Spending Time in Pennsylvania

We ended up going straight to Philadelphia instead of spending time in New Jersey.  The parks were all crowded and expensive.  They’re pretty expensive everywhere up in this area.

Since my sister, Tina, was still in Jamaica for her daughter’s wedding we decided to check out Amish country out by Lancaster.  We had a great time shopping at the farmer’s markets, the farms and the delis.

We had dinner at an Amish house where they brought TONS of food to your table.  Some of it we loved and some of it, not so much.

There are some towns here with very interesting names.

Tina and the rest of her family finally got home so we hopped in the car and went for a visit.  We’re not exactly close to their house but there aren’t many campgrounds in this area.  It’s just over an hour (when there’s no traffic).

After meeting a few of the kids we all decided to head out to Dave & Buster’s for dinner.  The kids got to play lots of games too and the adults could talk in peace.  LOL  There are LOTS of kids and grandkids in this family so it can get pretty loud at times in Tina’s house.

Even Abby turned around for the picture.  LOL

Since Tina’s son, Jimmy and his family were vacationing on the Jersey shore we decided to take a drive over there with Tina to meet them.

From bottom left, Johnny, Shannon, Jimmy, Marissa, Kassidy, Keira, Tina, and Rod

Tina’s grandkids were having so much fun having their pictures taken.

My sister, Joyce, and her husband, Rick, arrived about a week later.  We all decided to check into a hotel for a week closer to Tina’s so we could have nice visits into the evening without having to drive so far home.

One of the things Joyce wanted to do while they were here in Philadelphia was visit Atlantic City, New Jersey.  She was born there and hasn’t been back since she was a baby.  We just wanted to go to try our luck in the Casinos.  We didn’t have much luck.

The boardwalk on the beach was pretty cool too.  Lots of “shopping” for cheap souvenirs, which none of us bought.

I couldn’t believe all these mussels on the beach!

They had to stick their toes in the water

Joyce, Me, Tina, Jim & Rod

Rick taking a picture of me taking a picture.  LOL

Jim wanted John to see what’s in the background

The boardwalk “route”

We’ve done so much while here in Philadelphia that I’m going to have to break up my blog into more than one.  Check back later!

All Done With Washington, D.C.

We spent our last few days in Washington, D.C. just kinda lazing around.  We had a fantastic three weeks here but we really needed some “down time”.  Not doing laundry, not cleaning, not cooking.  Just doing nothing.  We were going to drive up to Baltimore again for an Italian dinner but we got some really bad lightening, thunder and rain that day so we just went to an Italian restaurant right down the street.  Well, that was a mistake because the food was awful.

The next day we decided to hop on the Metro and visit the Thai Place.  That’s the place we went to with our friends from Florida when they were here and it was SO good!  It really made up for the bad Italian food.  Glad we ended our trip with a GOOD dinner!

We had an amazing time here and I’m so glad we were here for the 4th of July.  We haven’t gone out to see fireworks for years because of the crowds and trying to get out of the parking lot with so many other cars.  This was so easy because we were able to take the Metro right to the thick of things and then take the Metro home.  No traffic hassles at all.

We got to see so many museums, monuments and memorials while here too.  I think we actually saw everything we came to see.

We left on Sunday and headed to Delaware.  Just another state we’ve never been to and we wanted to explore some of it.  Well, we have found out there’s not a whole lot to explore here.  The state is so small and we explored the east coast of it in one afternoon.  LOL

AND since there is no sales tax, I may need to check into getting the new lens for my camera I’ve been looking for.

We drove down the coast looking for some little beach towns that we like so much but for the most part the beaches are private communities with no access to the beach.  Bummer.

We did find a public beach and had to pay to park.  That’s fine, I think it was a couple of quarters.  All I wanted was some pictures anyway.  The water looked gross.  Not the beautiful blue of the Pacific.  This looked more like the brown water at Corpus Christie, Texas.  At just over 90 degrees it was also PACKED with people.

We also saw the Prime Hook National Wildlife Preserve.  It’s mainly for migratory birds.  There were platforms that were built for birds to nest in but we didn’t know what kind of birds these were.  At first we thought it was an eagle because we could see it had a white head but it was so far away we couldn’t tell.  Maybe my birder friends can tell.

I posted this picture on Facebook and was told (by Molly) that it looks like an osprey.  Cool!

There is a ferry that goes from Lewes to the southern tip of New Jersey at Cape May.  We went to the ferry dock to see just how much it would cost to take the motorhome over.  At a little over $100, I think we’ll pass.

We’re here until Sunday so we’ve got a few more days to look around and then I think we’ll head up to New Jersey for a few days and then on to Philadelphia for a sister reunion.  My sister, Tina, lives in Philadelphia and my sister, Joyce, is flying in from San Diego for a week.  I have never met Tina’s kids or their spouses so this is going to be quite exciting!

National Aquarium–Baltimore

Today we headed out to Baltimore again to the Aquarium.  We had heard it was a great one and we both love to visit them.

For our friends, Jesse and Ginger who are from Baltimore:

I got online last night and found a coupon for $3 off on parking.  I also found out from their website that they sell out of tickets in the summer so I chose to purchase ours online.  $25 for me and a whole one dollar off for Rod being a geezer.

We had no idea where to park and the coupon didn’t say so we pulled into the first one we saw after the aquarium.  This is what we were greeted with.

The coupon said we had to stay at least 3 hours so I guess it’ll be $17 to park if we make it back in time.  First we had to take our coupon to the Information Desk and exchange it for a voucher.  The information desk wasn’t easy to find but we did and the lady took our coupon and asked for our parking ticket.  Apparently we parked at the wrong one so no voucher for us!

Nothing is included with that $25 fee either.  If you want to see any of the movies or shows that’s another fee for each one.  They are definitely trying to make money here.  There are gift shops everywhere you turn.

This aquarium was very confusing and hard to find our way around.  It’s a huge building with several floors.  It’s not all aquariums either but I have to say, the Australia exhibit was pretty cool.

It was packed with people too and a lot of the aquariums you couldn’t even get up to the glass to see what was in it.  I know that it’s summer but I swear all the kids we saw in D.C. last week decided to come to the aquarium today.  LOL

I wish I could remember the names of everything we saw.

I loved the jellyfish

Upside down jellyfish

The Australia exhibit

Poisonous dart frogs

Turtles

Crocodile

Seahorse

Anemone

They have volunteers who come and feed the stingrays and the rescued turtle that had its flipper amputated due to an infection

More fish

This fish was swimming on its side

Sawfish which is also known as a Carpenter Shark

We stopped at one of the cafes in the building to buy a water for me and a soda for Rod ($5.82 total!!) and then left for the parking garage which ended up costing us $22 since we were there for just over 3 hours.  Whew, very expensive day for us.

We got turned around leaving and ended up in “Little Italy” and saw some restaurants that we’d like to try so we figured we’ll just have to come back up to Baltimore tomorrow for dinner!

The upside of the day was that I marinated a flank steak before we left so that was waiting for us to barbecue when we got home.  Along with a salad, fried potatoes and baked beans we ended up with a GREAT meal!