Last Day! Cleve to DC

LAST DAY IN THE CAR!

Just 350 miles separated us from our new / old home in DC. We got up early and drove straight through so we would have plenty of time to get unpacked. I even had time to get everything out of our storage unit!

 Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia welcome you!

  Q:  How much does the Saturn hold? 

 A:  A LOT!

Goodbye storage unit 2137. 

I hope to never return to your creepy, dark hallway!

Philly Breakfast

We had one quick stop for a great breakfast at Honey's Sit-n-Eat this morning before heading back to DC. Highly recommended next time you're in Philly!

A wonderful Mexican / southern food / Jewish deli restaurant!

Philadelphia

We woke up in Philadelphia for a jam-packed day of fun in the birthplace of liberty! Our first stop was at Reading Terminal Market for breakfast. After tasting our way through, we walked down to the Liberty Mall / downtown historic area for some sightseeing. We had already seen the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall on a previous trip to Philly with Autumn's mom, so we were able to avoid the ridiculously long Memorial Day Weekend lines for those. Instead we headed straight for the gift shop to pick up some much needed patriotic souvenirs and then over to the National Constitution Center museum to escape the heat for a few hours of air-conditioned bliss. By then, it was time for a cheese steak lunch back at the Reading Terminal Market. It took over an hour in line!! But, we were rewarded with cheesy-steaky goodness.

After lunch, we visited the Franklin Institute to see the Dead Sea Scrolls followed by a movie in IMAX!! I ingeniously had already bought the tickets online, so another horrifying line was avoided!

Our final stop for the day was dinner at Lolita, a mexican restaurant. It was BYOB (as are many restaurants in Philly due to some ridiculous liquor-licensing laws), but I was able to track down a back-alley bar where I could buy the devil's brew! Dinner was great, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time in PA, as always.

 Breakfast at the Reading Terminal Market with fabulous neon signs!

 Beignets, breakfast sandwiches, candy and cake! YUM!

 Independence Hall and 1,000,000,000 visitors in line!

The National Constitution Center had no line AND air conditioning, which were our only criteria for all activities today.

Just me chatting with some of the founding fathers...so interesting!

 Autumn and I getting ready to sign the Constitution with George Washington

My genuine Constitution certificate of authenticity

 Autumn posing with Washington's flag! 

Just look at all the bunting!

 Say cheese...

Now that's a big flag!

SHAZAM!

 Cheese-steaks in action!

 Yum!

The Franklin Institute

 These pots may have contained pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls

(Sorry no photography allowed of the actual scrolls!)

Philadelphia Skyline

 City Hall!

 The city of Brotherly Love!

My top-secret beer mission was a success!

(Please note the sketchy-alley factor of the background)

Camping in Pennsylvania

This Friday, we braved the Washington DC rush hour traffic to start on the long trek to Niagara Falls. We camped overnight in Shawnee State Park, Mann's Choice, Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania....aaaahhhh!
The lake at Shawnee State Park at sunrise.

Mom & Rich Visit: Philadelphia

Mom & Rich flew out for a long weekend to visit. On Saturday morning we headed out to Philadelphia on our way to Atlantic City for some delicious cheese steaks. We tried both Geno's and Pat's, and it was close, but I liked Pat's better. Rich felt like he was living TV since he had just seen a special on the long time rivalry between the two sandwich kings!


In my book, Pat is the King of Steaks!


Rich & Mom at Geno's

Fallingwater and the Camping Adventure....

We recently found out that in the wilds of western Pennsylvania stands one of the most famous homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  It is owned by the Western PA Conservancy, and is now a museum!!  Armed with this knowledge, a tent and a vague idea of where to go we were off to witness this spectacular architectural masterpiece for ourselves!!  It was a fun weekend in the woods.

Fallingwater in all its splendor.  How awesome is this house

Everyone needs a little staircase to the creek from the living room, no?

Us with Fallingwater and some other guy.

 Our (bleak) little camp sight in the (Blair Witch) woods....

Eric setting up camp...yes we are camping cheaters with an air bed...why suffer??

 The lovely river, as viewed from Ohiopyle, PA.

 Pretty sure I saw a Blair Witch running around...any missing teeth anyone??

Tent view at dawn...it was a lovely little trip!

I'd also like to point out that I noticed no one (but me) voting for a cactus hunt in our poll...you know it would be great!!!  :)

Pennsylvania!

As Autumn mentioned we met up with Ron & Julie for the weekend in Pennsylvania. We had a great time, and it was so nice to see someone from home!

Guess where we went?

"A great place to let corporate America brainwash your kids" according to Autumn, but I thought it was nice.

;)

Inside the chocolate "factory".

The mountains in Penn. are so lovely....can't wati for ski season! haha!

Amish Buggy! Just kidding it was only Mennonites giving some tourists a thrilling ride.

 

Autumn & Julie!

Central PA!

Good morning!  We are in East Harrisburg, PA this morning visiting with my mom.  She's in town for some work related trade show, and this just happens to be super close to DC (about 2.5 hours).  We're going to go into Hershey this morning, then maybe over to Lancaster this afternoon.  Oh the fun!!  :)  Check in later for pics...

In other news the first week of work went well.  Meeting people, learning about the department.  It is a lot to take in, but I think I am getting the hang of it.  We have our bid lists (which I cannot disclose at this time, sorry), so we are trying to decide where in the world to go.  Eric had spouse orientation Thursday & Friday of this week.  He really enjoyed it and learned a lot more about what exactly I have gotten us into :)  Well, I hope everyone is having a great Saturday morning!