What An Amazing Trip...

Warning: This is going to be a long post! :) Our trip up the east coast was definitely something to remember. It was BEAUTIFUL! We left Tuesday around 11am and (thankfully) I95 was opened back up (and re-closed the next day). We drove up I75 through Georgia until we made it to Atlanta, and the scenery was gorgeous. I saw fields of cotton, Bradford Pear tree, and these pretty pecan trees.

We made it to our friend, Hawk's house at around 7pm. He made a yummy dinner for us, and then we just hung out and talked the rest of the night and watched 'Despicable Me'. The next morning, we got up bright and early and headed into downtown Atlanta to go to the World of Coke,

which was really neat. They had a little factory there that made the little bottles of Coke that we got to take with us at the end of the walk-through tour. After the World of Coke, we were getting pretty hungry, so we walked a block or two and have some Johnny Rockets for lunch. Now, we've been to Johnny Rockets before in Orlando, but this one was a whole different experience. Our waiter was awesome, and left us two nickels for us to place music on our little jukebox, and he made a ketchup ladybug for my fries!!

We ended up heading out of Atlanta at around 1:30-2pm, to make one more stop along out way to visit another friend at work before we left for Virginia. We spent maybe an hour there, and by 3:30pm, we were off. We'd initially planned on driving from Atlanta to Pennsylvania all the way through, but realized that we would either end up getting there super early in the morning and having no place to sleep because we couldn't get our hotel until 3pm the next day, or we'd end up getting there super late the next day and end up wasting the whole day instead of sight-seeing. So we decided to get a cheap little hotel on the way in Virginia. The drive up was amazing. We made a stop at all of the Welcome Centers/Rest Stops on the way up, and took lots and lots of pictures. We ended up in Harrisonburg, VA (where our hotel was) at about 1am. When we got up the next morning it was 26* outside, but this was the beautiful view that I got to see.

Since we don't get to travel often (or in my case, really ever, outside of the state) we decided to make a pit-stop in Fairfax, VA so that David could stop in and check out the NRA museum (for free!). But along our drive, we saw a few signs for some caverns. David has seen caverns before in Colorado, but for me, this was something new. We weren't sure if it was one of those crappy tourist traps or not, but figured, ah, what the hell, it's not too far off the main highway. Thankfully we gave it a try. Apparently Luray Caverns is the biggest and nicest in the eastern states (according to National Geographic). It was amazing! We were 165ft below the earth, and 1 1/4 miles down. I've never seen anything so beautiful!!

We spent probably 2 hours or so there, between the actual caverns, and the two museums that came with the entrance. One was a little old automobile museum, and the other was a history museum. From there we headed to Fairfax to the NRA museum.

 I think we probably spent about an hour or so there. It was pretty neat. :) Then off we went on the last of our trip to King of Prussia, PA. We ended up getting to PA at around 8pm on Thursday. When we got there, we woke up Robert and headed out for some dinner. The next morning, we got up early and decided to head to Philadelphia. Along the way, I saw this!

Meanwhile, we got lost, and missed our exit into downtown Philadelphia, and ended up in Camden, NJ 

in the ghetto, which apparently is one of the worst, most dangerous cities in the country. Awesome. Thankfully after getting gas (which it's illegal to pump your own), we made it to our original destination (after paying a $4 toll to get back over the bridge over the Delaware River) and stopped in at the Eastern State Penitentiary. This place was huge and amazing (as someone who has their masters in Criminal Justice). 

After the Penitentiary, we took the advice of some locals, and went over a few blocks to have lunch at this little place called 'Belgian Cafe'. Then walked several more blocks to visit the 'Mütter Museum' of medical oddities. That was surprisingly very neat. Unfortunately though, I was not allowed to take any pictures inside, so I've got nothing to share with you for that. After we spent about 3 hours in there, we were initially going to go over to the Philadelphia Museum of Art but we needed to be back at the hotel by 8:30pm for cake for Marj's birthday, and it was already 5:30pm. We decided to walk over to it anyway though, and take some pictures, because the building itself was just too beautiful to pass up. 

The picture on the right are the stairs that you see in the movie 'Rocky' when they play 'Eye of the Tiger'. We walked up them, and saw some people working out, and others taking pictures pretending to be Rocky. It was a huge, beautiful building though, and I'd love to someday go back and get to see it. 

The next day, was Saturday, the day of the wedding, but the wedding wasn't until 2:30pm, so David and I took Aunt Jean, and made a little trip to Valley Forge, which was maybe 5 minutes from our hotel. It too was very beautiful! 

We didn't end up getting to see the museum, but hey, that's something to see next time. :) So we got back to the hotel at around 1pm to get ready for the wedding, then headed off. The church was beautiful. Having grown up in the catholic church, I can definitely appreciate it. And Elizabeth was a BEAUTIFUL bride. :) It was a very nice wedding. 

After the wedding, we went back to the hotel for the reception, which was equally as beautiful, and a lot of fun.

The next morning we slept in, as we all had a wee bit too much to drink, then checked out of the hotel, and headed home. Along the way, we took a detour in Washington, D.C., but it was pouring out so I didn't get many good pictures. Then we briefly stopped again in Savannah, GA, but again didn't really get any pictures. We ended up making it home at around 8am on Monday morning, and then David and I got sick (apparently so did a few others), so for now we've been trying to catch up on a lot of missed sleep, and making ourselves better. All in all though, it was an amazing trip, and not only did I get to see a lot of places that I never would have otherwise gotten to see, but I got to spend a lot of time with Robert, and I'd like to think it was a lot of nice bonding time. So much fun!!