Summer Vacation

Baltimore, Philly and DC

Brett and I flew to Baltimore last week to visit my brother, Corey, and his family. Corey goes to Johns Hopkins for Biomedical Engineering and moved out there about a year ago. It was so much fun to see where they live and all the historical sites back east. The first night we got there we went to Inner Harbor where the Star Spangled Banner was written. We ate outside and went on the dragon paddle boats because Conner wanted to ride on it so bad. Conner is the cutest kid, he is so happy and funny. He always says, "yep!" Apparently he got that from Corey. They have a really cute row home, we stayed in their basement which saved us a lot of money and it was more comfortable than some hotel anyway.

The paddle boat at Inner Harbor.

Inside a Barnes and  Noble that used to  be a power plant, the smoke stacks are still inside.

Corey had to work a few of the days so Brett and I went to Philadelphia one day on our own. There are a bunch of things to see, all within walking distance. The city had a weird smell, and it was so hot there. We saw the Liberty Bell, a Constitution museum that was a complete rip off by the way. There was a church that George Washington and Ben Franklin attended, the church is still a functioning church too. On Elfreth's Alley you can see the oldest residential street in the country that people still live on. The homes are very narrow, and very expensive to live on. It was so crazy to imagine living in a home that was there since before the Revolutionary War.

The Liberty Bell

Brett is sitting on the same pew, George Washington sat. Here he is singing a hymn and trying to be George Washington, I think he needs to white wig to really pull it off.

Here I am trying to be Georgie as well.

Well, I'm pleased to meet you, Mr. Bronze Statue. This was the museum that was a waste of money, so I tried to make the best of of.

Elfreth's Alley. The homes are very cute and very tiny, they've been updated and added onto but they are the original homes that were here in the 1700's.

Betsy Ross' home.

Corey, Conner and Becca at lunch. We went to market and brought food back to Corey's school.

The market we went to. There are tons of indoor food courts all over the place in Baltimore. It was an experience for sure!

Mount Vernon was a really cool place. It is George Washington's home and it is huge. This guy had tons of money apparently because the property was so large. It's right on the Potomac River, it had beautiful views and the forest was his back yard. We weren't supposed to take pictures inside the mansion but I did anyway, but they didn't turn out well at all. We walked around for a really long time but it was very informative. I learned a lot. He had tons of slaves, and treated them "fairly" according to some, but I found all the slavery to be so sad. There is such a reminder of it back east, I almost forget how bad it was when I'm in Utah. There aren't any slave houses here, but there are everywhere back there. It was funny when we were looking at George Washington's grave because we didn't realize there was a line to see it and we walked right up to it, took pictures and were there a few minutes before we turned around and saw the huge line we cut in front of ha ha! We went on an hour hunt for the slave house too. I really wanted to see it, and we kept taking the wrong turns, so it was an amusing experience!

View of the river behind Mt. Vernon.

In front of the mansion.

We went to see Brett's brother, Justin and his family on night. On the way there we went to see the Amish in Intercourse (ha ha) Penn. There were the funniest town names there. We ate the best ice cream ever at the Amish town, it tasted like Heaven. I think it was even better than Farr's to be honest, that's a big accomplishment. And I ate a whoopie pie, pumpkin flavored. I think my tongue went to heaven when I ate that thing. I looked like a pig, but I don't care, it was delicious!!!!!! We had hamburgers and played outside with Justin's family. The kids are getting so big! Miles wanted to keep washing his hands and making us all laugh! It was good to see them, we wish we had spent more time with them though.

In front of Justin and Amber's house with Kade, Kenley, Marcus and Miles.

In the Amish town!

At Ritas, it's a custard and icey type thing. It's so good, we had it two nights there.

Conner just loved Brett, he wanted him to push his stroller, to hold him, get him in and out of the car seat and everything. Here they are playing on the steps, they were there for a long time just talking it was so cute. My favorite was was Conner loved me and wanted me to read to him and he'd point to every picture and say "What's that one?" He's a curious boy just like his father! Corey and Conner are so similar it just makes me laugh.

So Corey is a genius scientist but he also is making a joke book. He has started to draw some of his jokes and he read a bunch to us and had them rate them on it's funny factor. His drawings were hilarious and added to the jokes a lot. He had a joke about everything, you should all ask him some of them! We went to his lab as well, and we saw breast cancer cells and monkey kidney cells under a microscope, and watched him feed his cells. I knew he was a scientist and all but to see his lab was really weird. I don't even know what anything in there does, and here he was feeding his cells ha ha!

Here are the two buddies chatting away :)

Washington DC was awesome. We saw all the monuments, a bunch of museums and my feet were killing me by the end! We saw more art museums than we did of the other ones, and they were the ones with the least amount of people, which is sad. I saw some amazing art and bought a few art books as my souvenir for the trip. We also went to the Baltimore Museum of Art earlier in the week and that museum was free too! I love free art! Corey showed us all the sites and we had lunch on the lawn that Becca was night and made for us. Luckily it wasn't too hot that day, I was sick of sweating so I didn't complain that it was cool. It was packed with tourists though, Corey said it was the busiest he'd ever seen it. The line to see the Constitution was 2 hours long so we had to skip it. I felt that the Vietnam Memorial made the biggest impact on me compared to the other memorials. It really is an amazing memorial.

Outside the train station in DC.

Where's Obama?

A real crystal ball.... I'm seeing into the future and I see a giant hammie.

The Lincoln Memorial was pretty cool as well. It was a big reminder of what he did for the country.

On Sunday we went to Loch Raven which is a really pretty lake surrounded by forest. Conner was wearing his dinosaur hat that was so cute. It felt like we were in the mountains, even though it's not. I didn't realize that Utah really is a desert. I mean, I know it is, but when I saw how many trees Baltimore had I couldn't believe it, they're everywhere. You can't tell where you are in relation to other places, or what direction you're facing. Everyone talks about the amazing sky in Utah and I forgot how other places you look up and see a piece of sky but here we can look from one end of the valley to the other which really is pretty. It was hard to say goodbye, we had so much fun and miss Corey, Becca and Conner!!