What Happened to October, Part 2?

Here is the rest of this long winded outline of my family road trip around the Northeast...

- Oct 8th & 9th - Boston. We spent 2 days in Boston and it was a really cool city. We walked the Freedom Trail and saw all the famous landmarks in downtown Boston like North Church and the Bunker Hill Monument. Walking around Harvard was a fun experience and we ate lunch in Charlestown at a cool restaurant called Figs. We had dinner in North Boston at another Italian restaurant. Outside the restaurant, Ben Affleck was filiming a movie called "The Town" that is coming out next year. It was interesting watching bank robbers dressed up as nuns driving down the street in a minivan (could be an interesting movie). On day 2 in Boston, we went and toured Fenway Park (which was awesome), went to a great pub across the street from the park, and then went to the Sam Adams Brewery to do some beer tasting. After the brewery tour, we picked up our car at the T station and drove to Vermont.

- Oct 10th - Vermont and Stamford, Connecticut. Vermont was one of my highlights of the trip. We spent most of the day driving around the Southern part of Vermont and pulling over from time to time to take pictures of the fall leaves. Spending the past 4 years in San Diego, I haven't seen many fall colors so this was a little bit of a shock to me. We left Vermont in the mid-afternoon to drive to Stamford, CT where we were spending the night. This was another surprise. Our hotel was cheap and we had one of my favorite meals in downtown Stamford. We went to a French restaurant called Chez Jean Pierre. The food, French wine, and deserts were all great. This was one of the most unexpected quality meals and we all enjoyed the evening.

- Oct 11th - Philadelphia & Lancaster, PA. We left Stamford and headed for Philadelphia and had a great time in the City of Brotherly Love. We got in around lunch and ate lunch at an awesome Cuban restaurant in Old City. Then we drove around downtown, went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art (where Rocky runs up the steps), walked around a park on the river, went to Independence Hall, and looked at the Liberty Bell. We left around 4ish and headed back to Lancaster. Central PA was a much different feel for the family than the big cities we had been traveling around. I lost count of the many questions my Dad asked about the farm land. But it was fun to show them where I've been living for the past 5 months.

- Oct 12th - Lancaster, PA. On our last day of the trip. We ate breakfast at my favorite diner, drove around Amish country (for hours), ate lunch in downtown Lancaster, went to Hershey's Chocolate World, and went in to HOPE. Showing my family where I've been working was another one of the highlights of the trip. *The picture to the right is an Amish buggy at a drive through ATM.*

- Oct 13th - Baltimore. My Dad and Sister flew back to CA. I drove straight to work and was completely exhausted from this whirlwind trip through: Maryland, D.C., Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, & Pennsylvania.

My family had been talking about going on a trip like this for years so this was a lot of fun to finally do it. My mom had been to the Northeast before, so it was almost like we were following in her footsteps. Planning has already begun on the Epic East Coast Family Adventure Round II.

What happened to October, Part 1?

Well its been over a month now since I have added a new post, so for the few of you who are still reading my "summer blog" here is an update....

After I returned from the Dominican Republic in mid-September, life kicked into high gear. Work began getting busier, I started mowing more, and I only had 2 weeks before my dad and sister flew in from California.

On October 3rd, my family landed in Baltimore and our whirlwind family vacation began. There is too much to tell, so I am just going to give a chronological outline (or a detailed one at that).

- Oct 3rd - Baltimore. We had dinner at Phillips Seafood at Baltimore's inner harbor. We were all pleasantly surprised by Baltimore and enjoyed walking around the harbor.

- Oct 4th & 5th- Washington D.C. We drove from Baltiomore to Largo, Maryland where we took the Metro into D.C. On Day 1 in D.C. we saw: the Washington Monument, World War II memorial, Korean Memorial, Lincoln Monument, Vietnam Memorial, the White House, Supreme Court, and the Capital. We also spent time in the Smithsonian Art museum and at the Archives (where the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Bill of Rights are located). On Day 2 we went to the Holocaust Museum, the Air and Space Museum, and Arlington Cemetary.
There is just too much to talk about it, so I will leave it at just the list.

- Oct 6th - Philadelphia and New York City. On our drive up to NYC, we stopped in South Philadelphia to pick up famous cheesesteaks at Geno's. When we arrived in New York, we checked into our hotel in Times Square and bought tickets to see Phantom of the Opera that night. We walked around Times Square for a little while, rested in our hotel room, and then headed to dinner at an Italian place in the theatre district. Seeing Phantom of the Opera was a lot of fun and afterwards we hopped on the subway to go get desert. Showing Dad the subway system was a lot of fun (not like Katy or I were subway pros, it was just fun teaching him how to take the subway).

- Oct 7th - New York City and Boston. We woke up to the elevators being out of order in our hotel. Thankfully we were only on the 17th floor and not the 32nd! This morning we walked around Wall Street, saw the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, and spent some time walking through Central Park. We left the City in the afternoon and began our drive up to Boston. That night we went to a hole in the wall seafood restaurant and it was one of the best restaurants during the trip.