Alright, I'm going to begin where I left off with Wednesday the 25th of July. We started out by driving to White Plains and hopping on the train that would take us in to Grand Central Station in New York City. The first thing we did in New York was go to the Central Park Zoo. Neither Markham or I had been there and we thought that would be a fun thing to do with Lynlee. And it was. Turns out that the Central Park Zoo is a pretty small zoo, but it was still fun.
The cool thing about being at the zoo, or any part of Central Park for that matter, is being in an actual park with trees and grass, and yet you're surrounded on all sides with skyscrapers. I love it
Big girl wanted to walk around the whole zoo, so she was pretty worn out after.
After the zoo we decided to walk from Central Park up 5th Ave, which is one of my favorite places in NYC. We went to the FAO Schwarz, which Lynlee loved, and then went into the Tiffany's, saw Trump Tower, Gucci, and a bunch of other really nice shops I could never afford.
Lynlee in FAO Schwarz
Markham in front of Trump Tower
Radio City Music Hall
After 5th Avenue we made our way over to Rockefeller Center and saw the place where they have the ice skating rink in the winter, and then went in to the NBC store where Markham bought a Greendale Human Beings shirt.
I wanted this shirt but they only had them in kid sizes, which I thought was rather strange
Rock Center
After Rock Center we were pretty tired so we headed back to Grand Central, took the train back to White Plains and got sushi. Then went back to the hotel and swam and went to bed. Our next day in New York we took the train in again, and then went to the Empire State Building.
The tallest building in the back of the picture is where the twin towers used to be.
After the Empire State Building we went to the 9/11 Memorial. There are hardly words for how incredible it was. There was definitely a spirit about it, you could feel the saddness and the loss, and then you would look up at the new buildling and how big and beautiful it is and feel hope.
In the picture on the left, the small buildling in the middle was the last to fall and first to be rebuilt, the one on the right in the left picture is building #4 and the one on the left is building #1. It is supposed to end up being 1776 feet tall.
There are two large pools like this. They are in the exact spots of the buildlings and are the same size around as the buildings were. there are names, as you can see in this picture, around both of the pools. It's much like Central Park, as I said before, in that when you are there you feel like you're not even in the city. It's so quiet when you're in there, too. It's by no means soundproof, but it has this amazingly hushed atmosphere, where I didn't even hear the cars on the street.
After we went to the 9/11 memorial we took the subway up to Time's Square and then over to see the temple.
Time's Square
The temple is awesome. In the middle of all of these skyscrapers is this beautiful temple. We went inside because there was a sign that said they had a distribution center but the distribution center was closed that day and a Sister in there asked us if we wanted to see the chapel. On the third floor of the temple is a ward building. It's really cool because you step off of the elevator and into the hallway of the church. Same carpet and decorations and everything. Markham and I sat in the chapel for a little while and then went in to the cultural hall and played basketball for a bit while I fed Lynlee. It was a little surreal.
After the temple we took the train back to White Planes and then drove down to Egg Harbor Township, NJ to stay the night.
The next day we drove down through New Jersey and visited Linwood, the city where Markham grew up until he was 12 and moved to Utah. It was really fun seeing parts of his childhood. Especially when we stopped by the Aquatic Club they used to be members of and saw that Markham still holds the record there for the 50m fly in the 8 and under age group.
From there we drove out to Ocean City and walked the boardwalk. On the boardwalk is this small amusement park called Wonderland and we took Lynlee on some rides.
Lynlee on the Firetruck
On the Hot Air Balloon ride!
She loved the boat. She rang the bell the whole time
On the Carousel
On the Carousel with daddy
After the boardwalk we continued on through to Atlantic City. There's a really nice part of it by some of the bigger casinos but the rest of the city is pretty scary. Just before crossing the bridge into the city we stopped to see Lucy the Elephant. She's a building and you can go inside but we didn't want to get out of the car.
Lucy
Donald Trump's Taj Mahal Casino
After Atlantic City we made our way down through Delaware, Maryland, and into Virginia where we stayed in Arlington that night.
The next day we drove in to DC and parked just outside the Liberty Mall. We started to walk down through the mall and it was a very hot, very humid day. We got about halfway down and were just dying of heat, and stressed because the parking meter was only two hour parking and it took us at least 45 minutes just to walk as far as we did so we decided to pack it up and bail. On our way back to the car we walked through the art museum's statue garden.
A spider statue in the garden
There was a fountain in the middle of the statue garden and I thought this picture was just a little bit hilarious.
The Washington Monument
Then we drove around DC checking out the temple and Arlington Cemetery before returning back to the hotel to swim.
DC Temple!
The next day was so much better. It was more cloudy and the temperature had dropped 15 degrees. It was still warm, but much more tolerable. And this time we went in with a plan of which museums we wanted to see and which end of the mall we should start on. We got incredibly lucky with parking, not having to park by a meter so we could stay there the whole day. And there were a lot less people there that day too. We started down at the end with the Lincoln Memorial. Unfortunately they were doing construction on the reflection pool that runs between the Memorial and the Monument so it was drained. That was a huge bummer.
This is a pond to the left of the reflecting pool
Lincoln Memorial
The drained reflection pool
Vietnam War Memorial
At the other end of the reflection pool just before the Washington Monument is the WWII Memorial. It was beautiful.
WWII Memorial. This one is fairly new and it's amazing.
You were allowed to stick your feet in to cool off
Playing in the pool
Each of the states was on its own block and we got our picture by Pennsylvania, Ohio, Utah, New Jersey, and Texas. Those are all of the states each of us has lived in. But those were on my phone.. thus they are gone.
After the WWII Memorial we headed over to the Holocaust Museum, which we didn't get to see much of because it wasn't very stroller friendly and Lynlee was super bored and screaming and it's not a museum you can really be loud in. After that we walked to the Hirshhorn Museum of Statues, which was really awesome. I also got a ton of pictures in there and don't have those. Then we went to the National Air and Space Museum, which was also really awesome. And I also took a lot of pictures in there and don't have them. Then we walked up to the Capitol.
Then we walked over to the Art Museum.
This is a large beautiful marble fountain in the middle of the Art Museum.
After the art museum we went to the Museum of Natural History, which was amazing. I took a zillion and a half pictures in there of everything from dinosaurs to mummies to a boa the size of a small whale.
Then just shortly after the Natural History museum my phone was stolen. Which is why I have no pictures. The pictures I have used so far have been from Markham's phone and the ones that I posed on Instagram.
That was the last stop we made in DC. Markham went and got the car and we went and ate at this REALLY good cafe in downtown Arlington. Oh my gosh it was so good.
Then the next day we drove down to Williamsburg, Virginia where Markham and my's good friend McClain has been going to law school for the last few years. It was really good to see him. We walked around Colonial Williamsburg for a while and then ate at this really good BBQ place there.
Markham and Crane in front of the Mayor's Mansion
I don't know what I did to deserve this.
I do know what he did to deserve that.
The old City Hall
After Williamsburg we drove down into North Carolina and stayed in Elizabeth City. The next morning we drove out to the Outer Banks. Outer Banks is a strip of islands off the coast of North Carolina. They're gorgeous. We first had lunch at an old 50's diner called Big Al's. Then we went and bought a beach umbrella and went to the beach. The beach didn't go so well. It was a lot of fun swimming in the ocean, but we brought a blow up giraffe for Lynlee to sit on and I let it get away from me and it blew away out into the ocean. Then when we went to sit under our umbrella Lynlee ate a lot of sand and then when we were dry and I was getting my shorts on I dropped my wedding ring in the sand. It took 30 minutes and 15 people to find it. But luckily, we did. If I'd had my phone I would've taken pictures of the beach because it really was beautiful but I didn't. So we don't have any pictures of Outer Banks. After the beach we drove all the way down to the southernmost island. It was as far as we could go without getting on a ferry. Then drove back up the islands and onto the mainland while Lynlee napped. Then we headed to a really good pizza place and had dinner and then went back to the hotel. The next day we went to the place where Grave Digger lives. We just happened to pass it on our way to Outer Banks the first day so Markham got really excited and decided we would stop there the second day. It was actually pretty cool. There were three different Grave Digger monster trucks there, along with a diner, a gift shop, and a little arena that you could ride around in a monster truck. This, Markham got pictures of.
This throne I'm sitting on is a trophy that Grave Digger won.
Markham was a big monster truck fan when he was a kid so this was a very exciting experience for him.
After that we stopped at a farm stand along the way and Markham got fresh peaches, boiled peanuts, and strawberry jam. Then when we got out onto the Outer Banks we did a lot of shopping at all of the local touristy shops, had fresh crabs for lunch, and decided not to go back out to the beach. Not because of the experience we had the day before, but because it was overcast and colder that day. Then for dinner we ate at the Runaway Cafe, which was Caribbean food and was really good. Then we headed back up to Elizabeth City to stay the night. The next day we drove home.
All in all we hit 12 states, drove 2,800 miles, and spent more money than we have. But it was incredible. And I am so lucky that Markham has a job where he gets summers off and we get to travel.
