At the entrance, Reeve couldn’t wait to get inside! He’s REALLY into Legos and especially anything Legos Star Wars related!Reeve meeting the Lego R2D2An AT-AT battlegroundAmazing detail in all of the displays!Laura is as much or more so into Star Wars and Legos!Starship Enterprise (I think!)
We did pry Reeve away from the Star Wars exhibits; he and Laura and I did the Lego Safari ride, fun!
I was in a separate car behind them. It was on rails so I could take pictures and let it self guide!Reeve also got to drive himself on the electric Lego cars.I on the other hand didn’t quite fit; but it was a FORD!Speaking of Fords, they had a 1964 1/2 Mustang Coupe made entirely of 194,900 Legos! It took the team 1200 hours to complete! It’s 15 feet long, 6 feet wide and 4 feet tall.
At the entrance of the Imagination where they let the kids (and adults) build stuff with Legos. Yes, thats Einstein in Legos!Bryce & Reeve building cars to race against each other
The Luxor; part of the city of Las Vegas exhibit.The Hollywood Bowl; complete with full orchestra and an audience!Daytona NASCAR Speedway, complete with spectators and RVs in the infield!
And a NASA exhibit with a Lego Space Shuttle launch!Reeve in the Lego star with his “friends”!Branpa and his bench buddy!
On Jan’s birthday we all met at Medieval Times in Kissimmee, just up the road from our campground. Luckily Rich and Aneka’s time in Kissimmee overlapped by a day with Bryce, Laura and Reeve’s time here so we could do this birthday celebration for Jan!
Our guy was the black and white stripes.Cheering him on!So fun to have everyone together! Jan’s best birthday ever!Our guy tried to throw the flower to Aneka but his aim was off, bummer!
animal kingdom
We visited Animal Kingdom 3 times; once with Rich and Aneka, once with Bryce, Laura and Reeve and once by our selves after everyone had left. We had fun all three times!
We did the Kilimanjaro Safari ride each time; you never get tired of it because you’ll see different animals each time!
Beautiful exotic birds everywhere.And crocodiles; we learned that Florida is one of the few places that has both alligators and crocodiles!And of course giraffesFlamingos.A beautiful lioness enjoying the sun!Monkeys monkeying around!Lunchtime with Aneka and Rich.They even had a “bicycle shop”.A Roseate Spoonbill (according to Google!)One of their many Hippos with a friendly bird on his back.Enjoying watching Reeve take in all the animal sightings!He loved the fish tank!
A very handsome gorilla!White Rhinos.
Lunchtime at the Rainforest Cafe.Playtime; burning up energy!
Bryce, Laura and Reeve rode on the Dinosaur ride; kind of like Dumbo but with cute dinosaurs!
This is called The Tree of Life; it is one of our favorites. So many animal and other critters carved into it! You see something new each time you visit it. There are over 300 animals carved in it!
One for you, Joni!
epcot
Rich and Aneka really enjoyed this park!They especially enjoyed the countries.One for you Barb and Zach!GranJan and Aneka.Aneka and her new friend!
Holding the ball!Rich and my favorite; Germany!Aneka and Branpa with our new friend!Aneka modeling!
The ball at night, pretty lighting!Bryce, Reeve and Laura in front of the ball; waiting in line for the ride.
In front of a Mexican Pyramid.Reeve meeting one of his favorite characters from Frozen (I’m not sure which one she is)Reeve always has the best view! In front of the Chinese exhibit.Reeve was enamored with the large train displayThey had a really detailed train layout!Now in Italy with Reeve and his giant Mickey Pretzel.
And we’re off again!Japanese drummers
Reeve loved them!Lunchtime at the Japanese Hibachi Grill.
Mickey Mouse!Our chef was very entertaining!Reeve and daddy!On to meet Crush from Nemo!Mine, mine, mine, mine!Crush was entertaining. He answered questions from the kids. Amazing how they can do that!
Reeve loved the fish tanks too.
disney hollywood
Their Christmas tree.The Star Wars exhibit was the main attraction.Again, Reeve gets the best view….…For the Stormtroopers!And Darth Vader.Chewbacca and Princess Rey.A very large At-At walker!After the kids left Jan and I went back to see the Indiana Jones show. It was pretty cool; they showed you how they do a lot of the special effects on the movie!The infamous giant rolling boulder!Which apparently is not all that heavy; two skinny stage hands pushing it back uphill!The film crew filming the flipping and exploding army truck.Cut… putting out the fire!More action with the good guys getting away!
magic kingdom
Reeve in his box seat (daddy’s shoulders)for the downtown parade!
EVERYBODY’S favorite ride.. It’s a Small World After All. Come on, sing along! Stuck in your head now?!?
On to the Jungle Cruise and Tom Sawyer Island.I didn’t point this sign out to Reeve!
In South Carolina we stopped for 3 nights at Santee Lakes Campground in Santee, SC! First because of the obvious connection to home and secondly it was our 21st Anniversary! This picture looks better than it was!We were the elite of the campground we think; most of it looked like this. BUT, it was Santee Lakes, east coast!Fall was upon themThey had this pier to enjoy the best part of their campground- the sunsets!We took drinks out the evening of our anniversary to celebrate and saw some great sunset views!
While there we did do a hike in Santee State ParkWe loved the Spanish moss on many of the trees; beautiful along with the fall colors!And, since we’re getting farther south, the lawyer signs everywhere (don’t forget to read the FINE print)!A beautiful fall day, around 73 degrees!Some Tortugas and fall color reflections!
Interesting growth on this fallen treeCool rickety bridge! We traversed it twice and lived to tell about it!Cool Geckos!
on to kings bay submarine base campground, georgia
Being a Naval base there are limited opportunities to take “legal” pictures; here’s one near the entrance.This Submarine in the grass was kind of cool!
Our campsite was awesome; we’ll plan on returning here sometime.Our view and Happy Hour spot for the 3 days.And, of course, the obligatory lawyer signs!An egret drying his wings.Pretty fall color reflections on the water!
They even had this covered fishing pier for the campers enjoyment!
on to our winter home(for this year)-sunny florida
Our first 3 days in North Carolina we stayed in a pretty nice campground. The rest of our stay we stayed in a motel in Raleigh while getting some needed repairs done on our trailer.Our friends Jorge and Kathy came to visit us while there. (Kathy’s taking this picture)We also went to their condo for a dinner; great fun!Jorge and Kathy were excited about our tower kit and bought one; we experimented with a tower for our dinner there. If you’re interested, you can find the kits on our website, www.funeasygourmet.comOur creation, a simple side salad.The finished product.On Kathy’s recommendation, we visited William B. Umstead State Park for some gorgeous fall hiking. Very nice mostly paved trails!
We also found this beach park; Falls Lake State Park. Beautiful and hardly another person there on such a nice day! The advantages of retirement; go mid-week!The only other person we saw was flying his drone around.
Some odd patterns in the sand; we think formed by seaweed or snails?
the outer banks including kitty hawk, nags head and cape hatteras
Since it was mid-week and our friends were busy at work we decided to take a couple of days to go check out the Outer Banks. I hadn’t been there since I was about 12!The first place we visited was Kitty Hawk where the Wright Brothers made their historic first flights.The monument erected on top of Big Kill Devil Hill that they used to do their non-powered glider flights. It was just sand back then so they had quite a struggle getting the plane back to the top for each test flight.
From up there you can see where they did the 4 historic flights. Just think, this was November of 1903 and we’ve progressed from this to manned space flights in the 1960s!Their flight path and markers for each successive flight; notice the rail they put down to get started!
Marker #1Marker #2Marker #3And Marker #4 for their 4th and most successful flight.It’s kind of fitting; they put the local airport, First Flight Airport, right adjacent to this historic sight. It must be pretty cool to fly in and see this site!Some military helicopters buzzing the field too!This was a very cool bronze sculpture that was donated and dedicated by the state of North Carolina in 2003 commemorating the centennial of their achievement.
They even included a statue of the photographer who took the photos of the occasion!Wilbur Wright at the controls.Orville Wright cheering his brother on!Local Coast Guards that volunteered to help the wright Brothers in their historic flight.
That first evening we stayed at a really nice beach front hotel, The Seaside Inn. Just over the dune we had this ocean view. No pictures of the Inn, but this view was awesome!In looking through visitors guides we came across this Wild Horse Humvee Tour and decided we would do it. I’m really glad we did, we had no idea that there were wild horses out here! Â Â Â Apparently they are descendants of the horses the Spanish brought over back in the 1520’s. When the ships ran aground in the famous “Graveyard of the Atlantic” as this coast is called, they lightened their load to get free by off loading these wild Spanish Mustangs. That was almost 500 years ago! The herd is now down to a managed size, one at each end of this string of islands. One at the southern end on Ocracoke Island and the one we visited on the extreme northern end near Corolla.Our transportation for this adventure, a custom built 13 passenger Humvee.A little horse humor! I know a few people who could use this doormat!At the end of the island you go through the gate at the barrier dunes and the road continues on the beach! It’s the only “road” down to where the horses live and the beach homes that are now there. The residents are just accustomed to living with these four legged friends!
Our guide pointed this house out; it’s red & green and it’s called the Christmas House, The guy who lives there sometimes even dresses up as Santa (during the appropriate season we assume!)
Notice the tree stumps? The ocean has moved about 250 feet closer to shore over the last few centuries!Most of these are vacation rental homes; our guide says there is one that has 26 bedrooms! Many of them have carports underneath and during periods of extreme heat or inclement weather the horses have been seen using them for shelter !
The fence line that keeps the horses on their 180 acre preserve,
Back at the shop.Until we did this tour we couldn’t figure out why these beautifully painted horses were all over the Outer Banks; now we know!Their vehicle for larger groups! This would make a great desert camper!We stopped at a convenience store after our tour; apparently you can get just about anything here!The weather started turning towards the end of the day as we got on the ferry back to Hatteras Island.
On the ferryWe visited two lighthouses here. This one is the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. If you Google it you’ll discover it was moved 2900′ inland in 1999 because of the threat of beach erosion sine it was originally built in 1870. Fascinating story if you’re interested!Some of the original foundation stones are still here.
The other lighthouse we visited was the Bodie Island Lighthouse. Notice it’s stripes are horizontal rather than spiraled like the Hatteras Lighthouse.
We stayed at this FamCamp, Kings Creek RV Campground, while visiting Williamsburg and the surrounding area. It’s on the Yorktown Annex/Naval Weapons Station so obviously I no pictures other than this! A nice campground with lots of space.We visited the Mariners Museum in Newport News, not far from our campground.A beautiful carved Eagle figurehead.
Another Figurehead carving.The Freshnell lens from the Cape Charles lighthouse.They had this cool play area for the kids that was shaped as a pirate chip.
Some parts of the Monitor, a Civil War submarine, are being painstakingly cleaned and restored as much as possible for future display in the museum. As you might recall from school, it was sunk in the James River by the Merrimack.Some large parts recovered from the wreckage in a bath to dissolve slowly the ravages of their time under water.They even recovered the huge main turret!
yorktown revolutionary battlefield
We visited the Yorktown Battlefield area where the revolutionarys battled the British
I noticed the groove where the cannon would fire and wondered if it was cut that way or they just let the shots carve their own path!Amazing that they have saved these bunkers just as they were during the conflict!
This is the Moore House where Washington and Cornwall signed the papers ending the Revolutionary war and giving the United States it’s freedom from British rule.
jamestown settlement
I never realized until this visit that Jamestown is on an island!
The foundation still exists for the original Jamestown Statehouse.They built the Visitors Center over some of the original foundations to protect and display them via some see through floors, pretty cool!
They had a tribe member who is  a descendant of the Paspahegh Indian tribe who lived there when the settlers landed to give us insight into how they lived before and after the settlers came; very interesting.After our visit to Jamestown we went to nearby Riverwalk to have lunch by the river.
After lunch we decided to take the ferry over to Surry.
Looks a little off course to me!
Being greeted by some locals!
taking the 17 mile chesapeake bay bridge-tunnel
On another day we decided to take the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. It’s 17 miles long with two 1 mile long tunnels under the bay; quite the engineering marvel!
After crossing we found a little seafood restaurant on the bay, beautiful, and we were practically the only ones there!You can barely see the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel on the horizon in this shot.
Our niece, Dr. Logan Clark, earned her Doctorate degree from UCLA in Ethnomusicology this summer. She got a job at the Smithsonian Folkways here in Washington DC. Which is perfect for her.We spent the weekend with her at her new apartment in downtown DC, a very cool place to live! She can walk everywhere, even to her work!The view from her balcony.
One of the days we walked down to have lunch on the Potomac and saw Washington Nationals stadium along the way.The waterfront is nice. Fountains that the people are allowed to play in even! (Too cold that day though!)Okay, one brave (crazy) soul!A very cool foot bridge!
Cool artistic bench, the leaves are changing!We took the subway to get to downtown DC, very convenient and efficient!Here comes our train1This is the National Museum of African American History, the newest Smithsonian. Tickets (which are free but required) usually take months to get, but because Logan is a Smithsonian employee she was able to get us right in! As you can see I got this photo earlier while on our bus tour.Unfortunately this is the only picture I took inside. They had a sign about no video or photography in one certain area and I read it as no photography in the entire museum except the lobby. Too bad, it was all very interesting!
The national cathedral
We went to see The National Cathedral with Logan. An interesting side note; Polly and Denny (her grandparents) were married there over 70 years ago! Unfortunately we weren’t able to see the inside because there was a mass in progress.Notice the scaffoldings? They are doing retrofit restoration for earthquake reinforcements because they actually experienced one recently!
An explanation about the earthquake retrofits.
I noticed these interesting carvings at the top of some of the columns; each one is different!
The Bishops Garden adjacent to the Cathedral.Apparently the Bishop enjoys a rousing game of corn hole occasionally!
the anacostia smithsonian
Logan wanted to go to this to enjoy the music and sights of this community event at the Anacostia Smithsonian across the Potomac from Washington DC.There was dancing.
We stayed at Cherry Hill RV Resort in College Park, Maryland and took the train/subway into the city. Very convenient and a really nice park!And as you can see here, the trees were starting to change colors.
This sign was cute, it’s in the train stations where people would drop off their significant other to catch the train.Down to the train! The longest and steepest escalator we have ever seen.One of the first things we did was take this Hop On/Hop Off bus tour to see what we might want to return to later.This used to be the visitors welcome center but was closed for renovations. According to our guide that was 7 years ago and as far as he could tell no work has begun on it! What a waste of a beautiful building!A view of the Capitol Building from across the mall.
Nice views from the upper open deck of the tour bus!The NEWSEUM, one of more interesting private museums, all about the news industry. (Probably a lot of Fake News!)Washington DC is an interesting mixture of old and new architecture.Our bus tour took us through Chinatown; we never knew they had one!The Jefferson Memorial from the mall.The view of the reflecting pool and the Washington Monument from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. What a gorgeous day!The front of the Lincoln Memorial.
The Vietnam War Memorial Wall, very sobering to see in person! There are 58,272 names on the wall including 1200 who are listed as missing (MIA’s, Â POW’s and others). Six names were added as recently as 2010.
While walking around Washington DC we came across the Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress with some very interesting fountains, aptly named The Court of Neptune.
tour of the capitol building
We did a guided tour of the inside of the Capitol building. This is an outside view from the back side of the building.Another outside view taken from the legislature side.A closer view of the Statue of Freedom that sits  on top of the Capitol dome.This replica of the Statue of Freedom is inside the rotunda under the dome.A plaque honoring the passengers and crew who successfully diverted the flight #93 airliner that was possibly to target the Capitol Building, but instead crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
The view up inside the Capitol dome.A closer view of the painting up there.The painting around the perimeter of the dome is amazing, it really looks as if it was sculpted not painted!Various statues are around the inside that are part of theNational Statuary Hall depicting various important figures in our nations history.Rosa Parks.
The spot where John Quincy Adams desk was in the room below the Capitol Rotunda (called the Crypt)when it was used for office space early on.
The white spot shown here designates the center of the Capitol building which is also the exact center of Washington DC. We never knew that! That’s why the Capitol Building does not have a physical address! This is also in the floor of the Crypt below the Rotunda room.
arlington cemetary
We watched the very solemn ritual of The Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier; very moving!! This is done 24/7 Â everyday of the year; every hour on the hour in winter and every half hour in the summer.
Inside the Arlington House, where Robert E. Lee lived prior to the Civil War. During the Civil War the grounds of the house were selected as the site for Arlington Cemetery in part to ensure Lee could not return to live there. Since then, the government has designated this house as a memorial to Robert E. Lee.
The view of Washington DC from Arlington House.
united states botanic garden conservatory
A Coco tree.
smithsonian institution- national air and space museum
They have in their collection the original plane the Wright Brothers used for their historic flight December 17, 1903.Orville Wright’s Mandolin.A replica of the Hubble TelescopeOne of the multi-faceted mirrors used in the Hubble telescope. For those of you who know him, my good friend Rocky Rockefeller worked on the Hubble!The Air Force Orchestra was on hand to serenade the visitors.In the lobby entrance- a replica of the Star Trek Spaceship Enterprise!Lunar Module LM-2
The Rutan Voyager; the first plane to fly nonstop around the world without re-fueling!
They even have a General Atomics Predator Drone on display, along with a few other ones.
While in New Jersey we visited our friends Camille and Jacques and their menagerie of animals.They have two beautiful horses; that’s Joey on the left and Luna on the right.Then there are their two Dalmatians. Â This is Brody, the male.And this is Bryce, the female. Really sweet dogs!A nice big pasture for the horses.And of course their barn and paddock area.While visiting Camille and Jacque we went with Camille to the Jersey shore. It was a beautiful day for it!
Jan and Camille at the SHORE (it’s not called the beach here)And Jan and me with our feet in the water!Which completed our coast to coast journey on our map; from the beach in San Diego to the shore in New Jersey!
We took the train across the river over to Philidelphia to meet our good friends Claude and Hope at the stadium for a Phillies game.
Despite having had his broken foot casted that day, Claude met us there along with Hope and their nephew Dozie. What a trooper Claude was!We had a great view from the box seats Claude was able to get for us too!
While staying in New Jersey on another day we took the train across the river to visit the Pennsylvania Capital Building.A striking sculpture out in front on either side of the main entrance; an awful lot of nudity going on there!The view from the front steps of the capital building.The view up into the main dome; quite impressive!The grand staircase up to the upper levels.
They also had these picture tiles in the main lobby depicting events and people from the history of Pennsylvania including farmers, trade workers and the indians.
A plaque in the floor where Teddy Roosevelt stood during his dedication of the building.
We were able to also see where the state congress meets and votes.Everywhere you look there’s art, sculptured facias and gold plate!
The Pennsylvania State Supreme Court chambers.
On our last day in New Jersey Camille and Jacque took us to their favorite Italian restaurant along with her good friends and neighbors Dottie and Al. We had a wonderful meal and visit.Left to right; Al, Camille, me, Jan Jacques and Dottie.For all you NCIS fans, this was a neighboring community, Gibbstown!
Our first stop in Pennsylvania was in Bedford, mostly known for its many covered bridges. Our campground was nice with a stream running right behind our campsite.
This was like a scavenger hunt with a list of the many bridges and how to get to them.These massive curved beams seemed to be a common construction method on these bridges.
Some were drivable and others, like this, were not.
This one needed a little TLC!
This one we did not attempt to drive over even though it was drivable. Notice the sign, 3 TON weight limit (our truck is just over 4 tons)!
york and day trips from there
We stayed in York for a few days at a pretty nice campground and did day trips to Gettysburg, Hershey and (of course) Intercourse!
While in York we saw  this bridge a few times while crossing the river for day trips and decided to get some photos of it from below; I’m glad we did, it was pretty cool!
We also came across this Caboose Motel! A collection of cabooses turned into motel rooms that was near Lancaster!
The restaurant was an old dining car completely restored to its former glory!And look who we found dining there; two sets of Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus! They were in the area for a Santa Clause convention!The resident rodent patrol.
There was a really cool model train set inside too!
And right next to them was a steam train you could ride
gettysburg national military park
Our first stop in Gettysburg was this information center and museum where we looked around and got tickets to take the bus tour of the battlefield.The main thing we looked at here was this Diorama; a 360 degree painting done years ago and recently restored and installed here.
Jan took a pic of me visiting with Abe!
We were told this stamped lettering on the front of the cannon barrel signified it’s an authentic Civil War Cannon, not a replica. Part of it shows the weight of the cannon barrel; 816 lbs. in this case.
on a lighter note; hershey chocolate world!
Its kind of like Disneyland for chocolate lovers and kids!We began the visit taking a bus tour of the city of Hershey.The main plant where they produce their wonderfulness!Some of the beautiful homes along the way.
Did you notice the Hershey Kisses street lights lining the streets?
This is on the floor in the main lobby of Hershey Chocolate WorldThey were commemorating Milton Hershey’s 160th birthday! He was born in 1857.The Hershey timeline
He and his wife were unable to have children of their own. They started schools from grade school through high school and even award full ride college scholarships to underprivileged children throughout the country. As per the family trust, the company continues to maintain these schools.They don’t do tours of the real factory any more because there is so much demand. They have this simulated fun tour thats more appealing to the children; after all that’s their target audience!
intercourse, pa.
There’s a large Amish population here, so everywhere you see this. Loosely translated I think that says pick up after your horse!You quilters would be in heaven here!
We just happened upon this new and reconditioned buggy lot!This one was decked out with LED lights! It was listed for about $6000.
While in Ohio we went down towards Columbus to meet at a BBQ restaurant to visit with my nephew Scott, his wife Angela and their daughter; it was really nice to catch up! None of us had ever been there but the food and service was awesome!This was the house we lived in when I was born up until about 1955. Back then it was an upstairs/downstairs duplex rental. It was in Canton just up the street from the Stark County Fairgrounds. As you can see it’s for sale; I looked it up and it’s only $69,000!It had a huge side yard!In 1955 we moved to North Canton to my childhood home on Lipton Avenue. Its good to see the new residents there have good taste in vehicles, a VW, we had them since 1955!This is me with my brother Geoff standing under the tree I brought home from school in the 5th grade for Arbor day; It’s grown a bit!While in the area we visited the NFL Hall of Fame. It was started when I was just little and was only one building then!
Right next to the Hall of Fame is the McKinley Monument where President McKinley is laid to rest along with his wife.
Behind the monument was this hill where our dad took us sled riding; there was even a picture of my dad, my sister, my brother and myself on our 6′ sled going down this hill in the Canton Repository newspaper! I noticed now there’s a sign saying NO Sled riding!While in Canton I was able to connect with my brother Geoff and Terry Wolski and Tom Barnes; two great friends from high school.
