DC/Maryland/Delaware/Pennsylvania End of School Year Vacation

I usually try to keep up to date on our vacation comings and goings via the blog when we are gone. Unfortunately, I have not been able to do so this time.  I did not take my computer, we took Bruce's along. Unfortunately, he is having an issue with his right now, so we are not able to use it.  This is the first hotel that I have actually been able to sit down and make an entry on our trip.  We are currently on Day 5 I guess. I can't add photos right now either, but I'll try to at least bring up to date what we've done and where we've been, and it will help me remember for the future as well.

Day 1:  Thursday:  Flew out of Kansas City pretty early. Our flight was supposed to leave at like 7:40 a.m., but was delayed, and did not actually leave until like 9:00 or so. That was kind of a bummer.  Plus, security out of KC was a bugger this time. Uusally it is a 'no sweat' pretty easy, although thorough enough, affair, but this time the TSA checkers were GRUMPY with a capital G.  Anyway, we had a good flight and arrived into DC, and got our rental car and basically got out of Dodge.  We drove up into the Maryland area, towards Annapolis.  Check off another State Capital visited, and Capitol building at least driven by. We did not get to go into the building unfortunately.  We took a boat tour of the harbor there at Annapolis. There were a lot of people in the city, and we found out that the Naval Academy's Commencement Exercises were the following day (Friday), so thus explained the large number of people.  We drove around some; charming city.  Headed on up to Baltimore.  Upon first driving into Baltimore, I was initially not too impressed. I was concerned that it bordered on being similar to Detroit, but luckily that impression was short lived.  It is a very charming, busy city with lovely old and new buildings.  Stayed in a Hampton Inn in Baltimore.

Day 2:  Friday:  It was raining for much of the day. We went to the Visitor's Center in the morning.  The Center was very nice, and the workers there were very knowledgeable and very helpful.    Ate dinner at Phillips Seafood Restaurant at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, a nice local restaurant there.  I went to the Barnes and Noble right next door; it is in an old factory with a large chimney right in the middle that you walk through now. I can't, unfortunately, remember what type of factory it was right now.  Stayed at  Garden Inn by Hilton in Baltimore.

Day 3:  Saturday:  Very much enjoying Baltimore    Allison and I went to the National Aquarium in Baltimore in the morning.  It was okay...I honestly think we've gone to nicer exhibits in other aquariums before.  The building was nice, and we enjoyed it.  There were TONS of people, and it was hard to get too close to see many of the tanks and see the fish very well, which is of course upsetting, especially hard for a little kid.  We then went to Port Discovery, which is the Children's Museum in Baltimore.  Allison of course had a good time there also.   We took the free Circulator Bus down to Little Italy and had dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant. Stayed at a remodeled hotel, the Tremont Plaza Hotel which was a real perk for dad!

Day 4:  Sunday:  Allison and I went to the Maryland Science Center today, after a morning of sleeping in and having lunch at a McDonalds (woo hoo lol) down the street from our hotel.  We got there around 12:00 and told dad he could pick us up at 3:30.  It got to be 3:00 and we were just getting to the 3rd and final floor, so we gave him a call asking for more time.  It was a very cool place, one of the neater science centers we've been to. After we left we left Baltimore and headed up toward Delaware, as I had never been to that state, and Bruce couldn't remember if he had or not.  We ended up having dinner at a nice restaurant off the water in a town called Havre de Grace; it was very much enjoyable and very beautiful evening.  It went downhill from there as we did not have a hotel reservation.  Dad was bargain hotel hunting (especially now that he has found Hotwire deals online for discount hotel rooms).  Well, those cannot be found when one just goes hotel to hotel at 10:00 at night. It was not pretty, and dad had a pretty good meltdown before we settled on a Best Western finally. 

Day 5:  Monday:  Beautiful day...left hotel in Wilmington, DE, with not a lot of options in Wilmington. Bruce mainly wanted to get back out of the city ... "I've had enough city!"  so we decided to head on into Pennsylvania, and head toward Amish/Pennsylvania Dutch area.  Although not as densely appearing populated with tall buildings, etc., the area we drove was pretty dense with businesses along the highway.  It was kind of cool how we would be driving along and then come to an area with a wheat field to the side of the highway.  As we got closer to the Amish area, there was a lot more open acres of ground with farms and dairy cattle, but it was still very settled.  The farms and homesteads are just so beautiful doting the area, with nice, neat, tidy, well maintained homesteads.  We drove the area on Hwy 30, and ended up going to Intercourse, PA, which does produce a smile and perhaps a chuckle, but found a neat little touristy village with a plethora of shopping, etc.  I particularly enjoyed visitng some of the quilt shops. I told Bruce this is why I need to learn to quilt my own, however, because I cannot affor to buy a $1,500 king size quilt.  But, boy, are they lovely!  Tonight we are staying in Lancaster, PA, with plans to explore the area tomorrow. Bruce and Allison went to a Lancaster Mosquitoes Minor League Baseball game tonight.  They have gone to several other minor league games when we have traveled to areas with teams.  :)



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Proud to be a Momma!

"Minor" holidays such as Mother's Day, don't hold a large part in our day-to-day lives here.  This year, however, Allison is of the age, and had some activities in school, that she was such a little treat on Sunday.  She is such a little dickens, and can be quite ornery, and I think she is well on her way to being a mouthy teenager, but she's my little dickens!...and I don't think you are ever quite prepared for the love that a mother feels for her daughter until you are a mother.  She was so sweet and so cute on Sunday trying to do little things for me, saying that she had "presents" for me, which ended up being me helping her put rollers in her American Girl doll's hair, or helping her do this or that....  She did make a lovely pin at school with beads and a "Mom" charm on it, as well as a planter out of tuna can and clothespins, and a cookbook with recipes from all the kids. 

Allison is a great kid.  She has a good heart that I can see coming out often, which is probably the most important quality that a person can have.  After that, the rest will hopefully fall into place.

Thank you Allison for making every day a special Mother's Day with you!

 
 
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Pittsburgh Vacation=Day 9

Flew home! WOO HOO!  Oh, I don't want to sound like I didn't like vacation...of course, I did, but it's always nice to get home when you are supposed to.  There was a weather threat, but we were really lucky and had no issues the entire way (even though we had to go through Chicago, and one never knows what that weather is going to do!).


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Pittsburgh Vacation - Day 8

Pittsburgh Vacation - Day 7

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Pittsburgh Vacation - Day 6

Brrrrrr.....It is cold in West Virginia. When we got up Thursday morning, Bruce took Allison to The Clay Center for a few hours. I walked over there a little later, and when I walked out of the hotel door I was like "whoooooaoooaaa" it was COLD and snowing!  Thankfully it was just a really pretty snow, and it was not accumulating on the ground.  We left Charleston around 1:00 and headed north to start our trek back up towards Pittsburgh.  We stopped in _______________, and went to a museum called the "Blennerhassett" which was named after a 18th Century settler on a little island outside their town. The island does not open until April, but we saw a video and their local/regional history collection.  Their local quilt folks had a quilt show going on as well.  Bruce and Allison went to an Oil and Gas Museum and I took a nap and read in the car :) (I'm not much into oil and gas).  They said it was lacking, but the little old man who was the caretaker was a passionate gem, so that made up for it.  

We drove up County Hwy 2, which follows the river along the West Virginia and Ohio borders, and went through many small towns.  We stopped for dinner at a town called New Martinsville and found a gem of a restaurant. I don't know how to describe it other than a local try on a Golden Coral, but all the food was homemade. It was INSANE, but in a good way.  It was quite a fun find.  The name of the place was Quinet's Court Restaurant. 

We ended up at a hotel that had a coupon in one of those highway coupon guides...ended up taking us over the river into Ohio, which is fine.  We are going to try to explore Wheeling, WV, today before heading back over to Pittsburgh this evening (doesn't look like much in Wheeling, so.....)

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Pittsburgh Vacation - Day 5

After some tense navigating Tuesday evening, and then beginning again to leave Morgantown, we headed down to Charleston.  For whatever reason, Bruce and I are NOT meshing in our driving and navigating, and he is being terribly gruff about it.  Enough to make me want to just yell "YOU DO IT!" but of course I cannot.  It seems that West Virginia streets, roads and highways are a tad different from other places we have driven in that they are not afraid to just switch things up in the lanes on the street, etc.  You can be driving along, happy as a clam, and all of a sudden the lane switches to a different name, number, even direction, turn, one way or the other.  Not only am I to be navigating the map, but I'm also supposed to know when that stuff is coming up.  Never mind the fact that I might also say to drive on a certain road and turn off on xyz street...if abc street comes up first he may go ahead and turn on that, and he will say he didn't know, he can't do it all!!! grrraaarrrgh!

Anyway, thankfully for once in our driving lives, we took the interstate to Charleston, so we had almost 2 hours of peacefulness after I told him he was not to get off of the highway for any reason!!!!  We've only been in the downtown area, and it's a pleasant enough area.  Bruce mentioned later in the evening that it does remind him of Topeka, in that there is worker activity in the daytime, but once 5:01 comes around, everyone heads out and everything closes up.

We started out going to the West Virginia History Center, which although your standard state museum, was very enjoyable. It had a nice array of exhibits, and it even kept Allison's attention. 

The museum and the capitol building, as well as the state office buildings seem to be in the same area, kind of like in a state complex. Just across the walkways and lawns is the state capitol building.  We were late enough in the day that we missed any type of guided tours, but we did just go ahead and go in and walk around.  The House and Senate must still be in session, but were not working directly when we were there. There were all sorts of suits wandering around the building, and the doors to both chambers were open, so we were able to peek inside for a little look.  It is pretty inside, with white marble, but not one of the more ornate capitols we have been in our travels.

We decided to go ahead stay in a Best Western that we found on the edge of the downtown area, down the street from The Clay Center.  That is where Allison is this morning (Thursday); and Bruce went over with her for a little bit. I'm to go over there and take a turn with her in a little while.  As soon as we are done there, we will probably go ahead and head out of town, and start making a turn to the west and then head back up north, making our way back towards Pittsburgh so we are able to fly back out in a few days.

I almost forgot:  Dinner last night was so.much.fun! (thank goodness)  There were not a lot of choices we found out as it seems much of the downtown area closes down at 5:01 as I mentioned earlier.  There was one restaurant, a place called "Pies and Pints", which happened to be open in the evenings. It is a pizza and beer place, but not just any pizza...yummy interesting pizza.  Poor Allison wasn't sure what she had gotten into as she LOVES pizza, but she's used to like Pizza Hut pizza.  We had half Chicken Gouda pizza and half Spinach Garlic and Feta pizza.  OMG!  Both were very good; and even Allison had to admit the Chicken Gouda pizza was good ("I said good, not great"), but the Spinach Garlic and Feta had to be my FAVORITE! It was so good. Just a wonderful mixture of flavors and spices and a little different texture with the feta cheese. It was fantastic!

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Pittsburgh Vacation - Day 4

We stayed in Morgantown, WV, home of the University of West Virginia Moutaineers, one of the newest members of the Big XII, Monday evening.   We were able to find the Morgantown Visitors Center early the first thing in the morning, which was a good thing. We certainly weren't able to find it the previous evening.  The lady at the visitor's center, Cookie, was AWESOME! She was a true gem...and very helpful.  She had maps and suggestions out the wazoo.  Before we left, Bruce wanted a picture of me standing next to Bob Huggins, basketball coach of the mens' team at UWV.  Huggins had spent one year at K-State before going back 'home' to UWV.

 It is kinda hard to see here, but that little yellow and blue cart looking thing is a type of public transportation system in Morgantown.  I am guessing it is aimed a lot at students at the university because it seems that the campus is pretty spread out.  It is called PRT (personal rapid transport), and they are little cars with like 8 seats, and standing room for probably like 4 or 5 more people.  We were there about mid-morning and the cars would pretty much just go "on demand"...whenever someone came who needed transport. It only cost $0.50 per person.

 We stopped at the Seneca Center before we left Morgantown, which was an old glass factory, which had been turned into retail and service space.  It had like photographer, real estate offices, a quilt shop, a woman's clothing shop, etc.

Upon leaving town, we drove through some moutainous miles with very very tall skinny trees.  It was very pretty to be driving along and seeing little waterfalls spewing from rocks along the side of the road. There was also a very quickly running river which had some mild rapids, which indicated that it was probably used for canoeing and kayaking.

We went to Arthurdale, WV, which was called "Eleanor's Little Town", a New Deal Project during the Great Depression, and a 'pet project' of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.  It was very interesting to learn about how this community began, and that 160 of the original 165 homesteads are still standing in the community.  I've provided a link to the website if you want to learn more about this community.

At this point we were planning to continue on south further into West Virginia. Unfortunately we made a wrong turn that we didn't realize we had made until we had made it almost to Maryland.  Oops.  So...we ended up deciding to head back toward Morgantown for the night. There was a restaurant that Cookie at the visitor's center had suggested, called "Apple Annie's" at Point Morgan (although we didn't know it was Pennsylvania), so we decided to head there.  We arrived at like 7:08, and we were turned away at the door, with the lady saying, "Oh, we close at 7:00. Sorry. Everything is turned off."  Oh, let's just say Bruce was less than charmed, and it was not a happy trip back down the highway. We ended up eating at Morgantown Brewery, and we stayed the night at Hotel Morgan, a Clarion hotel, which is definitely a historic hotel...very nice. So, fortunately, I think that helped to mend some bad feelings.


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Pittsburgh Vacation - Day 3

Decided today to get out of Pittsburgh for a few days.  We didn't really have anything in particular planned but Bruce had found a Frank Lloyd Wright house nearby. Fallingwaters to supposed to be one of the shining stars for FLW, which is saying a lot considering there are so many buildings that are designed and/or inspired by him. 

The house is about 1 1/2 hours south of Pittsburgh. When we left the city, it was kind of misty with the threat of more 'icky' weather.  The first 10 miles or so were just that...spitting mist, not bad at all. We stopped around Donagel for lunch at "Brady's", a fun little small town diner, and stopped at "The Country Store", another gem of finding on travels to look around at the eclectic selections.

Unfortunately, while we were doing all of that, the weather began deteriorating, and then deteriorating quite rapidly.  The spitting mist became spitting, then shooting ice pellets.  Literally.  Keep in mind that we were starting to enter into beginnings of some mountain country.  It wasn't terribly bad, but ....

By the last 3 to 5 miles outside of Fallingwaters it was getting pretty bad. The road was getting pretty slick from the build up of icy slushy pellets on the roadway.  The outside temperature was hovering around 32, then dipping to 30, and back up around 32.  We were pretty glad when we made it to the house. 

 Thinking that we would be the only fools...ahem...visitors to the property, boy were we wrong. There were actually many hearty souls making the "pilgrimage" to Fallingwaters.  Photos were not, unfortunately, but of course, not allowed inside of the house.

 This is the side of the guest house which is located above the main house.

 Looking down the path from the guest house to the main house.

 This picture is taken while standing on the bridge leading to the main house. The bridge is going over the creek, which was running pretty good off of the waterfall behind me.

 The main house of Fallingwaters right behind us.  An interesting aspect just over my shoulder towards the creek is a glassed in staircase leading to the creek from the main living area of the house.  The glass doors could be lifted up and moved out of the way to make one's way down the staircase to a small landing right at the creek.

So when we left Fallingwaters, the weather was much better and starting to clear off thank goodness. We were very close to the West Virginia state line, so we decided to head to Morgantown, via Connellsville and Uniontown, Pennsylvania (both, unfortunately, very sad, hard hit by the recession, towns).

Morgantown, WV, thusfar, is not that different unfortunately.  We are going to explore a little more tomorrow, and Bruce has found a few interesting possibilities for historical museums, etc.

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