We woke up for our last morning in the Yurt.  It’s been fun but I am not going to miss the 5am Sunshine alarm! ☀️ After one last trip to the bathhouse and some coffee, we said packed the car, said goodbye to Parker and his chocolate lab friend, and headed eastto Bar Harbor.

We made our way to Bangor, Maine.  Full disclosure, after seeing such beautiful scenery in the North Woods of Maine, Bangor wasn’t our favorite. Bangor did have a cute downtown, with some cool decorations.

The majority of Bangor was  tiny rundown row homes… until you got to the neighborhood of Bangor’s most famous former resident, Stephen King. 

Our short drive of only 2 hours today, gave us plenty of time to stop for lunch going into Bar Harbor and try the famous Maine Lobstah’s.  (Don’t worry – mom’s restaurant will be up and moving for picnic tomorrow inside Acadia) The Travelin’ Lobster is a fisherman owned and operated place just outside of Bar Harbor that’s famous for its lobstah rolls.  Based on the line about 30 people deep when we arrived, we picked the right place.  

Bar Harbor is such a quintessential New England town. Michael said “Now this is what I thought Maine would look like.”

Our room wasn’t ready yet, so we headed into Acadia National Park to do some exploring. The entrance to the park was a hot mess.  If you ever wanted to see government inefficiencies at work, this was for you! You had 3 lanes of cars coming into the park, and only 2 of 3 guard shacks open. The Rangers were chatty and causing more delay.  And people without passes were ready with money. Lawd have mercy!  It was so bad that we were starting to think that if the entire park was like this, we were going to have to find something else to do in Bar Harbor. Thankfully, once we got into the park, everywhere else was fine.  Crowded but fine.

Our plan is to spend the day hiking tomorrow, so we went to some of the spots that we thought would be more crowded tomorrow.  The boys LOVED Sand Beach… especially the rocks!  I can still remember coming here when I was about 12 with my parents and my cousin. It was so much fun to climb on these rocks! And I can remember my mom and dad saying exactly what Mike and I did today: “be careful”; “not so high”;  “don’t fall!” 

We left Sand Beach and headed toward Thunder Hole but along the way, we stopped to climb on more rocks.  It’s looked like too much fun, so Mike and I had to join in too!

Thunder Hole is an inlet into the rocks carved out by the waves/tides.  When the waves come in, the collision of water inside the cave/inlet makes a clap like thunder.  Supposedly at high tide, the spray can reach 40 feet in the air.  We’ll verify that tomorrow.  It was cool to see today, but can’t wait to see it tomorrow around high tide!

We climbed on some more rocks – honestly, I think we could skip all the trails and just let the boys climb rocks and they’d be totally happy! But the views were spectacular! 

We decided to head all the way to Northeast Harbor, and just see what was there. It was wonderful! Gorgeous homes, and NO crowd. I imagine it is what Bar Harbor looks like in November. 

We headed back to our hotel and got our luggage into the room. The hotel is perfect! We like having a balcony and a little yard outside.

The plan is to wash all the laundry after dinner while the boys swim or go to gym, so we got everything sorted and ready to go.

We headed into Bar Harbor for dinner and parked about half a mile away from the square and walked into town. It was a beautiful walk. The houses looked like a movie set!

We lucked into a 4-top table at Galyn’s on the square (thankfully the people who had a reservation didn’t show up within their 10 minute hold window – stinks for them, but awesome for us 😀). Everything was fantastic! We all put our phones away and just enjoyed talking. We each picked our favorite location from our trips and what we would do if we could live there. My mama’s heart was bursting ♥️

Of course, no evening is complete without dessert, so Leo and Mike snagged ice cream while Michael and I went to donuts! You just cannot beat a maple bacon donut and a coffee.

After all our desserts, we decided which restautrant we could have dinner at on Saturday night (you gotta be prepared 😉), and then headed back to the car.  I am so thankful for the walk to walk off some of the dinner and dessert. I’m still full, but not miserable.   Once we got back to the hotel, the boys headed to the pool and hot tub, and we headed to laundry room.  

Three loads later, we are refreshed and ready for another week with clean clothes!

Good morning from the yurt!  Did we mention that the circle top of the yurt is clear – it is beautiful for star gazing, but it makes for an early morning wake  up call from the sun about 5:15 🤣

Thankfully, we had a nice rain shower overnight and early morning, so it lulled us right back to sleep.  Mike and I headed to the office for coffee (see it really is glamping), and then came back to wake the boys.  We are headed out for whitewater rafting down the Kennipac River today, so they were pretty easy to get moving this morning.

Geared up and ready to get on the bus and head to the rapids! Mike is not a fan of any bus ride and this one was ROUGH!!  Pretty sure we were airborne from our seats a couple of times. They use old logging roads to make the trip to the river 45 minutes instead of 2 ½ hours, but oh my word!  That was the roughest riding road we have every been on – imagine the biggest pothole of your life, duplicated over and over, and then driving on it at 40 mps on a bus.  That was how we started the fourth with teeth chattering traveling!

We were grouped with a family of 4 from Connecticut, and a couple from Charlotte – all very nice – and our guide Derek

After carrying the raft to the put in site, we used the rails to get the raft into the water, and off we went.

The Kennipac River is beautiful, and the water was COLD! Not quite as cold as Glacier but honestly, when its freezing, what do 10° matter, right?  The rapids were amazing!  The boys did great listening to Derek’s commands and having the best time.  Their ears perked up a bit when he said they were always looking for new guides and offered a 7-day Guide Certification Course. Maybe Mike and I will do that when we retire🤣

We had a few spots when we could jump in to “swim” the rapids, and honestly, when will we get this chance again? So 💦 in we went! After about 2-3 minutes, you started to numb up so the cold didn’t bother you so much.  But oh my word, trying to get back in the raft!  It was like landing a marlin, they just snatched up back n and it was as ungraceful as possible!

Rafting, swimming, rafting swimming… it was wonderful.  The weather was great and the scenario was beautiful and our raft mates couldn’t have been better.

We put out of the water 14 miles down river and after deflating our rafts, we loaded back on the bus to head to the shelter.  The crew cooked lunch while we dried off, and after eating and relaxing a bit, we loaded back up and headed home.  With bellies full and exhausting from the day we caught a few naps despite the bumpy roads – but the boys especially loved Parker, one of the owners’ dogs.  Clearly Parker was comfortable with people and buses

Conquered the Kennipac River!

After a really nice hot shower, we rested a bit and then headed into the town of Greenville for dinner.  Derek,our raft guide, suggested  the “Stress Free Moose” for dinner so off we went.  It was a great location and the food was delicious. Greenville looks exactly like you would imagine ideal lake-side town in Maine would look like, and off course we found some post-dinner Ice cream for dessert.

We decided to go ahead and get our fire going so we could celebrate the 4th of July with campfire S’mores, and they were fantastic!  

Michael found an orange that we have had since Niagara Falls and decided he would see what happened when you burn an orange (answer: nothing, it turns into a hard ball then ash).  

We also used the “fire color” stuff we bought in camp store – it changes the color of the fire. The boys loved it – I thought it looked like we were burning the Wicked Witch of the West.  Either way, we relaxed and watched the fire burn… what is it about a campfire that just makes you stare at it?

We finished the night finished our last 5 hands of Garbage (Mike crushed everyone!)

And then headed to the bathhouse to brush teeth before bed.  While we were at the bathhouse we got a sweet picture from Charlotte Stewart of the puppies for 4th of July ♥️🇺🇸

Absolutely zero rush this morning.  The only thing we needed to do was end our day in Shirley Mills, Maine (almost 6 ½ hours away) and make it down for the hotel breakfast before they stopped serving at 10am.  Three-fourths of us made it… one chose sleep over breakfast.  Any guesses on the identity of this noggin?

When we came back from eating, a few hits from the pillows and then tickled feet, and we finally got him stirring… at least enough to start stirring.

After everyone was upright and the car was loaded, we headed off to our first adventure, Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream factory. We had about 30 minutes to kill before our tour started so we visited the Flavor Graveyard… the finally resting place of their retired flavors.

I thought this was really cute… The boys not so much.

The Waterbury, Vermont location is their original factory. Since Ben & Jerry sold the business to Unilever for a gabilliondollars, they now have 2 other Vermont plants and another in Holland.

The ice cream and cow puns were hilarious. There was the Vanilla-vator (elevator) and a Moo-vie (movie), I am almost 16 pints tall, and we followed the herd as we went through the factory. 🤣

We couldn’t take many pictures inside the factory – they said they never knew when a Hagen-daz spy was present 😉, but it was fun to watch to milk, cream and sugar moved through the facory and assembly line.   The Mooovie told us about the start of Ben & Jerry’s. Two cool tidbits: they started after taking a $5 ice cream making course from Penn State; and Ben had a terrible sense of taste and smell, so the chunks were left in the ice cream originally for Ben, but became part of their signature style.  

For the most part, everything was automated within the factory, but human supervision was required, and that’s where the real show was.  As we are watched the ice cream containers being filled, they would move to a spot where the caps would be put on, and then the containers were flipped over, so the expiration date could be put on the bottom. We noticed that the caps got jammed up on one line, but Lineworker Garrett was checking his email on his phone. So the containers were filled, not capped, then flipped, which spilled ice cream. One after the other after the other, and Garrett is still scrolling email.  Mike and I were tapping on the window to try to get his attention, but clearly, he couldn’t hear us. Finally, he glanced up from his phone and noticed ALL the spilled ice cream down the line. He cleared the jam, and the line was up and running properly again. But then the containers started coming down on the left side empty and uncapped.  Poor Garrett just started collecting the empty containers and throwing them in the trash.  Eventually, another guy came to help, but it was just too funny to us as we listened to our guide rave about the technological marvels of their factory while the actual factory looked like something on Laverne & Shirley!  Poor Garrett.  I sure hope his line got straightened out.

After the tour, we decided we needed a little more than the tour samples, so we got in line for more ice cream.  This sign caught our eye.  No tips allowed.  Seemed like a good idea at first, but after watching Lineworker Garrett inside for a while, I wondered if maybe we ought to reward those who work a little harder?

We snagged one more picture and then said goodbye to Ben & Jerry’s (and Garrett) 😁

Off we went headed to the capital of Vermont , Montpelier.  The Capital itself was impressive, but the architecture on the old homes was really cool.  Absolutely no cookie-cutter homes here – Everything was old and distinct.

We made a pit stop to explore Morse Maple Syrup Farm. Leo loved their homemade tree art.

We learned some interesting information on maple syrup, and now know why REAL maple syrup is expensive. Did you know it takes 4 forty-year-old trees over six weeks to make enough sap to create 1 gallon of maple syrup! The trees are “tapped” and then tubing runs from the tap all the way down to the sugarhouse.  This was just an example at the farm, but as we drove through Vermont, we could see the lines running through the woods.  Also, did you know maple syrup can be darker and lighter just depending on the blend of trees? Neither did we.

The sugar house isn’t in season right now.  Tapping is usually during the fall, but we got to explore on our own. I loved the lifecycle of the tree. The center marker notes it’s start: 1834 small, winged seed flutters to the ground. 1898 Great-Great-Grandpa John Morse died, and 1994 160-year-old tree dies Wayne and Rebecca Morse cut it down.  Clearly the Morse family has been here a very long time.

They had a great souvenir shop, with lot of maple syrupy things (clearly they believe in the power of maple syrup) and some hats that we almost brought home.

Vermont is a beautiful state.  Lots of Mountains and wide openspots, with these beautiful, old barns all along the drive.

Then we crossed into New Hampshire… State # 44!

We have had a long day of driving and these two have been such troopers… plus it helps that Mom’s Café is now serving New Hampshire too

We followed this truck FOREVER and loved watched this gigantic dog! He had his own “tent” in the back of the truck for shade and every now and then he would peek out to check where the truck was.  Mike said he was an akita. Boys and I thought he was part wolf.

Again, the scenery looked like something out of a painting.

I’m not sure who names the towns around here, but at one intersection we could go left for Mexico and right for Peru.  The boys didn’t think this was nearly as funny as Mike and I did.

We made a stop at Walmart for s’more supplies (I’m still giddy from all the Ben & Jerry puns and we really are getting supplies for S’mores) and we rolled on through northern New Hampshire, and then…

Maine… State #45!  I know Maine has some big towns and cities, but it is littered with these tiny little towns and hamlets.  Each with a downtown straight out of a Hallmark movie.

Since we knew we were going to do a late check-in for tonight, we decided to stop in for dinner in Guilford, Maine.  Pronounced WAY different than our Guilford. Here it is Gill (like what a fish uses to breath) and Fudd (like Elmer Fudd). Gill-Fudd. We saw great reviews for the Red Maple Inn so we decided to give it a try.  Great folks, great food, and great location!  We are even thinking of driving the 20 minutes back for 4th of July.  They have an American Flag painted on one wall and they ask all active duty military or veterans to sign the flag, and when they do everyone in the restaurant stands ♥️🇺🇸

As the sun started to set, we arrived at our home for the next 2 nights, Northeast Whitewater Lodge and Guides. We loaded up the luggage but left anything that wouldn’t go in the mini-fridge due to the critters it could attract. 

We walked and turned the corner, Surprise!  We are staying in a Yurt!

Mike hates camping but we are compromising with the yurt – it is insulated with fans, mini-fridge and electricity. It is so cool! It has beds for 6 people so plenty of room to spread out and relax. No internet at the yurt, but you can get a signal up at the office/bathhouse.  Did I mention bathhouse?  Of yes, good old fashioned shared camping bathhouse.  

We got settled and played cards, and then before bed had to get redressed to use the restroom one more time. (they loved my bathhouse outfit).  

Never in my life will I forget today. Niagara Falls was a bucket list item that met everything we thought it would be. Then we ended the day with the best Mexican food ever all with my favorite people… yep, Best Day Ever!

We started this morning in Niagara Falls, NY. We slept in a bit and then packed up the car. Thankfully, we can walk to the Falls from our hotel, so we could leave the car at the hotel, fully loaded to hit the road later. No free hotel breakfast this morning, so we snagged a few pop tarts from the car and stopped in a local coffee spot, literally called “The Spot” for coffee and smoothies. These two were entertained by the tic-tac-toe board while Mike went to change his shirt.

We crossed the street and made our way into Niagara Falls State Park.

The State Park is really nice. Plenty of walking/running trails with lots of shade and a nice breeze coming off the water. The weather could not have been better.

We decided to do the Cave of the Winds first, and based on the line as we were leaving, we made the right call. The Cave of Winds takes you down to the bottom of the Falls, gives you a really cool yellow poncho,

and then turns you lose to get as wet as you want… and we absolutely did!

The Falls were everything we thought they would be. Just amazing!

We were so soaked and laughing so hard 🤣 It will be one of my favorite days forever and ever… and it was only 11am! Some of us did not use the hood of our poncho, nor did they hold the edges of their ponchos tightly… wanna guess who?

We spent a little time exploring the gift shop and State Park… and of course took a few pictures.

We even managed to catch the Rainbow over the falls at one of the overlooks.

We then made our way to the Maid of Mist, and while the line at first made us nervous, it was only about a 10 minute wait.  This time, we got a blue poncho and some great views of the water around the Falls.

And off we went to the falls.  The Maid of the Mist boat takes you right up to the bottom of the falls and it is windy, and loud, and wet and AWESOME!

After we docked, we climbed the stairs on the other side of the Falls for one more chance to get soaked 😁

We went out on the observation deck for one last look.  Absolutely worth the trip across the state

We trekked back to the car and started making our way toward Vermont.  Mom’s Cafe – Now with service in Upstate NY!

The closest route took us off the Interstate and through some really cute small towns in Central and Upstate New York.  We decided that the town of Spectator should have been Spectactular, because 1) that’s a way better name and 2) the marketing/tourism plan practically writes itself!  And they had a road called “The Lane” – it turned out to be a boring residental road, but how cool would it be to live on The Lane in Spectactular, NY?

The old school metal bridge were definitely something you don’t see anymore.

When I pointed this sign out, I was quickly told by my people that no one was going in any caves today. BOO!😒

We loved the flags throughout the town of Crown Point, NY honoring their veterans.  Crown Point calls itself the “Birthplace of the Electrical Age” which honestly seemed like a pretty bold claim for a really small town.  But, after some internet sleuthing, it turns out that Ironville, a hamlet of Crown Point, was the firstplace in the world to use electrivity commercially for industrial purposes.  While an incredibly specific claim, it must be true because we found a plaque!

It wouldn’t be a Brown Family Adventure if we didn’t find ourselves on an unmarked road at least once, so we can mark this as done. And we found some random interesting things, like an orchard totally covering their apple trees from birds and insects. ☑️ and ☑️

But the views today made it so hard to believe that the NYC and Upstate are actually the same state.  I guess the same could be said for North Carolina when you think of the mountains to the beaches to the cities.

Finally we made to The Bridge, the one that separates New York and Vermont at the midpoint.

This drive was gorgeous.  Mike said with these views and the low population, maybe we needed to think of moving… I reminded him that it was July, not January.  Could he handle an average of 6-8 feet of snow per winter? We’ll just stay where we are, but wow!  These views…

Apparently everyone likes the views because every now and then, we saw these “Viewing Area” pulloffs. Nothing to actually see other than pretty landscape so maybe everyone thinks it’s gorgeous?

We did get tickled by these signs… apparently in Vermont you don’t take things to Goodwill.  You just put them in your yard with a sign?

We decided to grab dinner in Burlington, Vermont – home to the University of Vermont. The boys wanted Mexican (the boys always want Mexican), and we found this little renovated downtown diner that was a “farm to table to taco” theme.  Not sure what that means, but reviews were good so…  Other that the crowd of high young people hanging out under the stairs of a parking deck, the Downtown area was really cool.

El Cortijo was absolutely amazing! It was small but the food was so good, and the wait staff was friendly and welcoming (people are very interested in our accents). I think we are going to have a hard time eating Mexican food anywhere else and not comparing it to here. Of course, Michael, ever the contrarian when we all rave about a restaurant, said Amigos is better (our local Mexican restaurant). 🤦🏻‍♀️

After dinner, the boys decided to use the hotel gym to exercise and I decided to use to whirlpool to not exercise 🤣  Then they joined me in the pool area. I had a flashback to when they were little and could spend hours wrestling and sliding and wrestling, and did I mention wrestling?

Total miles today was 5 miles and ~11,000 steps, of course that was by 1pm so not too shabby 😊

Woke up fully rested. In fact, some of us are over 12 hours rested, which makes for a happy morning. We slept in with our only “have to” being to pick up the rental car by noon. Our hotel in the city has been fine – clean, enough room for us, free breakfast and courteous staff. But oh my word – The elevators in the mornings! . The hotel is 27 floors (floors 2-14 are a Springhill Suites with their dedicated set of elevators), so we are talking about 12 floors. I’m not sure if it’s spacial or number of guests or what but it is a good 20 minutes of waiting to get on the elevators. And some of the people, Lawd have mercy! I get that I’m not in the south where hospitality is important, but we were about ready to throat punch some of the people! 🤪 okay rant over.

We checked out, scheduled our Uber, and got ready to go back to LaGuardia to pick up our rental car. We headed out to wait with our bags and knew that our Uber would be a black Toyota Highlander. So we waited and watched on the app as our Uber coming our way. Finally we saw it, but it was in wrong lane. Off I run to tap on the window of this black Highlander. Window rolls down and there are 2 young men. “Hi, are you our Uber?”

Thank the Lord for my southern accent because despite their odd looks, they politely responded “um, no.” 🤣🤣🤣

3 cars back we see another black Toyota Highlander… but this one with an Uber sticker. So other than starting my day becoming a potential carjacker, everything’s going great 🤣

New York City traffic at 11am is crazy but we finally made it to the car rental at LaGuardia and off we went in our car for the next couple of weeks, a Ford Durango. We did almost run off the road laughing at these tree signs in East Elmhurst, NY

We traveled over the RFK bridge (and googled to find out that his middle name was Francis), and saw Yankee Stadium.

Then we went over the lower level of the George Washington Bridge. It was really cool to see the difference in each side of the bridge… one side was city and the other all green

Welcome to New Jersey! State #42

After 2 stops to get groceries and supplies… have you ever seen a Walmart with a grocery section but not a produce section? Well, we have now 🤪 We also learned that 2 years ago, New Jersey stores stopped using plastic bags… we have our unbagged groceries loaded in car and off we went!

We finished off our eclairs from Carlo’s for dessert and kept on driving

Rolling on, we made a quick pit stop in Scranton, PA for our favorite paper company, and stopped in at Copper’s Seafood House. Don’t recognize it? Its the location to a little award show called The Dundies!

Back on the road with a little Dunder Mifflin swag, we crossed back into New York and rolled on across the state.

We are scheduled to arrive at Niagara Falls after 9pm, so we started looking for dinner spots. Mike suggested chicken so I started searching. We found a chicken place with good reviews and a great name, Dicky’s Fried Chicky. With a name like that we had to give it try… but as we searched for the location in Victor, NY, we learned that Dicky’s Fried Chicky is a brand/style of chicken instead of a location. But they serve it at The Thirsty Turtle!

Dicky’s Fried Chicky was good. Let’s be honest, if you’re from the south, you probably know how to make really good fried chicken. So it takes a lot for us to say someone’s fried chicken is really good. So it was good, and the chicken wings were good too. Plus we got to watch some of the USA v Uruguay soccer match which thrilled the boys.

We finally made it to Niagara Falls around 11, checked in and ready to explore the Falls tomorrow.

Eight hours of sleep later, we were ready to tackle NYC again. By 9:30am, we were jumping back on the Subway, and headed for the 9/11 Museum.

I can remember my parents talking about Pearl Habor and how personal their memories were. Where they were when they heard about the attack… who they knew that was personally affected… how they felt. And while I could appreciate and respect it, I never understood what they went through. I suppose 9/11 is our Pearl Harbor. Mike and I spent some time telling the boys where we were when we heard about the attack… who we knew that was personally affected… how we felt. And they, like me, appreciated and respected what we said, but I do not think they knew how it truly was until today.

We didn’t make many photos inside, and I don’t think we need photos to remember today, but some were things we wanted to make sure to remember…

After we finished touring the museum, and of course getting our travel tree ornament, we decided to grab a to-go lunch at an old school New York Deli – the sandwiches were AWESOME!

By 2pm, we were headed to Battery Park to catch our ferry out to see Lady Liberty herself. We enjoyed our sandwiches sea-side 😊

Not a bad view for lunch

We landed at the Statue of Liberty and decided to climb the stairs up to the pedestal because the elevator line was crazy… it’s not that high, right? (It is 198 stairs high to be exact.)

The boys crushed it, passing and leaving us in their dust, but we did it. Slow and steady wins the race🐢

Even 198 steps closer, Lady Liberty is still a long way up

WooHoo! Finally, a plaque, and a plaque carved in a cornerstone no less!

Doesn’t get more American than this! 🇺🇸

We hopped back on the ferry to travel from the Statue of Liberty to Ellis Island.

Can you imagine arriving here so many years ago, alone or even with family, with everything you owned in one steamer trunk or less, traveling across an ocean and then walking into the Registry Room where they put you in one area to enter the United States or another to send you home.

While they waited to be registered as a citizen, immigrants were housed in these dormitory rooms that could be home to 60-80 people with 3 sinks and 1 commode. Makes our hotel room seem exceptionally spacious!

The Registry Room has been restored to what it looked like in the late 1800’s but still very different than when set up to receive new citizens. Ellis Island as a whole has had a lot of changes too in the last 150 years:

We headed out get back on the ferry to head back to Battery Park when the bottom fell out ⛈️ That meant everyone on the ferries’ spacious open fresh-air decks were now crammed into the inside areas. Maybe we just needed to be reminded how the immigrants felt being crammed onto Ellis Island.

Either way, we made it back to Battery Park and walked quickly through the rain to our subway stop only getting slightly soaked…

The boys wanted Asian Fusion Hibachi for dinner. Only in New York could you type in Asian Fusion Hibachi in google map, and boom! Yes, as a matter of fact, there is Asian Fusion Hibachi place with 4.8 star rating less than 10 blocks from your hotel.

And once again, the boys’ learned that being polite paid off… when we arrived at the Asian Fusion Hibachi restaurant, the hostess asked if we wanted to sit at an hibachi table. We told her as long as we could get hibachi food, we were fine with wherever. So she found us a four-top in the front, and away we went with dinner. As we were eating our entrees, the bartender came to refill our waters, and asked boys if they wanted soft drinks? They said no thank you, and about 2 minutes later she comes back. She has a free Japanese beer for Mike and I to try and 2 Japanese sodas for boys.

The Japanese soda was interesting. You had to take off the top and pop the inside of the cap to release a clear marble into the drink. I have no idea what purpose this serves, but watching these two trying to get them open was cracking me up!

Update: thanks to the internet, we now know that the marble seals off the oxygen and keeps the drink carbonated

Finally, the Japanese father sitting beside us showed the boys the trick to opening. They weren’t huge fans of the drinks themselves, but still a pretty cool experience.

We loved seeing all the lights come on as the sun begins to set. Although Michael said he was ready to be where there aren’t so many people… everywhere… all the time.

We have finally dried off from the rain deluge, and our bellies are full. So now dinner is over and it’s 6:45pm. 🤣🤣 We thought we should get something sweet for later – because I know these boys are going to be hungry again in an hour.

I asked them if anyone want to go see more of city? Their response: “Mom, we just want to take a shower, eat a dessert and sit at the hotel.” Okay, early night it is 🤣

As we are walking back to the hotel, we pass Carlo’s Bake Shop (from Cake Boss), and we decided it must be fate!

Back in the hotel, the cannolis, cheesecake and tirimisu are gone, and showers are done… Michael is in his PJs and cannot believe it is still light outside!

9:07pm Leo is OUT

9:18pm Mike is OUT

10:02pm Michael is OUT

12:34am Mom is typing a blog post 🤪

Day 2 is in the books! Totals for today: 7.6 miles and 17,000+ steps.

The boys said they cannot wait for a long car ride tomorrow 🤣 maybe this was all part of my plan!

40 states down.

8 more to go over the next 2 weeks in our quest to see 50 States Before They Graduate.

And now, 19 hours after we rubbed our bleary eyes in NC at 5am, we are calling an end to Day 1 of vacation. ☑️New York #41.

Some of us were happier than others to jump start our vacation so early.

BUT we have 14 days and 8 states, so we have to Clark Grisworld parts of this trip to maximize our time 🤪

Wheels up and on our way at 7:30 am, means we are in NYC by 9:15am. That’s a whole day to jump start our trip! We snagged an SUV (we don’t fit in cabs) and off we went zipping and zagging through New York traffic. Can you imagine learning to drive up here???

Of course as we traveled through the Lincoln Tunnel, we had to have a Buddy the Elf moment… “traveled past the sea of twirly-swirly gum drops and then I walked through into the Lincoln Tunnel”

We made it! Look out New York!

Our room wasn’t quite ready yet, (in the hotel’s defense, it was 10am 😀) so, we dropped our bags and headed out. Boys did their own research and discovered that Pelè has opened his own soccer store in Times Square, and off we went.

Purchases in hand, we headed to the Top of the Rock. They definitely maximized the space in the elevator. 😬

But WOW… these views! We checked out every side (and snapped a photo) and had so much fun finding famous sites from the top. Found the model for Stark Tour, the Times Square ball, Central Park and all my favorite people ♥️

After we came down, we went out through what at Christmas time is a skating rink, and grabbed a picture in front of the golden statue.

We explored Times Square a bit, and then we did a little more shopping… The Lego Store and the Puma store were awesome.

We stopped by the New York Public Library and took a walk through St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It was absolutely beautiful inside, but we could only walk through half of the cathedral since there was a wedding going on at the same time. Could you imagine having strangers taking photos and walking up and down the right aisle during your wedding?

We headed back toward the hotel and stopped for lunch at Handcraft Burgers & Brew. The burgers were huge but no leftovers with teenage boys 🤣

We headed back to the hotel, and while the rooms still weren’t quite ready, we were able to rest our feet and watch some of the COPA soccer matches. Well, we started watching, but some of us decided to nap instead… at the table… and in the lounge chairs.😴

Luggage in the room, (and by luggage, I mean luggage and cooler full of clothes) face and hands washed (finally), we headed out to see the Mets play. We navigated the subway and decided with traffic, this is absolutely the way to get around the city!

We made it to Citi Field in Queens by the 3rd inning and did our best to cheer on the Mets. ⚾️ Let’s Go Mets! ⚾️ We sat in front of what can only be described as the most-New-York-Mets-Loving-Family on the planet. Between the accents and over-analysis of the every play, we were dying laughing by the bottom of the 8th. We also thoroughly enjoyed the 7th inning stretch and the 8th Inning Karaoke of Billy Joel’s Piano Man🎶 Shockingly the boys did not enjoy it as much as Mike and I 🤣

After the game, we headed toward Little Italy for dinner at DaNico’s, and to meet up with our friend, Prue Rudiger. Prue met my cousins about 20 years ago on a cruise. We’ve all kept in touch since then. She is so fun, and we love her accent (and her). Ten years ago when Mike and I came to NYC, we met her for drinks and wanted to catch up this time as well.

Dinner was wonderful and we headed back to the hotel on the subway. But not before seeing a rat on the subway… ☑️ officially New Yorkers now 🤣

And now, here we are back at the Hotel, showered and ready to crash!

I don’t think I have ever heard my boys say “Mom, can we please just go to bed?” But I have now 😊

According to Michael’s fitness app, we covered 7.72 miles and walked ~18,000 steps. Jimmy Maske is looking down on us from Heaven and smiling because we got our money’s worth out of today!

Travel day was (thankfully) nice and smooth this year. No cancellations, no postponements – on time and on the way! WooHoo!

The Shreveport airport is much like Greensboro – big enough for the planes and small enough to get checked in within 5-10 minutes.

We made it for the first leg to Charlotte… I always feel like we’re okay once we hit NC. We can get home from anywhere once we hit North Carolina soil 😀

While we were waiting in Charlotte, I checked my memories on Facebook… wow! The boys have done a bit of growing since e started these trips!!

One last meal on the go…

And home we go ♥️

We made it!

Here’s our stats!

Traveled through 2 states covering

1,096 miles;

2 loaves of bread;

2.25 pounds of turkey;

1 pound of ham;

1.5 pounds of various sliced cheeses;

2 heads of lettuce; and

8 avocados.

Not to mention the bags of cookies, chips, queso, salsa, cases of water, and other meals.

We stayed in 1 AirBnB, 6 different hotels and ate some of the best food we have ever had. Everywhere we went, we made nice folks and saw things we would never see in North Carolina. 10 states to go and only a few years left before the boys head to college 🥹 So thankful for all our travels and so thankful to come home!

Last full day of vacation and we packed it full. We started the day in Vicksburg exploring the National Park and Battlefield.

Vicksburg, like Gettysburg (and probably many other battles), was a turning point in the Civil War. The control of the Mississippi River was central to the Battle of Vicksburg… If Vicksburg went to the Union, the Confederate States would be cut in half and cut off from supplies. The battle began on May 18, 1863. Conditions were harsh with the heat, and food and supplies running out. On the plaques listing the soldiers’ names, you could watch the divisions shrinking as soldiers were killed and unable to be replaced. By the end of the battle, a letter signed by “Many Soldiers” was slipped under the door of the commanding officer of the Confederacy and said “If you can’t feed us, surrender.” The Confederate Army did surrendered to General Grant on July 4, 1863.

Inside the Visitor’s Center, we walked past a kids-area as we picked up our travel tree ornament. A few minutes later after Mike and I watched the movie about Vicksburg, guess where we found the boys…

While the park had an audio tour on the NPS App, we had our own tour guide, who was much better😁

Several States have monuments within Vicksburg NP. Each was different, some very ornate and some simple. The southern states were not financially able to add monuments immediately following the Civil War. Tennessee didn’t add their memorial until 1996. Kentucky actually has two monuments: one for the Kentucky Union troops and one for their confederate troops. Kentucky’s confederate Monument was the most recent add to the Park in 2010.

These trenches were everywhere where each side dug them out for shelter and strategy throughout the battle.

The USS Cairo is here as well after being discovered in the 1962 at the bottom of the Yazoo River. The ship, an Ironclad (meaning it was steamboat ship covered by Iron for protection), was the first ship to be sunk by a mine that was hand detonated.

Now if I hadn’t read it on a plaque, I never would have believed that a bottle of pepper sauce found on the ship was unopened, edible and delectable! But, it was on a plaque, so its gotta be true! (Wonder who the person one who taste tested 100 year old pepper sauce? 🤢)

Last service at Mom’s Cafe until June… 😢

Mike said it was the greatest day – with his family, reading about history in a national park and eating chocolate chip cookies ♥️

The cemetery in Vicksburg is for union troops only and accepted soldiers and spouses for burial up until the Korean War.

The red markers throughout the park represented confederate troops and the blue were union troops… sometimes they weren’t shooting from very long distances.

We loved the story of Adeline Shirley. The Shirley House, known as the white house by soldiers sat right in the middle of the Battle of Vicksburg. When the Confederacy was looking this section of the Battle, a confederate soldier was sent to burn the Shirley house to prevent union troops from using for shelter. Adeline Shirley met him at the fire and fought for the protection of her house. She argued with him for so long, Union sharpshooter was able to get close enough the kill the confederate soldier sent to burn her house. The guy should have known, you don’t mess with a southern woman… especially while standing on her porch!

We said goodbye to Mississippi and hello again to Louisiana…

Brains full of American history, it was time for some pop history. A true “only in America” story…

They’ve a few visitors, especially from the East Coast

The Duck Commander tour was awesome – you watched a movie about Phil and Si’s upbringing. The story of Phil and Kay’s relationship, Phil’s college football career at Louisiana Tech (playing 1st string QB over Terry Bradshaw), and the early years of Duck Commander.

We did not know that LONG before Duck Dynasty fame, the Robertsons were famous for hunting VHS and DVDs starting in 1988. The boys couldn’t understand while people would buy these. This was pre-YouTube. There wasn’t an app for everything then. If you wanted to watch something, you bought the VHS Tape or DVD, or you waited until it came on TV somewhere and tried to figure out how to program your VCR.

We saw Willie’s office (I think Mike is getting decorating ideas for his office); the duck call room where a video by Jas taught us how to assemble our duck calls (Guess how Michael and Leo are getting up Monday morning 🤣); the sets from the movie “The Blind”; had a cooking lesson about biscuits from Mrs. Kay; and Phil Robertson prayed our the visitors as we left (Leo found a replica of Phil’s recliner and made himself comfortable).

Lawd, I hope they don’t want a car like this 🥴

LOVED THIS TOUR – it was heartwarming, cheesy and just fun!

We said goodbye to our bearded friends and headed back to Shreveport for our flight tomorrow. Still frozen fish was unpacked back into the freezer and what remains of Mom’s Cafe supplies are unloaded for unlimited snacking tonight. Michael headed to the gym to work out, and Leo headed to the pool so I could throw a ball at him as hard and fast as possible… no, not out of meanness 🤣 for goalkeeper practice ⚽️

Then we headed out for dinner. The boys have been dying to try Raising Canes and since there isn’t one in Greensboro, it qualifies for a vacation restaurant.

The chicken was pretty good but the Cain Sauce was delicious! We played a few more hands of card to finish off our game of Garbage while we watched the Iowa/UConn game.

Tomorrow we head back to reality, but 2 states closure to 50!

Last morning in our little AirBnB in Gulfport. It was a great little house with 2 front doors? There were so many of these 2-front door houses, that we had to find out why. A little research later, and we learned that 2 door house was a sign of prosperity – you had enough rooms that guests would enter into a formal parlor and residents into the “front room.”

Our plan today was to travel back roads to Natchez and end the day in Vicksburg. So, to break up the drive, we started checking out our locations on the RoadsideAmerica app. One site caught our eye in Hattiesburg, Mississippi… the world’s tiniest museum known as The Hattisburg Pocket Museum. The story goes that the Pocket Museum started during Covid Lockdowns. The nearby Saenger Theater was closed due to Covid and the local convention commission was looking for a way to help people escape from the isolation of the lockdowns.

The group selected the nearby alley and created a few “miniature scenes” and the museum grew from there. Since its creation, the Pocket Museum has had over 300,000 visitors many of whom stick around to explore other parts of Hattiesburg. The tiny scenes are everywhere so you have really look to see them all.

Prepare for picture overload because this place was just AWESOME!

Absolutely worth the stop! Back on the road, Michael and I switched seats, and Mom’s Cafe was once again a mobile eatery.

RoadsideAmerica.com also suggested we check out The Malt Shop in Natchez, Mississippi. The Malt Shop has been in business for 70 years and the milkshakes were amazing!

I have been reading a book called “The Deepest South of All” about the town of Natchez, Mississippi. Natchez is home to the most antebellum mansions in all the United States. Natchez did all it could to remain neutral throughout the Civil War, and allowed Union troops to occupy homes without a fight. In return, the Union troops did not burn Natchez as they had other cities. The town is beautiful with at least 50% of the buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Every Spring the “Spring Pilgrimage” takes place where members of the Natchez Garden Club and the Pilgrimage Garden Club open up their old homes to visitors… in other words, its a glorified parade of home. Apparently in this little bit of the world, it is very important to be in the right garden club. Friendships and families have stopped speaking due to this. Clearly these women don’t have enough to do! 🤣 I couldn’t resist snapping a couple of photos of these ladies in their hats walking the Spring Pilgrimage. But in their defense, the houses were gorgeous.

Our next stop in Natchez was St. Mary’s Basilica and the surrounding garden. The cornerstone of the Basilica was laid on February 24, of 1842, and the first mass was held on December 25, 1843. I don’t know if the pictures can truly convey how gorgeous this place was. It was like stepping back in time. I cannot imagine going to check here every week.

And look, a plague!

Priest’s Prayer Garden:

Right outside the city limits of Natchez, we stopped for a small memorial called the Forks of the Road. Due to cholera outbreak prior to the Civil War, slave traders were forced out of the city limits. These traders then leased this plot of land to continue their brutal commerce. This small area became the second largest slave market in the deep South. One gentleman in Natchez was dedicated to preserving this site, and worked tirelessly to do so until, finally in 2018 this property was dedicated as the Natchez Historical Park. More buildings are planned, but for now this simple marker conveys the horror of this time.

As we drove on toward Vicksburg, Mike asked if we had time for another stop… yep, so off we went to a side adventure to find the Windsor Ruins. This is the site of the Windsor Plantation. The story goes that a successful cotton planter named Smith Coffee Daniell, II constructed this massive 23 room mansion in early 1861, and died a few weeks after construction was finished. An accident fire detroyed the house in 1890 leaving only these mammoth columns. A sketch of the house by a union solider was discovered by historians in 1991 and is thought to be the only drawing of the original house.

On the one lane road to and from Windsor Ruins, we passed this perfect little Presbyterian Church built in 1824. We wanted to make sure we got a picture as they celebrated their 200th birthday!

To round out our travel to Vicksburg, we drove for a while on the Natchez Trace… think of it like a Mississippi version of the Blue Ridge Parkway (without the mountains). It was beautiful.

Sidenote: We decided not to ship our fish home and instead, try to keep it frozen and ship it home with us… so we froze about 20 water bottles and froze the fish solid. Our last 2 hotels have full-size refrigerators in the rooms, so we can keep them frozen. But Mike and boys did a great job with the insulated packing…

Fish unpacked and back in the freezer, we had a little pool time to work off some energy.

Then it was off to Palmer’s for dinner… not sure what we will do next week without fresh seafood. Food was great, and you could keep you plastic cup with Palmers Seafood on one side and Palmers Maintenance on the other. We wanted t-shirts but they were sold out

Tomorrow is our last full day of Spring Break, so we’re checking out some history…both real and pop. Let’s see where the adventures lead…