Bainbridge, NY-Tall Pines Campground

Our week here was spent right on the river at Tall Pines Campground. It was a pretty little place with full hook-ups and cable (a nice bonus every now and then).

This campground is owned by a full-time family, The Bennett's. They run their campground during the summer months and travel for the rest of the year! It was very family friendly with a pool and had several activities for the kids on the weekends.

There's not much to do in the area though but for those who are just going camping, I suppose that is fine. The area is really pretty though with rolling hills and mountains and its just so green!

Our one outing was to Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville. It was a fun petting zoo kind of place which the kids always enjoy. (BUT nothing has come close to beating the Critter Barn that we visited last year in Michigan.)

(the two Jacobs)

(Jordan just got slobbered!)

The kids fed all sorts of animals and listened to a couple of short talks on some of the animals. They even got to feed a camel, a giraffe, tortoises and bottle feed little piggies.

 (Max the camel is one of the largest of his kind)

We also tried bottle feeding the 7-week old camel but he wasn't too interested. He's only been at the park for two weeks and still has his umbilical cord!

The rest of the time we just hung out at the campground swimming, playing with our new friends Elissa and Angel, 

doing crafts and attending the pirate party!

(Jacob won the Walk the Plank backwards contest)

We had a good time!  Next up is Lake Champlain, NY

Washington DC-Cherry Hill Park, Maryland (State #26)

This week was exciting and exhausting! Greg was off for the entire week and we explored ALL day, EVERY day. We stayed at Cherry Hill Park which looks like an awesome place to stay. I say that because we didn't get to experience the things they offered because we were basically only there to sleep. But the day of our arrival, the kids played in their new splash park and we went to their very helpful, one-hour talk on exploring and getting around DC.

The campground was full hook up, had laundry facilities, cable, putt-putt, 2 pools, the splash pad, at least a couple of playscape areas and a bus stop right in the park. It was only about a 10 minute drive to the train station to take us into DC. Because there are four of us, it was cheaper for us to drive and park at the train station rather than ride the bus there but I thought it was great that the bus system also offered like four buses in the morning that went from the campground directly to the train without any additional stops.

There is soooo much to see and do in DC! One week is not enough although my body would suggest otherwise :) Are you ready? Here comes the pictures!

White House and Visitor's Center (even though we tried six months in advance, we were not able to get a tour)

 (Our close up White House picture-fake, of course, since you just can't get THAT close)

 The real picture :)

 (North lawn)

(South lawn)

Archives (we tried to view the original Constitution and Declaration of Independence but the line was too long and we ran short on time)

Supreme Court

We missed the decision on Gay Marriage by just 3 days but were waiting outside with the news crews as they were awaiting the decisions regarding using Independent Redistricting Committees and when the EPA must consider costs in the Clean Air Act.

It was fun to watch the interns run across the front steps of the Supreme Court building with the decisions and then watch the news crews do their stories LIVE.

Arlington National Cemetery

By recommendation, we chose a hop-on hop-off trolley ride here. It was a good decision with all of the hills and walking, even though our trolley broke down trying to make it up a hill.

Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

John F. Kennedy's burial site and the Arlington House (built by George Washington's step-grandson and adopted son, George Washington Parke Custis and later a home of Robert E. Lee after marrying into the family).

Iwo Jima Memorial

Pentagon 9/11 Memorial

Library of Congress
This was a beautiful building inside!!!  A must see.

(reading room)

National Gallery of Art Sculpture Gardens

(didn't get any sculpture pictures, just a fountain one)

Washington National Cathedral This place was gorgeous! Construction on the cathedral began in 1907 and was completed in 1990. It is the 6^th largest in the world. It is shaped like a cross with the nave being a tenth of a mile.

The stained glass windows were beautiful. This one is from the Lee-Jackson Bay. It shows the Confederate flag and with the recent controversy of the flag, a decision has been made to remove it (so of course, I had to get a picture of it before it is changed).

Here's a couple of the other chapels

and a really pretty mosaic high on the wall in another chapel.

International Spy Museum the kids were super excited about this but quickly disappointed. It was interesting and I would have enjoyed checking it out some more but it was SO crowded and the kids lost interest. I don't like having to push through other people just to view the displays. We left after a couple of hours. It was one of the few things we did that we had to pay for.

Jefferson Memorial

FDR Memorial

MLK, Jr. Memorial

("Out of the Mountain of Despair, A Stone of Hope")

Korean War Memorial

I really liked this one.  We saw it lit up at night and then again in the rain during the day.  It made it that much more realistic.

Vietnam War Memorial

(well it was pouring on us when we made it to this one and the one picture I snapped was a complete failure)

World War II Memorial

Albert Einstein Memorial

Washington Monument

And I saved my Top 5 FAVORITES for last:

#5 Capital Tour I wasn't overly amazed by this but I really liked it because of what it is and what it represents. We had a great, captivating guide that reminded us both of Kenneth from the TV series 30 Rock!

After the guided portion, we visited both the House and Senate Galleries (no pictures allowed)

And then we stopped by the offices of our state Senators

This is the rotunda in the Russell Senate office building.  This is where many interviews are done.

#4 Lincoln Memorial We visited this memorial during the day and at night and I just think it is such a beautiful monument. It's so massive and Lincoln is so grand and just glows up there on his chair!

And it made a wonderful backdrop for getting a Junior Ranger badge! ;)

#3 Smithsonian Museum of Natural History We could have spent days here. 

There were so many awesome things to see:  

Real Easter Island statues,

Real mummies, 

hissing cockroaches (ick!),

THE Hope Diamond,

real giant squids, animals that we have never seen or heard of before.. The list goes on!

#2 Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Wow! is what you say when you walk into this place. They have some really great things on display here.  So many REAL artifacts

Most of it is original, including many of Orville and Wilbur Wright's fliers. 

(THE ACTUAL Wright Flyer)

They also offered docent led guided tours of the museum which we opted for. It was fantastic! The kids petered out after an HOUR but Greg continued on the tour for another hour until it ended.

 (THE ACTUAL Spaceship One.  First privately funded spaceship)

 (THE ACTUAL Apollo 11 Command Module)

(ACTUAL Lunar Lander meant for unmanned Earth-orbit flight)

#1 Udvar-Hazy Center National Air & Space Museum (actually in Chantilly, VA) So what do you do with aircraft that is too big to bring into the city of DC for the Air & Space Museum? You build another location to house them and this is where it is. This place was beyond awesome. Since we enjoyed the docent guided tour at the first museum, we opted for it again here and it was another fantastic two hour tour.

Some of the coolest things were:

THE Space Shuttle Discovery

A REAL SR 71 Blackbird

THE Enola Gay that dropped the first atomic bomb

and a REAL Air France Supersonic Concorde

And here's a couple more neat things

(Huge restoration hanger.  This is just half.

Notice the Space Shuttle in the background!)

 (Jacob is not too sure about this helicopter)

(And this is just wild!)

I am not so sure the kids would be excited if we told them in the future that we were headed back to DC because I don't think they enjoyed it as much as Greg and I did. It was A LOT of walking and seeing things that they were just not interested in. They were troopers and did amazingly well. We made sure to try to get pictures of them with most of these things so that when we study them more they will be excited to see that they have been there and seen it, making them feel a little more connected to the history.

Of course they did enjoy some of it and since they had watched Night at the Museum previously some things felt familiar.

We also had a good time on the Metro rail station and by the end of our time there, the kids were getting a hang of reading the system map and figuring out how much further and where we were going. At one point, Jacob and Daddy got separated from Jordan and I when the doors shut between us but fortunately we had made plans in advance for what to do and we met up with no problem.

And since our time there ended on the Fourth of July, we had one last amazing experience. We got to watch the fireworks display from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and over the reflecting pool!  (Check out the crowd!)

The kids found other kids to play with while we waited a couple of hours and we found some friendly neighbors to chat with.

The haziness of the sky definitely affected the fireworks we could see but it was still extremely awesome. They even had fireworks that made smiley faces and ones that spelled out USA.

You could tell from the many squeals, laughs and applause that the kids really enjoyed it too. It was a perfect way to end our DC visit!

So long for now! We are heading back to NY.