Craters of the Moon

We arrived at Craters of the Moon in Idaho and it was unlike anything
I could every imagine. I'm not even sure words can describe it if
you've never seen it before. First it is out in the middle of nowhere
and when you arrive at the campsite you get to choose your site (first
come first serve no reservations) in-between piles of huge, black
boulders and lava rock with literally red coarse sand type dirt. It
is definitely beautiful in it's own way. There is no green anywhere.
The rest of the park is different variations of the same landscape . .
. Rocks, lava, red dirt mounds and mounds of it all, as far as you can
see.

So after finding a site that would fit the trailer and close to the
bathroom, we backed in, Mark jumped out to run to the bathroom and
kale and I started to set up the trailer for the last time on the
trip, only to be quicklystopped as I couldn't get the trailer off the
hitch. So Kaleb and I were brainstorming and sitting in the front og
the car, windows down minding our own business when this nasty little
bee decided to sting Kaleb. Paranoid as I can be sometimes everyone
was put in charge of watching Kaleb for the next 30 minutes or so to
make sure there was no allergic reaction. He was fine and since there
was plenty of light still left in the day, we finished setting up camp
and headed to the visitors center.

We arrived just in time for a little ranger talk and to get some
information about where to start. Now Craters of the Moon looks like
craters in a moon of what you have most likely seen in pictures from
when we landed on the moon. The other cool part is these lava tubes,
where some millions of years ago when this underground volcano fissure
phenomenon was active lava seeped up through the ground cooled, dried,
etc and caused these fun caves to form. There are also some really
desolate hills worth climbing and looking out over the lava beds.

With plenty of daylight and a schedule to keep, we went on our
adventures. Lots of trail were waiting to be seen and lots of caves
to be explored. Oh, and it was hot out. All except one of the trails
were fairly short in the grand sceme averaging about a mile for each
trail we took. The big one was about 8 or so miles and in the heat we
decided to skip that one. Supposedly it connected some of the trails
we were checking out anyway.

As we walked through our first couple trails we tried really hard not
to take a few rocks as we really shouldnt disturb the environment and
if everyone took a rock then there would be no rocks left.
Unfortunately when we hiked up one of the hills to see the amazing
view, a few very cool rocks just jumped into Ksenia's pocket and
arrived back home with us. After each stop we filled up water bottles
and drank them down. It was warm and we didn't want to get dehydrated.
Once we hiked all the trails and climbed the hill it was off to find
the lava tubes and caves and we were out of water.

It turned out to be ok that we were out of water because the lava
tubes were very cool. There were four tubes available to the public
and with the exception of me everyone made it down every tube. I was
not feeling great but made it into two of the four. Mark and the kids
climbed down in one and found big chunks of ice, that's how cold it
was. I sat in the enterance of the cave and stayed nice and cool
while I waited. We all had fun exploring and seeing what these tubes
were all about. Once we finished we really had seen pretty much
everything that was available to the public and it was time to get
back to camp . . . Where we enjoyed our last evening of the trip
playing and laughing.

We started with dinner. We made dinner plus some. I cooked up some
stroganoff and we all enjoyed a little food. However it was our goal
to make very few stops on our last drive which would deliver us to
home, so we cooked. We cooked up a bunch of things we could just eat
on the road and not have to stop for food the next day. We made about
eight or ten pita pizzas along with some hot dogs and sandwiches.
Whatever we had left in our food stores we prepared for the trip home.
It was a long drive (about 10 hours or so) and the more we had to
stop the longer it would take and I knew there was a certain group of
boys waiting for Kaleb to get back. :o). It was all hands on deck and
we got it done and packed for the next day.

As I mentioned earlier, I wasn't feeling great. Our last night at
Yellowstone (which were pay showers), the family graciously let me
take a shower because of this and they skipped it knowing there were
no showers at Craters of the Moon and wouldn't get a shower until
home. So after food was cooked I set up a system to wash hair and take
little sponge baths. We had so much fun giggling and laughing as we
all washed up and felt a little refreshed. The rest of the evening
was fun. The kids were pretending to be Harry Potter and playing
little spells on each other laughing the whole time. It was a really
nice end to our trip.

Next morning it was time to put the trailer away for the last time.
Mark had a few little tears at Yellowstone. It was my turn for some
tears. I couldn't believe our long planned trip was coming to an end
and to make it worse for this mother bear, it was the realization that
this was probably the last big family trip as my babies are getting
big. It was a little bittersweet. We were all ready to be home, in
our own showers and beds and tired of living in the trailer, but it
really has been an amazing trip. After a few more little tears fell,
we all closed up the trailer and hopped in the car for the long drive
home.

Across the Plains

Here we are at the home stretch. It is a real bitter sweet feeling knowing that we are one day away from traveling back to our home sweet home. We all miss our beds, family and friends, but at the same time this trip has been planned in my mind since I was twelve and it's hard to believe it's almost over. We have seen so many amazing things and been to so many places but now we are heading to our final stop before home which is Craters of the Moon National Monument in Arco, ID. I am hoping my kids enjoy it as much as I did when I was growing up. In the last few days we have stopped in Rapid City to see Mt. Rushmore and then a stop at Yellowstone National Park. Mt. Rushmore was awe inspiring and interesting to learn about. It was interesting to find out that the idea was first put forward by the state historian who want to attract tourism to the Black Hills. Well, it was a good plan because there were plenty of tourists there to take a look at the hillside. We arrived at dusk at Yellowstone, which turned out great for seeing wild life. Upon entering the park we immediately saw pronghorn antelope. A little later we saw a huge herd of elk. When we got to camp it was dark so we setup and hit the hay. The next day we toured Yellowstone. We visited Old Faithful, the great prismatic spring, the black sands basin (never saw the black sand though), put our feet in the firehole river, the mud volcano and saw a lot of scenery from the car. On three separate occasions we saw bison right on the road. One of the bison was right outside Mindy's window. It was really amazing. Another enjoyable part of yellowstone was our only campfire of the trip with s'mores and enjoying the beautiful night sky with very little light pollution. We plan to go back to Yellowstone when we have more time with hiking boots and fishing poles. There is a TON of stuff to see and do there. Really cool place.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Yellowstone NP

Change in schedule

We made a slight change in our plans this week. We were going to make a stop in LaCrosse, Wisconsin last night but didn't have anything really planned to see there. Instead we decided to push through to Sioux Falls. That actually puts us 1 day ahead of schedule. We called Yellowstone and there was no problem moving up our reservation. This does mean that we will be home 1 day earlier. We are getting a little road weary and are really missing our beds. It has been an amazing trip but we are looking forward to the comforts of home.

Location:South Dakota

Quick Stop in Chicago

Made a quick stop in Chicago this morning. We were planning on a longer stop but when we arrived in town at 10am it was already over 100 degrees. Add to that fact being on the road for over a month and two lousy campgrounds in a row, nobody was real enthused about spending a day walking/riding public transportation. We decided we had to see Millennium Park and cloud gate. I found the park but we had our tent trailer attached so parking was out of the question. The only option we had was to drop off mom and the kids while I circled the block. Once we hit a red light the kids scrambled out and headed to cloud gate. I circled the block until I found a bus lane to stop at and wait. The kids got some cool pictures and came back reporting how cool it was to visit. As a bonus there was also an amphitheater nearby that had. Symphonic band playing. Even though it was short it was fun. Now it's off to Sioux Falls. Nothing planned to see there but it is a 9 hour drive so we won't have much time. It will be a six hour drive the next day to Rapid City to check-out Mt. Rushmore.

Location:14th Ave,Green Bay,United States

Cedar Point - the roller coast . . . Ride on!!!

Up and at'tem early . . . We had to get up early, get some breakfast and then pack everything up so we could spend the day at Cedar Point Amusement Park and then head towards Chicago. Everything was going great. We got to enter the park an hour early and ride a couple of the more popular rides before the general public entered. We started in line to a really cool looking ride and realized it wasn't even open yet. Well that was silly so we headed towards the ones that were open. After a couple rides, we were heading to another one when we found the snake river . . . Funny I thought that was in the west?!?!? It was a fun and very wet ride. We were drenched, which was fine as it was pretty humid already so early in the day. We continued and a couple more rides were enjoyed before we took a lunch break.


After lunch and finally starting to dry out a little from the snake river ride, we went towards the really cool ride I mentioned earlier. It is called the Top Thrill Dragster. It is based off the idea of drag cars. It jets you straight out 120 miles and hour and then up 90 degrees and 420 feet high with a twist in the track when it reaches the summit of the ride you head back down looking straight down at the ground before it levels out and brings you to a screeching halt. It lasts about 30 seconds and you stand in line for at least an hour or more. Go figure?!?! So there we are standing in line and at is point Ksenia is still planning on going. It's hot and humid and we are feet away from the covered area and the gates when the skies start to darken and the park goes quiet. Everything stops . . . literally. There are no roller coasters going anywhere in the park. It is kind of weird. They shut everything down. Apparently this is normal. The guy announces we can wait or leave it is up to us. People start leaving which puts us closer to the gate, but not inside the gate and the rain starts pouring and I mead POURING. Now from Oregon this is not really a big deal, except we just got basically dry and we were drenched again and the guy wouldn't let us in the covered area. He about had a riot on his hands from the natives, until people finally just walked through the gates to get out of the rain, which we did. We waited and once the storm passed, which was rather quick we heard rides start up again, except ours. It had mechanical failure. We waited a little longer but then gave up and headed out to enjoy some more rides in our very wet clothes, which did eventually dry. Being the dragster was the tallest ride in the park, we kept an eye out to see if it was starting up again.

Around 5 o'clock the rides stopped again. This time as we were near dry again, I told Mark I didn't want to get wet again so we found a place to hang out and wait. It wasn't near as bad as earlier, but it was a nice break from the sun and walking and a lot less rain. After a little bit we strategically made it through the rain drops keeping fairly dry and to a new section of the park to some more rides. By the way, Cedar Point is themed around the Peanuts and Snoopy. We found a couple fun statues of snoopy and of course we had to take a couple photo ops. At this time we were nearing the end and we were getting tired, plus we already spent a fortune on concessions. We planned out the last few rides and we did notice the dragster was now up and running. We finally headed to the dragster and as Mark, Kaleb and Chelsea were a bit ahead of Ksenia and myself, we got stopped and they weren't going to let me enter with the souvenir cup I had in my hand. Ksenia already had decided she didn't want to go on the ride so she was going to be a "non-rider" but that still didn't matter to this gal. She wasn't going to let us in. Frustrated, but otherwise not necessarily looking forward to standing in line for an hour and a half as I had a huge (for a little toe anyway) blister on my toe from walking around all day with wet socks and tennis shoes - the only thing that never dried out from the snake river and the downpour. As Mark and the kids stood in line, Ksenia and I were able to ride three more rides and had a lot of fun.

We went back to get Mark, Kaleb and Chelsea and hopefully see them on the ride but we missed them. We gathered everyone together and headed to the last ride that was near the enterance gate and stood in a very short line . . . Thank goodness. We all agreed it was a great day regardless of the rain and the huge blister.

It ended up to be another one of those late night dinners and we headed to our campsite for the night. It was a two hour drive and we ended in Indiana. Quickly set up the trailer and after I accidentally set off the car alarm in the middle of the night, we killed a few thousand mosquitos and Mark took a pathetic shower we all crashed dead tired.

Overall it was a good day. My biased opinion . . . and soapbox - Cedar Point is a highly recommended amusement park and I don't deny the roller coasters are pretty cool. However if Disneyland is your standard for overall esthetics and atmosphere of a park, then it doesn't compare. As far as the rides are concerned, yes there are definitely more and they are bigger and faster than Disneyland but having recently been to Six Flags Magic Mountain I'm not sure they are that much better. If the only reason one (from the west coast that is) is going to Ohio is for Cedar Point then I don't think it is worth the trip. If it is a stop on a bigger trip, then yes it is probably worth it.

Location:Sandusky, Ohio

New York to Boston

Our campground is about an hour from downtown Manhatten. At first this was a major concern for us, but considering we saw everything we wanted to see plus more in one day it turned out to be a good thing. Our day started with the decision to drive the car into NYC, considering the options again it seemed to be the most economic route. My first thoughts of driving downtown were craziness, but once we arrived it turned out to be quite a rush. I even got chills as we drove under the Brooklyn bridge listening to/singing Frank Sinatra's song, New York, New York. With roads going in every direction imaginable, horns constantly honking, pedestrians swarming and the GPS recalculating it was very challenging, but not impossible. We found parking near our first appointment, the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. We had a few hours before the ferry actually left though so we took a look at a few attractions first. Ground zero was a few blocks away so we took a quick walk to see the new Freedom Tower that is being built where the Twin Towers fell. It was inspiring to see a magnificent tower being built despite the continuing threat of terrorism to our nation. Across the street was a nice little park so we cut across only to discovered a dance troop performing an interpretive dance of Alice in Wonderland.






Ksenia got to see dancing in New York and she watched intently. We were then off to see Wall Street. On the way we discovered the beautiful Trinity church.





It looked strangely familiar, like we have seen it before. I asked Kaleb if he thought it was the church from National Treasure. The was confirmed when we entered and saw they offered a 2:00 pm tour that answered the question "Is there a treasure underneath the church?" Upon exiting the church, we entered the court yard to enjoy a summer concert series they apparently offer. We finally got to hear some jazz by a group from Zimbabwe no less. After listening to a few songs we walked down Wall Street to see the New York Stock Exchange.





From there we headed towards our appointment with Lady Liberty. After entering the Staton Island facility, we found out we were in the wrong place. We took a short walk west to the Clinton castle and battery to get our tickets and catch our ferry. Even though we had a 3 o'clock appointment they let us board at 2. The seas were a little rough, but ride was quick. Before we knew it we were looking up at the enduring Statue of Liberty, the very symbol of our freedom. We found a great ranger tour, that was very informative about the history of the statue and we took some pictures.





It was time to head to Ellis Island. We didn't see a lot on the island as time was short and we were getting hungry, but it was great to see the place where so many people came to become Americans.





Our last ferry ride lead to our first subway ride in New York. After getting assistance from a very helpful MTA employee, we took the subway to 42nd Street right in the middle of Time Square. Being hungry our first priority was food. We were in search for authentic New York pizza. Our hopes were raised when we saw a pizza sign, but were quickly smashed as it was a Sbarros pizza chain. The search continued until we found Ray's Pizza. We walked into an authentic NY pizza place, complete with cranky customer service and amazing pizza. We enjoyed our slices of pizza and then it was back out to time square.





After taking in the amazing ambience of flashing screens, huge crowds and buying our share of souvenirs it was down to the subway again to find a route to Harlem. In our research for a jazz experience for Kaleb we came across a jazz concert in Harlem that was free of charge,we just had to get there by 7. We did the best we could but didn't make it by 7, we were running late. To make matters worse, when we came out of the subway it was POURING down rain. We waited for the worst to clear and then made our way up the three blocks to the concert. We were worried because we never heard any music even as we got close to the park. When we finally found the right place we found that the music we delayed because of the rain. Someone was looking out for us. :) It was a ways out of the way to get there but worth it as the concert was great music and Kaleb really enjoyed it. It was then time to get back on the subway. We had a few things we wanted to see still. The subway workers were great every time we asked for help they would get us where we needed to go. We got on the subway and paid a visit to central park. It was getting dark by now but we still took a short walk in the park. We exited the park and turned south in order to visit the 5th Avenue Apple store. We had a tough time finding it because it was under construction. The glass cube of the entrance was under construction so we didn't get to see it in it's full glory but it was still big and amazing. Mindy almost upgraded her phone just so she could say she got it in NY. In the end waiting for the iPhone 5 seemed the prudent thing to do. We left the store through it cylindrical elevator and continued on to get back to Times Square. The kids saw M&M world when we were there earlier in the day and wanted to pay it a visit. This is where the day got interesting. We started running into things we wanted to see but didn't have time to plan for. First we saw Radio City Music Hall, then we stumbled across 30 Rockefeller Plaza.





This was one of the funniest parts of the day. As soon as Chelsea figured out that we were right outside the Today Show studio, she started freaking out.





Chelsea is usually the last person to leave for school and one of the ways she keeps herself company is by watching the Today show. I teased her about the fact that we had been to literally hundreds of important historical and amazing places and this was the most excited she had been. It was great and a fun moment in the trip. After the excitement died down it was further down the road to reach M&M World. We made our way in and the kids loved it. We looked at all the merchandise and bought some M&M's. Everyone except Ksenia wanted peanut butter M&M's, she had to have pink of course. We paid for our treats and weaved our way through the store to the exit.





We had one task left to do which was find the subway and get to our car. We couldn't remember what time we checked in to the parking garage but we knew it was close to twelve hours since then and there was a huge increase in the cost of the parking at that point. With time ticking by we hustled to the first subway entrance we could find and got on, or tried to. We were all through the gate except Kaleb when we found that Metro card didn't have enough left on it to get him through. We handed some cash through the gate to him and hoped he could figure out how to use the machine to put more fare money on the card. We had nothing to worry about because Kaleb looked like a NY native working that machine and before we knew it he was scanning the card and coming through the turnstile. After he was in we got on the subway only to find that we were going the wrong way. We got off and changed platforms and got on the correct train. Luckily this was a free transfer. We got back to the parking garage and started literally running to the car just in case we were close to our 12 hour limit. When we found the ticket we checked it to find we still had one more hour before we were over 12 hours. My first feelings were relief and the surprise that we saw so much NYin so little time. It was great to have a real positive experience in NY. It turned out to be one of our favorite spots.

The next morning we got up and headed to the beach. We decided to go to Jones Beach on South Long Island. It was great. The weather was perfect and we can all say we've gotten our feet wet in both the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans. Kaleb, Chelsea and I did much more than that though. We got all the way in and even did a little body surfing although the waves we very small. When returning to shore we relized that there were shells everywhere. We couldn't believe how many there were. We started collecting and had a blast seeing how many big, pretty, or unusual shells we could find. We found quite a bit but we were starting to get a little sunburned so it was back to camp to shower, pack up and head to Boston.






The one thing that really struck me about Boston was how much I felt like I was in Portland. The weather is very similar to Oregon in the summer. Today was 80 degrees and sunny. Downtown wasn't crazy and hectic like NY and not disgusting like New Orleans. I would say the biggest difference is the massive amounts of historical sites that Boston has. We took a tour of the Freedom Trail.











Our guide was the famous patriot James Otis. He was famous for speaking out for colonists rights against what we refer to as illegal search and seizure today. We saw several sites like the Old North Church, Boston Commons, the site of the Boston Massacre and much more. The tour guide was great but after we were done with the tour we had a very important sight to see, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows part II. After a lot of searching we found a Regal Cinema pretty close to our campsite showing the movie. We loved the movie but it was a little sad to see such a huge series of books and movies come to an end. Fun day in Boston. Tomorrow it is off to Niagra Falls. Can't wait to see the waterfall.

Location:New York/Boston

Philly, cheesesteaks, toll roads and New York

We woke up and got a bit of a slow start. We weren't in too big of a hurry so we got everything cleaned up, packed up and grabbed our swimming suits. Before we left the campground we spent some time in the pool. The kids were happy about that as we were a little sweaty just putting the trailer away. Philly was a tad cooler, but still a little bit muggy. Once time was spent in the pool, the goal was find a Walmart to park the trailer and then head into town to see Philadelphia. However the toll roads are killing us. We had know idea we were even on a toll road and having never done this before we didn't know we had to have cash. Their sign said debit cards accepted, but we were apparently in the wrong line. Their sign also said $5 but apparently they changed the price effective July 1, but forgot to change the sign. This was our first real encounter with frustration and toll roads . . . And more to come.

Once we got off the toll road we found a Walmart - side commentary - Walmart is not my favorite place to shop because they do have a reputation for coming into towns and putting the small business owner out of business, however, they have some policies that really help travelers, such as letting them park rigs in their parking lots for the day and even over night if you have to. Not real interested in shopping at the one in Cornelius near home, but granted they do have everything you might need in a pinch and for cheap prices. Now back to the story . . . it was time for lunch. The hunt begins for an authentic Philly cheesesteak sandwich. We found one on the Internet that claimed to be the best so we figured why not try. We plugged it into GPS and off we went because we were hungry.they roads are interesting and this part of Philly is very dirty. The roads are basically one way and narrow. If you tried to turn down a road and there was a car stuck, fender bender, or whatever then you were stuck until it got taken care of, especially if there were cars behind you. You couldn't go around, there was no room. It was also very dirty, garbage everywhere. The "Give a hoot, Don't pollute" slogan apparently didn't apply to Philly, at least this part. Finally found the cheesesteaks, but no parking or at least it wasn't easy. Mark dropped Kaleb, Chelsea and myself off to get our sandwiches while he drove back around to pick us up. Apparently there is a right way and a wrong way to order your sandwiches, and I did it incorrect and the server was not pleased. I also found it funny in a "sad, that is totally not PC" kind of way that when I asked him to cut them in half his response to the "cook" was to "handicap them". That just sounds wrong to me for some reason. Anyway, we can officially say we have experienced a Philly cheesesteak sandwich and none of us were overly impressed. Personally and proudly, we all think I can do a better job. There was nothing special about it. Oh, well . . . We had to try.

Off to the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. Once we found some parking in this area, we went to the visitors center to get some tickets for the Independence Hall tour. I will say this particular part of Philly was definitely cleaner, but still more garbage on the ground than I would have expected. Oh, it was also free, none of this Gettysburg pay for everything stuff (that was just bazaar as Mark noted last time). We started with a little 20 minute movie telling the stories of four people in the area (based on diaries that had been found) who had to choose between being loyalists or patriots. Funny, one of the actors, I'm sure when she was unknown was Kristen Bell from the movie "When in Rome" which is a chick flick and us girls recognized her right away. We giggled at that. Time to head to the Liberty Bell. The cool part about this historical place is everything is really close together. As we were walking to get in line, we got to listen to a army band playing a little bit of everything, some jazz, so classic rock, etc. They were very good and we finally heard a little jazz after our disappointment in New Orleans. It was just a song, but it was fun. The Liberty Bell was fun.





Independence Hall was next but we were a little early so we wasted time in the hall of congress where congress and the senate met. Only a few original pieces were authentic, but the rest of it was decorated the same way. It was kind of fun to listen to this ranger. She had a pretty strong Philly accent. When we were done with congress we went on our Independence Hall tour. The ranger was cute and funny and we learned a lot. This was the second location we made connections to the movie "National Treasure", a very fun, clean movie if you haven't seen it. We enjoy watching it every so often. Anyway, part of the movie took place in Independence Hall and so we were trying to compare the set to the actual Hall. We made a few connections to the movie in DC.





This was basically a quick day stop. When our tour was done we went back to the visitors center and gift shop. We had to find postcards and Kaleb had to get his National Parks stamp. We were done, but the story doesn't end. We had to go back and get the trailer. We needed to get some shopping done, but we weren't overly impressed with this particular Walmart and they are not all created equal, so we decided to hook up and head out. While we were heading out, the kids and I witnessed what I believed to be domestic abuse, it seemed to me the two people knew each other and possible child abuse. I'm sort of thankful I'm not a mandatory reporter in the state of Philadelphia because I probably should have called someone for this. The little girl was screaming and the man close-fisted hit the woman two or three times in the face. It completely freaked me and the kids out and as much as Mark was somewhat compelled to help, someone already appeared to be helping so we booked it out of there. Not interested in going back to Philly anytime soon that's for sure.

Off to NY. . . But don't forget we need cash for toll roads. If Mark survives this east coast traffic I'll be extremely grateful. We aren't even anywhere close to letting Kaleb drive, it is that scary. I've hesitantly offered to drive a little, but he told me I don't want to. The roads are crazy just like in DC, when you take an exit you have two or three new roads to choose from and they look like they are on top of each other on the GPS. The difference between NY and DC is DC's roads are in better condition. Roads in NY are in horrible condition. Heading out we took the New Jersey turnpike, a toll road. They had you trapped. You got a ticket going on to it and the price is based on how many miles you go and of course we had almost 100 miles to go. Mark calculated it would probably be around $15. I thought paying the tolls was supposed to help pay for the up keep of the roads??? It's not working very well if that is the intention. Not only did they have you trapped, as taking non-toll road routes would have been double and triple the amount of time and miles, but also getting off and getting gas and/or snacks. You could not get a fountain coke, which sometimes hits the spot better than a cold can of coke, for anything less than $2.50 and that was a small. They have a little monopoly going on. Needless to say we didn't get a fountain coke and did just fine with the cold cans in the cooler. When we finally reached our turn off the turnpike, we were pleasantly surprised to have it only cost about $5, but the next one was around $15. So far just in this day we have paid almost $30 in toll fees and almost that in parking.

I would say some of the biggest surprises for the trip at this point and in this area are the amount of money paid in parking and toll fees (which I reiterate is cash only) and the amount of money spent on ice keeping the food cool.

We did finally make it to our campground and after waiting for the camp manager to come back to the office and Mark spending a funny conversation with him about getting a site closer to the bathroom without being charged a fee for moving sites, we headed to a Walmart for a few groceries. Remember not all Walmarts are created equal. This one was not a Super Walmart so it's grocery section was limited. We got a few things to complete dinner and got a package of ice cream sandwiches, which of course had to be eaten soon. We had dessert first and once again had dinner at 10:00 at night. It seems to be a reoccurring theme.





Mom and kids in Philadelphia Independence Hall.

Location:Philadelphia