Harper's Ferry & Gettysburg

The great thing about being in Virginia, or anywhere back East for that matter, is that there is history wherever you go.  The whole state of Virginia is just covered with Revolutionary and Civil War battlefields.  There were 8 presidents born in Virginia, and even the houses and churches and cemeteries are all historical. Brittany and I loved visiting all these places.  We were able to go on a day trip to Harper's Ferry and then to Gettysburg.

If you look at a map you can see a spot where Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia meet.  That's where the town of Harper's Ferry is at.  I had heard of it before and knew a little about it, but not a lot.  So here's a bit of history.  Harper's Ferry is the site of John Brown's raid on slavery.  John Brown was an abolitionist and picked Harper's Ferry as his place to start raids and protests against slavery.  He and 20 men invaded the town and captured their arsenal.  But after most of those men were killed or wounded, John Brown was captured, convicted of treason and hanged.  The raid made the country pay more attention to how awful slavery was, which eventually started the civil war.

Because of the location of Harper's Ferry, it was caught right in the middle of the Civil War.  The town is right where the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers meet, and also had key rail lines running through it.  Throughout the course of the war, Harper's Ferry went back and forth 8 times being controlled by Union and then Confederate troops.

So now that we've had a history lesson.... here's some pictures.

There's lots of cute shops along the streets in the old buildings.

The leaves were amazing!

After Harper's Ferry we headed on up to Gettysburg.  We saw a cute little apple stand and just had to stop. We bought some delicious apples and asked the guy where the battlefield was.  He said, "You're standing on it."  Holy moly, did I get the chills!  Gettysburg was definitely one of the places I was most excited to go.  I really like Civil War history and this was one of the biggest/most important battles.  We got a map and drove around for a little while.  When I think of a battlefield, I usually think of a literal field.  Like one of the fields at my grandpa's farm.  Some battlefields are small like that, but Gettysburg is so big!  The fighting was really spread out.  I also imagine the battles in an open area which wasn't really the case at Gettysburg either.  There's so many trees and only a few open areas.  We found a lookout tower, so we climbs the steps-it was probably about 10 stories high-and just looked out over the whole area.  I felt a mixture of emotions.... It was so peaceful to look out over the scenery, but imagining what happened there was a little unsettling.  I couldn't even imagine being a soldier in those hot uniforms in July.  8,000 soldiers were killed, 50,000 were wounded, and about 5,000 were missing (in case you were wondering).  The battle was in the middle of a town.  People lived there and this was happening in their back yards.  It's pretty crazy to think about.  We saw the Gettysburg cemetery and the site where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg address.

President Lincoln was awesome :)

Views from the lookout tower

Memorial for the units that fought at Gettysburg

Little Round Top

Houses like these were used as hospitals

The site of the Gettysburg Address

The Cemetery

Sunset at Gettysburg.... so amazing!

Dollywood

Every year my grandparents take a couple trips.  This year they just happened to be going to Tennessee and North Carolina.  My grandma called me and asked if it would be possible for us to drive out and meet them and it just so happened that our days off would be the days that they would be in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.  If the name sounds a little redneck, that's because it is.  haha.  But it was one of the funnest places I've ever been.  


With them being so close to us, how could we not go see them?  So we drove about 5 1/2 hours from Loft Mountain and down the western panhandle of Virginia into Eastern Tennessee and met my grandparents at their hotel in Pigeon Forge.  It was so great to see familiar faces after not being around my family for a few months.  We got to go to a great show at the Country Tonite Theater.  I love fun shows like that, and this one was especially great because it was all country music  :)


The next day my grandparents tour group was scheduled to go to Dollywood.  Instead of following them in my car, the tour guide told me and Brittany that we could just ride there with the group, we would just have to tell a joke before we got on the bus.  Those old people love them jokes. haha.  They especially loved mine....


"Did you hear about the guy that got his whole left side cut off? .... He's all right"  


It's silly, I know.  But they laughed real hard.


So we got to Dollywood and it wasn't really what I was expecting.  I just thought it would be a fun place where you could eat food and buy crafts and listen to performers.  It did have all those things, but it also had some of the funnest roller coasters I've even been on!  There were a bunch of crazy rides.  It seemed like every single other person in Dollywood that day was over the age of 60, so me and Brittany were in amusement park heaven!  We were basically the only people in the whole place that were riding the rides.  We would just get on a roller coaster and ride it 3 times in a row and then move onto the next one.  My grandpa was awesome and would ride the rides with us.  He's so cool.  He loves rides, and I think he was glad that we were there to go with him because my grandma doesn't really go for that kind of stuff.  We did convince her to get on one roller coaster, and I was a little afraid that she might have a heart attack.  You know the pictures that they take on the rides?  Oh my goodness.... her face in that picture was priceless.  Unfortunately I don't have ANY pictures of that day because I forgot my camera :(  And my grandma doesn't believe in owning any type of camera besides the disposable ones, so we didn't get pictures from her camera either.  In one of the pictures taken on a ride, Brittany's hair was coming out of her ponytail and we were going so fast that it was a little wind-blown.  The guy at the photo booth showed us our picture and said "It looks like you have wings!"  Except in his awesome southern drawl it was more like, "Looks like you got wangs!"  haha.  We still laugh about that.


After spending the day in Dollywood, we had ridden every ride probably 6 or 7 times.  I've never had so much fun in an amusement park!  Someday when I have little kiddies of my own, we are definitely taking a trip to Pigeon Forge.

Autumn in Shenanadoah

In late October the leaves were fully changed and Shenandoah got really busy.  The main attraction at Shenandoah is the fall leaves and we had people from all over the world visiting the park.  I met people from Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Germany, and lots of Canadians!  It was so fun to interact with people from other countries and hear what they had to say about America.  I probably met at least 1 person from every state while I was there as well and it was pretty funny to hear people's reactions when I would tell them I'm from Utah.  "Are you Mormon?"  "Are you a Jazz fan?"  The funniest comments were from people from Florida and coastal regions where the elevation is pretty much zero.  They would get in the Appalachian Mountains and freak out because the elevation was so high. haha.  I would just laugh at them.  The elevation in that area is around 2,500 to 3,000 feet, so coming from Utah I would mostly describe the Appalachians as rolling hills.  So when I would tell people that my house sits at almost 6,000 feet, they were a little shocked.  They would ask how I stand it.... Call me crazy, but I love the dry air that doesn't turn my hair into a frizzy mess.  *My hair is so naturally straight that the humidity doesn't make it go curly, it just makes it super frizzy.  However, my skin was always really soft with all the moisture in the air*

Fall is my favorite season.  I love the crisp morning air and the leaves and everything that autumn time brings: soup, sweaters, hot chocolate, Halloween, etc.  Being back east during the fall season was amazing!  Autumn in Utah is great, but it is so short and there is not an over-abundance of trees.  But autumn in Virginia.... whole 'nother story.  Every day I would just walk out into the forest and stare at the trees.  According to my manager, who is a local to the area, that year wasn't even a good year as far as the leaves go.  He said it had been a dry year and the colors were duller than they usually are.  Even with the 'dull' leaves, I loved experiencing the autumn time in Shenandoah.

This picture is in Northern Virginia, pretty close to the Maryland border.  This was pretty much what it looked like everywhere.  Even though it's not a great picture and not very close up, you can still see how many trees there are and all the different colors.

  

This is Skyline Drive.  We drove this road pretty much every day. [I did not take this picture though.  Found it on google :) ] The first time we saw a tree that had started to change colors, Brittany and I freaked out a little.  We were so excited to see the full effect of all the trees with colorful leaves.  

It seems like such a silly thing to get all worked up about, but there are not a lot of things in this world that make me happier than fall leaves.  If I could choose how the seasons go, I would probably make it be fall for like 6 months out of the year.  I love it!

Day 2 of New York

Day 2 in New York was pretty great.  We got to see so much!  Before we came on this trip, we knew we were only going to have about 24 hours in New York, so we picked out the few things that we wanted to see the most.  But when we got into the city we found lots of people selling tickets for the double decker tour buses.  We paid $45 for an all day ticket that takes you all around the city and had several stops that you can get off and on anytime.  Probably the best $45 I've ever spent!  The bus took us to all the main tourist attractions.  There's so much to see! 

New York University campus. 

 It was very interesting.  When I think of college/university campuses, I imagine a nice, sprawled out, grassy area with trees and buildings.  There's no such thing as sprawled out in New York though, so the campus is a whole bunch of skyscrapers.

Washington Square Arch.  

We got a little lost trying to find this because we got off on the wrong bus stop.  But we had another opportunity to find out just how nice most New Yorkers are.  Quite a few people saw us looking at our map and looking a bit confused, but everyone was so nice and willing to help us out and give us directions.

Ground Zero.  

It was under construction at this point and we didn't get a very good view, but it was still very sad to see.

Brooklyn Bridge

Chinatown.

We spent a little time here.  It was very interesting to see all of the signs in Chinese.  We actually ran into a couple missionaries on the street.  As we passed them we waved and yelled, "We're Mormon!" haha.  They just laughed at us and kept walking.

Chrysler Building

United Nations Building.  

I would really love to go inside the building someday.

Rockefeller Center.

You can kinda see people down there ice skating :)  That's also something 

I would love to go back and do one day.

Radio City Music Hall

The Plaza Hotel. 

It was so pretty.  I can see why people love to have weddings there :)

Central Park

And some random woman that walked into the picture.  It's really hard to get a picture in New York without someone walking past, so we just didn't even try.  I never realized how big Central Park really was.  We wanted to go to the zoo and see the penguins, but entrance to the zoo was $20 and this was obviously a budget trip, so we just decided to walk around the park.  We were there for about an hour and we only saw one small corner!  We did get some good souvenirs here though.

Carnegie Hall

On top of the tour bus in Times Square.  We had to get a picture of the Wicked poster.

Empire State Building. 

Just so you know.... it costs like $20 or $30 to ride the elevator to the top.  So we just decided that an outside shot would have to do. 

Macy's

I love the Macy's Thanksgiving parade, so I was really excited to see this

This is what the subway looks like at 5 in the afternoon.  Everyone is getting off work, and you can't even move!  I had a hard time just putting my arms up to take the picture.

After a very exciting day of seeing all the sites and eating some authentic New York Pizza and New York Cheesecake, we went back to our car and started the drive back down to Virginia.  It was quite the whirlwind trip, but I'm so glad we were able to make it up there.  Coming from a small town, I'm pretty sure I would not be able to live in New York permanently but it was fun to visit.  I would love to go back and spend some more time there.

New York City - Day 1

This may be a little bit of a long post, but I can't leave anything out!  After leaving Philadelphia around noon on Tuesday, we headed into NYC.  It's only about a 1.5 hour drive.  I've seen pictures of the New York skyline my whole life, and I've gotta say, it way more amazing seeing it in real life!  The closer we got, the more excited we got.  

As excited as we were to just get into the city, we had to check into our hotel first.  Hotels in New York are super expensive and parking costs like $75 a night!  So we found a great deal at a place in Jersey with free parking and we just decided to ride public transportation into the city because I was not about to drive my car in Manhattan!  No way!


So we got to the hotel around 3 and we had tickets for Wicked which started at 7.  We were trying to decide the best way to go about everything.  We had bought cute new dresses and shoes to go to Broadway but we didn't want to carry them around or have any extra bags, so we just changed into our dresses at the hotel and decided just to wear them since we only had a few hours til the show started..... bad idea....  Our feet were hurting sooo bad by the end of the night.  But I'll get back to that.


We had a friend in our ward that had just gone to New York a couple weeks before us and she was telling us the best places to park.  She said to go to Liberty State Park and take the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and then over into the city.  So that's what we did.  However, it caused some problems later on  :(  We pulled into the parking lot and it was only $5 to park which was great for New York, and I asked the lady what time the lot closed.  She said "It closes at 10, there isn't 24 hour parking".  I remember thinking, We'll be cutting it close.... our show starts at 7, but we'll probably be okay.  But I'll get back to that too....

We got on the ferry for the Statue of Liberty.  It made a stop at Ellis Island first, but we didn't get off.  I would like to see that one day though.  We got to the statue and I was surprised at how small it was.  It really isn't that big, but it was still so cool!

View of New York from the ferry

Got back on the ferry that took us over to Manhattan.  It let us off at Battery Park, the southern most part of the island.  We finally set foot in New York City.  We got on the subway and took it to the Times Square station.  Coming up from underground into the light of Times Square is probably one of my favorite moments I've ever had.  Brittany and I just looked at each other and let out a little squeal.

We ate at Olive Garden in Times Square.  (It's my favorite restaurant, no matter where I am. haha)  It's not very new and exciting, but we knew we could afford it.  After dinner we sat on the red steps for a few minutes and just soaked it all in, then we walked over to the Gershwin Theater, where Wicked shows.

So now we get back to the hurt feet and parking in New Jersey.  You walk - a lot!- in New York.  And in our shoes, 2 blocks felt like 2 miles.  If you ever go to New York, I would NOT recommend wearing high heels no matter how long you're going to be there.  

We got to the theater and asked the usher how long the play was and he told us 2 hours and 45 minutes including intermission!  If you remember, we were told the parking lot -in New Jersey-where our car was at closed at 10.  So that meant if we staying for the whole show we would have 15 minutes to walk 2 blocks to the subway station, then transfer to the train and go under the bay and into New Jersey, then transfer again to the light rail and get back to our car.... yeah, not gonna happen!

We decided that unfortunately we would have to leave the show about a half hour early and hope that we had time to make it back.  Wicked was incredible!  Oh my gosh, it was one of the hardest things I've ever done, getting up and leaving the theater with 30 minutes still left of the show.  

The set of Wicked.  We had really good seats.  But we almost got in trouble for taking this picture. lol.

Our journey back to the car did not turn out in our favor.  We were so worried about making it back before 10 that we were just running around like chickens with our heads cut off.  We went to the wrong subway station and then we couldn't find the light rail station in New Jersey.  Luckily people were very nice and were willing to give us directions.  We came across a hotel in Jersey that had a suspicious car parked out front.  The guy in the car could tell we were in a hurry, and he asked us if we wanted a ride.  This is how the conversation went:

Guy:  "You need a ride?"

Me: "No, we don't need a ride"

Guy: "Are you sure?  I am a taxi service.  I can take you"

Me:  sounding very suspicious -"You're a taxi service?  This isn't a taxi cab."

Guy: "Okay, I'm a limo service.  See, I have a GPS.  I usually charge $200, but for you, just $30"

Brittany proceeds to try and get in the car.... oh, silly girl she is.

Me: stopping Brittany "No we'll just walk, but thanks"

And then we walked away.  Now, he may have been telling the truth, but I wasn't about to take my chances in New Jersey.... I've heard stories.  We did borrow some pepper spray from our co-worker Leah, so that made me feel a little safer.  So at this point it's about 10:20 and we are FREAKING OUT.  I was so worried that my car was going to be booted or towed and I was going to have to shell out a ton of money.  And after switching trains 3 times and walking through a couple parks, we finally got to the parking lot.  There was a police car parked on the road by the lot and I went over and talked to them.  This conversation went like this:

Me:  "Our car is parked in this parking lot"

Cops:  "Okay..."

Me: "They told us the parking lot closes at 10"

Cops: "Oh, you can still get out of the parking lot after 10, you just can't get in"

You can imagine how our poor little hearts sank after hearing those words  :(  We rushed and worried and left our BROADWAY SHOW early to get back and we didn't even have to.  One of the most disappointing moments of my life.  Feel free to be sad for us, because I am still sad (probably always will be).  We went back to the hotel and read a summary of how the show ended on Wikipedia.  SO not fun!

Brittany took her shoes off and this is what her tights looked like at the end of the night.  They went straight in the garbage

We were very happy/relieved to see the car.

The next day is a lot less stressful, but it will probably have to be it's own post because this one turned out really long!  

  

Philadelphia

The middle of October 2010 (wow, time flies) we went to New York City!  We considered taking a bus or train, but we decided that driving would probably be the fastest way to get there.  NYC is about a 6-7 hour drive from Loft Mountain and Philadelphia is right on the way, so we definitely wanted to stop there.


We left after work on a Monday afternoon and drove to our hotel in Wilmington, Delaware, which is about 20 minutes south of Philly, and much cheaper to stay there.  However, it was a pretty sketchy town.... our motel had bars on all the windows and 3 or 4 security guards on staff through the night.  I'm sure Delaware has some nice places, but that is one place I probably wouldn't ever go to again willingly : \


There's a pretty funny story that goes along with our drive. haha.  Being from Fountain Green, we were definitely not accustomed to toll roads.... and the road between Washington DC and New York is full of them!  And they don't take cards.  So, we had about 8 dollars in cash, and after the first 2 toll booths, we were out of money.  We were almost to Wilmington and we came up to another toll booth that cost 5 dollars.  We scrounged up 2 dollar bills from the bottom of our purses and about .75 in quarters.  We told the toll booth lady that we only had about $3 and she looked in the window and said, "You got any candy?" We luckily had a bag of M&M's that we gave her and dumped all my nickles and pennies from the ashtray onto her desk and she let us go.  As soon as we got into the town, the first thing we did was go to the ATM and get some cash because that was embarrassing!  And the guy behind us was so rude and impatient.  He kept honking at us.  People told me that Easterners are mean, but other than that guy we found that most everyone was actually pretty nice.  Especially the toll booth girl :)


So next morning we left bright and early to head into Philly.  First thing we saw was Lincoln Financial Field where my Eagles play :)

We only had a couple hours to spend because we wanted to have as much time in New York as possible.  So we just did the main historical attractions in Philly.... The Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.  Oh my goodness, I was in heaven!  It was so crazy to me that I was in the room where they signed the Declaration of Independence!  I'm such a nerd when it comes to stuff like that.  I really wish we could have spent more time there, and I would love to go back.  It was a beautiful city and there's so much more to see.

We did get an authentic Philly Cheesesteak and it was delicious!

Luray Caverns

So, I'm probably the worst blogger in the universe.  But I am finally ready and able to post the rest of my adventures from when I lived in Virginia.  Next month it will be 2 years since I loaded my car and started the drive.  Most of you probably don't even care anymore, so these posts will probably be more for my memory than anything else :)  The last thing I posted was when I picked Brittany up at the airport and we went to Jamestown.


We got settled into our new room and everyone at Loft Mountain (the name of the area of Shenandoah that we worked at) instantly loved Brittany.... how could you not?!


Our manager was so awesome and scheduled our days off together so that we could travel and hang out together.  Our days off were usually Monday and Tuesday, so most weeks we would go into Charlottesville, VA and go to the singles ward FHE activities on Monday nights.


About every 3-4 weeks we were able to go on a trip somewhere.  The first one was not very far away, but still very cool.  There are 5 main stops inside Shenandoah.  Big Meadows and Skyland are the main places, and Loft Mountain (where we were) and 2 others are smaller stops.  Being park employees, we got a free horse rides at Skyland.  Guests of the park pay about $60 for an hour of riding (which seems a little extreme. haha).  So we went up to Skyland for a ride. Now, I may not be as horse-savvy as most of my family members, but I do like a little more adventure than riding in a straight line and walking extremely slow.  And we were with a bunch of people from Taiwan and they had never even seen a horse, so it was pretty funny seeing them try to ride.

The Shenandoah National Park headquarters are located in Luray, VA.  And if you are a park employee you get a free pass to the Luray Caverns.  They were so cool!  (And getting in free made it even better :] )  We had our cute little headphones that narrated as we walked through the caves.

"The Wishing Well"  

Thousands of people throw coins into to wishing well inside the caves, and at the end of every year they collect the money and donate it to charity.

If you can see on that black sign, they collect like $10,000 each year. 

In the gift shop they had an old car museum, which was way cool.

And outside was a giant garden maze!  We had a lot of fun doing that.  I kinda felt like I was in The Tri-Wizard tournament from Harry Potter. haha.