Vacation June 2008-Part 6 (Final)

As I'm sure you all noticed from the title of this posting, this is the final posting of pictures from our trip.  As I'm also sure you have noticed from our vacation postings, we like to visit State Capitol Buildings, and the last two days of our trip were no exception.

Have you ever seen a lime green dome?  Neither had we...until we went to Harrisburg.

The PA Supreme Court room in the Capitol building was covered with gorgeous murals with really amazing passages--like the 10 Commandments, the Beatitudes, and passages on natural, moral, and religious law.

This picture makes us smile ;)

Gettysburg

Eating lunch in West Virginia.  

Final Capitol building for the trip: Columbus, OH,  We were too late in the day for a tour, but we walked around the exterior and saw all the monuments they have, including Civil War cannon (Dad said they could be fired!), a statue of Christopher Columbus, a remembrance of the Spanish-American War, and working gas lamps (if you can call those a monument).

This is why we don't plan our vacations in advance--so we have time for serendipitous discoveries.  Across from the Ohio capitol is the Ohio Theatre, which looks as if it had been designed (in 1928) to show the Phantom of the Opera.  We talked to one of the employees who had come outside, and he volunteered to give us a tour of the place.  It makes any theater I've ever been in look plain and simple (except maybe the Paris Opera) !

We hope you enjoyed traveling with us.

Vacation June 2008-Part 5

As seasoned "capitol collectors," our next stop was Trenton, NJ.  

Quiz of the Day:

The amount of gold covering this dome is the same volume as 

1) a Hershey bar

2) a brick

3) a laundry basket

4) a Mini-Cooper

A nice peaceful place for an afternoon nap?  

Not for George Washington.  He crossed the Delaware River at this spot on Christmas Day in 1776 during a snowstorm on his way to attack Trenton.

Two of our nation's symbols: Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.

We found Valley Forge to be quite a pleasant place; I suspect George Washington's bodyguard, who would have occupied cabins like these, thought differently.

You know you're in Lancaster County, PA, when you see horse-drawn farm equipment.

Obviously the pretzel is the focal point of this picture, not the people.  We're learning how to twist pretzels at a pretzel factory.

Vacation June 2008-Part 4

Welcome back to New York!

Did you realize that the CIA HQ was in New York?  No, not the Central Intelligence Agency, but the Culinary Institute of America.  Tim and Elli especially enjoyed this visit.  

No vacation is worth its salt without touring a couple of mansions.  This one was one of the Vanderbilts' simplest "summer cottages."

This amazing chapel was built to hold the entire student body and faculty at West Point in 1910 (they were all required to attend).  It has the largest church organ in the world (Becca was green with envy).

The career soldiers who fell in the Civil War are honored here at West Point.

We finally talked Dad into driving through NYC.  The George Washington Bridge connects Manhattan Island to the New Jersey mainland.  Isn't the sky beautiful?

One of the landmarks in NYC: the Empire State Building. 

Shaky hands disrupted this picture of the Statue of Liberty.  It was a lot prettier live.

Ground Zero.

The first bridge to connect Manhattan Island with Long Island: the Brooklyn Bridge.

The highlight of the NYC tour: getting out of the city without a scratch on the car!  Driving in downtown NYC is like driving around the Arc de Triomphe in Paris--the drivers don't seem to recognize that staying in lanes is a good thing.

Vacation June 2008-Part 3

From Lake Ontario, we headed through the Adirondack Mountains and to Lake Placid, where the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics were held.

Olympic ski jump: It looks tame on TV, but those slopes are really close to vertical.

Beautiful mountains--rushing streams--what simple pleasures.

~(in bland tone) Mom always wants to take walks. Why do we always have to walk so much?~

~ O, water...trees...sky...look at those plants, this is so much fun!!!~

These are statements or paraphrases of thoughts from my two sisters. Can you guess which?

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

What a beautiful family photo taken on the shores of Lake George.

Small town, small shop, yet he hand makes 'em and ships 'em all over.

Anybody need a hand-made violin?

Wow, some really big house that I forget where it is.

Never mind, my sisters tell me it's the New York State Capitol building.

This is some other capitol...but which one? 

"Hey, you two, which one is it? I know it's somewhere out East." -Me

"Do you really not know?" -Becca

"ghrratt" -Elli (I think she's tired)

"You're so mean" -Becca (commenting on me writing Elli's grunt)

"Do you?" -Becca (returning to the subject at hand)

"I really haven't a clue, but I might guess Connecticut, it seems like we were in that state sometime." -Me

O goody, my guess is correct, Becca tells me. So this is the Connecticut state capitol.

Ok, no more.

Vacation June 2008-Part 2

From Niagara, we skirted the west side of Lake Ontario and headed for Toronto.

We went to the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto.  Here is a shoe that belonged to a medieval knight.  Notice the length of the toe compared to Elli's fingers.

On our way out of Toronto, we stopped at an international mart to get food for lunch.  This lady was from Bosnia and cooked some Slavic sausages for us.  She told us "Thank you" when we took her picture.

This is the park where we ate our lunch...and took some attempts at family photos.  It's always exciting to do the 10-second delay and have someone running to get in place before the shutter snaps!

These are the Kingston Mill Locks, part of the canal that connects the Ottawa River to Lake Ontario. Built in the 1830's, these locks are all hand-cranked!  This picture shows three locks that are all connected--one of us kids is standing by each one (can you find us?).

Our next stop was at the 1000 Islands--the entrance to the St. Lawrence River.  Actually, there are over 1800 islands in this part of the river; they counted all the islands that were above water year-round and had at least two kinds of vegetation (the smallest island is about 10 feet square).

During the late 1800s, the 1000 Islands became the favorite retreat of NY multi-millionaires, including George Boldt, manager of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in NYC.  This picture shows the castle he built on one of his islands in the St. Lawrence.  We got to tour the inside; some of the rooms were sumptuously restored, but others were covered with 100 years of graffiti.

Life on vacation--with a borrowed computer ;).

This lighthouse is the only one on Lake Ontario with a working Fresnel lens (that's the funny glass shape that magnifies the light coming out of the lighthouse).

Next time, on "Keeping Up With the Joneses," you'll get to hear about travels through upstate New York.

Vacation June 2008-Part 1

Here are some pictures from the first few days of our trip...

A few hours into our trip we stopped at McDonalds in Michigan City, IN, and guess what we found!

The Alsmeyers and Walsmans had stopped at the same one after a day at the dunes. We enjoyed a taste of home (as well as McDonalds) after a long convention weekend.

Port Huron, MI: This is the Blue River Bridge which crosses from Michigan into Canada. The statue of Thomas A. Edison in the foreground commemorates Edison's boyhood in Port Huron.

Welland Canal (Niagara Falls bypass), Canada: We enjoyed an hour ("Several hours!" Becca interjects.) watching the shipping ascend and descend the locks in the canal. Notice the two "lakers" entering the double locks.

Dundurn Castle, Hamilton, Ontario: This was built by Canadian Prime Minister McNab in the 1830's. We had a lovely tour, including the extensive basement (the servants' quarters).  Tim especially enjoyed the taste of authentic nineteenth century cuisine prepared on the original range in the castle kitchen. 

This is what our vacations really look like: Hiking...in flip-flops.

Handsome couple at Niagara Falls, Ontario.  We know the picture looks Photoshopped...but it isn't.

Technology.   

On Rainbow Bridge across the Niagara gorge from Ontario to NY.

This passage is carved at the entrance to Canada on Rainbow Bridge.  We thought Genesis 9 was appropriate for a bridge with rainbows and covenants.

American and Canadian Falls

Tim the photographer par excellence caught this shot of the American Falls illuminated in color.

Stay tuned for future postings.