9/1 - 2 - Feeling a little Philly.

Adam in front of the Second National Bank in Philadelphia, with original cobblestone street beneath his feet (right, & below)





We showed up to our Hampton Inn hotel room, courtesy of Adam's cousin Stephen, on a one-way street near a dark alley where parking, not included, cost us an additional $24; it was about 11:30 or 12 at night. Despite the feeling of insecurity (we had to use our room key to even enter the hotel lobby - another first for us), our room was very clean and comfortable with a huge bed to sprawl out in. We pretty much crashed in it once we were settled.


Trista stands in front of the landmark Independence Hall as it undergoes a bit of construction (right).
The bell tower at its peak was the original helm of the infamously cracked Liberty Bell (right, below).



Trista rose early enough to partake in the complimentary breakfast, which we weren't sure would be any good but surprised us. The night before we were both starving and foolishly decided to stop at a Wendy's to eat dinner - way past dinner time, mind you. Adam, for some reason, thought that the new bleu cheese and bacon burger sounded appetizing, while Trista had a salad and baked potato. Well, Adam felt miserable the next day - too ill to have any of the waffles or cheesy eggs that the hotel provided for breakfast. It took only a few hours for him to come around. Thankfully, it wasn't a legit case of food poisoning.


Once we checked out we were only a couple of miles from Independence National Historic Park, where the uber famous Independence Hall is located, as well as one of America's single greatest symbols of freedom: the Liberty Bell. The bell has quite an extensive history, which is very interesting to learn about, and it used to hang, long ago, in the bell tower of Independence Hall. The Hall itself is famous world-wide for its significance in U.S. History - it is THE building where the Declaration of Independence AND the United States Constitution were both written and signed, and here, in 1776, the U.S.A. was born as a free nation of the world. When visiting these two icons one can feel that sense of origin and power and history. Even a few of the streets are paved in some of their original cobble stone.

Adam couldn't leave Philadelphia without ravaging a trademark cheesesteak sandwich from one of the numerous vendors supplying them. Even Trista, not typically a carnivore, couldn't resist it; totally scrumptious.

ONCE AGAIN, we didn't allow for enough time to explore the inside of the famous Hall because we were facing a two hour drive to New York, with the night looming in soon; plus Trista said she was getting bored. Oh well.

We hopped in the car quickly and anxiously headed for our new home, and the purpose for this whole trip, the one and only New York City. Big Apple, here we come!

Additional pictures of Washington, D.C.

Trista "hugging" California at the WWII Memorial.


The Reflecting Pool as seen from the Lincoln Memorial.


Adam on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial - his favorite site in Washington, and another respected carving of his.


Trista in front of the Smithsonian Castle - now used as the Information Center.


The Great Phallus illuminated.

8/31 - 9/1 - A Capitol idea.

Adam tries to be regal in front of the White House.









Before we left California, Adam hadn't read any of the Harry Potter books or seen any of the movies in their entirety. So, as per Trista's request, he downloaded the first four audio books so we could listen to them along the way. At this point in our little adventure, we are near the beginning of the third volume: "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." Trista correctly predicted that Adam would really get into them because of how imaginative the stories are, and, for the record, the man reading the books is superb (he does all the voices).

Adam's Uncle Sonny assured us that whatever time we arrived would be just fine. Again, we didn't want to intrude at a late hour of the night, but they insisted and we carried on through Virginia to Great Mills, MD, near Lexington Park, and arrived at about 12:30am. Thankfully, they were all mostly awake, and VERY welcoming - social even. Sonny, Cheryl (Adam's aunt), and their oldest, Stephen, were up for about an hour catching up with us on every one's lives.

Trista in front of the Washington Monument.


When we were ready for bed they gave us the entire basement level of their deceivingly large house, complete with a full living room, bathroom, and separate bedroom. Waking up without any natural light peering in can sure throw you off. We didn't get out of there until almost 3:00 in the afternoon, with all of Washington to still see.

Adam's cousin Stephen was kind enough to treat us to breakfast/lunch and we said goodbye to him (he didn't know yet we were going to Michigan with everyone else), and we drove into D.C. for some typical touristy stuff.

Not that Adam is an ex-patriot, but he is convinced that Washington, D.C. has the highest crime rate in the country, and that almost all of it takes place inside its impressive buildings. We were both further tipped off by the outlandish parking situation. In order to avoid any tickets while we walked around we were forced to park in a structure that cost us $18 for less than four hours. Whenever we tried to ask anyone for assistance we were completely brushed off. So far, at least in our experience, D.C. holds the distinction of having the rudest people we've met; St. Louis had itself a similar population, although our caretakers during our dinner cruise were super nice.


Cartwheeling on the National Mall lawn.

Trista touching the Vietnam Vets Memorial - a very powerful tribute.










Adam solutes the Vets of World War II.





Unfortunately, as seems to be the case lately, we didn't leave ourselves much time to explore the many, many things that the Capitol does have to offer (its people aside). Of course we saw the Washington Monument, but we didn't go up in it; we saw the White House, and waved to its unseen occupants; we gazed at the U.S. Capitol building from a distance; the amazing, yet sad WWII and Vietnam Vets Memorials; and our favorite point of interest was the Lincoln Memorial, with its awe inspiring and incredibly well detailed sculpture of one of our mightiest presidents. Also, as we walked the lawn of the National Mall we were halted at a crossing by an enormous procession of long black cars book-ended by an entourage of police on bikes and in cars. Hmmm. Could it have been...?

New York is no more than four or five hours from Washington, so we are sure to return soon to squeeze in some of the Smithsonian Institute and other famous museums and libraries.

Adam's cousin Stephen does lots of traveling for work so he was extremely gracious to book a room for us in Philadelphia, our next stop, with some of the hotel points he has saved up. We had to leave D.C. around 10pm in order to get there at a reasonable time to sleep. Thank you, Stephen, and see you all in Philly.


The WWII Veterans Memorial - with some rather obnoxious commentary from Adam.

8/28 - 31 - Tim and Gay, Adam and Trista, and......Earl

Together at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.



At around 10:30 or 11pm, we called Adam's Uncle Tim to let him know where we were and he estimated our arrival to his house in North Carolina sometime around 5 in the morning. We didn't want to put anyone out at that hour so, although Adam's family insisted it was alright, we pulled into a rest stop to sleep until the early morning.

We got to Tim's at 11am and he and Adam's Aunt Gay couldn't have been more hospitable. They fed us a huge breakfast right away and allowed us to recuperate by sleeping all afternoon and showering. Adam reminisced with his Aunt and Uncle. They also talked a lot about the rest of Adam's relatives and swapped updates with each other. They fed us three times while we were there and by the time we left, Trista felt that they were some of the nicest people she'd ever met, which was encouraging.


On the Okracoke Ferry. We barely made it on.

We left Tim and Gay's after a 24 hour stay for the Cape Hatteras National Seashore on the outer banks of North Carolina. From the southern tip at Cedar Island, which connects to the mainland, we paid the toll to ride the two hour ferry ride to Ocracoke Island. Ocracoke is only about 14 miles long and you have to take another half hour ferry ride to Cape Hatteras from there. But while on Ocracoke we both HAD to indulge in some homemade ice-cream from a mom and pop stand; these NC coast-liners LOVE their ice-cream - it's everywhere. Adam had a scoop each of butter pecan and peach, and Trista had chocolate and strawberry. All were AMAZING!!!


Homemade ice-cream that was to die for.


Aboard the Okcracoke Ferry.

As we drove our car onto the ferry from Ocracoke to Hatteras Adam realized he left the video camera on the ferry from the inner banks. We contacted them and fortunately they had recovered it and held it for us, but that little slip up cost us about two extra hours and three unnecessary ferry rides back and forth. By the time we landed on Hatteras the final time it was getting dark and we didn't get to enjoy the island.


Before Adam misplaced the camera.


Trista at sunset - after a day of riding ferries.

Hurricane Earl was also sweeping in behind us so we weren't sure if we should camp on the island, but we were finally assured that we had plenty of time before we would be in danger, so we camped at the Frisco Campground for the night. We woke up so hot, sweaty, and bug-bitten (Adam counted nine bites on himself), that we packed up three hours before check out. Plus we had limited time to enjoy the island and beat the hurricane.


Adam cooling off after packing up camp.

Cape Hatteras is a very well known and touristy ocean-side destination. It is a very narrow strip of land separated from the mainland and as you travel its length the ocean appears on both sides, not far from the road, and for long stretches. The environment is quite different from the California beaches we're both used to. Another very impressive thing about Hatteras were the amount of gigantic beach homes that towered four stories up with wooden wrap around decks out of every opening on them. Also every house was on stilts - another major difference from SoCal beaches.

The North Carolina coastline contains seven magnificent lighthouses, including the pride of the state: The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Standing 210 feet high, it is the tallest lighthouse in the United States. It had to be moved some 1,000 feet inland several years back due to erosion of the shoreline. This made headlines, of course. We did not climb the 248 steps to the top (equal to a 12-story building) because we didn't feel like spending the $14 to exercise - but we got a real good look at it from the ground. Before we visited the lighthouse and its original site on the beach we grabbed some lunch at the Diamond Shoal Grill where we shared a cup of incredible clam chowder.

Attempting to beat the evacuation traffic, we took a quick side trip to see the site of "The Lost Colony" at Roanoke Island. This was the site of the very first recorded English settlement in the New World. It is considered "lost" because the entire colony mysteriously perished. This was twenty years before the Jamestown and Plymouth settlements of Virginia gave birth to the English-speaking United States. There was a really neat theatre there where they perform a fictional/non-fictional account of the site's history. The stage reminded us of the Ramona Bowl in Hemet, CA. The set was a permanent structure built of wood and mud and the performers walked on grass, dirt, and stone, and from the production photos we saw they wore extremely elaborate costumes.

Needless to say, we left before Earl came and are perfectly safe. Off to Adam's Uncle Sonny's house now in Maryland.


"What's the happiest day of your life?"


Trista and the Atlantic Ocean. The famous Cape Hatteras Lighthouse stands behind her in the distance.

WE MADE IT!!!! Please stay tuned for updates.

Okay everyone, we have officially landed safely in New York. We are now New Yorkers. We touched down in our new town on Friday, Sept. 3rd. However, that doesn't mean we have forgotten about the last two weeks of our blog - it's just been a little hectic, as you can imagine. We will still be posting our East Coast travels, as well as our micro-excursion to Michigan for Adam's Grandma's surprise 75th birthday bash (where Trista finally got to meet a huge chunk of his mom's family).

Anyway, please continue to follow as we post entries for the last leg of our journey.