Colonial Williamsburg and North Carolina

We left Washington, D.C. and drove south to Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon to some very pleasant warm weather. On Sunday night it poured and continued to do so most of the day on Monday. But, brave souls that we are we headed to Colonial Williamsburg and ducked in and out of buildings while trying to stay dry. We were so cold and wet by 3 in the afternoon, that we called it a day and headed home. Tuesday, the weather was much better. We toured through buildings that we had missed on Monday. They have done a miraculous job with restoring the town to look like it might have looked 250 years ago.

On Wednesday morning (the day before Thanksgiving) we headed south to a small town near Fayetteville, North Carolina. We parked in the driveway of Bob's grandson's home for 5 nights. We enjoyed visiting with Daniel and his wife, Tara. She cooked some AMAZING MEALS for us - Yummmy!!

We also, toured around Ft. Bragg where Daniel is in the 82nd Airborne Division......
...... "ALL the WAY"
PEOPLE HE WILL BE AN E 5 ---- BY 22 YEARS OF AGE ----------- AWESUME!!!! I AM SOOOOO PROUD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went to a couple of Airborne Division museums - one on base and one in Fayetteville. We're excited by the news that Daniel is being stationed in Washington state at Ft. Lewis starting in March. Tara is excited to see " out WEST" !!!! :)!

On Monday morning, we headed west towards Hendersonville, North Carolina where we spent the night. We then headed west to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee - a gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains. We took a hike today in the Smoky Mountains. Weather was crisp and clear - low 40's and very sunny. We're headed to Dollywood tomorrow.

Bob and his grandson, Daniel. We had Thanksgiving dinner with Daniel and his wife, Tara - shown in the next picture. 

The cook on Thanksgiving day. She prepared a wonderful dinner for us. We sure enjoyed our meal along with their company. 

This speaks for itself. 

Washington monument. 

View of the White House taken from the top of the Washington monument. 

White house visitor center. Dinnerware setting display. Notice the white house in the center of the dinner plate. 

Arlington National Cemetary. 

Gettysburg and Washington, D.C.

We spent a few days at Gettysburg over the Veterans Day weekend. The weather was sunny and not too cold, so was great for viewing the battlefields. We did some walking plus on Saturday did the auto tour. There are several auto tour CD's available for sale at the visitor center. The National Park Service has posted auto tour signs providing directions to the various areas. It can take 3 or 4 hours to see all of the items on the auto tour, especially if you get out and do some of the walking like to Round Top.

There is a great museum at the NPS visitor center. We sure learned a lot about the battle that took place in Gettysburg on July 1,2,3 of 1963. It was the turning point in the war for the north. We bought a book 'Killer Angels', which we're reading.

After Gettysburg, we headed south to Washington, D.C. We're actually staying about 30 miles north in Maryland at Fort Meade. General George Meade was given the command of the army of the Potomoc (north) 2 days before the Gettysurg battle.

We've taken the train to Washington, D.C. every day for the past five days and we're pooped from all of the sightseeing we've done. The first day we went on the Capital tour, then walked down the mall to the World War II memorial and the Lincoln memorial, and then to the Vietnam memorial. On Tuesday, we did the Air and space museum, on Wednesday, the Natural history museum, on Thursday we did the Holocaust museum, the Washington monument, Arlington cemetary, and the White house visitor center. Friday, we visited the National Archives and the American History museum.

We're headed to Colonial Williamsburg on Sunday, so more on that in the next blog.

Civil War canon at Gettysburg Cemetary. 

General Longstreet statue at Gettysburg. 

Us by the Bull on Broadway in the financial district in New York city. 

New York city

We made it to Jersey City, New Jersey on Sunday morning without too much trouble. We were in the park by 9:30 in the morning. Through the park we were able to order tickets to see Hairspray on Broadway. We had seats 6 rows back right in the middle. We went to the Sunday afternoon performance. It was a great show. We took the PATH (subway under the Hudson river) to get over and back from Manhattan.

On Monday morning we went to the Statue of Liberty. A couple of years ago, when I visited they allowed no visitors inside of the statue. Since then, they have increased security with a process similar to flying on an airplane. They have quite a nice display, and then you take an elevator to the monument top - the base of the actual statue. There is an observatory there were you can get out and see the New York skyline. No one is allowed up into the crown and probably never will be again.

In the afternoon we again took the PATH over to Manhattan, but this time we went to the World Trade Center. The subway ends right inside of where the twin towers used to stand. There are quite of few signs detailing the events of 9/11. We then walked over towards the financial district to see where the stock exchange is along with the famous 'Bull' as seen on TV when they discuss the markets.

We're now in Gettysburg, PA. We stopped by Hersheys, PA on our way here yesterday. Lots and lots of chocolate!! More on our adventures in our next blog.

Statue of Liberty taken from Manhattan at sunset. 

New York city skyline. 

Statue of Liberty. 

View of fall foliage at West Point. Hudson River in the background. 

West Point, New York

We left Glens Falls, New York on Friday morning. We drove to Florida, New York which is about 50 miles north of New York city. We were going to drive to Jersey City so that we could take in New York city, but decided to wait one day because of the park where we were going to stay has a loud nightclub next to it until 2:30 in the morning on Friday and Saturday nights. So, we decided to visit West Point Military Academy.

At West Point because Bob and I, having retiree's military ID from Bob's 20 years military service, were able to drive on "THE" Army Post and wander around.
It felt very wonderful to walk the grounds that so many great Americans have walked on before!!
They have bus tours available, but we wanted to see it on our own. We also toured the West Point museum, which is nicely done and free!! The grounds of West Point are really outstanding. It sits right on the Hudson River and is surrounded by hills all glowing orange with the fall foliage. It was about 70 degrees today (November 5th) so we didn't even wear coats. We thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon there.

We then stopped at the oldest continuously operating winery in America - the Brotherhood Winery in Washingtonville, NY. They have some neat old buildings. We wanted to taste some wine, but after killing about 45 minutes without ever getting one taste of wine (nor buying any wine) we left. They have really poor service so don't waste your time going there.

Tomorrow we're headed for New York city, but it may be a zoo as the New York marathon happens there!! Check us out in our next blog for details of our trip to New York city.

West Point, NY. This is just one example of the beautiful stone buildings that comprise this West Point Military Academy. 

View from Top of the World golf course with view of Lake George in the background. This is about 10 miles north of Bob's hometown, Glens Falls, NY. 

While we were cruising, Buddy, our cat stayed at the Country Kitty B&B. This was a picture taken while he was staying there. His favorite pasttime was looking out the window at the birds at the bird feeders. 

Church in Sydney, Nova Scotia with nice fall color showing in the trees. 

Quebec City mural and old town. 

Church in Halifax, Nova Scotia. 

NCL cruise to New England

We’re back on solid land again after our 11 day New England/Canada cruise aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines. A recap of our stops on the cruise:

1. First stop was at Boston. We took a bus from the dock to city center and then walked parts of the Freedom Trail. We saw Paul Revere’s house, Old North Church (remember 1 if by land and 2 if by sea?), the South Meeting hall, and the Boston Commons.

2. Second stop was at Bar Harbor. This was the worst weather on the trip. It was raining sideways. We went through the shops, but we had already spent 5 days near here about 3 weeks prior to our trip, so we had already seen the sights when the weather was good.

3. Third stop was Halifax, Nova Scotia. We toured the Maritime Museum and walked around town and then up into an old fort on top of the hill. The museum was interesting in that Halifax was where rescue was done for the Titanic. Also, on board in the afternoon a bagpipe band performed for us.

4. Fourth stop was Quebec City. This is a beautiful old city with a very European feel to it (although I’ve never been to Europe!). Lots of old stone buildings. The city is surrounded by a wall.

5. Fifth stop was Syndey, Nova Scotia. We took a tour on this day and went to Batten where Alexander Graham Bell had his summer home. We went through a museum with information about his different inventions. We always think of the telephone, but he also had an interest in lots of other things including hydrofoils.

6. Sixth stop was Saint John, New Brunswick. We took a 45 minute walk (each way) to the Bay of Fundy where they have the Reversing Falls. We didn’t time it very well for seeing the falls, but it was a nice walk. We also walked along the main old street where there were 4 very beautiful churches built in the late 1800’s. There was a big fire in the 1800’s that destroyed most of the town, so these were built after the fire.

We enjoyed seeing square dance friends on the cruise and we did dance for about 1 hour to a CD while on the cruise. The Norwegian Jewel is a brand new ship. It's a nice ship, but they need to make the meals and the hot tubs hotter. They had good shipboard entertainment.