My Vacation A to Z ---- (F)

F is for FERRY

The very first thing that we did when we arrived in NYC, is ride the Staten Island Ferry!! It was one of the FREE things that we could do, so it was first on the list!

I still remember when I first met David and he told me about the Staten Island Ferry. Of course, 30 years ago... he still spoke with a "Northern" accent. (Now.... he is fully SOUTHERN!! **Smile**) When he told me about the ferry, he pronounced it "f-U-rry"... with a "u"!) I laughed SO HARD!! Of course, I knew what he was talking about, but I teased him about it having "fur" on it!! I have never forgotten that moment! He also had plenty of chances, back then, to make fun of my "southern" accent!

Here are a few pics of The Staten Island FURRY!!

I'll save my pics of what we saw from the ferry for later in my list!

F is for FAMILY

It was GREAT getting to see David's family!!! We don't get up north too often. Our main goal was to see Granny, David's 99 year old grandmother! -- She is "G.G." to the girls. Of course, we got to see David's mom and many other members of his family while were in Philadelphia, as well.

David's mom, and her two oldest grandbabies.

Family picture!

When we went to visit Granny, we got to go through a lot of old photographs that she had. I took pictures of quite a few of them, so that I would have them.

This is a picture of Granny's mother.... David's Great-grandmother.

This is David's Grandfather... Granny's husband.

Miranda & Ashley and their cousin, Tyler. He is 12 years old and such a cutie!!

Granny and three of her Great-grandchildren.

(In the background, you see a family friend. His son is married to Tyler's mom)

We get a picture together with Granny. She is THE sweetest woman!! We love her so much!! She is doing pretty darn good for being 99 years old!! Her short-term memory isn't there so much, but her long-term memory is TOTALLY there!

David and his Granny.

Family Picture. To the right of Miranda is David's cousin and David's Uncle & Aunt. His uncle is his David's dad's brother (Granny's youngest son). David's dad died about 8 years ago of cancer.

Miranda was a bit "creeped out" (her words) when Uncle Dale walked through the door!! He looked SO MUCH like her Grandpa!! (David's Dad)

In Virginia, we spent a few days at David's brother's house. That is Bob on the right. He has two girls that are just a little younger than Miranda. His wife took the picture. Bob wanted a family dinner photo of all of us eating dinner and Jimmy Buffet on the TV screen in the background! -- Check out all of our sun-burned faces!!! LOL!!

F is for FUDGE

Granny LOVES fudge!! So, while we were in Atlantic City, we bought her some!

F is for FISH HEADS

Once, while we were in the car with Bob and his family, the song "Fish Heads", sung by Alvin and the Chipmunks... came on the radio!!! I had never heard it before, but David and Bob broke out into singing and entertained us with their memory of the words to the song! Our girls were like..... "Ewwww!! What kind of song is that??" This song became "their song" for the rest of our visit!! LOL!!!

F is for FEDEX

While we were on our trip, FedEx was represented VERY WELL!!! David was glad to see that it was!

This was on a building that we passed by while making our way through Washington DC.

We saw FedEx Trucks EVERYWHERE while we were in NYC!!!

Even on our way out of NYC, as we passed by the Newark, New Jersey Airport.... we saw the FedEx building and some planes.

And, we saw this FedEx plane while were waiting at the Philly Airport. We saw some at the Atlanta Airport too, but I didn't get a picture of them.

F is for FLOATING and FISH

While we were at Bob's house, we spend one day hanging out on his lake. One of the things that they like to do is drop anchor and "float". Well.... I am NOT a fan of lakes!! I like to SEE what is in the water below me!!! I like swimming pools and I only like the ocean when it is CLEAR!

I didn't want to get in that lake, but it was very HOT and the only way to cool off was to get in the water. Debby (Bob's wife) talked me into getting in. The water felt good. She, Miranda, Bob, David & myself were all floating in the water... holding onto or sitting on floatation devices! .... when all of a sudden.... Miranda screams.... OUCH!!!!!! And grabs her leg!!! I am like..... "WHAT HAPPENED?????". And Debby tells Miranda.... "Shhhhhh!!! You're fine!" (She was trying to keep ME from freaking out and getting out of the water!!)

A few minutes later..... David screams... OUCH!!!! And yells... "Something BIT ME!!!"  Now, I'm starting to FREAK OUT!!! And I was about to get back in the boat, when Debby calms me down and just tells me to keep moving my feet. So I DID!!! I kicked LIKE CRAZY!!! 

Then.... Bob screams..... OUCH!!!!!! And THAT is when I got OUT OF THE WATER!!!

These pics were taken before I got out of the water. You can see Miranda already OUT of the water!!! Smart girl!!

F is for FINANCIAL DISTRICT

After we rode the Staten Island Ferry, we walked over the area of NYC known as the Financial District. David really wanted to see "Wall Street".

Trinity Church was amazingly beautiful among all of those skyscrapers!

One of my favorite pictures!

The other side of The New York Stock Exchange building.

We had NO IDEA that the stocks were taking a huge dump that day!!

F is for FAO SCHWARZ

Miranda really wanted to see this giant toy store, although.... it wasn't as big as it appears to be on TV!

These "Harry Potter" dolls were pretty neat!

"The Big Piano" as seen in the movie "Big" with Tom Hanks.

My girls were like...... "I'm not taking my shoes off and putting my feet on that nasty thing!!"

Lego "Indiana Jones"

The girls with Lego Statue of Liberty

F is for FOX NEWS

On Friday morning, we were trying to find one of the morning news shows to watch and maybe meet the news anchors as they greeted the guests outside thier studios.... but, both ABC & NBC were having concerts going on, so that was a "no go". We ended up stumbling upon another, "smaller" concert outside of the Fox News studio!! We saw a stage and not very many people in front of it, so we got excited!!! As we got closer, we learned that it was a guy named Matt Nathanson. My girls knew who he was. David and I did not. He was just beginning to play when we got there and I DID recognize the first song that he sang... but, I can't tell you now what it was!

Behind us.... THIS guy was being interviewed LIVE!! David recognized him from Fox Business News. We learned that he was reporting on the Stock Market "dump" from the day before.

We were hungry, so we walked across the street to get our NYC bagel!

Days Three, Four & Five of our Trip

I didn't finish out the day for Day Three. Oops!

When we leave D.C., we will be heading about an hour south to Spotsylvania, Virginia. I am sure that it will be late when we get there!

This is where David's brother lives. He lives on a lake and has a boat and a wave-runner (jet-ski). We will spend days Four & Five hanging out with him and his family.

His brother is married and has two girls that are 1 & 2 years younger than Miranda. The girls are pictured in the photos in my previous post.

The last time that we saw them was 9 years ago, in December of 2002. This was when David's father died. They drove down to Georgia for the Memorial Service.

All of the girls are all grown up now and I am sad to say that they are not "close" --- meaning that they have not kept in touch over the years very well. It is true that it is difficult to stay close to family that lives so far away.

I am not sure what it will be like for all of them to be together again. My girls are anxious to see their cousins, but I am not so sure how their cousins feel about seeing "them". I would love for them all to get along great and spend time "hanging out". My girls would LOVE that! We'll just have to see what happens.

David is looking forward to spending time with his brother and playing with his "toys" -- the boat & wave-runner! I am just looking forward to some "relaxation"!

What have I been doing, ...you ask?

Well, among the MANY things, is......

I have been going to the libraries and researching information on my family history.

This past Friday, I went to the library here in the county that I live in (near Columbus, GA). I had recently found out that my paternal grandmother (on my Father's side) was born in this same county! (I had thought that she was born in Alabama!) I went to the library to look through the records there, hoping to find out more about her and my ancestors .

The library has a history book about MY county. It is full of names, photos and information regarding the people that lived (or still live) in the county between the years 1827-1961.

I wrote down as much information, as I could. I even brought my camera to take pics of some of the pages in the book that had more info than I could write.

Through my research, I found out that....

- I have several ancestors who fought in the Civil War.
- One that help start the Southern Railroad through Georgia.
- One that was the county coroner in 1953.
- One that won land in the Cherokee Land Lottery.
- One that fought in WWI.
- One that served on the first Grand Jury of the county and helped to develop to get the building of the county courthouse started and roads for the county.
- One was a County Senator.
- One helped to collect supplies for the soldiers during the Civil War.
- At least one was a slave owner.
- One was a Justice of the Peace.
- One helped to organize the Columbus Baptist Association.

While I was there, I also did more research on my paternal grandfather (my Mother's side) who's family also came from MY county.

I already knew a lot about them, but here's some new info that I learned....

- At least two of my ancestors fought in the Civil War.
- One was the Postmaster in 1883 for my county. The post office was in his home. He also taught school at a church.
- One was a Tax Commisioner.
- One was a teacher.

On Saturday, Miranda and I went to the big Columbus library to do more research. --- Well, she read books about London, England... while "I" did research! I knew that the Columbus library had books on surrounding counties. I wanted to see what I could find out about my maternal grandmother on my mother's side.

I didn't find out as much, but I found a lot of names and also burial locations, which I didn't know before. I also found a "Registery" book for the church that my grandparents were memebers of. The book had tons of names in it .... all handwritten! I am going to have to go back and flip through it slowly, page by page, in order to read the names. I recognized many of the names, tho!

The exciting part is that by finding so many names... I was able to FINALLY trace my grandmother's heritage, which I have dated back to 1678 in ENGLAND!!! -- WAHOO!!  - Marlborough, Wiltshire, England... to be exact!

I am sooo excited!! That is TWO family lines that I have traced back to the same area of England! I want now, to travel so badly to England!! So does Miranda, but she is mostly interested in visiting London. I am hoping that we can somehow make it work so that we can travel there after she graduates from college in two years. I can't wait to walk where my ancestors once walked!

Here's a map of England to show you WHERE in England that my ancestors lived. The red circle is circling SOMERSET. (Sorry that it may be hard to read!)