Boston/DC/NYC Roadtrip 2013

In May I went back East to visit my friend who is going to PA school in Maine and had a week break. When we first started talking about this trip I had mentioned that I wanted to go to DC but I also wanted to go to New York and I couldn't decide. Melinda, being an aventerous person and an "I'm up for everything" person, said, "Let's do both!" And we did. We planned a very adventerous week and just hit highlights in each place; trying to do things we have never done before in each of those places.

Boston
I flew into Boston so that Melinda didn't have to do so much of the driving all by her lonesome. Before heading out to DC and New York we decided to do a few quick things in Boston. We walked around Harvard, ate lunch at Bartley's (one of my favorites!) and ate the Tom Brady burger (his burger is so delicious!) and then went to a RedSox game (something neither of us has ever done).

 Melinda at the Harvard Gate

Tom Brady with Sweet Potato Fries

The RedSox game was one of my MANY highlights of the trip. Everyone should at least go to one RedSox game in their life. The game was a lot of fun because the fans were true fans. When something good would happen, big or small, the cheers and excitement from the stadium was contagious and fun. Being at Fenway Park itself felt like walking through history and witnessing classic Americana. I got our tickets from StubHub because the game was "sold out." We got great seats for a great deal.

DC
Next stop... DC. We got a late start on our 7 hour drive from Boston to DC and we even had to spend the night in a hotel somewhere in New Jersey. Really wanting to go to church in DC we got up early to get back on the road. The sacrifice of sleep to make it to church was worth it! The guys there were super hot!
After church we walked around Old Town Alexandria quickly before meeting up with Melinda's cousin. I wouldn't mind going back to Alexandria again to spend more time there. I've been told there are some fun places to eat there and there are some walking tours you can download to follow and learn more about the history of the area.

We met up with Melinda's cousin and his wife at the Free Mason Temple to go on a tour.

While in DC we stayed with my Dad's cute cousin who is more like an Aunt to me. Every morning she had this incredible spread of delicious and healthy foods set out for Melinda and I to make, what we were in the mood for, for breakfast. We were so grateful for her and her thoughtful hospitality.

We went on a tour of the Capitol; something you have to set up through your State's Senator's office.

Two fun things we learned about on the tour:

1. The Capitol is filled with statues of people representing each state (Utah's is Brigham Young). The only statue in there that has gold on it is from Hawaii. The gold is the clothing part of the statue of a man. Apparently when the statue first arrived at the Capitol it was sent back to Hawaii for being too gaudy for the Capitol and that the gold should be removed. Hawaii fixed the statue and sent it back to the Capitol. The Capitol then called Hawaii and said they could not accept the statute again with which Hawaii asked "why not?" and the Capitol said that it would not be appropriate to have a nude statue in the Capitol. Hawaii replied by saying that it would either be a naked statue or a statue with gold... and that is why Hawaii's is the only one with gold.
2. The statue on top of the dome of the Capitol is of "Freedom" and it faces East because the sun should always rise on Freedom.

When we showed up for our tour at the Capitol, at Senator Hatch's office, Melinda knew one of the interns from college so we had a fun time reminiscing about USU. After our tour we asked him for recommendations for lunch that were close by. Of his recommendations we picked Cosi's which I would recommend.

We visited the Library of Congress, which was beautiful. There is a special display there of Thomas Jefferson's private collection. It was inspiring to see all of his books, especially a wide variety, and was a reminder to me that I should be reading more and always trying to learn new things. The main part of the library, the circular room, that you always see in the movies is actually off limits to the public. We tried to get ourselves a library card to get in there but it didn't work.

One fun quick stop was to the National Gallery and we walked through the President's Hall which is filled with paintings of the Presidents of the US.

At the end of our first full day in DC we met up with my Aunt at a fun, hip and chocolate themed restaurant, Coca Sala, for dinner before heading to Ford Theater to see Hello Dolly. What a fun experience to see a show there and for it to be a classic musical.

Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate at Coca Sala

 Hello Dolly with my cute Aunt Shauna

Being thoughtful with Abe

The Invention of Cardio Tourism... it's a thing!
On our last full day in DC Melinda and I wanted to go for a run; we hadn't for a few days and could feel the antsy-ness kicking in. Melinda had the great idea that we should go to the Mall and run around the monuments. So we did and a great idea it was! We would run to each monument and read the things we wanted to read and then run to the next monument. We only traveled around with our phones and a credit card; because of it we were mistaken as locals through out the day and tourist would ask us for directions. Success! We blended in with the locals!

 On the Metro

The Invention of Cardio Tourism

 WWII

 Lincoln

Vietnam War

The brand new MLK monument. This has now tied for my most favorite monuments. The area was filled with MLK quotes which were inspiring and reminders that we can all make a difference.

 FDR Monument; my other favorite monument. It, also, is filled with inspiring quotes; things that were said at a time that our country was at a low point and needed to be lifted.

After we had ran to all of the monuments we were having so much fun that we decided to keep running. Our next stop was the Holocaust Museum. It's hard to describe the feelings while visiting this museum. The topic itself is incredibly sad but at the same time the museum is very well done and I would recommend the visit to anyone.

We continued running to a few more places that day and ended at the White House for our "Finale." As we were running to the White House we were saying how much fun our day of running had been and that we should do it more often when traveling. That's when I said, "We invented Cardio Tourism!"

Next stop... New York City. During our long drives we had a lot of fun conversations in the car and ate a lot of snacks; one of our favorites being "cigar" pretzels.

NYC
To save on money and to be able to park the car we stayed in New Jersey at this cute old, but clean, hotel called the Holland Hotel and then took the PATH train into New York City which was only a 15 minute ride.

The only thing we had planned for our first night in NYC was a broadway show so when we got off the PATH train we just started walking. We ended up walking past the NYC Public Library and we decided to go explore it for a little bit. Our two favorite rooms were the Map Room (we looked at all these cool Atlas books and globes) and a HUGE study room. The NYC Public Library is the second largest library in the US; the first being the Library of Congress.

We had so much fun exploring the library that we lost track of time and needed to get to our play. Realizing that we were hungry we stopped at a street cart to get some falafel to eat on our way. I love food in New York.

NEWSIES on BROADWAY! Newsies was so great. First of all, you can never go wrong with broadway but the music was fun, the stage props moved around the stage adding to the movement of the story and the dancing, oh the dancing! Of course we both grew up watching the movie so just hearing the songs was fun. There were a few different twist from the movie but we both liked it.

Our last full day in New York we decided to just enjoy and take it easy. We slept in and then headed to Central Park to read our books.

We grabbed some pizza on our way to Central Park. I've never had a bad slice of NY pizza in my life.

Reading in Central Park

After we read our books for awhile and even took nice naps we decided to rent bikes and rode the loop around the park. We paid for two hours but one hour would have been plenty. As much as I love the rhythm and the hustle bustle of New York City, Central Park is probably my most favorite stop there; it is beautiful and calm.

To finish up that day we took an hour long subway ride to Coney Island to check it out. By the time we got there all the rides were closed but it was still fun to walk around. Being by the water it was FREEZING and we ended up having to buy sweatshirts. We were bummed that we were easily spotted as tourists but we also didn't care because we were grateful to be warm. We did eat at Nathan's which is one of the "places to eat" at Coney Island.

I definitely want to go back again and explore some more. Here were some websites for Coney Island that had some great ideas on things to do there:
Tourist Information
Things to do at Coney Island
Coney Island Fun Guide

The only thing on our agenda the last day was to drive back to Boston. On our way back we drove through the country side of Connecticut... SO Beautiful! Such an added bonus to the trip.

Of course we HAD to stop for chocolate shakes on the drive back to Boston. We even took an unplanned 30 minute detour to get them. No regrets!

We packed a lot into a 7 day trip. What I loved about this trip, besides getting to hang out with a great friend, was that we did different things or we did things in a different way; RedSox game, a play at Ford Theater, Cardio Tourism, a new Broadway play, rode bikes in Central Park and dinner on the pier at Coney Island.

Oceanside 2013

My sister and her family invited me to go with them on their spring break vacation this year in Oceanside, CA. Umm... a week at a beach house... yes, yes I'm in!

My sister's family is so much fun and it was a blast traveling with them. This trip consisted of going to the pool in the morning and the beach in the afternoon or vice versa and then spending our evenings cooking a big delicious dinner, playing games, watching movies and walking along the boardwalk. Usually when I travel I am constantly on the go; this trip was still fun filled but very relaxing too.

We stayed at North Coast Village which was right on the beach. We basically drove there, parked and then didn't get back in the car until it was time to drive back to Utah. The vistas were in a perfect location; right on the beach and only a 15 minute walk one way to the pier and a 10 minute walk the other way to the harbor. With the vistas right on beach, going back for lunch or potty breaks was never a big deal. I even got up and went running along the board walk every morning.

One of the nights we decided not to cook and walked over to the pier to eat at Ruby's Diner. I've always liked the Ruby's Diners I've eaten at; it's usually a fun 50s atmosphere, near or over the ocean and delicious after a long day in the sun.

Like I said, we spent our days outside. Some days we ended up staying at the beach the entire day. I spent a lot of my time reading on the beach but I did get into the ocean one day to boogie board. It was SO cold but well worth it. (I may have squealed and laughed the entire time)

A huge highlight of the beach was THE HOLE! As we were driving down to California I told my nieces and nephew that we should dig a hole... a BIG one, like the one Joey digs on FRIENDS. Well, they were determined to do it and SUCCEEDED by 200%! Every day the hole kept getting bigger and bigger (with a little help from myself and my brother-in-law, but only a little). Eventually it was about 4 1/2 feet deep and 3 feet wide. People would walk by and be like, "Whoooooooa!" My favorite two reactions were first: a group of high school football player looking guys being SHOCKED that little kids dug that big of a hole all by themselves. The second: a lady walking by, gasping, and saying, "Oh my goodness, there is a child in there" as she saw my little nephew sitting down in there playing in the sand.

The pool was just fun for swimming around, showing off our "diving" skills, playing keep away with my Australian beach ball (shaped like a rugby ball which kept catching a phantom current and we'd have to swim the length of the pool to get it back), and playing hands-up stands-up (you know, surprisingly that game is a lot easier as an adult).

One of our walks over to the harbor consisted of finding miracle flip flops and eating pizza and calamari at a Mafia owned restaurant. My nephew had left his flip flops, one day, on the beach and high tide took them away. We went over to the harbor and searched all of the souvenir shops for some flip flops only to find nothing. Finally I said I would check this hole in the wall "grocery store," even though we were positive they wouldn't have any and to my surprise there was one pair of little boys flip flops. We called them the miracle flip flops the rest of the trip. We then ate dinner at a pizza place that we are certain was owned by the mafia because all of the workers fit the stereo type of mafia members and the cook looked like the big hauncho of the mafia. We were having a blast making up their mafia stories. My brother-in-law decided to order calamari for an appetizer and we had a lot of fun squealing as we all tried it.

I loved this trip. I liked that we played hard but yet it was very relaxed. I also liked that we didn't drive the car the entire week and not once was I bored or felt like I had cabin fever.

Watching the Sunset