Janet

MY husband is a master at directions. He knows where we are and where we want to be all the time.
Seriously - I trust him and never think about it or worry about it.
He has never been lost. Not as far as I know or he will ever admit to.
He loves to study maps and at one glance he is always headed in the right direction.
He can go to a place just once and get you back there the next visit.

Example: At Andy and Michelle's wedding we were given direction from the ceremony back to the reception (hotel where we all were staying) in printed form. It said to turn left (OK - I don't remember which way it said but) Mike told Dup to turn right. "He knows a shortcut" Sharen and I are sitting in the back seat going WTF.
"Don;t worry I studied the map and this is SHORTER. That turned out that we did get back there quicker, but again WTF.

Anyway! We were taking a trip down to Myrtle Beach and he decides that he wants to buy a GPS. I talked him into borrowing Bill's to see if we (I really mean he) would like it.

What a nightmare! That stupid thing had us going is all the wrong directions. Mike said that maybe it was from a different planet.
Hence that is how she (all GPS)  got her name Janet. "Janet from another planet" - "All My Children" fans can relate.
In Janet's defense we had the damn thing programed to Bike Mode for our trip to MB that first time - How did we Know?

Ok - Mike did end up buying one and Janet was a huge help for us on this last vacation.
We still had maps for all the states we visited plus Ontario, but Janet was a huge help getting us around DC. She quickly got us right to my nephew's door (even with me driving) and I got to spend a few precious hours with my sister, Dee.

Who needed Janet when we had Ed showing us around HIS base. Foot Meade.

Janet still had a job ahead of her to get us from Fort Meade to Steve's house in NY.
She did a good job. Just let me say the traffic in NJ was the worse I have ever experience. 10 lanes of cars bumper to bumper. The trucks weren't even allowed on this highway. Insane! I hated every minute of it and was so glad that Mike was driving. We got there OK.

Next stop Niagara Falls!
Janet really had no problem getting us to Niagara Falls. I was pretty sure she wasn't even needed. Straight shot to beautiful scenery. Day!

And Night!

The next morning - My turn to drive and Mike plugs Janet into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
We stopped at the check point going into Canada, where there are all kinds of police presence because of the Boston bombs, and I start to tell the guy all about our plans - visit to the Hall of Fame, taking in a Sox game yadda, yadda, yadda, - Mike whispers to me - "I think he just wants to know if it's business or pleasure" Opps! Pleasure! The guy was smiling and let us through.

We start getting close to the city (The Hall is downtown) and Janet keeps telling us delays are coming do you want to take a alternate route. The traffic was moving great, but I finally say yes! and she takes us to the airport.
Seriously - we both could not stop laughing. Are we supposed to take a plane downtown?

She finally got us there and we had a great time.
On the trip back to our hotel we happen upon a really bad accident. The kind you only see in a newscast or pictures in the paper and I loose it. There was people running around throwing tarps over the cars. It was BAD!
I want to go home. I do not want to get back into the car or go back into the traffic to go back downtown to see a Sox game I was DONE.
Mike got me calmed down, got me something to eat and I finally calmed down enough to realize that I probably would never get to see the Sox play in Toronto again so I got on Stubhub ordered some tickets and we had a great time at the Rogers Center. Brought home a winner this time!

Hall of Fames

When we first talked about driving to New York to see Steve and visit him in his new house, the idea came to me on visiting DC and seeing the cherry blossoms.

I like to travel by car but not for 13 hours at a time. It happens that the Football Hall of Fame was somewhere in between home and there so a stop to see it was planned.

It was totally out of season and they were doing major repairs to the place, but it was worth the stop.
Of course the sweetness is what they have on the building outside. Makes you proud to be a Bears fan.

We had the place all to ourselves again and I got some great pictures without anyone in them. This place was so impressive.

This is where they set up the podium for the inductions speeches.

 



 

 

We spent some money in the gift shop and exited the building in a little less than 3 hours. We weren't that far from Cleveland so we decided to make a stop at the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. Again we found no crowds. We got a parking spot right on the street and just filled the meter ($1.25). This building is right down town on lake Erie. I realized that it was my first trip to this great lake.

OMG there was so much to see and things to read about you could seriously spend a week in there if you wanted to. We searched out what interested us. Mike enjoyed the Doors.

Hey, I can strike a pose too. Can you guess which one is me?

 I really enjoyed the display on Elvis. There was a Cadillac there. Story goes that he wanted to buy 12 Cadillacs for his family and friends. He felt so bad taking up the salesman's time from another lady that he paid for hers too. What a nice guy!

The progression from transistors to ipods was interesting too. I owned them all at one time or another  and I must admit I love my ipod best.

On the way home (we decided to save Coopersown for another visit) we drove on up to Toronto  to the Hockey Hall of Fame. The sox were in town and we wanted to visit another stadium. Brought home a winner this time.

 Again there were no crowds to stop us from doing things. Here I am shooting pucks. My first time! I made 1 out of the 5. They had a movie theater there showing a short film about hockey in 3D. My first 3D movie too. I'm glad it was only 20 minutes that's about all I could take with those stupid glasses on.

Mike of course had to show me up. He has been playing hockey since he was very little so he did have an advantage. He made 2.

The BEST part of this place was the trophy room. It was once an old bank. They even had some trophies in the vault. Who knew that Hockey had so many trophies and they were all there.

Guess which one Mike wanted to take home. I'm also pretty sure he wanted to raise it over  his head.



Around DC

Mike really wanted to see the marine Corp. Museum, so our second day we hop in the car and drive down to Friendship NY.
Again we lucked out - the expressway we needed was the road right next to our hotel. 20 minutes later we are entering the grounds. You could see the building from afar. Very impressive.

 I was caught up in all the recruitment poster everywhere from the civil war all through to the gulf war.

Mike enjoyed everything about this place. So much information to see. I am glad we planned on spending most of the day there.



 The best part of the whole thing for me was a room where you are standing on a boat headed for the island of Iwo Jima and you are listening to a speech simular to what they heard. "You are all soldiers and this is what you have been trained to do.... "
All I could think of was Dad and how brave and scared he must have felt.
We got to witness a soliders re-enlistment ceramony in the lobby when we were done. THAT was way cool.
We had to hike it up this wall so Mike could pose for a picture in front of this sign.

 And of course when we found this statue my "Iron Mike" had to stirke another pose.

After all this I really wanted to see the Iwo Jima mounument. We decided to drive there. It is located in Arlington Cemetary so we were pretty sure we could find it. Mike also had been there before. Easy!
THE TRAFFIC IN DC IS CRAZY!!!!!!!!
We just drove into the cemetary and would walk there. Nope - I found out it was 1 and 1/2 miles and my feet had 3 blisters each from yesterday and so we got back into the car and drove there. I loved it - so beautiful.

 

 

Since we were so close to the penatgon we decicde to try and see the 911 memorial. We knew we had to park under the road at the Pentagon Mall and walk there, but following the signs was impossible. We found the Pentagon. We found the memorial, but we never found the parking. We saw the memorial from afar. After circling the area several times - stopping to ask a cop - getting on the expressway - off the expressway too many times, we gave up and went back to the hotel to rest. We had a ballgame to get to that night.

 

We saw the Nationals whoop on my White Sox.

 

We had great seats. Dup had suggested going on StubHub and get tickets. So I kept checking everyday and he was right the prices just kept getting lower and lower. So the morning of the game I bought 2 tickets on the first base side. (we have more right handers than lefties for foul balls). The closest I could get was row D. Turns out row D was the first row on that side. I paid half price! Ordered a parking pass too and we were smooth sailing. The people around us were really nice and me with my Sox jersey on!

 

Again the perfect hotel location 20 minute drive with no traffic. 



Checking out of the hotel the next morning the guy asked me if everything was OK? I told him all but the outcome of the game.

First Day of Vacation in DC

We have been so busy having a good time!
Our stop in DC was perfect.

We found the perfect hotel. A big thanks to Michelle and Kathryn for steering us in the right direction. It was 5 minutes from the Metro and we got a free ride to the station.
I was so happy I threw a couple tank tops in the suitcase at the last minutes it was in the nineties. We both wanted to be sure to see everything We put a little over 12 miles on the pedometer.

 Our first trip was around the White House. This is the backyard. I thought it would be bigger and the gardens that Michelle Obama planted were smaller than expected.

Our next stop was the American History museum. So much to see and read, you could spend the whole day there, but it was beautiful outside so we strolled through it. We came upon the section of presidents - Mike took off to see the presidents and I headed to the First ladies section.
I was WAY EXCITED to see this dress. I had just finished the book "Mrs Lincoln's Dressmaker" about the freed slaves that did her sewing and now I got to see one of the dresses.

 Next step was the Washington Monument in repairs. We stopped and kinda planned a route to take us to see all the monuments and this was the first one on our circle around the city.

 Down from there was the Vietnam wall. For being the age of the men in this war, Mike and I didn't know any one who died in the war. So lucky for that. I did have a pen pal that had stopped writing to me (I assumed he died), but I'll be damned if I could remember his name.

 Lincoln's was the next stop in our circle of seeing everything. I couldn't get over the silence at all these places. No one seemed to want to talk much.

 We saw the Korean memorial and head on over to MLK. I took this picture, cause I loved the white statue against the blue, blue sky.

 I probably should of listen to Mike and had someone else take our picture here. We could of got more blossoms in our background. The fragrance from the tree was intoxicating.

 We hiked around the Tidal Basin, visited the FDR memorial and on to the Jefferson Memorial. The one thing I noticed was there was no railing to stop people from stepping off the sidewalk right into the lake, but No one did.

 It was back to the Mall and a long walk down to the Capital. We walked by the castle (where the presidents vampire lives) and made a quick stop (much to Mike's disappointment - he wanted to stay longer) at the Air and Space Museum. I really wanted to go into the Printing and Engraving building, but we approached from the Jefferson Memorial and that was the exit - another 4 blocks to the entrance. Ugh, that was too far for me.

 Yes, that is a homeless person - with a laptop, powered by solar.

 All you Mitch Rapp readers, we found one of his hang outs.
 I am so disappointed in myself that I didn't get a picture of the News Museum. It had all the front page of papers around the US framed out  front and they change them everyday. So Cool! On our way back to the Metro we walked by the Ford Museum and the Inn across the street where Lincoln dies. (Also mentioned in the book I just finished)

It was a very long hot day. We head out for dinner and this is what our dash looked like.
I took many more picutres - all on my shutterfly.

Easter seen from MY Camera

Just Pictures this time! More on Shutterfly...

 Boys playing basketball

 Stacy meets Luke for the first time. He is more interested in the ceiling of the garage.

 Meredith doesn't seem to mind that all her cousin's toys are trucks.

 Roger was sure nobody saw him sneaking around the garage.

He wanted so bad to reach the pedals on this truck.

Mary practicing the Grandma role.