Unfortunately, our vacation had to end. :( We made it from Hampton, VA to Tarpon Springs FL in one day and made great time. We passed through the Carolinas and Georgia on our way. Our very first stop on our trip was a lunch stop in Gainesville at Chipotle, so appropriately we completed our circle around the country with dinner at Chipotle in Gainesville. We left on May 30th and returned July 24th. We visited 36 states, as well as British Columbia and D.C. We travelled a total of 11,265 miles. Ashley's favorite part was rafting in Glen Canyon. Matt's was Yosemite National Park, but we would both go back to any place we had visited! Thank you everyone who let us into their homes, visited with us, and followed our blog. It truly was the trip of a lifetime!
We spent a week with Matt's family in Ocean City, Maryland. We had such a great time spending time with family, hanging out at the beach, going to the boardwalk and eating great food! Thank you everyone for the wonderful week! We then visited Ashley's uncle and aunt in Hampton. They took us fishing on their boat. Ashley would have had a great catch, but something else ate her fish off the hook! We had a lot of fun and were very well taken care of. Thank you Uncle Don and Aunt Chris!
We went to DC for a couple of days and got to visit with our close friend Alli. We tried to see as much as we could in a small amount of time. We saw the Capitol, the White House, the Washington Monument, the WWII memorial, the Vietnam memorial, the Korea memorial and the Lincoln monument. We also visited the American History museum, where we saw some neat things like Dorothy's ruby slippers, Kermit the frog, and the original Washington monument. We also went to the Natural History museum where we saw dinosaur bones and the Hope diamond. Later, Alli took us to the National Archives where we saw the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights. We had a great time with Alli and are so happy for her hard work and success up in DC. Thanks so much Alli!
Sorry for the delay in blog posts! We had such a great time with family we let it slide. After Boston we passed through Philadelphia where we visited Ashley's cousin Shaun and Ashley had her first official Philly cheese steak. So yummy! We stayed in Baltimore for a few days with Matt's grandparents. There we also visited with Matt's aunt and uncle, and two of his cousins. We visited the Inner Harbor where we saw Camden Yards and the Ravens stadium. We also went to Fort McHenry (the site where Francis Scott Key wrote the poem that became our national anthem). The flag that flies there today still has 15 stars and stripes to represent what our flag looked like during the Battle of 1814 when the poem was written. Thank you grandmom and pop pop for a wonderful visit!
We stopped in Boston for a few days to visit Matt's Aunt Jenny and Uncle Bruce, and cousin Luke. We drove through downtown and saw Fenway, and stopped at the Sunset, a bar that has over 100 beers on tap and over 400 bottles. We went with Uncle Bruce to the Sam Adams brewery, where we tried beers only sold in Boston. We visited Minuteman Militia Historic Park, and learned that Paul Revere was actually captured by the British during his "ride" and there were actually three others involved who warned the town. The next day we walked down the Freedom Trail from Faneuil Hall to Paul Revere's house. Along the way we stopped at Cheers, the oldest restaurant in America (Union Oyster House) and the oldest bar in America (Bell in Hand Tavern), where we tried the Sam Adams beer brewed exclusively for the tavern. We of course had to have our favorite, Dunkin Donuts, because it started in Boston and can be found on every street corner. Thank you so much to Jenny, Bruce and Luke for welcoming us and showing us a great time in Boston!
We spent the 4th of July holiday in Acadia National Park in Maine. Although we enjoyed the park, it was not as magnificent as the other parks we have been to. We did make it all the way to the top, where you can be the first in the U.S. to spot the sunrise (no, we did NOT wake up that early). We celebrated the 4th of July down at Bar Harbor and had a great surf and turf meal with Maine lobster tail and got to watch fireworks over the water. Bar Harbor was beautiful and we would love to go back sometime.
