See America 2008

We had a great half day in Chicago. We went up to the Sears Tower Sky Deck on the 103rd floor and took in the sweeping views at all compass points. The weather was immaculate. I would recommend this to anyone. This is more involved than just walking into the building and taking the elevator tot he top. They stage the elevator rides by showing a 10-15 minute video highlighting the history of Sears and construction of the building that we found quite interesting.


From there it was westward ho. After insane traffic trying to leave Chicagoland (in the 3pm hour), we traversed the state of Illinois along the northern border with Wisconsin, through beautiful rolling farm land. Much of is was reminiscent of the Willamette Valley in Oregon, where I grew up. It was not as flat as I was expecting. We crossed the Mississippi River into Dubuque, Iowa, where we are staying at the Mainstay Suites, an excellent budget suites motel - no pool though.









Plan for tomorrow: Visit the Field of Dreams movie location - that farm near Dyersville, IA, where much of the movie took place. From there, we head south to Nauvoo, IL, another significant Mormon history site. There we hope to see the Nauvoo Pageant. We will then continue south to Keokuk, IA, for the night.

For future reference, there are no "light" visitation days at Cedar Point during the summer peak season. I had a dim hope that going there on a Tuesday, being a typical work day, we might catch a break from long lines one might see on the weekends.

The place was a zoo. You know when a theme park has its own radio traffic info signs on the interstate 20 miles away that lots of folks are headed there. Today was no exception. The weather was sunny and hot, and the roads were choked in the 10am hour. For some perspective, we arrived about 10:30 and parked in section 28-C of 75-K potential sections.

We decided to walk to the back end of the park and make our way forward to the entrance, checking off roller coasters as we went. As we walked, we decided to dive into a line if there seemed to be few riders. We first rode Mantis, after a full 1 hour in line. Rather than pictures, you can view the park's video of these rides by following the ride links. Next we rode Mean Streak twice, back-to-back, and the wait was shorter than the actual ride - go figure. We have experience now with two of the country's major wooded coasters, Mean Streak and Ghostrider at Knott's Berry Farm in California. I think Mean Streak is a longer duration ride, newer, and features more steep drops, but we thoroughly love both. I think we agree that Mean Streak was the best ride we were able to ride today. From there, we rode Iron Dragon and Blue Streak in succession with very little wait. Finally, we rode Raptor, after about a 45 minute wait. We had hoped to ride the Millennium Force, but the 1.5 hour wait time was too much to overcome, given that we still had to drive to Chicago by nightfall.

So the inevitable compromises trading off attraction time and driving time had to be made, and we left Cedar Point right at 3 pm, as originally planned, after only getting to ride only 5 of the 17 possible coasters and getting just 6 total rides in 4.5 hours. The kids were in great spirits about the plan and no one felt cheated. A new sign of growing maturity in Kimberly and Jake, as they were able to "do the math" and figure that even if we had all day, we would not be able to ride all the coasters possible, due to the crowds in the park and the associated wait times.

We got into Chicago and are staying at the Courtyard Downtown/River North, the best hotel room so far on the trip. We pulled off the freeway for dinner in South Bend, Indiana, at regional chain found in the Midwest and South called Stake and Shake. It is basically a retro diner concept featuring fast food and waiter service, where everything is ala carte. We liked the food (burgers) and had no complaints.

Plan for tomorrow: Right now the plan is to go to the top of the Sears Tower, but beyond that we have not yet planned. We will likely make better plans after a good night's sleep and a good breakfast in the morning. We also arranged for a late check out, so we can tour around without our luggage.

Sorry, no pics were shot today...

Today might have been the closest-to-plan day so far. We were eager to get up and get out of the dump motel we had in Niagara Falls. There was zero traffic at 9:30 going into Canada over the Rainbow Bridge border. We paid $20 to park in the main public parking, which is a bargain if you consider that no other admission is charged for full access to the Canadian side of the falls.

We did what I imagine 99% of tourists do at Niagara Falls. We walked the paved walk from just above the falls, downstream to nearly directly across from American Falls. These two huge waterfalls are truly magnificent and should be seen in person once in one's life. Then we crossed the main avenue and walked back to the car via the several souvenir shops along the way. We were back across the border by 11:30am.

Since we were trying to keep a schedule, we passed on all the other tourist trap attractions in the area and headed south and west to Ohio. In an attempt to control costs, we are having our lunches on the road, from the cooler we bought and provisioned as we left Boston. We made it to the Kirtland Visitor Center by about 3pm. While there we took the abbreviated tour, which included a 24 minute film about the settlement of the area by Mormons in the 1830's, which can only be seen at that visitor center. The film was followed by a tour of the Whitney Home and the Whitney Store. These locations figure very prominently in the early history of the LDS Church. The first Bishop's Storehouse was run from the Whitney Store and became the basis for what today is a worldwide welfare and humanitarian aide complex spanning 6 continents.

Tonight we are staying at the Hampton Inn in Westlake, OH. It is below average for the many Hampton Inns in which I've lodged before, but is a night and day improvement over the dump we stayed in yesterday. We had dinner in the local Buca di Beppo - a chain yes, but not one available to us in the Tri Cities. The food was good, but for some bizarre reason, they did not have any bread available. They resorted to baking pizza dough into dinner breads. How does that happen?

Plan for tomorrow: Drive 40 miles west to Sandusky and the Cedar Point theme park. Known as America's Roller Coast, this park on the Lake Erie shore is considered the roller coaster capital of the world. I expect we will spend 4-5 hours here, depending on the crowds, then make for Chicago.

Additional pics have been uploaded.

We arrived in Cooperstown just in time for the Hall of Fame to open. However, upon inquiring several times, it became apparent that the hope of meeting Dave Niehaus in person would be dashed. That didn't diminish the experience of the Hall of Fame, however. We were in awe of the sheer magnitude of exhibits and depth of coverage of the stars of the game through the generations.

I will say that the opening movie presentation focusing on the baseball experience was either too short or should spend more time focusing on the games and plays that have become lore over the years. If you want to evoke emotion in your visitors, that's certainly a good way to start.

We spent 3.5 hours wandering the 3 floors, which again was not enough time for Jake who was drinking it all in. We had to break away and move on to Palmyra, or we would not get in to Niagara until the wee hours. We were also disappointed that the Induction Ceremony was not until 1:30. So, we would not be able to see Niehaus' induction speech in person as we had hoped. Let me say, however, that in no way was our experience diminished - the Hall of Fame exceeded my expectations completely.

By 3:30 we made it to the Smith Family Farm and the Sacred Grove sites. We took the full tour then wandered through the Sacred Grove. You really need that experience to help bring to life the many artist renditions of what took place there. The Church has done a great job of restoring the farm and preserving the current grove.

We next ventured into Palmyra and visiting the original printing site of the Book of Mormon and got another full tour of that original building. By the end of that tour it was after 6pm, and we were tired and hungry. So we quickly drove to the top of the Hill Cumorah and walked out to the Moroni monument.
























We finally made it to the Buffalo metro area in the 8:00 hour, and set to looking for food and gas. We happened upon a small Chinese take-out joint called Gin Gin by chance and found it to be surprisingly good and cheap for a change. By about 9:45 we were checking in to the Niagara Falls Quality Inn, which turned out to be somewhat of a flea bag, but the price was right. The motel had undergone several renovations over the years, and out second floor room had what used to be an exterior window that now overlooks the inside of the new lobby. Need I say more?

Plan for tomorrow: We would like to get over to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls reasonably early, and hopefully avoid what Monday traffic there might be. Then its on to Kirtland, Ohio, to see more LDS history sites in that area. We plan to stay in Westlake, a western suburb of Cleveland, Monday night.

Until today I had not realized just how verdant the State of Vermont really is. The pictures I've seen do not do it justice. Vermonters, of course, have no interest in trumpeting these facts to the wider world, and inviting more settlers. Jake was especially impressed with the greenery, making me realize that he has no frame of reference other than the Tri Cities for comparison.

After making our provisioning stop at one of the more hideous Walmarts we could recall, we ventured north out of Massachusetts, into and through New Hampshire, and into Vermont. As the miles rolled by, the topography grew more varied, and the traffic lightened proportionally. At this point I should introduce our transportation - a new Chrysler Town and Country minivan rental from Thrifty car rental. We are doing a one-way rental from Boston to Washington DC.

Our single goal for the day was to visit the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial in the hills above Sharon, VT. We got there about 1:30 and were about the only visitors around. We took the guided tour, including the golf cart tour out to the remains of the original homesteads on the property, owned by the Mack family, Joseph Smith's mother's family.

I was surprised to learn that the "Old Turnpike Road" traversed the Mack property. This wagon route linked Canada with points south in the US during the 1800's, and remnants of the old stone walls on its borders are still visible. Also ruts cut into an original stone bridge are still visible today.




As with all the Church historical sites, volunteer missionaries staff the visitor centers, maintenance functions, and other visitor services such as tour guiding. I concluded that this site must be the best post at which to serve in the system of historical sites. The combination of peace and natural beauty is tough to beat. Because the area is so remote, it does not see the hoards of visitors that other more prominent sites receive.

Our plans to eat at Eaton's Sugarhouse fell through, as we were too late for lunch and they close after lunch on Saturdays. However, we did find another pizza gem, upon the recommendation of the tour guide. Village Pizza, in utter isolation north of Royalton, really makes a great pie. The place is run by a Greek family, so there are Greek dishes and deserts as well. We had a half sausage and olive, half Hawaiian, and were in pizza heaven. In the West, I've had nothing better.

From there we navigated through the Green Mountains, including Killington Village and the heart of Vermont's ski industry, all the way south to Albany, NY. We stayed at the Comfort Inn Airport Conference Center. Sounds impressive, but the place was about what you would expect from a budget motel - 1970's construction, formerly smoked in rooms, etc. It was a points bargain for me, but I would never stay there again.

Plans for tomorrow: Lots to do. First we will visit the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. With some luck, we hope to meet Dave Niehaus, voice of the Seattle Mariners, who will be inducted into the broadcasters wing of the Hall tomorrow - see earlier posts for background. From there we plan to visit the historical sites in the Palmyra area, including the Smith Farm, Sacred Grove, Hill Cumorah, and the village of Palmyra. From there, its on to Niagara Falls, NY, for the night.

As always, picture highlights get uploaded nightly.

The lame title for today's activities is purely my idea after patently rejecting many other suggestions including "The British are coming", "The Home of the Free and the Sox", "One if by land, two if by sea", and "... Are you guys here for the game?" Taken together, those titles might explain the day we had, but the central theme was really the journey through history that is the Freedom Trail.

After getting another late start, we picked up the trail in downtown Boston near the Old State House. We ventured around a bit in that area, then took lunch near Faneuil Hall at the replica Cheers known as Sam's Place. Quite good, but extremely overpriced for what you get. That's how hungry we were after missing the hotel breakfast buffet. Skip this tourist trap if you have the choice. The service was horrible, but the open-air market noontime vibe was fun. Taking stock as we waited for our food, we would have preferred to patronize the Salty Dog next door, but now, after reading its reviews, I think we did as well as could be expected for the tourist area we visited.

What became evident upon boarding the T train for downtown, while at lunch, and just about every other event, was that this is a Red Sox - Yankees weekend. The anticipation of the weekend series at Fenway was palpable in all quarters. Many fans from both teams were out and about all day in all places. We even were greeted by a group of grandmas heading back from their dinner to watch the game on someone's new widescreen HD TV.

Taking the trail really brought home the need to spend more time than the brief one day we had planned. Yes we were able to see all the sights, but the richer learning experience and context to the history was lost in sacrifice to time. We did take the fully guided tour of the USS Constitution, the oldest sailing warship in the world and found the 45 minutes invested to be well worth it.

After impersonating sardines on the T, while trying to get back to our hotel during the outbound commute time, coupled with the extra load of Sox game T riders, we did get back and were somewhat exhausted. We found a local Vietnamese fusion place across the street from the hotel, called Zenna. I heard no complaints and would venture that it truly lived up to its rave reviews. Jake and I had the House Fried Rice, which was delectable. Kimberly had the Chicken Fried Rice and loved it. Only Cathy showed any bravery and ordered a more traditional Viet-inspired noodle concoction, which she also loved. The service was outstanding.

Plans for tomorrow: For me, the fun part of the trip begins as we set out in our rented Chrysler Town and Country for the road portion of the vacation. To facilitate a long road trip after flying across the country, we decided to provision the trip locally. That means we will invade a Walmart tomorrow and get things like a large cooler, lunch staples like deli meats, peanut butter, bread, healthy snacks, liquid refreshments, and ice. Otherwise, tomorrow's leg will be relatively short, and will feature a trip through New Hampshire and Vermont to visit the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial, a Mormon Church history site near Sharon, VT. We should get there around noon, and have also heard about an amazing "sugar house" near Royalton, called Eaton's Sugarhouse, which doubles as a restaurant and maple sap refinery. After that, its on to Albany, NY, where we prepare to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame the next day in Cooperstown.

We left Washington DC this morning on the 10am Acela Express. We arrived at Penn Station NYC about 12:45 and set out into the city with only a loose idea of how to spend our layover. We thought finding a Manhattan lunch would be a good idea. Tougher to pull off in practice though, as we found most places along E 33rd in the 7th, 6th, and 5th Avenue blocks to be maxed out. We considered trying to do the Empire State Building trip to the top, but found the lines too long.

Meanwhile the kids got some exposure to street life in the Big Apple, with lots of characters, homeless, and crowds of tourists and working stiffs. Perhaps the most interesting was the lady on the street corner calling loudly for "no rights for vampires," which still has us scratching our heads. After a quick google, looks like there is something of interest to some in this vein.

After finding most places either too full or too scary to enter for lunch, we happened upon a Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs joint right across from Madison Square Garden (the one linked is the Coney Island original), and found it somewhat empty at 1:15. So, we got our lunch there. Very good, as expected. We each had the classic dog with some homestyle fries and a drink.

During our layover, we did a "temporary baggage check" at Penn Station so we could amble about unencumbered. We thought we would have more time to see more of the city during our layover, but we ended up playing it safe and making sure we had plenty of time to get our bags back and make our train to Boston.

Both the trip to NYC and the trip to Boston were uneventful and featured a few cat naps amongst the crew. Other than seeing a lot of run down areas (what you would expect along the tracks) in the big cities like Baltimore, Wilmington, Newark, and others, only seeing the Chesapeake Bay proved interesting. However, we did break out Angelina to see how fast the Acela Express was moving. At several points, speeds surpassed 125 mph. Now that was impressive on its own.

Angelina also proved her worth as she managed to successfully navigate us from Thrifty Car Rental "near" the Logan Airport, where we picked up our minivan, in a summer downpour. Remember the Hertz commercials where they show the poor saps who decided to not use Hertz getting soaked in downpours as they search for their rental car in the sea of rental cars? We could have been filming that today. Thrifty had the right price for the vehicle we wanted, but it was literally the furthest rental outlet from the Logan Airport, and we got soaked finding the van and loading our bags.

So we find ourselves in the Courtyard Brookline near the Coolidge Corner T stop. We hadn't eaten on the train, nor did we bring provisions with us. We got in about 9pm and immediately ordered pizza from the local Pizza Republic on Beacon Street. The basic sausage and olive was fabulous, and the thin crust was perfect. They used whole pitted black olives and sliced Italian sausages for the toppings.

Plan for tomorrow: Again, nothing too ambitious. We will attempt to hike the Freedom Trail and take in the Revolutionary War history along the way. It would be cool to see the USS Constitution tall ship at anchor in Boston Harbor. The weather looks iffy and we will be playing it by ear.

After suffering the effects of jet lag, we got a late start to the day. However, we managed to make it to Arlington National Cemetery in time to view the noon changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Admittedly, this experience was more meaningful for Cathy and I than it was for the kids. As an American adult, you cannot help but be moved emotionally when you view the reverence and ceremonial precision of the Marine guards as they carry out their timeless vigil.While at Arlington we also visited the Eternal Flame at the JFK grave site. As we were leaving the Cemetery, we saw the Presidential Motorcade arrive. No idea why the President may have been visiting - wish I would have snapped some pics.From Arlington, we took the Blue Line to the Smithsonian Metro stop and exited to the Mall. We decided to visit the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and find refuge from the hot and sticky conditions. We spent the rest of the afternoon there, but only saw a fraction of what could be seen. We decided to see an Albert Einstein Planetarium show and an IMAX movie. I think Jacob was the only one of us to remain awake through the "Cosmic Collisions" show. The IMAX movie, "Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag," sounds enticing, but was actually a real yawner. I fail to understand why IMAX film makers continue to neglect the power of the medium and leave out the potentially stunning visuals one would expect to see - you know, fighters cruising through varied landscapes like canyons, mountain ranges, etc. Maybe 3-4 minutes featured these scenes, but the rest ranked an enthusiastic "thumbs down" from me.
For dinner, we ate at Jaleo in Crystal City. Jaleo is a Spanish tapas confiteria that features a menu full of what are essentially appetizer plates. They also feature several paiea offerings. After some coaxing, we got the kids to try some tapas and they loved them. We also ordered the shrimp paiea, which was melt-in-the-mouth scrumptious. I have eaten there on several occasions while in DC on business, but never expected the kids to go for anything out of their frame of reference. Now the stage is set for more experimentation during the rest of the trip.

I will be posting the best of our pics on my Picasa site, so if you want more context to what we saw and did look there.

The plan for tomorrow: Get up much earlier, book over to Union Station and take the Acela Express (AMTRAK) to NYC, then on to Boston. We hope to be able to go to the Statue of Liberty during our train layover in New York. Let's see how we do.

Arrived in DC with no significant travel mishaps. Coming through Atlanta, that says a lot. We are staying the first two nights in the Courtyard Crystal City. After arriving, we broke in the Metro novices and went to Union Station to pick up our train tickets for the trip to Boston on Thursday. We had dinner at Johnny Rocket's in Union Station - a throw-back diner featuring old fashioned hamburger fare. Everyone was quite satisfied with their choice from the menu.

We set a goal for the trip to avoid all chain restaurants available to us in Richland. So, no McDonalds, Burger King, etc. Regional chains are fair game, as are national chains with no presence in the Tri Cities. For example, Popeye's would qualify as a nonlocal chain for us.

The plan for tomorrow: Visit Arlington National Cemetery and view the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns. Visit the monuments on the Mall and a selected museum of the Smithsonian.

We will be in Washington DC. As most of the family is routed through Atlanta, please wish us the best. I have had no luck getting through Atlanta without significant, itinerary-changing, delays and re-routes. We hope to have uneventful flights leading to rendezvous tomorrow evening at National Airport around 5pm.

I can tell you that with all the planning and lists of to-do's and other preparations we've been making all along, we still find ourselves scurrying around for last minute things. That is the price we pay for trying to continue life's routines, rather than fixate completely on this major vacation.

We're feeling good. Jake has made peace with leaving his all star team in mid-tournament. We've stopped the mail and the paper. We're packed and ready. Time to hit the hay early, as we fly out at 5:20am.

Next post will be from DC.

Well, those tough Greater Richland Little League 11s are still hard at it in the Washington State Tournament. After getting down 3-1 in the first game against Walla Walla Pacific, they roared back and took control, winning 9-3.

That's why we play the games. After all was said and done, FWN had self destructed under pressure. Their #2 pitcher didn't have his stuff, and wasn't used to facing our patient hitters. After the first walked-in run, he was lifted for the clear #1 hurler, who fared no better. He gave up several more walked-in runs, which led to a complete dismantling in a less than stellar game, and GRLL won 14-6. Two more wins and they play for the State Championship. The loss was especially devastating for Federal Way, as they used up 4 pitchers, and may have a very difficult time containing the team they play in the consolation bracket. ESPN 960 AM sought out interviews after the game.


Again, solid pitching and timely hitting were the hallmarks of the victors. This time, the defensive lapses did not cost Greater Richland, and the season that no one thought would happen continues. The toughest part for us, of course, is breaking away from the team family for our long planned family vacation - the subject of this blog. We have gone back and forth on whether we could have Jake ride out the tournament with his buds, then be transported to us at some point in our journey, but when it came down to the tough decision, Jake made peace with himself and made the right choice. We leave tomorrow before dawn on our flight to DC.

We lovingly refer to our Tom Tom One, 3rd Edition, as "Angelina", as the "Jane" voice sounds somewhat like the Lara Croft character in Tomb Raider. Since January, I have been using the Tom Tom for all my car navigation while on business and family car trips. I paid $150 for it and it has performed outstandingly. Although all in-car GPS units are somewhat quirky and are only as good as the map database installed, I've found, by comparing notes with colleagues, that Angelina finds my destinations noticeably better than much more expensive Garmin and Magellan units designed after the market leader Tom Tom came along.


Angelina will navigate the minivan portion of our trip. I have been utilizing the free map updating service and the free user community map correction service to keep the map database for the USA up to date. I also have relied heavily on the integration capability with Google Earth, which I first learned about while burrowing into the Tom Tom documentation.

Labels: Google Earth, Tom Tom, Tyre

• DC Monument Tour
• Arlington National Cemetery
• Nationals Baseball
• Smithsonian Museums
• The National Mall
• Liberty Bell
• Times Square
• Statue of Liberty
• Boston History Tour Freedom Trail
• Plymouth Rock
  
• Fenway Park Tour (no Sox tickets)
• Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial
• Baseball Hall of Fame - Cooperstown
• Sacred Grove - Hill Cumorah
• Niagara Falls
• Kirtland Ohio
• Cedar Point
• Sears Tower
• Cub's Game
• Field of Dreams movie site
• Nauvoo Pageant
• Carthage Jail
• Gateway Arch
• Mammoth Cave National Park
• New River Gorge National River
• Appomattox Courthouse
• Water Country USA

Remember those constraints listed in the blog subtitle - about Little League baseball controlling most of our summer? We planned this trip to occur after Jake's 11-yr old baseball season thinking that if things went much as they did last summer, his last tournament would be over by July 20th, and our frequent flyer window opened on 7/22. Further, we could leave the summer of his 12 yr-old season open since the sky is the limit for 12 yr-old little leaguers - as they can go all the way to the world series in Williamsport, PA.

So, of course, those crazy kids went out and battled hard to capture the WA District 12 title without a loss, but with lots of gutty, gritty, gamer performances up and down the line up. Most of us will not soon forget the no-hitter to start the tournament, the diving web gem in centerfield and resulting double play of the runner at third, two game-saving diving stabs at second base, inning after inning of stellar catching in 100-degree heat, and all those timely hits!

As a result, they move on to State. The tournament starts Saturday the 19th, and we leave on our trip on Tuesday the 22nd. The trip of a lifetime wins out over a State tournament bid, and Jake will have to leave his teammates after just 2 or 3 games. This is an agonizing position to be in, as he is one of their pitchers, and losing any team member now is really tough on all involved. So wish the Greater Richland Little League the best as each age division is going to State. If you want to help us defray the costs, you can chip in and donate to our league.