PA - The Finale

Stella is 11 months old today. I bet you came to the blog hoping for her update. Well, I want to finish documenting our vacation first, so you'll have to wait. But don't worry - a Stella update is coming and it has been a busy month for her.

On Friday, we decided to go to Washington's Crossing. Washington's Crossing of the Delaware River is one of my favorite events in American History, so this is a place I've wanted to visit for awhile. Someday, maybe I'll even go there for Christmas so I can see the re-enactment. Anyway, we headed out on Friday morning and, unfortunately, it was raining. We didn't let that stop us, though. Since we had three small children with us and we were getting quite wet, we decided not to do the tour. Instead we just poked around the site for a few minutes.

This is the inn where legend says Washington and his aides had dinner the night of the crossing.

Replicas of the Durham boats that Washington and his army used to cross the river. These boats are used in the Christmas Day re-enactment.

Here we are at the bridge that crosses the Delaware at Washington's Crossing.

The Delaware River.

After checking out Washington's Crossing in PA, we headed across the river to check out the park they have on the New Jersey side. They had a little museum that we checked out and then we headed to Princeton for lunch. After lunch and some ice cream, we stopped for cupcakes at a cupcake place that won Cupcake Wars (it's vacation - don't judge). Then we walked over to the Princeton campus and poked around for a few minutes. We headed out of town, driving through the Princeton Battlefield and drove to Trenton to check out the Old Barracks and surrounding sites of the Trenton Battle. We decided not to tour the Old Barracks because parking was not at all convenient and, again, we had three little kids in tow.

After that, we headed back to the Olsons', got dinner, and then I got to experience Rita's. Mr. Frisby was so excited. Apparently, we weren't very picture happy that day.

On Saturday, we went to Philadelphia. Our first stop was the Independence Visitors' Center to get tickets to tour Independence Hall. After we got our tickets, we noticed the line to see the Liberty Bell was pretty short, so we decided to check it out really fast before getting breakfast. This was a wise move because later in the day, the line was huge and there were mobs of people everywhere inside the building.

After seeing the Liberty Bell, we headed to the Famous 4th Street Deli for breakfast. This place was recommended by my sister and it did not disappoint. After a delicious breakfast, we checked out Ben Franklin's grave in the Christ Church burial ground and then it was on to Independence Hall for our tour.

I really enjoyed the tour of Independence Hall, but it was way shorter than I thought it would be. You have to have tickets (they're free, but you still have to have them) and then they take you into this big room to give you an introduction to the Hall and it's quite a process. So, I expected the tour to be a bigger deal than it was. After the introduction, they took us into a courtroom on the main floor and then into the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed and where the Continental Congress met.

Like, I said, it was cool, but I could've breezed through those two rooms myself without the whole tour process and the accompanying inconveniences. After the tour, we talked with a tour guide for a few minutes and he mentioned that they tour the upper rooms of the Hall during the winter when it's not as busy. Another reason to go back for Christmas, perhaps...

After seeing Independence Hall, we poked around and saw a few more things in Philly. We checked out Christ Church which is where many of the Founding Fathers went to church. We saw Elfreth's Alley which is the oldest continually resided street in the US.

We also went to the Betsy Ross house, but did not do the tour (see above reasons for not touring re: three small children).

We then headed back to the Independence Visitors' Center to decide what to do next. It was very warm and, yet again, Stella fell asleep. Did I mention what a trooper she was?

We decided that, since it wasn't too late, we could head across the river into Camden, NJ so Mr. Frisby could show us some areas from his mission. We don't have any pictures because, well, who takes pictures of Camden? After that it was back to Philly for a Cheesesteak. We went to Pat's because it's supposed to be THE Philly Cheesesteak. Here's the line wrapped all the way around the building. Parking was bad (as bad as the worst neighborhoods in San Fran), so Mr. Frisby jumped out to order all our food while we just circled the blocks. The cheesesteak was good and I think Mr. Frisby was pretty close to heaven while eating it. But, I think the whole experience actually made the sandwich more worth it. Mr. Frisby reported that all around the building they have signs telling you how to order and if you don't do it right and have your money ready, they'll send you to the back of the line. You start by saying the kind of cheese you want. Whiz (cheese whiz - apparently, that's the most authentic way to have it) or Provolone. Then you say "with" if you want onions and "without" if you don't. So, I had one provolone without. Mr. Frisby had one whiz with. And that's how you order. Fortunately, Mr. Frisby was on top of his game and didn't get sent to the back of the line. But, the people behind him almost did.

And that was Philly. We had a fabulous time and it was a great trip. I realized after we left that we stupidly and shamefully did not get any pictures with our good friends and awesome hosts. But, I did get this one picture with them walking in front of Independence Hall. Thanks, Olsons, for putting up with our touristy needs and for your wonderful hospitality. Can we come back someday?

Sunday morning we woke up painfully early to catch our 5:50 am flight out of Philadelphia. Fortunately there were no delays on our return flights and Stella only got really restless toward the end of our last flight. We were, of course, exhausted by the time we got home, but Stella was such a great little traveler and we had such a wonderful time. Goodbye East Coast - until we meet again.

Gettysburg

On Thursday, we picked up our rental car, checked out of our hotel and headed to Pennsylvania. Mr. Frisby was done with his conference, so vacation time was just beginning for him. It was exciting to have him join us on our adventures.

We were headed to the Philadelphia area to stay with a good friend of mine. We wanted to see Gettysburg and decided that it would be most efficient to drive directly there and then go from there to the Philly area. We were hoping we would have time to see Valley Forge along the way as well.

We arrived at Gettysburg just before lunch time and headed to the Visitors' Center to find out exactly what we were supposed to do there. It turns out there are a number of options for touring the Battlefield. We decided that, with Stella in tow, it would be best to do the standard auto tour so we could go at our own pace. We stopped in the actual town of Gettysburg for gas and lunch and then it was on to the Battlefield.

In the Visitors' Center, they gave us a brochure with a map of the auto tour route. We followed the route and stopped at most of the stops. Each of the stops had plaques with lots more info about what exactly happened at that point on the battlefield. When Stella fell asleep, we took turns getting out of the car to see each stop. There were also monuments erected everywhere for the regiments that were involved. Tons of monuments = tons of men involved. It was cool to be there and to read about what happened there and to realize what an important battle it was.

We also paused to take a picture of Mr. Frisby standing directly in front of a cannon, contrary to Brian Regan's very sage advice.

Little and Big Round Tops.

Another monument.

When we stopped at Little Round Top, there was a guy there all decked out in Civil War attire. I don't know if he was a National Park employee or just some Civil War fanatic, but it was pretty cool nonetheless.

At the top of Little Round Top. At this point, it was close to the hottest part of the day and we were feeling it. I stupidly chose to wear denim capris that day because I thought, "we'll be in the car a lot, so I'll be in air conditioning". I didn't realize there would be so much getting out of the car to see the battlefield. Since it was so hot and we were wilting, we started hurrying things along a little after this point.

The "Copse of Trees" where Pickett's Charge, and subsequently the battle, ended.

At the end of the tour, we stopped at the Soldier's National Cemetery where Lincoln gave the famous Gettysburg Address.

All in all, we enjoyed the day at Gettysburg. Though, truthfully, we would have enjoyed it more if it was 10 or 15 degrees cooler. But, so goes life in Pennsylvania. After we finished at Gettysburg, we decided we would have time to stop and see Valley Forge on the way to the Philly area, so we headed that direction. One closed freeway, one hour of sitting in parking lot traffic on the freeway, and a very annoying detour later, we decided we would have to skip Valley Forge. We stopped for dinner when Stella started getting restless (and us, too). Then it was back on the road. Interestingly, as we were cruising along on the alternate route that Google Maps suggested since the main freeway had been closed on us, we saw an exit sign for Valley Forge. With the daylight fading fast, we decided to go for it and got off the freeway. The Visitors' Center and all the buildings were closed, but we quickly cruised around the park and checked out Washington's Headquarters by the light of our car headlights. We then drove across this cool covered bridge and that was it for Valley Forge. Someday we'll make it back there to see it in the daytime.

After our quick spin around Valley Forge, it was off to Doylestown, PA. On the way in, we passed a "Rita's". Mr. Frisby got all excited, said that he had forgotten about Rita's, and declared his need for a water ice. Confused? So was I. Don't worry - I have since had Rita's water ice and it's good. A tasty, frozen treat that hits the spot on a hot summer night. We arrived at our dear friends', the Olsons', just after 9 pm. Stella was all wound up from being in the car all day, so we let her crawl around and play while we chatted and caught up. Then, after a long day, we hit the sack to get ready for more adventures the next day.

DC - Part 3

Day three in DC started at the Eastern Market. This is DC's indoor/outdoor market with all sorts of vendors that sell food/arts/crafts, etc. Sounds fun, doesn't it? It came highly recommended in my guidebook. One of the vendors was supposed to have excellent pancakes, so we figured we could get breakfast there and then poke around a bit. Notice there are no pictures. There's a good reason for that. The Eastern Market was a huge disappointment. Apparently, there are only a few food vendors there throughout the week. The rest are only there on the weekends. Day three in DC was a Wednesday. My guidebook and the Eastern Market website failed to mention that if you come on a weekday you may as well skip it. Fortunately, the vendor that did the pancakes was one of the few there everyday. At least we could have a good breakfast. Oh, wait. They stop serving breakfast at 11 and it's now 11:05. Okay. Let's have a mediocre pulled pork sandwich and call it a wash.

On to the Library of Congress. There are actually three buildings that make up the Library of Congress. We went to the Thomas Jefferson building because it's the cool one. And I use the term cool to denote the building's awesomeness, not its temperature. Though, it was cool temperature-wise as well. But, I'm sure the other buildings in the Library of Congress were equally cool temperature-wise. Not so, awesome-wise. Essentially, the Thomas Jefferson building was the one to see. There's not a lot to do there unless you have some hard-core research you're working on. Since we didn't have any research to do, it didn't take long. However, this turned out to be Stella's favorite stop of the entire trip. Here's why. The Library of Congress isn't really on the list of must-do tourist activities in DC. It was, therefore, much less crowded. It had a nice, big, cool (temperature-wise) entry hall that, because of the relative lack of tourists, was very open. That meant lots of open crawling space for Stella. And after three days of hanging out in her stroller in museums and other locations, she was ready for some open crawling space. As I said, the building didn't take all that long to see, but we spent a fair amount of time there so Stella could get the wiggles out.

The entry hall in the Library of Congress. Cool, huh?

After the Library of Congress, we headed to the Capital Building. Upon entering the Library of Congress, we saw that conveniently, there was a tunnel from there to the Capital Building. We made good use of it when it was time to head over. We didn't want to do a tour of the Capital Building since that requires contacting your congress person or senator to arrange it and I am against any sort of contact with elected politicians (just kidding! We just didn't want to go to that much trouble). So, we just checked out the newly opened Capital Visitors' Center and it was much more interesting than I thought it would be. They had lots of information and displays on the history of the building and Capital Hill.

When we finished at the Capital Building, we decided to check out the Supreme Court. This was another big disappointment. The front of the building was totally covered in scaffolding, so you could hardly see it. So, we went inside to see the courtroom. Apparently, when court is not in session, you can't go in the courtroom unless you're there for a scheduled informative talk that takes place inside. We weren't there for that, so we could only go up to the door of the courtroom and peek inside. Lame.

After the Supreme Court, it was time to make our way to the National Air & Space Museum to meet up with Mr. Frisby. It was hot outside as we walked along and, yet again, Stella fell asleep.

We had a nice view of the Capital Building as we made our way down the Mall.

We took no pictures in the Air & Space museum, but we had a great time and wished we had a little longer there. After finishing at the museum, we decided to walk over to see the Jefferson Memorial and the FDR Memorial. It's quite a walk, but there are really no metro stops over there, so there aren't many other options. We got over to the Jefferson Memorial as the sun was starting to go down.

(Ashlee, please excuse the on-camera flash. The lighting situation was difficult)

By the time we finished at the Jefferson Memorial, it was dark and getting late. We decided it was too late to try to see the FDR Memorial, so it would just have to wait until we make it back there someday. And, thus concluded our last day in DC. There is just so much to do in Washington DC and, in three days, we only had time to really scrape the surface. We definitely want to go back someday and see all the things we didn't get to this time around.

DC - Part 2

After an exhausting, but fun, day 1, we were pretty excited when Stella decided to sleep in the next morning until after 9. It gave us a later start, but we needed the rest. After a quick stop at Whole Foods (the closest grocery store to our hotel and conveniently located right near the metro stop) for baby food and breakfast, my sister and I headed into DC while Mr. Frisby slaved away at his conference. Our first stop was the National Archives.

It didn't take long there, but it was really cool to see original copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. What made me laugh was the occasional visitor who we saw actually trying to read the documents right there. Just read them online later, people.

Next up was the International Spy Museum. This was a great museum, but in retrospect, I probably shouldn't have done it this time around. It was not free, nor was it cheap. This isn't necessarily a bad thing - as I said it was a great museum and, I think, worth the admission fee. However, strollers were not allowed. That meant I had Stella in my arms for most of the over 2 hours we were there. She would go to my sister occasionally, but I had her most of the time and when she fell asleep in my arms, then I was packing around dead weight. It ended up being exhausting and with a very curious 10-month old crawling all over me, I found it hard to really get to enjoy everything the museum had. Oh well. Mr. Frisby would have loved it, so we'll go back some day when Stella can enjoy it, too. Photography was not allowed at the museum, but they did have a little photo booth thing where they email you the picture. Here's the result:

After the Spy Museum, we grabbed a late lunch and then headed to Ford's Theater.

In the basement of the theater, they have a museum that covers Lincoln's presidency and the assassination. Most interesting was the Deringer that John Wilkes Booth used to shoot Lincoln.

After the museum, we headed up to the theater to see the box where President Lincoln was shot. They have it set up to look just as it did the night of the assassination.

After checking out the theater, we headed across the street to the Peterson House. That's where they took Lincoln after he was shot and where he died early the next morning. Strollers were also not allowed in the Peterson House. Fortunately, it was such a small space that Julie just carried Stella and I carried the stroller until we were through it. Here's the room where Lincoln died:

After that it was getting close to when Mr. Frisby would be done, so we headed toward the White House which is where we planned to meet him. Not surprisingly, it was hot and Stella fell asleep again. Since we were close to the metro stop that Mr. Frisby would be getting off at, we decided to go into a sandwich shop to get out of the heat while we waited for him.

We conveniently decided to get dinner there and then it was off to the White House. Hello Obamas!

After checking out the White House, we decided to walk over and see the Vietnam War Memorial. It was really cool. When we first got there, we were almost the only ones there. Then a tour group showed up.

After the Vietnam War Memorial, we headed back toward the White House. We wanted to see the other side of it, so we walked to the other side on our way to the metro stop. And that was it for an action-packed day two. We went back to the hotel to crash in preparation for our final day in DC.

DC - Part 1

We just got back from a trip to the east coast that included time in Washington DC and various locations in Pennsylvania. Awhile back, Mr. Frisby signed up for a conference for work in Washington DC. I haven't been to DC in a very long time (we're talking decades), so I figured this would be a good opportunity for a family vacation to our nation's capital. I also have a very dear old friend outside of Philadelphia that I've been wanting to visit, so we decided to extend our trip to Pennsylvania after the conference was over.

My sister also joined the fun in DC so that I wouldn't have to be roaming the streets of Washington DC by myself with little Stella while Mr. Frisby was at his conference. This was to be Stella's first plane trip and to say that we were scared would be an understatement. I learned when we went to Idaho and Utah to visit family several months ago, that traveling with a child/children is a whole new ballgame. This fact was reiterated a hundred fold on this trip. We had a fabulous time and packed in a whole lot. So, let's begin.

We got up early Sunday morning to catch our flight. Because this was business travel for Mr. Frisby, we had to book our plane tickets separately and were, therefore, not assigned seats next to each other. In fact, we were both stuck in middle seats for both flights. This fact had me scared to death as thoughts of trying to keep a very energetic and curious 10-month old contained while sandwiched between two strangers went through my head. At the airport, however, the lady at the check-in counter and the gate agent were super helpful and nice and switched things around so we got seats together (we have issues with American Airlines and have vowed in the past to never fly with them again, but to their credit, when working with their employees in person, they have always been fantastic to us). Next, it was on to security - another terrifying prospect with the addition of a child to the mix. Fortunately, security went well. We were mostly held up when they decided to put every one of Stella's baby food pouches into a scanner to check for who knows what. When they all scanned clean, we were on our way to the gate. The whole airport process was made a billion times easier by this little gadget:

It's a little seat for your child that attaches to your carry-on. When the kid isn't in it, it folds flat, so you don't even have to take it off to put it in the overhead bin. With our hands full of carry-ons, diaper bags, boarding passes, and other paraphernalia, it was great to have Stella attached to the carry-on and not in our arms. Thanks, Jul!

There was one aspect of traveling with a child that I very quickly learned to LOVE. Priority boarding! Totally awesome. Not long after we got to the gate, we started boarding and were soon settled in our seats, ready for the long flight to Dallas where we had our layover. Here's the little tyke ready for her first flight.

 My anxiety over how Stella would do on the flight proved pointless. As in almost everything, Stella was a champ and handled everything as if she was born to do it. We learned from the get go that while traveling, the Paci is king. Stella doesn't normally need a paci very often. She only uses one when she's going to sleep. But, the paci proved to be very helpful for her ears with the pressure changes during the flight and gave her some comfort and familiarity in the totally unfamiliar environments she was in that week. With her paci, she did fantastic. She did well on all of our flights. She slept, though for only 45 minutes at a time or so. And we had a couple new toys for her to keep her busy. She only cried a little. The biggest problem was that she was restless and wanted to be crawling around exploring. And, unfortunately, there was nothing we could do to solve that problem. Fortunately, in Dallas, we found this little gem near our gate. A children's play area. Pure genius, if you ask me.

When I put Stella down on the ground here, she looked around for a second, then looked up at me, got a huge grin on her face, and away she went. I let her get all her wiggles out which proved an excellent choice since our flight out of Dallas was delayed and delayed again because of weather in DC. We arrived in DC about and hour and a half later than we were originally scheduled to. By the time we met up with my sister and made our way to the hotel, it was almost 11. And Stella was ready for bed.

Wow, this is long already and we've barely made it through a travel day.

After a decent night's sleep in our hotel, we woke up Monday morning ready for adventures. Mr. Frisby headed downstairs to his conference and my sister and I headed out to DC. Our first stop was the Museum of American History. I loved that all these awesome museums were free. After spending the morning at the museum, we grabbed some lunch and headed over to the headquarters of the Daughters of the American Revolution. It was hot outside and Stella fell asleep on the way.

We checked out their research library and found some information on one of our ancestors that served in the Revolutionary War.

After that, we headed to the Museum of Natural History. We spent maybe an hour there and then it was time to head to Arlington Cemetery where we planned to meet Mr. Frisby after he finished with his conference for the day.

Arlington was really cool and we enjoyed walking from the entrance to Kennedy's grave and from there to the tomb of the unknown soldier for the changing of the guard.

Stella was as happy as could be while we waited for the changing of the guard ceremony to start.

Our experience at Arlington was made more interesting when some idiot didn't pick up on the whole "quiet and respectful" atmosphere that prevails there (made even more obvious by the signs posted all over). While waiting for the changing of the guard to start, this idiot suddenly started yelling at someone on his cell phone. Everyone else looked at him, confused at why he would start being extremely noisy when everyone else was being very quiet and respectful and the clear choice would be to follow suit. The soldier did not like the man being noisy and turned around and said, very sternly, "all visitors will maintain an attitude of silence and respect." The idiot man turned around and left.

In spite of idiot man, the changing of the guard was cool.

After we finished at Arlington, we decided to head over to the National Mall to see the Lincoln Memorial. We ended up walking over because the nearest metro stop to the Lincoln Memorial would have been the same walking distance as the distance from Arlington. So, we walked and we walked and we walked. When we got there, it was just getting dark, so we got to see it all lit up.

We paused for a terrible picture of Mr. Frisby and Stella at the top of the steps. It was the best we could do with the lighting situation.

And we admired Honest Abe. The Lincoln Memorial was cool. It was one of the few things I remember from my trip to DC as a kid and it's something Mr. Frisby has always wanted to see.

After we finished at the Lincoln Memorial, it was getting late. But, because the nearest metro stop was so far away, we decided to walk up to the World War II Memorial and the Washington Monument to see those since they were right on the way to a different metro stop. We also went past the Korean War Memorial and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial along the way. It was a ton of walking and a lot to pack in. By the time we got to the metro, we were definitely ready to head back to the hotel and go to sleep.