Last week the kids went down to go visit there dad and I went off to go see Dave who happens to live in New Jersey. The whole trip was just to fast and to much fun, even with the rain. The first day I got in a little late so we went to Times Square
and looked around. We saw all kinds of buildings like the Trump Towers,
Tiffany's,
and we even saw a cop on a horse.
Just like in the movies they have pigeons everywhere.
Then to
Dave and Busters, I wish we would get one of those here in Montana, that place is a lot of fun. Its like Chuck E Cheese but without the responsibility of watching the kids. After that we went to
Ripley's Believe it or Not, and there is a lot of things in there that are hard to believe. Some of the things you learn in there are kind of neat though.
We then got back on the subway and then hopped on a train and headed back to New Jersey. The next morning we went back into NYC and went to the
Empire State Building.
It was much colder and had a ton of clouds so you couldn't see very far,
but there was one spot you could see down.
At that point it hits you how high up 86 stories is. We then walked toward the site of
9/11 and it was very sobering when you notice the spot where there is no buildings. They are working on a memorial and new buildings so you couldn't see much,
but we did go into a building that has a preview of what it will look like. It was amazing to see the church that was across the street and didn't get hurt when the building's came down. The church is so small next to all the skyscrapers.
They also had this statue of Liberty that was put in fount of one of the fire stations that lost many firefighters. It was so sad to see the different notes, some where even picutres kids had colored and all the photos of the missing and lost firefighters.
We then stopped and had lunch at
Lombardi's Pizza, which is America's first pizzaeria. The pizza is still made in the original oven and it is very good. If you ever find yourself in NYC I suggest going there, its worth the wait. After lunch we walked around a bit and then headed off to the main thing I was hoping to see,
Coyote Ugly.
For anyone who hasn't seen the movie its great and ever sense seeing it I thought it would be so much fun to get up on the bar and dance, and in the original Coyote Ugly I did just that.
Thanks for the encouraging words from Dave, the lady who worked at the bar and Amanda I can now cross that off my bucket list. After sitting around Coyote Ugly for a bit we headed back to the hotel, but first we stopped at Jimmy Buffets restaurant
Cheeseburger in Paradise. We had some very good hamburgers and we each had a drink. In Dave's drink they had a little crab made out of an orange.
The next morning we got up a little early to head to
Hersey's Chocolate World in Pennsylvania, this was the yuckiest day for the rain thankfully most of the day was spent in the car or in a building. We drove for about three hours and arrived at Hersey's Chocolate World,
now had it been summer we could have been on all kinds of rides and other fun things but sense it wasn't we had to just enjoy the Chocolate World.
We took a little ride that showed you how they made the Hersey's chocolate, then we went to this 3-D movie. The movie was so cool, I have never seen a movie so real, and they even did special effects to make you feel like you were really there. After the movie we had to go attend a class, how to taste chocolate.
It was kind of like a wine tasting class but much much better. Thankfully we both passed the class and got our diploma's. We then went from that chocolate world and headed to
Intercouse, Pennsylvania, its this cute little town with lots of Amish.
It has this little shopping area with lots of little shops filled with homemade items. After that we went to another chocolate place called
Wilbur Chocolate in Lititz, Pennsylvania. This place is 125 years old and just walking in makes you want to have some chocolate. After there we went to the first pretzel bakery in America,
Julius Sturgis.
I can tell how they have made it all these years, the pretzels are amazing. Once we finished with the chocolate and pretzels we headed off to Philadelphia to see the
Liberty Bell 
and
Independence Hall.
With the rain coming down we were unable to get to Philadelphia in time before it all closed, its crazy they all close at five even on a Saturday night but it was OK sense we could still see both items from outside. We then went and had dinner at
TGI Friday's, another place I wish Montana would get, and then went back to the hotel and found the power was out. When I checked out on Tuesday morning they said the power was out for 40 hours, its a good thing we didn't have much time to be in the hotel. We got up early to head to Washington DC, another three hour drive but worth every minute of driving. We got there on Sunday morning and they were having the St. Patrick's Day parade so that was kind of neat, they had lots of cops everywhere from on motorcycles
to cops on horses.
We watched the parade for a little bit and then headed to the
Smithsonian American History museum. It had some really cool things in it, like Michelle Obama's dress,
the red shoes from Wizard of Oz,
George Washington's wife's dress,
and a big section on Abraham Lincoln.
It also had the kitchen of
Julia Child, the famouse cook who had the catch phase "Bon Appétit".
After there we went by the
Washington Monument 
and
Abraham Lincoln's Memorial.
Both of those are huge and make you go wow when you see them in person. We also stopped by the
White House,
we weren't able to take a tour but we did see it and again it makes you stop and just smile. Knowing you have read, heard and seen those things on TV your whole life but to actually see them just takes your breath away. We also saw the
Vietnam War Memorial and it was very shocking to see all the names on the black wall.
Its so sad how many people over the years have gave a life so we can say what we want and do as we please. There will never be a thank you big enough, no matter if you belive in the war or not those people left families behind. I know a few miltary people and vets read this so I am going to say it again, Thank you for everything you and your family does for us. It was raining when we saw the staute and it looked like two of the guys were crying.
While walking around I took this photo of Dave and it is one of my favorite photos I took on hte trip.
On the way out of town we stopped at the
Holocaust museum and that is just sad. To think of how many people lost there life's for just being who they are and no one helped them till it was to late. Here's hoping nothing like that happens again. The saddest part was this little area they set up of one kids story, told how he was just a normal boy and how things got bad. It made me very thankfully my kids biggest problem is being told to clean their rooms. After there we went back to the car, I haven't had a chance to say but big town's have two of the coolest things ever. One they have a count down for how long you have to get across the street
and two(OK this one isn't cool but it made me laugh every time I saw one of the signs) they tell you no standing.
I'm told its for cars but I just had to stand. I also couldn't get over how close the houses are in the big towns. It looks like one bulding just painted different colors.
That night we went to
Atlantic City, the Las Vegas of the east coast but way better, after all it is on the beach. We stayed at a very nice hotel that looked like a big TV on the outside.
It had the neatest pool I have ever seen. Its like a big tropical beach with real palm trees and all.
We then had breakfasts and headed up the coast stopping at the boardwalk. One of the good things about going that time of year when its all rainy and windy out, we had the whole beach to ourselves.
In all my years of going to the beach I have never seen a boardwalk before and those things are the coolest. It was like the fair meets the beach and I cant think of a more fun way to spend the afternoon. Lucky for Dave everything was closed so I didn't keep him out there to long. We went and had dinner that night at the
Cheesecake Factory and all I can say about that is thank goodness we don't have one. I'm not a huge cheesecake person but I have been wanting more after eating it there. We had the
classic with cherry's on top and the
30th Anniversary Chocolate Cake. The dinner itself was amazing also, I could be in a lot of trouble with one of those close. We then drove by the
Statue of Liberty 
and headed back to the hotel to get ready to pack and head out early the next morning. It was truly the best week of my life, filled with great company, lots of learning, seeing where history is made and a lot of laughter. I cant wait to go back and do things we missed.
and Emily got a pretty in pink and black 18 inch bike.
They had worked on riding without training wheels on there old bikes but the bikes were just to small. So today we went out and took turns riding, with only one of me and two of them it made it kind of hard to help both at once. We started at the end of the driveway and I held on till I thought they had it then let go, some times they had it and sometimes well not so much. We had a bunch of falls
but by the time we came back home they both were riding it a short distance by themselves.
I am so proud of them and who knows maybe next time we will be able to work on staying on the sidewalk instead of just staying up.
