October 7, 2009. Day 80 Philadelphia PA

On October 7th, we woke up to Jim firing up his campsite wok to cook everyone breakfast. He said he wanted to fix us all his famous burritos. All he needed from us was the tortillas, cheese, eggs, bacon, potatoes and butter to cook it all in. He had the green chili. After the great burritos we all drove to downtown Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell and tour Independence Hall. The Bell was kinda anticlimactic after you go through a series of information boards leading up to the room that holds the bell. Maybe we’ve seen too many replicas. The tour of Independence Hall wasn’t very exciting either but that had more to do with our tour guide having little personality and barely a pulse. After the tour we drove to Philadelphia’s China Town. We walked around hoping to find a descent Chinese Restaurant but they all looked old and run-down. Finally we chose one to try and it ended up be very good and reasonably priced. We were pleased. When we got back to camp Jim took a nap and some of us went walking. Later Jim cooked up some leftover chicken and some vegetables and we had more burritos. We had had a good day but most of us were tired so we all bedded down early.

October 6, 2009. Day 79 Traveling to Philadelphia with the Nelsons.

On October 6th, we got up to get ready to leave Jersey City for Philadelphia. We had said goodbye to our friends the night before and were sad about it. We had really enjoyed our time with them. When Kathleen went outside to take the trash out she saw Jim and found out they had decided to come to Philly with us even though they had 3 more days of reservations there at the park. We were very happy about that. So Jim, Jaime and their kids followed us down to Philadelphia. All we did that day was set up camp at the Timberland CG which is actually in NJ just off the Turnpike. We relaxed the rest of the day and then Jim cooked us all dinner in his campsite wok. It tasted wonderful. Who knew you could do that all in one big metal wok. Later on we had a bonfire which the kids always love to do but is not something Kevin does himself. It was another good day.

October 5, 2009. Day 78 NYC with the Nelsons.

On October 5th, we took the train to New York City with our new friends, Jim, Jaime, Maddie and TJ Nelson. Grandma wasn’t able to go with us because she had walked so much she got red blood bruises just above her sock level on her ankles. She decided to stay at the RV and rest. Kevin felt really bad because he knew he had walked us all too much the two days before. We took a virtual tour ride of New York City at the Empire State Building and then went to the top and looked around at the observation deck. The view was amazing. You could see for miles. We then walked to Times Square, which was quite a walk and had lunch from some sidewalk venders. It was very good. We loved everything there was to see there in the Square. Kathleen thought it was so cool standing outside the Good Morning America studios. We looked in a lot of the shops bought some tee shirts and souvenirs and took lots of pictures. TJ and Andrew bought some ties and thought they looked so cool. We walked to Rockefeller Center, saw Radio City Music Hall and then walked to Central Park. What a beautiful park in the middle of such a big city. We walked back to Times Square and had dinner at the Hard Rock Café. It was dark when we were walking back to the train and the city was so cool to see at night. It had been a long day but we had a great time.

October 4, 2009. Day 77 Long Island and our new friends.

On Sunday, October 4th, we left our campsite and drove through the Holland Tunnel, into NYC and then out on to Long Island. Kevin wanted to take us to the house he went home to after being born and to see the Atlantic Ocean. We drove quite a while before we got to Jones Beach. Kevin remembers going there when he was 13 or 14 while visiting his aunt and uncle for a summer. We walked out to the board walk and then to the beach. Andrew and Daniel took their shoes off and let the waves chase them. They loved getting their feet wet. The water was quite cold though. We left the beach and starting driving again while Kevin called his mother to get an address for their old house. She told him it was quite a ways behind them and we realized we didn’t have enough time to go there and make it to the Mets game we wanted to see. We decided to just go to the game instead. Kevin has been to 27 MLB Parks and the Mets have a new stadium he really wanted to see plus Rachel had really started liking going to see the games too. Before the game the boys were able to get their baseball gloves signed by a Houston Astros ballplayer. The weather was great that day for the game which was the last day of the regular season. We all had a good time. The drive back through the city took a lot longer in the afternoon then it had earlier in the morning. After getting back we found a nice little Italian restaurant, Café Ripazza, where we had dinner. Kevin really wanted some Sunday pasta like his mom used to make. That night, while Kathleen was doing laundry, Kevin met a couple in our campsite that were also from Albuquerque. They were on a year-long trip around the United States, like we are, in an RV like ours. Even though they joke that they are not doing anything like visiting all the capitols they are hitting all the roller coasters that they can and doing many other fun things. After talking to them a while Kevin found out they also have a special needs daughter, like we do. We had so many things in common with them it was eerie. Kevin invited them to spend the next day with us in New York City and they said they would love to. All this happened before Kathleen had even met them.

October 3, 2009. Day 76 NYC.

On October 3rd, we walked five blocks from our campsite to a train station and took the train into New York City. It takes you right to the World Trade Center site. We walked around there for a while looking at all the new construction trying to figure out what they were doing. When we started walking toward Uptown we came across the World Trade Center Site Memorial. It’s a small place that had all the information about what they are rebuilding and how they are going to remember what happened that day. It was very impressive and sad too. You can see what they’re doing at:

http://www.national911memorial.org/site/PageServer?pagename=New_Home

In that area we also toured St Paul’s Church. It’s a church that sat right next to the WTC and was used to stage activities during the search for survivors and during the cleanup. We left the Church and found a deli where we had lunch. After walking around downtown some more we decided to take the subway to Union Station in midtown. When we came up from the subway we found it was pouring outside, so we decided to go into Bloomingdale’s and look around there for awhile. We went on all nine floors. We took the subway to many places and also walked around quite a bit more. We went to China Town, Little Italy and the Garment District. We even walked half way across the Brooklyn Bridge. What a great view there was from the bridge. We were even able to buy a part ownership of the bridge from this man on the street who said he only had one section left. Boy, were we lucky and it only cost us all the cash we had on us. What a coincidence! All this walking made us very tired. Grandma Celine and Rachel were so tired they didn’t even go out on the Bridge with us. We had dinner at a Burger King, we were too tired to look any further, and ice cream on the street and walked back to the subway to get home. It was a very long day but we had seen quite a bit of NYC.

October 2, 2009. Day 75 Traveling to NYC.

On October 2nd, we left Centreville, Virginia and headed toward New York City. It was finally time to go back to NYC after we had tried to see the city back on September 10-11. It had been forecasted to rain hard during our last time there so we went on to Pennsylvania instead and made these reservations to come back. We stayed in Jersey City, at Liberty Harbor Marine and RV. This place sits right on the East side of the Hudson River and has a good view of the New York City skyline and the Statute of Liberty. Since we had arrived early enough in the afternoon and were all set up we went and took the ferry to Ellis Island and The Statue of Liberty. The Ferry on the Jersey side was only 1 mile south of our campsite. On Ellis Island we did a quick tour of the Immigration Building. At the kiosk, where you can look up family names of people who may have come through Ellis Island, Kevin found his grandfather, Albert Maes, from his mother’s side. He called his Mom and talked to her about it for a while. She was so excited to hear that he was listed and told us the story about how her father had been kept on the Island for a few months because he wasn’t a citizen and didn’t have the right documents. Her mother used to bring her and her brother over on the ferry to visit her father while he was being held. It brought back a lot of memories for her. We then took the ferry over to Liberty Island and walked around the Statute of Liberty. It was very windy outside and a little cool, but we didn’t mind. We really enjoyed the ferry ride. You get a great view of New York City from the Statute of Liberty. It made for a very good start to our NYC stay.

October 1, 2009. Day 74 Centreville VA.

On October 1st, we spent the day with the Woods and their kids. We had a big pancake breakfast and then Kathleen and Kim took the kids to Cox Farms. It’s a big farm with many different slides, hayrides, a corn maze to walk through, animal feeding and so much more. The weather was amazing and the kids, and even the adults, really enjoyed the day. Kevin and Glenn spent the day together. Glenn did some work then he and Kevin went looking for a place to get the RV serviced. That night Kim, Glenn, Kevin and Kathleen went out to Caraba’s for dinner while the kids stayed home and watched a movie. It was a good day with our special friend’s.