We got to go with Erin & Randy back East. We went to Washington DC, cruise through Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and the bulk of our trip was in New York, a place Dave & I have had on our bucket list. We have always wanted to go there, and the concrete jungle didn't dissapoint! It was even more fun to go with Erin and Randy! Randy and Dave have always been really close, and I just love Erin. She's great! It was nice to have some alone time with the kids and agreed it would be a stressful family vacation so I'm glad we got lots of alone time.
The Ryerse grandparents came up to stay with our kiddos for the first half and we gave them the run down and a lengthy list of all of the day to day activities and schedules. We ate dinner, and then we left. We stayed at my parents for the night since our flight left bright and early. My Dad took us to the airport, we went through everything, and started our flights. We had one layover in Minnesota, and the flights were pretty uneventful. It's weird now to have to wear a mask every time for the whole flight, but that's the life we live in. We got to DC in the evening and grabbed some Ben's Chili Bowl, which is famous. It was pretty decent. We walked around the airport a bit and then Erin & Randy came to pick us up. They went to Virginia and Pennsylvania for the few days before we arrived. We drove around a bit and went to check out the memorials at the National Mall. We saw the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, the Vietnam Memorial wall, WWII Memorial. It was so humbling to be there, to read the inscriptions, to see the amazing scultures, and be a part of history! I am so thankful every day that I live in America, truly God is in the details of this great nation. It was especially beautiful all lit up at night. We drove around a bit more and saw the beautiful temple and then headed to our hotel, which was not the greatest but it worked.
Friday was DC day! We rode the Metro over to the National Mall and saw as many of the Smithsonian museums as we could. You could spend a whole month at DC but we only had a couple days so we had to rush through. It was pretty amazing! We did the Natural History, Botanical Gardens and Air and Space museums. We got bikes and rode all over - to the Capitol, White House, the federal buildings and the memorials. The whole time, I felt so grateful to live in this country, "land that I love"! At the White House it was quite a hullabaloo, with fire trucks and officers everywhere when Erin asked what was going on, the officer said "we will talk about that later". Come to find out President Biden went to Colin Powell's funeral and was escorted there. Things were in session at the Capitol so we saw some politcians. We went over to the Holocaust museum but by the time we made it, we wouldn't have much time to enjoy it. So we drove around parts of DC in our car and went to Ben's Chili Bowl for dinner, which is an iconic spot. It was okay but neat to go there. On the agenda, Randy wrote "Bowel" instead of bowl so we had to give him a hard time over how appetizing that sounded, haha. It has been fun to be with them and chat so much. That night, there was a huge fight in the hallway at our hotel, that was interesting and kept me up.
Saturday, we went to the National Cathedral. The architecture was amazing and beautiful and we really thought the courtyard was cool and the Darth Vader grotesque was fun. Arlington and the National Cemetary. We got to see the guard change over, hear one of the officers play taps, and there were a couple of funerals going on. It was something I could watch all day, that guard going back and forth rhyrhmically, respectfully. It made me cry feeling so grateful for all of the sacrifices made to bring this country forth and to keep freedom free. Our current political situation isn't looking great with some recent mandates and more socialist agendas pushed through. But America will prevail as long as there are prayers of the righteous going up to meet the ears of God. This country was founded on God and will keep its trust in God or we will be in trouble. For lunch we went to Alexandria and saw the old town. The homes are so cute and quaint, and the shops and businesses had so much charm. We visited a few shops and had some amazing chicken at Hen Quarter for lunch. After that, we went over to Mount Vernon. At $40 a pop for admission, we felt we didn't really have enough time to make it worth it so we checked out the grounds and scoured the gift shop and left. We went and saw the church building I went to church when we lived back east when I was a small girl. Then we went on the river walk along the Patomic, so beautiful! We drove on over through Maryland and ended up in Ocean City for the night. Went to dinner at a little Italian place that hit the spot. They had some cool art of the Presidents I liked. We drove through OC a bit and then went in the hotel hot tub and there were some funny people there we talked to a bit but they used some language that left my ears bleeding so we left pretty soon.
Sunday morning, the Sabbath, we ate our granola bars and headed to the boardwalk. We touched the sand, explored the beach, and walked a lot past cute shops and restaurants, most of them closed. It would be a blast in the summer though. Erin told stories about going there with friends while growing up. We got back in the car, went Then we got in the car, drove to Dover, Delaware, the first state of the Union. The drive over was beautiful, lots of agriculture and nice fall colors on the trees. We listened to church in the car and then we went to lunch at a fun Mexican restaurant, LaHacienda, which was super good and drove around. Dover wasn't very big and Dave joked it was "disappointing Dover". Their state capitol was really cool, colonial America style and unlike any we had seen. Next we were off to Philadelphia. We saw the Liberty Bell and the Liberty Hall, where the Declaration of independence was signed. The buildings like the city hall were amazing and we loved the unique temple. We ended things off by taking pictures by the Love sign and seeing the famous art museum where Rocky climbed triumpantly up the stairs, then got some Philly cheesesteak sandwiches from Delarosa. We did our Come, Follow Me in the car and drove to NY. Wow, so overwhelming! Lights and buildings and noise everywhere. We were on the 24 floor of the Majestic Hotel about a block from Timed Square, it was pretty nice and crazy that our 50 foot towered hotel seemed like a dwarf compared to surrounding buildings. We walked around on Times Square which was crazy even for a Sunday night at 10 p.m. It was an experience! Our hotel was actually pretty quiet and we got some good sleep. It was nice to be able to share a room with Erin and Randy thought and save on that cost. We called up the kids, as we did every night, my parents had just tag teamed and switched out that day. They had a great time with their grandparents. We missed them so much!
Monday was NY day one. It was super fun and loud and busy and happening but Dave and I agreed we could never live there. Erin was born on Long Island and her mom is a native and Erin's been back several times so she was the perfect tour guide! We first drove over to Coney Island. The drive through the big city was crazy! Everyone honks at each other (the "friendly" NY hellol, lots of cops everywhere, nutty drivers, and weird streets. The theme park was closed of course but we walked along the sand and on the boardwalk for a short bit. Then we drove to the Ground Zero memorials and 9-11 museum and saw the One World Trade Center. It was so sombering, beautiful and emotional (glad I brought my tissues). I am thankful to live in the USA and for all the good people in it, the freedoms we have here and my family. After that, we took the rental car back, grateful to get it off our hands and rode bus and subway to get back to the city, which took a while for us to start navigating. We got pizza when we got back but it was not the best. Then we went to the impressive Empire State Building. The displays inside were cool and then we went up to the 86th floor and enjoyed lots of time on the observation deck. I couldn't tell north from south but there was so much to see and we stayed for the sunset even which was neat. Then we explored Time Square some more, got some more pizza which was good this time and then hit up the NBC hall, Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller plaza, enjoyed some street entertainment. We went to the M&M store and the Hershey store. As we were leaving from there, we noticed the paparazzi by one of the theatres and struck up some conversations with some of the photographers. The stars coming were going to a style awards show. We waited out with them and took pictures of everyone from famous athletes to entertainers and fashion designers. Most notably we saw musician Megan Thee Stallion, actress Brooke Shields and fashion designer Tory Burch. It was kind of fun to be right with the action. Then we hit up a few shops and headed back tired to the hotel. I loved video chatting or calling the kids but it made it even harder. I love these littles and it feels like we've been gone a month already. Miss them so much!
Wednesday, we started things out with a bagel from a street stand, watching the filming of Good Morning America for a bit, and then rode the subway over to go walking and biking in Central Park. What a magnificent place!! Again, it was so amazing with all of the fall foilage! It was fun to see the different places we recognized in New York from movies we love. Then we headed to the American Museum of Natural History to check it all out. We went to a show at the Planetarium, saw all of the animals, artifacts, fossils, rocks, and more. I loved the statues of Theodore Roosevelt (the one outside the museum a couple of months after our trip would be removed because it was culturally insensitive). We rode bikes over to the temple, which was so neat! I wanted to go inside so bad and I wish you could make reservations, but at this time with Covid protocol, you could only make reservations to attend your assigned temple district temple. We also saw Juliard and drove through the city, which just about gave me a heart attack. Erin was darting in and out of the street, and around all the people, I was a little more hesitant and the crew had to wait for me more than once. We stopped for lunch at Halal Guys food cart and ate the delicious chicken and rice outside on tables in the middle of the city. Then we went to a few stores, including the American Girl store that I had always wanted to go see. It was fun! Next it was to the Rockafellar Center, which was so cool. We actually purchased the professional pictures they took here because they turned out pretty fun! What goes into these buildings is nothing short of amazing! We enjoyed views of so much of New York and it was great to see Central Park from the Top of the Rock. We went to Bryant Park next to watch people ice skate and check out some of their eclectic shops, as their Christmas stores had just opened up. Then we headed to get our last bites of NY pizza (I really liked the eggplant parmesan pizza) and Dave got his Taco Bell he'd been talking about. Then we got ready to go to the Majestic Theatre to see the Phantom of the Opera! There were so many musicals to choose from, but Phantom was kind of a no brainer. I am so glad we chose it! It was breath taking from the stage and props, costumes, and the music of course. We splurged a little and got seats up close, about 8 rows back stage center. We were mesmorized and didn't want it to end. It was the perfect grand finale and definately a highlight of our vacation! We wanted to go to Levian Bakery for cookies but never made it so settled on Schmakery's, which had some good cookies too. Then we went back and crashed for the night.
The next day, we said goodbye to the Big Apple and headed on the subway to the airport. We were super tired by the last day, we put in so much walking every day. We had a direct flight home, which was nice. Dave's dad picked us up and we drove home, getting there just in time for Callahan's wrestling meet. When the kids saw us, they lit up and I'm sure we did, too! Lots of hugs and kisses going around. Ut seriously felt like a month, not a week for me. Sydnie wouldn't let go of Daddy. Cal did great! Then we went home to pass out the gifts we got them - gift cards for the grandparents for watching the kids (they are angels!), and I <3 NY t-shirts, a Lego Statue of Liberty and candy for the kids. And they showed us all of the stuff they made and did with their Grandparents, who we are so grateful for. This was a trip we will never forget!
