Woe! It’s Wednesday

 

We’re back from our trip and it was amazing! It lived up to and exceeded all my expectations.

We did have some problems. Getting out of town and on our way turned out to be a major issue. We had a cancelled flight, a misbooked flight, and a delayed flight, which meant we missed our connection. We reached our destination about 18 hours later than we hoped.

Then, as we finally arrived and got our rental car, I was tossing a bag into the back of the car, standing on my toes to give it a good shove when I felt a POP on the back of my knee and severe pain. I could hardly walk for the rest of the day. With pain killers on board, I was able to hobble around and do most things, but I was so discouraged.

I walked miles and hours getting ready for this trip so I could keep up. I slowed everyone down immensely. They were very kind, but I know we could have done more and seen more if I was moving more quickly.

Some highlights:

In Washington, DC, we took a Segway tour and had a blast! The Segway has a small learning curve but we mastered it in under 5 minutes and were led down the streets of DC and onto the Mall and around the memorials. If you get the chance, DO IT!

Getting the instructions

Seeing the DC memorials at night. They are wonderful during the day, but, in particular, the Lincoln and the Korean War memorials are especially haunting at night.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial at night

 

In New York, we saw The Lion King on Broadway. The costumes and masks and puppets are as amazing as you’ve heard.

 

The very real and lasting impact of 9/11 in New York. We weren’t able to get passes to the new memorial at the World Trade Center but we did get to see the site and witness the new construction. We visited several other 9/11 memorials in New Jersey, including the Teardrop in Bayonne, NJ which is moving. We were puzzled by how hard it was to find the Teardrop memorial and when we did arrive, we had it to ourselves. It’s Bayonne’s best kept secret.

 

 

Visiting Hamilton, NY where my father-in-law grew up. We were able to go inside his home and look around the ground floor and the yard. 

 

 

We were gone two weeks, which is a long time, but we had so much to see and do that we felt rushed and constrained by time limits. I’m thinking of this first trip as our scouting expedition. We need to go again to see the things we missed or rushed through.

If you’ve been to NY or DC, what was your highlight?