Treading Trodden Trails

So we decided to stop in Connecticut on the New England leg of our
journey. I think it was probably best. We left DC around six in the
evening, and I don't think we would have survived the drive to Boston
that night. The New Jersey Turnpike pretty much cemented the CT stop
plan. I mean, they're basically in charge of one major highway, and
they messed it all up with shoddy traffic management. Oh well.
(Admittedly, we left on the Sunday of the Fourth of July weekend.)

We got into Aunt Pat and Uncle Mike's around two in the morning. I
think Gram tried waiting up for us, but our ETA kept getting pushed
back. That night marked the first times on the trip Adam and I slept
in separate rooms and in actual beds, though we had amazing
accommodations previously. ;-)

We got to spend some time the next morning with Gram and Uncle Mike,
who was on a sort of vacation day because of the furlough for state
employees. We all had lunch on the deck of a restaurant on the water
before Aunt Pat zipped away fot a half day of work.

We spent the afternoon in Mystic, mostly at the aquarium. They had a
bunch of exhibits on water exploration and adventure. Tanks of fish
and animals were everywhere, with creatures ranging from schools a
fish, to sharks and turtles, to octopus and manta rays. Mystic
actually has the only beluga whales in New England. It was cool to
watch them swim through their huge tank, playing with each other like
seals and pass right by the edge for their human onlookers. The
penguins were also playful in their swim. They zipped around so fast
it made it hard to snap a picture of them, while they remained shy on
land and kept to the back.

We skipped the Mystic Seaport that day. We checked it out for a few
minutes, but ultimately decided to head back to the house for cocktail
hour and dinner. We had great enchiladas and wine.

The next morning, we were off to visit Adam's aunt and uncle nearby.
Some of the family were on their way out of town, but there was still
plenty of company. We got some computer time there, and had a nice
dinner with Adam's state trooper cousin Jerry and world traveler Uncle
Mike. I think his aunt and uncle are more world traveled than we
could ever be, even if we extended our trip by a couple months. They
were even planning a trip while we were there.

Then we were off to Boston. Just a short trip down the highway.

I uploaded some more pictures, a lot from the aquarium. There's also
albums from beyond CT, to include Boston, Cleveland, and Chicago.
They're all up to date so far. The posts are lagging a bit, but I'm
trying to get to them when I can. I'm writing this one, actually,
from my Blackberry, so it's taken a fair amount of time. For very up
to date reports, check out the Twitter feed on the homepage, unless my
Blackberry dies midday, which it already has.

--
Sent from my mobile device

After North Carolina, we headed up to Maryland, my home state, to start a bit of real touristy stuff. Jaime and Jeff were some awesome (even though they didn't make us any waffles!). We stayed with them for a few nights outside of Baltimore and used that has a starting point to Baltimore and Washington DC.

The Inner Harbor in Baltimore was great. We walked around and saw the USS Constellation, the world's biggest cell phone (called Adam's sister from it), and walked up Federal Hill. That's where the panorama up above is from, overlooking the harbor.

Fell's Point was also pretty cool, with the shops, a botanical garden we peeked into down an alleyway, and tons of great looking murals. We also stopped by to see the studio of Ace of Cakes, from the Food Network, on the way home.

For the Fourth of July, we headed out to a barbecue at some friends' of our hosts. The kids (geez, kids are a lot of hard work) got to play on the slip-and-slide. Burgers and 'dogs aplenty before we drove out near Westminster for the fireworks display. It was probably one of the longest ones I'd ever seen. Adam reported that he may have become a bit bored, but I'm not sure celebrating our freedom and independence with a dazzling assortment of fiery explosions could ever get boring. ;-)

Before we continued the journey to New England, we had to make a stop in our nation's capital. We most definitely hit up the Smithsonian's Air & Space museum. We saw tons of historic aircraft and learned a bunch about planes, space, and exploration. The planetarium had a great show about black holes. An interesting tidbit: parachutes were originally developed and used in WWI by spotters in observation balloons. It wasn't until after the German's came up with more compact designs that airplane pilots had them. Our next stop was at the International Spy Museum. A great exhibit of stealth and trickery. They showcased tons of spy gadgets, methods, and bios of spy activity around the world. It was there that we learned that hot-air balloons were first used by spies in the Civil War. I think if I were to head back, I'd definitely want to do their "spy" tours around the city.

Well, check out the new pictures. I have them linked on the right side of the site. The next post will be from Connecticut, visiting family and friends on our way to New York City and Boston.

We got the car fixed. Just a blown fuse. What a horrible thought that you have to do without technology for a month. Whew! Picked up an FM transmitter just to spite fate. No more having to find decent radio stations. Perhaps an auxilary input jack is in order further down the road.