Philly - April 2017 - Days 2 -3

Independence Hall

April 29, 2017 (Saturday)

The hotel had a huge breakfast spread! After breakfast, we headed to the Independence Visitor Center to get tickets for the Independence Hall. We were able to get tickets for the 9am tour (free). If you visit this site, you will need to get there 15 minutes before the tour time to go through security. There are a few other buildings to check out in the Independence Square area – Great Essentials Exhibit in the West Wing, Congress Hall, Old City Hall and the Museum of the American Philosophical Society (not open during our visit).  Honestly, I did not find any of the buildings to be overly impressive on the inside, but the guides were very informative in letting us know the importance of the buildings.

Edgar Allen Poe NHS

Leaving Independence Square, we headed to Washington Park. There was a fountain and a memorial. Once we were done at the park, we walked to the Edgar Allen Poe NHS. It was a bit of a walk and the neighborhood was not nearly as nice as the Old Town area. The Poe House was interesting. The visitor center is in the neighbor’s house, where there were a few displays and a short video before entering the Poe House. The house was just bare rooms, which was different than most historical homes that we have visited. There was a guide sheet that told us a little about each room. The house was only occupied by Poe for six years, but during those years is when Poe write his more well-known books.

Society Hill 

Leaving the Poe house, we made the trek across town to the Society Hill area – gorgeous homes!! Our destination was the smallest Nation Park System Unit – the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial. Again there was a short video that shared the background of Kosciusko – highlighting his military engineering success. He was an interesting guy that you probably have not heard much about – probably because his last name is tricky to pronounce. He rented a room out of the house where he received notable visitors like Thomas Jefferson.

Prior to leaving the site, we asked the Park Ranger for recommendations for lunch.  He suggested that we check out DiNic’s Beef & Pork in the Reading Terminal Market. The sandwiches we had were awesome!  We also got cookies at the Famous 4^th St. Cookie Co. – yum! The Market was very neat, similar to the place we went to in Napa only much larger! There were lots of food options among other things like bakerys, ice cream, chocolate, seafood and fish markets, and produce! More than 100,000 people visit the Market on a weekly basis!

NFL Draft Experience!!

Near the Reading Terminal Market was the Hard Rock Café. You guessed it, Mike needed to add to his Zippo Collection! Continuing on our journey, we arrived at the NFL Draft. We arrived at a good time, with no lines at security. There were a lot of activities for fans to check out – Superbowl Rings, Statues, Locker Room displays, Hall of Fame stuff, 40-yard dash, kick a field goal, pass the ball, autograph signings, the NFL store, and of course viewing the draft stage. While we were there Detroit selected the 165 pick, we were able to get really close to the area behind the reserved seats. We had a great time at the draft! We could have spent more time, but it was 87 degrees out and we had other things to do.  The draft took place right where the Rocky stairs were so we were not able to run up them, giving us a reason to visit the city of brotherly love again! There were also a few other things that we would like to check out on a future visit – apparently the Penitentiary has a really good tour and there were a few other NPS sites we did not get to visit.

NFL Draft Experience!!

Liberty Bell

Once we were back to the Old City area, we got in line to see the Liberty Bell. Again, we had to go thru security (3 times in one day – might be a record). The line was short and we made it to the bell in no time. As expected the bell was roped off. The building that the bell is located in has a few displays to look at before you reach the bell.  There are also displays outside of the Liberty Bell Center.

Leaving the Liberty Bell, we headed back to the Independence Visitor Center to watch the two videos that were available. Also in the Visitor Center were other displays, as well as a snack bar, and ticket counter for other sites around the city.

We visited way more stuff than we had anticipated and walked a lot of miles. We headed back to the hotel for a little break before heading to dinner. For dinner, we picked a place right around the corner from where we stayed, called Race Street Café. The place was busy and the food was just okay.

April 30, 2017 (Sunday)

The newly opened Museum of the American Revolution

The Museum of the American Revolution opened a few weeks before our visit and we decided to check it out.  Tickets are given out on a timed basis. The museum was $19 for adults, but there is an AAA discount available that will save you a buck or two. Youth (6-18) were $12. I personally think kids would be bored at the main museum – however there is a kid friendly area on the main level that they would probably enjoy. The museum visit begins with a film titled Revolution. We arrived in time for the 9:30am film – the film is shown on the half hour.  We spent about 2.5 hours checking out everything the museum had to offer.  The place is divided into four main galleries – Becoming Revolutionaries (1760-1775), The Darkest Hour (1776-1778), A Revolutionary War (1778-1783) and A New Nation (1783-present).  Each gallery had short films that were played. The highlight is Washington’s War Tent (original).

I’ll wrap this post up with a few fun facts about Philadelphia! Philadelphia was the first of many things  - first “planned city”, had the first public library, the first capital of the United States, first Mint in the United States, first zoo, and first computer  - just to name a few!

Philly - April 2017 - Day 1

April 28, 2017 (Friday)

Here We Go! 6 A.M. American Airline flight to Philadelphia! 3 A.M. sure did come early! Smooth sailing to the airport – we probably could have slept for another 30 minutes! Lines were very short at the airport – huge relief since last trip they were quite long.  Again, we parked in the Big Blue Deck at Metro Airport – it is so much faster (if you remember where you park – which we did this time – end of the row right by the elevator helped).

Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site

My prior coworker, Morgan, graciously picked us up at the airport in Philly.  The pick-up area was very deserted, which made finding her super easy!  Our first stop for the day was the Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site.  The site was established in 1771. We started our visit with watching the short video before venturing out to the buildings. There are also some displays within the visitor center that we checked out – lots of furnaces!  The iron created during the American Revolution played a critical role in supplying the army. George Washington took his army to nearby Valley Forge to protect the supply lines along the Schuylkill River.  After the war, the owner, Mark Bird, had difficult collecting debts from the newly formed nation. Hopewell Furnace struggled for a bit, and then the Civil War brought some relief in the 1860’s, but then it ultimately closed in 1883. The site was free to visit. There are a few hiking trails in and around the park. We spent about 2.5 hours at the site.

Valley Forge National Historical Park

Heading back towards Philly, we stopped for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory in King of Prussia. Yum! Near there was another National Park Site – Valley Forge National Historical Park. Again, there was a short video, we watched and a large number of displays to check out.  After checking out the displays, we hoped back into the car and drove the battlefield loop. There were a few stops along the way – check out the huts, Washington’s Headquarters, and monuments. Again, this was a free site to visit!

Back to Philly, we went, again we hit some traffic.  We checked into our hotel – Holiday Inn Express Penn Landing.  Using our saved up reward points made the stay quite affordable.  We ended up with a river view – very nice, but a little load due to train traffic over the bridge and motorcycles loved to race along the road in front of the hotel.  We were so tired out from either getting up so early or all the walking we slept great!

View from Holiday Inn Express Penn Landing

Once we got everything dropped off at the hotel, we hopped back into the car and headed to Morgan’s apartment – awesome location, cute, but small!  We checkout the area near her place – the area is known as Old Town.  We grabbed a bit to eat at a place called Nick’s Roast Beef Bar & Grille. They had amazing happy hour specials and the food was good. I tried the French Onion Soup and Mac & Cheese bites. After dinner, we walked back to our hotel, which was a short walk away.

South Carolina - March 2017 weekend

March 17, 2017 (Friday)

Weekend trip!  We got cheap tickets ($130) from Detroit to Myrtle Beach, granted we had to fly on Spirit, which was not the best experience in the past. The flight both ways was not as bad as previously – so yes, we may fly again with them if the price is right and the flight not too long.

The morning started out a little rough. There was a security breach so they made us reprint our tickets once we arrived to the airport – thankfully they did not charge us for that. The bag check line was really long, out of the zig-zag and about half way down the baggage check area. Luckily, there weren’t a ton of people checking in to fly other airlines – that would have gotten very messy!

The security line was not too bad – pretty much full all thru the zig-zags, but it was moving right along.

After we landed, I waited for the luggage while Mike got the rental car which was a walk across the parking lot. We used Enterprise this trip.  We got a full size car – Chrysler 300. The car was nice, one of the better rental we have gotten for sure.

The main purpose of our trip was to visit friends, thus we headed to their place in Summerville, SC.  We could have flown into Charleston, but that flight was about $400. We decided to just drive it – it was less than 3 hours.  We stopped for lunch at a BBQ buffet place called the Bar-B-Que Barn in Moncks Corner. It was $9.95 for the buffet and there was a large selection of options. The pulled pork was really good.

It was only about a 45 minute drive to get to our friends place after lunch. We spent the afternoon hanging out and catching up. 

March 18, 2017 (Saturday)

Fort Pulaski National Monument

Since we had visited Charleston about 7 years ago, we had already visited the National Park Sites in the general vicinity. We had not ventured to Savannah, which was about a two hour drive to the south.  Getting an early start on the day, we made it to Fort Pulaski National Monument by around 11am. There is a $7/adult fee (free with NPS pass). It is said that the battle fought at this fort was turning point in military history. Masonry fortifications were the United States’ main defense through much of the 19^th century; however, during the Civil War new technology proved that masonry forts were not as great as expected. The Union army used rifled cannon to cause major damage to Fort Pulaski. The Confederates had to surrender.  We had planned to walk the lighthouse trail, but the trail was closed. Our guess is that a hurricane damaged the trail. Instead, we walked around the fort, which turned out to be a good decision. On the one side of the fort, you could see some of the damaged that the fort obtained during the war. It was super neat to see an actual cannonball stuck into the side of the fort!

Fort Pulaski National Monument

Tybee Island Lighthouse

For lunch, we headed to Tybee Island, a place that has intrigued me since one of my favorite authors bases her stories from there. We had lunch at CoCo’s Sunset Grille. It took quite a while to get our food, which was just okay. The fries tasted overcooked (oily). There was not much parking at the restaurant, I would suggest trying someplace else.

Forsyth Park Fountain

The Tybee Island Lighthouse was nearby and we stopped by there for some photos before heading back to explore Savannah.  The original lighthouse was built in 1736, making it Georgia’s oldest and tallest lighthouse.  The lighthouse is still functioning and the light can be seen 18 miles offshore. (There is a lighthouse museum and you are able to climb the lighthouse for $9 (adults). 

Savannah was a bit crazy, apparently St. Patrick’s Day is kind of a big deal there. We drove by the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist so I could snap some photos. The cathedral was built between 1873 and 1876 and is of French Gothic style. It is the oldest Roman Catholic Church in Georgia. A fire destroyed the church in 1898 and it was rebuilt immediately afterwards. Next stop was Forsyth Park. Forsyth Park is a 30-acre park that has a cast iron fountain that was erected in 1858 that was designed to resemble the grand fountain at Place de la Concorde in Paris.   We lucked out and found really close parking near the park!  It was also kind of coincidental that our friends’ cousin just happened to be at the park at the same time!  We hung out at the park for a bit, snapped a few photos of the statue and fountain before heading out for ice cream.  The cousin acted as a tour guide for us, which was great!  The line at the ice cream place, Leopold’s Ice Cream (almost 100 year old ice cream parlor), was about a 30 minute wait. The ice cream was really good and worth the wait. There were lots of flavor choices.  I selected the coconut and the caramel swirl, both were excellent. After our ice cream treat, we walked back to the car and headed back to Summerville.

Cathedral of St. John the Baptist

I almost forgot to mention a cute little place we stopped at along our way to Savannah!  There is a franchise called Caroline Cider Company. Lots of jellies, salsas, pies, and ciders. Definitely a cute place to check out. The peach cider was super good!

March 19, 2017 (Sunday)

Bell Tower at Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site

Mid-morning we ventured to a nearby state park – Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site.  Our friend has the state park pass so we were able to get in for free (otherwise $2/adult). The town was established in 1697 and was abandoned at the start of the Revolutionary War. The brick bell tower of the St. George’s Anglican Church remains and well as the fort, which was made of oyster-shell concrete called tabby. There is also a little cemetery.  Currently archaeologists are unearthing the site to find remnants of the past. The park also offers views of the Ashley River.

Next, we drove to Folly Beach, where we had lunch at Rita’s Seaside Grille. Lunch was good – I had the pulled BBQ Pork Sandwich. After lunch, we headed to the beach! There were some surfers out, but the waves were not too big. We went kite flying.

Kite Flying at Folly Beach

Mid-afternoon we said our goodbyes and then headed back to Myrtle Beach for our flight home. There was not nearly as much traffic as there was on Friday. Mike of course had to head to the Hard Rock Café to add a zippo to his collection. The Hard Rock was in an entertainment area called Broadway on the Beach.  There were a ton of restaurants and other activities in that area and we had dinner at Rooster’s Restaurant & Bar. The walls were littered with chicken jokes – some were kind of funny! We split a pizza and salad – it was just okay.

Returning the car rental, checking the bag and getting thru security was a breeze. The flight home was good and since it was only a weekend trip we parked in the Big Blue Deck ($13/day) which got us to our car faster (well maybe not since we wondered around the parking lot for quite a while).

California - February 2017 - Day 5 & 6

February 12, 2017 (Sunday)

Nike Missile Control Site LA-96

LA View 

Our last full day of soaking up the CA sunshine took us back towards LA. We stayed at one of Mike’s friend’s house in Sherman Oaks. The afternoon was spent chit-chatting and hiking.  We hiked up to the old Nike Missile Control Site LA-96 at the San Vicente Mountain Park. It was really clear so we were able to get nice views of both the ocean and downtown LA.  For dinner we walked to Mel’s Drive-In. The atmosphere is 50’s diner and they serve large portions. The food was okay.

February 13, 2017 (Monday)

The flight back home was at 11:45 am.  We cut it kind of close on time – the airport was mega busy! The drive to drop the rental car off was not too bad, when getting the rental they said to be back 2 hours before the flight, which we were pretty close to that amount of time.  It took us 25 minutes to get from the rental drop off to the terminal drop off!!!  By the time we got the luggage checked in it was about an hour to the scheduled departure.  The security line was so long they were holding people downstairs and then allowing 10-15 people at a time to go to the main security line upstairs. The line upstairs was of course really long. I asked one of the workers if we were going to make it thru the line in time for our flight and she directed us to a different line. Luckily that line was short and we made it to our gate just before the flight started boarding. Somehow we once again got stuck in the back row of the plane, this time the flight attendants were not as nice and did not provide us with anything for being stuck in the back row.

We did have a semi-famous person on our return flight – Rory Feek from the county star duo of Joey + Rory.   He boarded the plane a few people behind us and was very friendly.

All-in-all it was a nice getaway. It would have been nice to have clear weather in San Diego and more time at the park at the top of the aerial tramway. Apparently there is also a waterfall that we missed in an Indian Reservation in Palm Springs. Until next time – Happy Travels!

California - February 2017 - Day 4

February 11, 2017 (Saturday)

Time to cross out another National Park Site, this time Joshua Tree National Park. Our first stop was the Joshua Tree Visitor Center, which had a medium size display area. We picked up the park newspaper which highlighted different hiking options. Down the road from the visitor center was the park entrance, where the fee is $25/car (or free if you have a NPS pass). The pass is valid for 7 days.

Joshua Tree NP

Hiking was plentiful throughout the park.  We hiked the following trails on our drive thru the park: Baker Dam, Hidden Valley, and Keys View (not much of a hike, more just an overlook with a steep walk to the top).

Joshua Tree NP

The only trail we had a problem with was the Skull Rock trail. We visited the rock and then picked up the trail across the road from it, we had intended to do the Discovery Trail loop, but somehow we must have missed a turn. The next sign that we came across had the arrow pointing the direction that we had come from.  Finally the trail wrapped to the road and we discovered we were on the Skull Rock trail, which then cut us thru the parking lot of the campground before putting us back on the trail. We did not attempt to find the trail that we wanted, but moved on down the road to the next trail.

Upon leaving the park we stopped at the Oasis Visitor Center. Again the visitor center was not overly large. There are restrooms, bookstore, and water fill stations available.

We had lunch at Pappy and Harriets in Pioneertown.  We were told it would be an hour wait, but to check back in 15-20 minutes.  Well we checked back at 20 minutes and they already had our name crossed off the list!  Luckily they were able to set us immediately and we did not have to get back on the list. The food was just okay, I had the pulled pork and the cheese fries. The atmosphere was neat. The place is basically an old barn. The place is well known because famous musicians (Paul McCartney in 2016) stop by and play there.

Joshua Tree NP

After lunch we headed back to Joshua Tree, to the Black Rock Nature Center area. The visitor center was small, but the staff was very helpful regarding hiking options. We hiked the Hi-View Nature Trail. The trail has numbers along the way and there is a guide book at the visitor center to help you understand the plants and general topography. The hike is 1.3 miles if you start at the trail head. You can also start near the visitor center to make the hike a little longer.

The only area of Joshua Tree that we did not visit was the Cottonwood Spring area. 

California - February 2017 - Day 3

February 10, 2017 (Friday)

Panning for GOLD!

After checking out we headed to the Eagle & High Point Gold Mine in Julian for some history of the gold rush. The tour was $10/adult and $5/child. The tour lasted about an hour and a half. It was a neat tour – we got to pan for gold and walk around in the mine. The mine was 11 floors, the tour took you on two of them. The place was a little tough to get to, the GPS was trying to take us away that would not go through and then once we did get on track the road was really rough (but not long).  Tourism is the largest industry in Julian. The town is well known for its apple pies, the climate in the area is ideal for apple growing. The entire township is designated as a historical district.

Eagle Mine 1870

San Jacinto Mountains

We continued driving through the mountains on our way to Palm Springs.  There were some nice viewpoints that we stopped at along the way. We also stopped at the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument Visitor Center, where we hiked the Randall Henderson Trail. There were three different trail loops, we hiked to the second loop. Unfortunately we did not spot any bighorn sheep.

The previous day we booked a trip up the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway.  There were two options for the tramway – with or without a meal. We decided to eat at the top since it was only $10 more ($25.95/adult without the meal or $36/adult with the meal). The Tram starts in the Chino Canyon (elev. 2643 feet) and takes to up to Mountain Station (elev. 8516 feet). It is a 2.5 mile ascend that takes about 10 minutes! The Tramway features the world’s largest rotation tramcar. Up to 80 guests can ride the tramcar and the tramcar rotates two full rotations on the ride. I should warn you that there is a $5 parking fee that we did not know about prior to arriving. The food at the restaurant was well worth the $10 – you get a salad, roll, veggie, potato and main meat (or vegetable lasagna).

Mountain Station

Once we made it to the top we headed outdoors right away since it was late afternoon.  There was about 3 feet of snow at the top of the mountain! It was about 45 degrees during our visit and the snow was a bit slushy. Heading back inside we watched the videos about the park and how the tramway was constructed.  By the time we headed back down the mountain it was dark out. The view out of the tram was pretty with all the city lights shining (sorry no photo – the rotating tramcar did not provide good photo options).

California - February 2017 - Day 2

February 9, 2017 (Thursday)

Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery

San Diego, here we come! It was about an hour drive from Ramona to San Diego. Our first stop was the Cabrillo National Monument. Actually we stopped at the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery for some photos before heading to the monument. The monument opens at 9am (we were the first in line). There is a $10 fee/car to get into the site or free with a NPS pass. It was super foggy on the drive to the site, luckily some of the fog lifted by 9.

A few video options were available and shown on the hour. The visitor center did not have a ton of information, but enough to explain the importance of the site.  It is believed that the park site was the first location that Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo stepped onto what is now the West Coast of the US (1542).

USS Theodore Roosevelt - Cabrillo NP

There are a couple of things to see while visiting the site. Then the tide is low you can check out the tidepools, there is a lighthouse that you can climb into, and there is the Cabrillo Statue. There is also a 2-mile hike that takes you thru a coastal sage scrub habitat. We hiked the trail and it provided nice views of activities going on in the bay.  The USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier was going out to sea during our visit – very neat!  Unfortunately during our visit it was too foggy to do any whale watching.

Old Town State Park Area

Old Town State Historic Park was our next destination. There are a bunch of old buildings, shops and restaurants. We headed to Old Town Mexican Cafe for lunch and then wandered around Old Town. Parking was free. The restaurant again, was just okay.

The Gaslamp District was next on the docket. Mike needed to stop by the Hard Rock Café to collect another Zippo. The Gaslamp district is a shipping district, with lots of stores and a mall. It is known as an entertainment district with nationally recognized nightlife venues. We did not do much exploring of the area since we do not go on vacation to shop!

Our last stop for the day was Balboa Park. The place was very busy so we just did a drive-thru before heading back to Ramona for the night. Balboa Park is the home of the San Diego Zoo, 15 major museums, performing art concert halls, and gardens. Of course there are also playground areas, restaurants, and trails.