Wednesday April 18th: I only worked a half-day from home so I could finish packing and pull together some supper and snacks for the ride. Keith got off work just after lunch so we were able to get on the road earlier than we had hoped (although we had to stop at the superstore to pick up a cell-phone car adapter and a HUGE bag of gummy bears). I had heard something about not being allowed to bring
certain food items across the border so I tried to pack an appropriate supper. I even avoided putting tomatoes on our sandwiches - just in case they were considered citrus fruits. I really should have stuck to the reason that they made the bread soggy.We stopped for a bathroom/ice cream (i had crazy ice cream cravings) break in Cortland. Wow. This place had a car that was potentially going to explode at any given moment...thus the entire Cortland volunteer fire department was out in full force. It also had a McDonald's with music notes everywhere and a Roland piano that played itself. And a woman who kept telling her four-year-old to "Eat your nugget".
I knew we were staying in Pennsylvania on our first night - but I didn't know where... not until we passed the sign for Scranton! That's right - we staying just outside of Scranton, Pennsylvania! Our Econolodge was about 11 miles away from Poor Richard's Pub. For those of you who don't know - the television show "The Office" is set in Scranton. It was fun to go and watch the hockey game and eat wings at the pub. Keith even bought a Poor Richard's t-shirt that says "Ain't no party like a Scranton party cause a Scranton party don't stop!"
Thursday April 19th: We had packed, dined on our continental breakfast and
were on the road before 10. We thought we'd get into our Jersey city hotel a couple of hours later but we had to stop for directions because our exit was closed due to the flooding that happened last week. This way we got to go through a cool tunnel :) 
Our Jersey City hotel was beside the Holland Tunnel which was pretty neat. We got settled there and headed to the Path station to catch the subway into New York City. Thursday was our Mid-town adventure. We must have walked 40 blocks - fortunately they're fairly small! We saw Times Square, the Rockefeller Centre, St. Patrick's Cathedral, St. Thomas Episcopal Church, part of an orchid show, and an exhibit on "Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting" :) Keith is a fantastic - and I mean fantastic trip planner! He even found us coupons to get deals on dinner - tonight we ate at Spanky's BBQ House. It was loud, red, had funny-tasting wings but really good chicken tenders! We didn't buy much on Thursday- just a Dwight Schrute bobble-head doll from the NBC store and a paschmena for me from a street vendor. We bought a couple of tickets to a comedy show from a guy on the street but it wasn't the only not-so-much fun part of our trip.
Friday April 20th: This morning I was scared to put my feet on the floor
they were so sore the night before. But we managed to get into the city by 11am. Today was our museum day! We started by taking the subway to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We spent 5 hours there and only saw 3 exhibits. It was fantastic!! We saw a tonne of authentic Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Matisse, Picasso and even a little Rembrandt :) We also found some great stuff at the gift store! When we had finished up we took a stroll through Central Park on our way down towards the Museum of Modern Art. I went through one of the two levels with Keith - but I spent my time on a bench resting while Keith ran through the other. The gift store was amazing here too! After a bit of a walk (about 20 blocks) we were at
Planet Hollywood for dinner. We were tired and sore when we arrived and the idea standing for the 20 minute wait for a table was almost unbearable. Fortunately - my dear husband printed VIP seating coupons that got us the next available table :) We also got a great deal on dinner! We got home a bit earlier tonight and took the time to get a good sleep.Saturday April 21st: Today was a half-day in New York's downtown! We took the path train to the World Trade Centre. I admit, I was a bit surprised at what we found there. I'm not sure what I expected, but it wasn't the construction site that we saw. I suppose not seeing what the area would have looked like prior to 9/11 made a difference. We took a quick stroll through Battery Park before hopping on the Staten Island Ferry for a photo op of Lady Liberty. We got on the road to Washington DC around 4 and made a supper stop in Philadelphia where we checked out "The Simple Way" house and neighbourhood. Keith is going to write a post about this community so I won't say too much. But I can say that the folks at "The Simple Way" aren't kidding when they say they moved to the projects. I was surprised to see how many kids were in the neighbourhood, but I was still pretty nervous being there so close to dark. We arrived at my cousin Randi and her fiance Dana's house around 11:30. After introductions (they had never met Keith) and a midnight chat we all went off to bed.
Sunday April 22nd: After a phenomenal breakfast of quiche, Stromboli, fresh fruit and sausages, we all headed into Washington, DC. Randi and Dana live just outside of Washington in Kensington, Maryland. They took us on a small tour of DC in the car (which our feet greatly appreciated) and then got out to see the White House. It's smaller than you think. It was interesting to learn that the barricades keep being moved back from the White House and some of the other buildings to keep tourists farther away. Our hosts had to go into work for a few hours so they left us on our own in the US Capital. We were happy the Smithsonian (or the "Mall") is actually a bunch of museums and gallerys. We spent most of the very hot and sunny afternoon in the National Gallery of Art - a good thing since we hadn't though to pack sunscreen. The gallery actually had more interesting pieces than we had anticipated and we got to see more work by our favourite artists. We even went over the the East building so Keith could run through the modern art exhibits. He's more of a Picasso, Warhol and Dali fan than I am. I kept a bench warm :) And you guessed it - these galleries had great gift shops too!
When we finished up at the galleries we realized that DC pretty much closes down at 5pm so we completely missed our hotdog vendor dinner opportunity. We had to settle for a sesame snap. We wanted to get a bit closer to the Capital building but we ended up taking to a Utopian community of people. Keith wants to write up a post about this experience too so I'll just tease you with that bit of info :)
We got back to the house for dinner after 7 and Randi grilled us up some tasty pork ribs, and veggies with all the trimmings. It was so good Keith ate leftovers for breakfast the next day! It was a wonderful visit with such gracious people! Unfortunately they have two very cute cats that made Keith pretty snuffly. We decided to cut our trip a bit short and instead of going back into Washington for a half-day we headed back home. It was great to sleep in our own bed a night earlier than planned :)
So that is a brief but seemingly lengthy summary of our pre-baby vacation! We finally have some pictures of me with a belly for you all (the dress makes me look bigger than I actually am - but it's so comfortable). Thanks for reading!!
Darcie
