rain pouring down on us. Now im not a baby about most things, but being sopping wet and cold in the rain is not something that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. We made our way to the museum, and by the time we got there to stand in line, our pants were soaked up to our thighs and our shoes were huge puddles of water. I was a sad sally. We waited in line to get tickets to the museum, and when we finally did they told us to come back in an hour and half. We went into the museum’s café to have some breakfast and ring ourselves out. This got me in a better mood. I found my sense of adventure again and Matt and I were off to see an awesome museum. We were in the museum for about 4 and a half hours and loved every second of it. It wasn’t the most uplifting of experiences, but we did learn a lot nonetheless. After this, we were exhausted and still wet (our shoes were starting to stink at this point) so we decided to go meet up with my friend Shannon who had just moved to Alexandria from Dallas. (We met up with her earlier in our trip while she was still in Dalas….remember?) She had moved to Alexandria to find a job in D.C. with her law degree. We hung out with her for a while and then went out to dinner at a DELICIOUS Italian place. We had some good wine and conversation (Shannon and I were able to catch up on our horseback riding talk ☺ ) and were ready to hit the hay. The next day was the Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C. so we were going to try and find some seats alongside the parade in the morning. This festival is one of the biggest in the U.S. so we knew we were gonna have to throw some elbows up to be able to find a seat. That morning we jumped on the metro and headed down towards the parade. The trains were absolutely packed with people heading to the parade, and the family we were sitting next to were trying to figure out what stop to get out on. We were kind of eavesdropping (they were pretty loud) and the grandma of the family was talking about how they were going to figure out what stop to get out on. She looked over at matt and asked “Do you know what stop to get off on in order to get to the parade?” Matt started showing off his Kenfield charm and started yukin it up with this family. He have them directions and we all ended up talking the rest of the way. They were a really nice group of people. After we had gotten off of that train to switch to another one, the Grandma showed us that she had gotten grandstand tickets to the parade. She was surprised to figure out that not very many people buy grandstand tickets, and after we told her that we were going to just try and find some seats for free, she whipped out two extras and gave them to us!!!! We were so excited. After many thanks, we were off to find our way to our seats for the Cherry Blossom Festival! WOO! Thank goodness for my lovely boyfriend’s charm ☺ The parade was AMAZING. Our seats were right by where all the networks were filming, so all of the parade acts were done right in front of us. Im sure we were on a couple D.C. news broadcasts during that day. We had a terrific time and were so lucky to have met such a great family! After that, we walked around the festival, went and checked out all the cherry blossom trees, saw the White House and then were off for Conneticuit to visit another one of my friends.
My good friend Leanne lives in Shelton Conneticuit, just about an hour outside of New York City. We had a long drive to get there, and what an adventurous drive it was! We passed through Phillidelphia and stopped at a sports bar to watch the final four game for March Madess and grab some Phily Cheese Steaks…of course! The cheese steaks were scrumptious, the games kinda sucked (at least for Matt’s sake) and then we were off again. On our way out of the city, we were driving on the highway, and as were coming around a corner saw a car on the side of the road completely engulfed in flames! When I say “completely engulfed” I mean “completely engulfed” in flames. There was only the frame left of this car and the fire had just started because there was barely any traffic backed up behind it. Crazy. ( I guess the place to see a bonfire with a car in the middle would have to be in Phillidelphia!) We shook that off and proceeded to drive the most complicated and confusing way through New York City (thanks to our GPS) So we had decided to tell the GPS to avoid toll roads, which was a great idea for money’s sake, but bad idea when driving through a city like New York. It took us two hours to get through the city at about 11 a night, and I don’t even know how many times we got lost! I don’t think we were in the safest part of the city either. I would’ve rather paid the one or two tolls to avoid that mess! On our way, we witnessed yet another crazy car accident. This one involved three cars in an innersection . One car had completely taken down the entire traffic light pole, the other was across the street in a ditch with the third upside down in a tree on top of the second car. It was definitely a sight to see. I think we both started driving a little more cautiously after that! Then matt had a pretty difficult run in with a gas station attendant who didn’t speak English and had no idea how to do his job. It was shaping up to be a pretty interesting night. After we finally go out of NYC, we pulled into a really nice Hilton resort in a town about 30 min outside of the city. We set up our “Fort Seepie” in the back of the car and had a really good nights sleep. Only bad part of this nights sleep was how we woke up. At about 8:30 in the morning, we both woke up someone banging on the side of our car saying “Open up!” Yep, it was a cop. Im sure you can picture in your mind just how creepy our car looks from the outside with blankets up on the windows and a liscence plate from another state. Matt rushed up to the front seat with the cop still yelling at him to “Open Up” and he opened the door for him. He proceeded to ask us questions like “you guys carrying any illegal drugs or paraphanalia in here? Etc.” Matt explained that we had been sleeping in the back of a car and that we were on a two month road trip and that No, we cant afford a room here like the cop had asked. He went back into his cop car, and then anther cop pulled up! They were both back there for a good 10 minutes, and we were relieved when he came back stating that we were both “good people” and that he cant kick us off the property etc. He said he just wanted to make sure that we weren’t to run away convicts from another state. Understandable, I don’t blame him for thinking that! If I were a run away convict, that’s probably what my situation would look like…living in my car. We decided it was time to leave, so we headed out, found a gym for a nice work out and shower, and continued up to Leanne’s house.
Leanne lives in Shelton Conneticuit with her family. I had studied abroad with her in Cyprus and we became great friends. It was so great to meet her family and friends! We stayed with them for 3 nights and two days. We played bocci ball and had an amazing home cooked meal of spagetti and meatballs and sausage. We drank some wine and went out with some of her friends to a local bar. Then the next day we hung out and did laundry, blogged and got some work done. We went and got pedicures (yes, Matt got a pedicure…hes a pro) and then went out for some amazing pizza that night and went to watch the basketball championship game at a bar with Leanne, her sister and her friends. Good times. The next day, Leanne had to work so matt and I headed off to New York City. We walked around (a lot!) and I got some shopping out of the way. We then met up with our friends Nick and Morgan who had just moved out to New Jersey about a year ago from Colorado. It was really good to see them. We went out to dinner and got to see their beautiful apartment that overlooks New York from across the river! We enjoyed some amazing food and conversation with them, its always great to see where your friends end up when they move away from home. We made it back to Leanne’s house that night and just hung out with her and her family. The next morning we left really early to head off to Boston. Weve been having a great time staying with friends. Ive been really glad to see all my good friends across the U.S. and see where they come from and meet their families. Its great to see them, I just wish they all lived closer so I could see them more often! Its hard to find friends like these ☺
Our next destination in Bahston MA! Cant wait! I can feel our trip slowly getting shorter and shorter, I don’t want it to end! Matt and I figure we would need about 6 months in order to see everything there is to see in the U.S. Theres just so much, its hard to pick from! Two months just isn’t enough time. I wish I could find some way to get paid to do this! We still have lots of fun stuff ahead though, so stay tuned!

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Photos

With the one and only...Pocahontas!
Did you know she didnt really marry John Smith? Disney LIED!

Matt in Williamsburg
He's so deep

Cherry Blossom Festival
Proof that we were there!

Street performers
We had great seats!

Represent!
This one goes out to all our homies back home

Little Italy in NYC
A Bucca de bapo de bepo!