Destination?
Toronto, Canada
We packed up the van on Monday the 25th and went to bed as early as possible so that we could leave around 2:00 AM the next morning. We drove through constant rain for the first couple of hours. It wasn't ideal, but the kids slept while Matt and I prayed:)
Our kids are excellent travellers. We have been taking this crazy long road trip for the past 6 years. If they weren't so great about it, I doubt we would make the effort. They all take their various electronic devices and we have a DVD player, which helps TREMENDOUSLY. I love that I can say... "When I was your age, 5 of us piled into a Nissan Stanza (with our dog in our laps) and drove from Tennessee to Michigan every summer and winter. No TV, no DVD player, no iTouch, no Nintendo DS... Just the radio and a notebook for drawing." Ha.
Our first stop was a brief one. We pulled into the Logue's home (a family I met through Blogger) in Delaware around 7:00 PM. What a wonderful family they are! Jennifer has been a great source of inspiration, encouragement, and education for me. I can honestly say, she has played a HUGE role in our decision to adopt BOTH of our girls. Here are a few lovely pix of our time together:
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| Me & Jennifer |
Our kids had a BLAST and Jennifer even fed all of us dinner! Thank you Logue's! You are welcome in our home ANYTIME!!!
We headed on down the road to Newark, NJ at around 9:00 PM and arrived just a little past midnight.
The next morning we woke up and this is what we saw from our hotel window:
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| NYC!!! |
We were so excited... We had no idea that we were SO CLOSE. We woke up, took showers, got ready and headed on into the city around 10:00 AM to visit my brother AJ and his wife Elaina.
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| NYC here we come!!! |
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| The Lincoln Tunnel |
My kids were so excited about the Lincoln Tunnel because that's where Buddy the Elf walked :) We got there much easier than expected. I could not imagine how one would actually
drive into NYC. It seemed like it would be a dangerous game of Frogger, but it really was surprisingly easy.
We drove straight to AJ & Elaina's place, parked our van, relaxed for a few minutes, and hung out with their "baby", Maximus...
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| Avie and her "straw-bee-bees" |
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| AJ & Elaina's place is small, but beautiful. Elaina is an amazing decorator. She quit her prestigious design job to work along side of AJ at Trinity Grace Church, where her real passion is... serving the Lord. |
As soon as the guys got back from parking and unloading the van, we headed out for some sightseeing. The kids were SO EXCITED about riding the subway:
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| It was really LOUD. |
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| Aunt Elaina and Miss Anz |
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| Uncle AJ and A-Dog |
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| Al & Matt |
We got off the subway in Battery Park City and walked along the Hudson River to see Lady Liberty from a distance. The kids were in awe...
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| Getting off the subway, we saw the new World Trade Center going up. |
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| This is a "park" that's literally on some land in between a highway. |
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| Lady Liberty is just over my head:) |
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| AJ & Elaina |
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| Thankfully, they do allow A-Dogs:) |
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Me and my baby Alex |
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| Did I mention that his other nicknames are Monkey and Frog??? |
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| "Hello New Jersey!!!" (A quote from my fave movie) |
After our visit to Battery Park City, we got back on the subway. When we got off and walked up the steps Aidan said, "Now this is New York!"
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| Time Square |
We went into a souvenir shop and the kids got new "I heart NYC" T-shirts. Av fell asleep somehow and so we ventured on to Central Park...
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| NYC really is quite "dreamy" |
More to come...
Blessings,
Rebecca
Great travel (b)log - looking forward to more! Love folks we meet thru blogger!
ReplyDeletehugs - aus and co.