Statue of Liberty

While staying near Philadelphia, we decided to take one day and drive way up to Jersey City and take the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty.  It was a long drive, and security was tight, but the trip was worth it.  The statue has a fascinating history, and the children enjoyed riding the ferry.

I was able to see the individual rivits and plates using the binoculars.  One of the most interesting details is her sandal out the back makes her seem like she is actively walking / moving forward.

As a bonus, here is a picture of the wild turkeys running around the campsite:

Philadelphia

We hated leaving our beach-front property, but with the weekend coming, people were actually showing up. :)

We drove to a town outside of Philadelphia, and were surprised to find the site full of geese, ducks, and an occasional wild turkey running around. (yes, the big ones like you see from Thanksgiving pictures!)

We spent one day in downtown Philadelphia and took the walking tour.  We lined up and saw the cracked Liberty Bell and read the history, etc.  Many of the visitors were from India / China / etc.  It was neat to see people from other countries really take a huge interest in our early freedom trails and watch all of the videos in their own language.

After the Bell, we visited Independence Hall and took the tour of the building.  Our guide gave us the 10 minute overview of the situation, background, history, etc.  When we saw the courtroom and the meeting room, we really felt like we understood the history and what the men were going through.  Their necks were on the line, and there was no guarantee of success.  (and NO ARMY!)


Carrie had a Philly cheesesteak sandwich, and loved it!

To the Beach! Assateague Island

We were burned out on cities and Washington DC, so we decided to leave early and head to the beach.
We found a campsite on the bay by Assateague island.  We arrived to find the campsite mostly empty this time of year, and we were able to get the front-row spot. (separated by the small road and a beautiful beach from the water)

We drove down the upper part of the island to see the ponies and visited the NPS visitors center.  At the visitors center, we all were able to pick up and hold a horseshoe crab for the first time in their touchie-feelie tank.

We found many ponies on our drive along the island, and stopped a few times to just sit and gaze at them.  We also stopped at the beach and collected shells and agates and enjoyed the beautiful ocean.  The sand on this coast is very different than the Pacific ocean at home, and is much coarser and more yellow.

NASA Goddard space center

Matthew and I went to visit the Goddard space center since it was close to our campsite.  Pretty fun, mostly about Hubble.

They had some rockets in the backyard that you could peek at, and a spherical projector with some example shows.

Matthew and I spent a lot of time playing with their plasma sphere.

Washington DC, Part 3, Botanical Garden

We spent a little while going through the Botanical Gardens.  Very nice assortment of plants from around the world.  Very tempting for Jason and his camera also. :)

We saw this duck family up the street taking her family up the sidewalk to greener pastures:

The orchid collection was amazing:

Ellie and Carrie with some of the flowers:

A picture from the desert room:

Washington DC, Part 2, this and that

These are a couple images from the Smithsonian that Jason wanted to share:

Smithsonite: Named after Mr. Smithson who started the Smithsonian museum.  This specimen was from New Mexico, where I was introduced to it and was able to collect a few small samples (low-grade white stuff though)

Rock with tracks from a large Lizard / Dinosaur:

Sarah and Matthew at the Smithsonian Sparc Lab hand's-on science labs.

Matthew playing with the plasma ball at the Goddard Space center near our RV park.

Washington DC, Part 1

We ended up spending about a week in DC.  Some neat stuff there, lots of history, but the city is still a big city with lots of people and huge amounts of walking and public transit.  (and very expensive!)

I'll share a few pictures, but just the highlights.  We were really happy to leave town when we did.

We took a walking tour during the day:

We also took a night-time bus-tour.  We loved seeing the monuments lit up at night:

We also visited the national history museum (avoiding the Darwin junk), the American history museum with the star spangled banner and some neat science history stuff, the International Spy Museum, the Botanical Gardens, the Air and Space museum, and one of the art galleries (Rembrandt, etc.)