Friday, July 2, 2010

Our Summer Vacation-2010 Part 3

Monday, Barnegat, NJ

This was my most favorite part of the vacation. I love the beach and and I love light houses. IMG_7605

Love this beautiful old light house!!

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The guys talked me into climbing it. All 217 steps up in a spiral shape. The kind you can see through…not a fun time for me. I am very scared of heights. Every 30 steps there was a platform you cold stop and rest. Not only am I out of shape, but the fright itself about did me in…

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Looking up from the top inside to the “light”. Jeff took this picture. I pretty much said “I made it to the top” then went right back down as fast as I could.

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A view from the top…

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The little area you could walk out on and look down. No thanks!!

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Someone had taken the time to spell out “Hi” with rocks on the beach below. Cute!

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That is me and Taylor, safe and sound back on the ground!!

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Some beautiful roses that grow there by the beach. They smell so wonderful!

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The boys enjoyed climbing out on some rocks by the bay.

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Jacob loves climbing on rocks!

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Jacob loves the beach!!

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Three handsome boys!!

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Barnegat Lighthouse

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The boys loved being in New Jersey!

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cute little guy!

We spent the afternoon on the beach, letting the boys play in the sand and water. This was their first time on the Eastern shore. The beach isn’t as nice as our Gulf Shores beaches, but they were nice. (at least there was no oil!!) The sand isn’t as white, but other than that not a whole lot of difference.

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Atlantic City, New Jersey

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I think these wind farms are so neat. They have them out west too!

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Monday night we went to the famed “Board Walk”. We parked in a parking deck for a casino. This sign was in the elevator. Ha! We thought that was pretty interesting. We didn’t feel safe till we got back in our van with the doors lock and were on our way back to the hotel!!

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These hydrangea’s were growing all along the walk down to the “Board Walk”.

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I love this one. Hydrangea’s are my favorite flower!!

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The Board Walk….

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We stopped in this little shop to eat supper.

This guy was making our pizza…

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There is no way I can tell you how big this pizza was and it was the medium size. That is Jeff’s hand stretched as far as it could to show the size of one slice. It was very good!! No, we didn’t finish it, and my boys and husband can put away the pizza!!

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Sorry the pictures are blurry. This is the amusement park that is on the Board Walk.

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Much clearer…

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We thought this sign was funny. Who ever heard of fried Oreo's? Yuck!!

Tuesday, Cape May, NJ and Delaware, Washington D.C.

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This light house- the Absecon Lighthouse, is close to Atlantic City, so we stopped by to see it on our way out Tuesday morning. It was closed though and we couldn’t see it.

IMG_7700 Cape May, New Jersey

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Very nice park, but it costs too much to go up in. I had had enough of climbing lighthouses though!! ha!

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The jawbone of a whale!!

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Cape May, New Jersey

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Beautiful beaches!

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We crossed back into Delaware on this boat…That was a really cool experience for all of us. None of us got sea sick, which was a huge relief. The water was not choppy at all though.

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The boys had lots of fun!

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It was hazy that day, so it makes this ship look like a “ghost ship”.

It was neat though.

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Back in Washington D.C.-at the Jefferson Memorial

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Thomas Jefferson…

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Me and Jacob in the Jefferson Memorial.IMG_7747

The Washington Monument-taken from the porch of the Jefferson Memorial.

Wednesday-Castle Smithsonian and National Spy Museum

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Jeff in front of the Castle Smithsonian. This was the original Smithsonian museum.

Next we went to the International Spy Museum. They don’t allow any pictures inside. The boys loved this place. It costs a pretty good bit to go through, but I think it was worth it. It is a huge place and lots of fun. You see lots of real “spy” items. (cameras hidden in purses, information hidden in a secret hole in the heel of a shoe, and a gun in a tube of lip stick are just a few. We were all given new identities and back ground information. (I was 21, from Italy! Ha!)It took hours to go through, but it was really fun.

On the way home, we rode the Metro to the Ronald Regan Airport to get Pop Pop’s car (where he left it while we went to N.J.) Jeff and I decided to ride the Metro back to the parking lot where we had left our van. So dad drives off with our boys AND our backpack that held both of our cell phones AND the van keys. Yikes!! We knew right away that the backpack was in his trunk, but didn’t think about the keys till later. We tried using a pay phone to call dad on his cell phone but it wouldn’t go through. So we rode the Metro back to the parking lot, then decided to take a taxi back to our hotel. Both of us were exhausted!! We had walked our legs off in the hottest weather so far, all over Washington D.C. and then rode I don’t know how many Metros which were packed at that time of the day (afternoon traffic). I was very nervous about riding in a taxi. Don’t ask why, just one of those things. I had never done it before and I guess being so tired didn’t help. But Jeff reassured me that it would be fine. And God was watching over us, he led us to a cab driven by a Christian fellow!! I am so blessed! God is so good!! He knew just what I needed at that very minute!!We got back safely to the hotel, just in time for dad and the boys to arrive from the airport (they had been stuck in rush hour traffic also!). Jeff and his dad then went to get the van and all was well. We left the next morning for Alabama. We took our time-drove 1/2 the way Thursday and the other 1/2 Friday. It is good to be home!!

2 comments:

Judith Anne said...

Oh my goodness, I loved all your pictures! It looks like you all really enjoyed your vacation and I am happy for that. You guys visited a lot of neat places and I loved getting to see "some" of what you saw. I must say the spy museum has piqued my interest. Love you guys!

Bethany Fleming said...

Sounds like a really cool time! Glad you guys got to do all that. It brought back memories of the time I was visiting some of those same places.