We had a spectacular week-long family vacation that was so much fun I
didn't want it to end! We had fun doing all sorts of different things
in different places, I'll let the pictures do the talking and provide
some of my favorite highlights for you!
Day 1) Hurricane Florence
was swirling out in the Atlantic Ocean and was projected to fall
somewhere in North Carolina. It caused us to start the vacation early
(no problem for me!) We left Thursday morning and drove to Northern
Virginia where we visited Government Island, a unique island surrounded
by tidal marshland where stone was quarried for important buildings in
Washington, DC. Our day was concluded with a yummy dinner at PF
Chang's where the fried rice was so yummy! After dinner we eventually found our way to a hotel (A HOTEL,YAY) in
Virginia.
Day 2) We took a relaxing drive to Altoona, where we
would spend the next two nights. In Altoona, Dad showed us around the first place he went to college. Then we had a surprise visit
with Grammie and Gramps which included touring the Railroader's Memorial
Museum and a fun dinner followed by checkers on the porch of Cracker
Barrel.
Day 3)
Arising early, we drove to State College for a college football game. We
had the chance to see more of the Penn State campus in addition to an
exciting football game. Luck would have it that we ran into the Nittany
Lion mascot outside of the stadium to complete our football game
experience. I had such a fun time cheering at the football game - jumping, dancing and clapping was so much fun when the football team scored touchdown after touchdown. After goofing off with some special friends (kids of Mom's
friend Doreen) we filled our bellies with delicious food from the
Commons (aka the cafeteria where Mom and Dad used to eat when they were
in college). What an experience! I especially liked the food, dessert of a warm cooking and ice cream and sending our foot face down the conveyor belt into the kitchen!
Day 4) One would think we would
be exhausted at this point after trekking all over a college campus,
viewing a long college football game (which Penn State won!) but the
next day we were ready for another new adventure in Pittsburgh. Outside of Pittsburgh, we arrived at Kennywood, an amusement park. We spent the beautiful day
riding rides before driving to downtown Pittsburgh. No sooner had we
gotten to our huge hotel room, we left to go ride something called the
Monongahela Incline. It was a weird train thing that drove on a track
straight up a hill. At the top of the hill, we have beautiful views of
Pittsburgh! Once we got back down to the bottom of the incline we had
dinner at Joe's Crab Shack and had fun watching a dancing fountain in a
plaza along the river before heading back to bed.
Day 5) Well,
Hurricane Florence finally caught up to us, so we took the opportunity
to see the Carnegie Museum of Natural History while it rained outside. I
had a blast looking at all the dinosaur bones that were in the museum.
We also went to a show where we met some live animals: Bob the snake, Milo the lizard, Mango the bird, Steve the baby crocodile and Gouda the skunk! Fortunately the rain
slowed an eventually stopped so that we could go to a Pittsburgh
Pirate's baseball game! My first professional baseball game ever! It was
so foggy, many of the skyscrapers were hidden by the fog, but the rain
stayed away!
Day 6) In the morning, the weather had improved so we
could walk around downtown Pittsburgh and explore Point State Park. We
enjoyed sitting along the rivers and counting train cars in the
distance. One train I counted had 149 cars! There are lots of trains in Pittsburgh! We at lunch in the car
as we headed to our next stop: Washington, DC! On our
way, we stopped by the Flight 93 Memorial to see the Tower of Voices. Then, it was off to our next stop: Washington, DC! Dad easily navigated
the rush hour traffic and found our hotel no problem at all. We enjoyed
a nice dinner sitting outside along the bustling sidewalk taking in all
the sights and sounds of the city!
Day 7) Today we explored
the Monuments of Washington, DC. Walking a huge circle around the
National Mall, we started at the White House. I wanted my picture at every single stop! We passed by the
Washington Monument (Dad and I posed for the same picture we took when I was about 1 year old), then went through the World War II Veterans
Memorial. The next stop was the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the way to
the Lincoln Memorial. Abraham Lincoln looked huge in his chair! We took
in the view of the mall with the Capitol in the background atop the
steps there before wandering over to the Korean War Veterans Memorial.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial was an interesting stop, one I was very interested in, before we
arrived at the FDR Memorial. We circled
around the tidal basin and ascended the steps to the Jefferson Memorial
which was our last stop before going to the National Archives to see the
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It was a hot day, so
it was nice to take a rest in some air conditioning. The Air and Space
museum was after that, where we saw an IMAX movie about astronauts
exploring space, then we got to see some of the exhibits and explore the
airplanes around the museum. I especially liked learning about Amelia Earhart and seeing her airplane. Before I knew it, we had walked almost 11
miles and I didn't even realize it. I was hungry though and was glad to
sit and enjoy dinner before going back to the hotel.
Day 8) The
final day of our trip did not disappoint! We took a city bus to the
National Zoo. I enjoyed walking around the zoo and seeing different
animals. My favorite animal was the small clawed otter. It was nice to get out in the morning, because in the afternoon
we had to drive back home.
Grammie and Gramps came for a fun visit to NC which started with celebrating Gramp's 70th birthday the day that they arrived. I had fun spending time with Grammie and Gramps at our house. Grammie and I did our
nails like always and I had a blast playing Rummikub with them over and
over again! Even though it was the beginning of December it could have practically been Christmas because all of the pieces were in place! We went to see Christmas lights at Hill Ridge Farm, complete with snow and rides down the tube slide. Then, we saw a spectacular Bulls, Bells and Barrels rodeo, complete with stubborn bulls that had to be roped to leave the ring. Following that, we took in a festive Wake Forest Christmas parade on a mild afternoon. And we finished our glorious visit with them by opening presents and waking up the following morning to 8 inches of snow on the ground! It was completely magical and it felt like Christmas morning!
The week that Grammie and Gramps left, thankfully the rest of the snow melted so we were eblt to experience more fun Christmastime activities! One day we drove to Busch Gardens Williamsburg to visit Christmas Town! The lights were spectacular to see. I especially enjoyed some of the rides that were open. My favorite was the roller coaster Verbolten. The skyride gave us a fun view of the lights below and the train ride was a blast. The Twas the Night ice skating show was really cool too. The skaters were really good - doing back flips and all sorts of jumps! We finished the week with a play called Santa's Enchanted Workshop just for kids. A few days later a special letter arrived in the mail! Santa wrote to us! He said that he was getting everything ready in the North Pole and we need to be good just a few more days so he will come visit us!
