My Vacation from A to Z -- (R)

Yep.... we skipped "Q". LOL!

R is for Rental Car

Miranda and I realllllly wanted an SUV for our rental car, just for fun. But, we went the economical route and opted for a sedan that got great gas mileage!! It was a Mitsubishi Galant. 

R is for River

This is the Delaware River at sunrise. It separates Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

R is for Row Homes

This is the street where David's mom grew up. The houses are EXACTLY alike!! The are one long row of homes!! In order to get to the back of the house, you either have to go thru the house or walk (or drive) around the whole block and then up the alley to get to there!!

Parking on the street is a MUST in a neighborhood like this!

This is the home that David's mom grew up in. I was there only once, right after David and I met.

R is for Radio City Music Hall

This is where the famous "Rockettes" do thier Christmas performance in NYC.

My Vacation from A to Z --- (P) continued

I am not sure why my post did not "save" before, when I was writing about my "P" words, but oh well! Here's the rest of the list!

P is for PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES

This is the professional baseball team in Philadelphia. Right now, they are the #1 team in the nation for Major League Baseball. While we were in Philadelphia, we saw so many people wearing Phillies t-shirts!! This annoyed Miranda to no end!! She is a huge Atlanta Braves fan -- she even wore her Braves shirt one morning, while we were there! (You'll see in an upcoming pic!) Even David's mother is a HUGE Phillies fan! So, we had to suffer thru watching a game with her! LOL

 

P is for PRETZELS

 

Another food that Philadelphia is famous for is their Soft Pretzels!! They are SO YUMMY!! David's mom even had some for us when we arrived at her house!! But... we also went to the Pretzel Factory.. not once.... but twice!! .... to get MORE of them!! It's a good thing that we can't get these down in Georgia! I would be in trouble!! LOL!

Here's Miranda about to devour 24 yummy pretzels!!! LOL!! -- Check out her Braves shirt!

P is for PLAZA HOTEL

One of the places that I wanted to see while we were in NYC was the famous Plaza Hotel. I remember it well from the movie "Home Alone, Lost in New York". I'm sure that other movies have been made there as well, but this is the one that I know of the most. I just wanted to walk into that enormous lobby that Kevin walked thru, in the movie!

The lobby was HUGE!!! I never did see the front desk!

P is for Parking

We quickly learned that parking in big cities isn't too easy! In Atlantic City, we found a parking lot with no problem. It was also reasonably priced. In downtown Philly, we had a hard time finding a place to park! We finally found a place on the street and we dumped money into the meter. When we went to Pat's Steaks, we parked two blocks away at the CVS! Hey... it was free!

In Washington DC, we asked a police officer where we could park and he told us that parking was free on government streets, but when we found parking on the streets... there were signs that were posted that confused us about the cost and the time limit, so we were afraid to park there. (Later... we saw that same cop putting tickets on cars parked on the street!! YIKES!! Was he trying to set us up?) We ended up finding a parking garage and parked there. Although, we had trouble "finding" our car when we returned! And then, once we found our car.... we had trouble finding our way OUT of the parking garage!! It was crazy!!

In NYC, we wanted to ride the Staten Island Ferry first, so we had to find parking for it. We "thought" that there would be a parking lot for it, but nope.... there wasn't. We had to ask someone where to park. They directed us to a parking garage where we had to pay WAY more than we had planned to!! Then, the only parking for our hotel was "valet parking" which cost us more than we have EVER paid to park ANYWHERE!! ~ WOW!!!

My Vacation From A to Z -- (N)

N is for NEW YORK

I can still remember begging David to take me to NYC when he took me to Philadelphia for the first time. He told me back then (in the early 1980's) that he had no desire to go to New York City, so... I thought I would never get there. (Unless I went on my own!) This is why I was SHOCKED when we started planning this recent vacation and the girls and I asked if we could take a day or to and visit the "Big Apple" and he AGREED to the idea!! He had been to NYC as a teenager, but didn't really remember much about it.

Here is my first "glimpse" of the HUGE city!

I was SO excited when I saw the Statue of Liberty out there in the harbor!!!

A look back at the city from the Staten Island Ferry. If you look at the center of the picture and then look to the left, just a little bit... you can see where the area of  "Ground Zero" is.

N is for NEW JERSEY

This was not my first time visiting New Jersey. I had been before, way back when David took me to Philadelphia for the first time. He took me to Atlantic City. This WAS the first time my girls had been to New Jersey, tho! They were happy to add TWO new states to their list of states that they have visited! (I was happy to add ONE!)

N is for the NAKED COWBOY!!!

Yep! You heard me right!! Haahaa!! He is a famous "character" (I guess that is what you would call him!) that can usually be found in Times Square. I have seen pictures of him from friends that have visited NYC and was hoping that we would get to see him, too! Ashley was the one that spotted him! She started yelling... "There's the Naked Cowboy!" Of course, I had to pull out my camera and get some pics of him!!! LOL!! I should have had my picture made with him!! Oh well.

N is for the National Museum of NATURAL HISTORY

One of our favorite museums at the Smithsonian is the Museum of Natural History. It would take you HOURS to tour the whole museum, so we just visited our favorite areas.

The "Hope Diamond" is a MUST SEE!

A look down at the "Dinosaur Room"

I love the architecture of the main lobby. So pretty!

N is for NBC STUDIOS

On Friday morning, while we were in NYC... our goal was to stand outside the ABC Studio and hopefully get to meet the "Good Morning America" news crew, but.... they were hosting a concert in Bryant Park. So.... we heard from another tourist that the NBC Studios didn't have much of a crowd, so we headed over there as quickly as we could. We were excited to get a "standing" spot outside the studios, but were disappointed because they ALSO had a concert going on right next door at Rockefeller Center! We were very close to the concert stage, but we were behind it. The group turned out to be "Maroon 5"!! My girls were excited to be there and at least "hear" them, even if they couldn't "see" them. We had a front row "standing" spot outside the studio and could actually see the couch where they interview their guests. We stood there for a while, just to see "who" was going to be on the show. Here are the pics that I took...

This was our view inside the studios at the "couch". The news desk was over to the left. We couldn't really see it.

Over the window, they had TV's that showed was was being televised. Here... Ann Curry is about to go on the air.

Just after 7:00am, she is talking to Matt Lauer, who is down at the NY Stock Exchange talking about the dive that the stock market had taken the day before... the day that we were there!!

To the right, are the windows that we were looking into. Straight ahead, and around the corner to the right, is where the concert was.

The huge crowd that was BEHIND the stage!

Above us, the TV showed the crowd that gathered for the concert. We are down there, behind those trees in the upper right side. Can you see us??? LOL!

Ann talks to Al Roker.

Miranda took my camera and walked down the sidewalk BEHIND the stage to see if she could get a good photo of Maroon 5, but.. nope... they were on a break. Of course!

We ended up walking around the building in hopes of getting a glimpse of them from the front of the stage... but, no luck. Too many people!

N is for NAME

My name became a problem for me at the airport, both going and coming!! My "real" name is Rebecca, but I go by the nickname of "Becky". I hate that I have TWO names! (I also have a middle name!) My driver's liscense says... Rebecca. David didn't know this and when he booked our airline tickets, he booked my ticket in my name of ... "Becky". Well.... apparently.... the airport security people don't like for your name to be different than what is on your driver's liscense!! When we went thru the security at the Atlanta airport, the security lady was nice and let me thru... but, she warned me that I needed to make sure that it was always the same. We decided that when we got to the Philadelphia airport to return home, we would "fix" my name and everything would be ok. Well..... apparently.... you can NOT change the name on your airline ticket once it has been purchased!! The lady at the US Airways ticket counter was NOT VERY NICE and told us that she didn't think that the security people would let me thru and that I would probably have to purchase ANOTHER TICKET!! I started to PANIC and CRY!!!! I was SOOOOO Scared!! My heart was beating out of my chest as we got closer to the security check point. Thankfully.... by the grace of GOD!!..... The security lady was SUPER NICE and let me thru with no problems!! WHEW!!! --- This is why my girls do NOT have "nicknames"! LOL!

My Vacation from A to Z --- (M)

Sorry for the delay in posting. It's been a BUSY few days around here!!!

M is for Motorcycles

David and I got to go on a motorcycle ride with David's brother, Bob while we were up in Virginia. Bob borrowed a bike (motorcycle) from a friend of his. We had a good time! It was a little rainy, but not too bad.

M is for MOUNTAINS

We rode from Bob's house to the Shenandoah National Park, which is about an hour from Bob's house. Since it was kind of rainy... we couldn't see a whole lot, but it was still very pretty!

This guy was playing a trombone up on top of the mountain!! It was neat to hear it echoing through the hills!

David and I

David, me, and Bob

I took a lot of these pics from the back of the motorcycle!

This curve was scary!! I thought we were going off the side of the mountain!!

Cool tunnel that we went thru!

Mountain wildlife

Two very "studly" brothers! :)

M is for MUSEUMS

While we were in Washington, DC... we went to several of the museums that were there. We went to the National Museum of Natural History, The National Museum of American History, The National Museum of Air and Space, and the National Museum of Archives.



M is for MONUMENT

Also, in Washington DC... we saw the Washington Monument.

I took this picture of it while we were trying to find a place to park!

I took this picture of it as we were crossing The National Mall, in search of the public restrooms! It took us about an hour to find a place to "go"! It was 8:30 in the morning and none of the museums were open, yet!

Finally, found the restrooms! I took this picture as we were on our way to see the White House.

After visiting the White House, we took a rest in the shade of the Washington Monument.

Miranad & Ashley taking a break in the shade of the Washington Monument. It was SOOOOO Hot that day!!

One more picture, as we headed back across The National Mall.

M is for MOE'S

After we left NYC, we headed back to Philadelphia. It was lunch time when we arrived back and David hadn't had his "Pork Roll Sandwich" yet. (Another Philly favorite of his!) So, we went to a deli called Moe's. It was right next door to the Pretzel Factory! Imagine that! LOL!

M is for MADISON AVE

I saw this sign and had to take a picture of it while we were in NYC. One of my favorite scenes from the movie "Splash", with Tom Hanks, is when he is trying to think of a name for the mermaid and looks at the street sign and says... "Where are we? Madison and 5th?" ... and she says... "Madison! I like that name!" So, he starts calling her Madison.

M is for MACY'S

One of the places that I wanted to see while we were in NYC, was Macy's! I grew up watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV that took place in NYC. It was never Christmas until I saw Santa Claus arrive at the end of the parade!! -- Now... Christmas starts arriving around the END of October!! Crazy!!

M is for the MUSEUM OF MODERN ART

This is where Ashley could have spent a whole day, if we had more time! Unfortunately, we didn't... so, she had to settle for just visiting the MoMO store.

M is for M&M's

Our hotel was right next to the huge M&M store!! They had every color and variety of M&M you could possibly ever dream of!!

This was the HUGE billboard over the store, all lit up at night