Charleston with Troy and Tiff Oct 2017

As part of our vacation to visit Troy and Tiff in North Carolina they got an Air B& B for us in Charleston South Carolina.  Charleston is an awesome tourist town with great sights and beaches.  Our first stop was Fort Sumter.  As Jane likes to point out when your on vacation with Scott you have to do something educational.  Fort Sumter is a very important historical spot because that is were the first shots of the Civil War happened.    October in South Carolina is beautiful.  The weather is perfect and things are still flowering.  I loved that we got to take the ferry to fort Sumter because as we all know, I love to be on the water.      We also checked out a couple of cemeteries.  These cemeteries are so incredible, some grave markers are so old they can barley hold themselves up.  I love that they look like a forgotten garden.  I also loved the architecture.  So many beautiful buildings with loads of character.  I would definitely visit again. Not just for the company although its always great getting together with the Smiths.        

Jane with Makayla and Carly by a fountain in front of the Fort Sumter Visitor Center.

Inside the fort.

                                                        Down town Charleston

Crazy old churches 

Crazy old cemeteries.

This is the round church.  Very beautiful.

Carly and Caitlyn

Charleston is very warm and crazy humid.

We ate at the Edger Allen Poe Cafe.

New York Brooklyn Bridge April 2015

For our last outing in New York we had to walk the Brooklyn Bridge.  We took the subway all the way down and across to Brooklyn then walked our way over.  Once again this bridge is a testament to the wonderful craftsmanship we came across time and time again.  The day was beautiful and the bridge not too crowded.  All along the cables of the bridge are padlocks.  I had to assume these resembled the padlocks on the bridge in Paris that lovers lock on and then toss the key in the river.  I think my assumption is pretty safe.
this bridge fit perfectly in New York.  anywhere else it would seem like a large stone monstrosity but nestled here between these two big cities it was right at home.

We really enjoyed our time in New York.  We had arranged for Scott's sister to come watch our kids as we went on this adventure.  She brought grandma a long and that probably wasn't the best idea.  I got many phone calls from the kids saying grandma or Tracie was freaking out and how could we leave them.  Oh the drama.  We had a huge windstorm back at home that lifted our carport off the wave runners and was ready to take off like a big sail.  Thankfully we had that huge willow tree to stop it.  We got calls during that fiasco but there was nothing we could do from so far away.  There seem to be a lot of little things that I thought they would be capable of handling but I was wrong.  When we got home we found many things destroyed including a large hole in our wall downstairs.  They tried to blame Peter for this one but the hole was way too big for little Peter to make.  Drama aside it was a good trip.

I am so grateful that I can spend 24/7  with my sweetie and not get sick of him.  We often hold hands on a daily basis and did so during all of our walking around this fantastic city.  It must have seemed a little strange to all those we passed because in New York no one holds hands.  But for Scott and I, its the most comfortable way to be, and I know that when we are connected there is nothing we can't conquer, even a place like New York.  Thanks for the fabulous adventure babe!   I love you more than sunshine!

Statue of Liberty and Rockefeller Plaza April 2015

So this was my second time to the Statue of Liberty.  By this time the weather warmed up nicely.  Luckily only 2 of our days were cloudy and misty the rest were spring perfection.  I do have to say the Statue of Liberty really is one of my favorite things about New York city.  It might be because it is so ironically New York or it could be that you have to take a boat to get there, in any case I loved it this time just as much as my first time. Scott was happy with it too.  You have to make a reservation to visit Lady Liberty so we arrived with plenty of time to walk around and check out the sights and people surrounding the park.  After a good long subway ride we both realized we needed to find a bathroom.  The bathrooms right off the subway in the park were THE most DISGUSTING bathrooms I have ever been in.  Its times like this when you wish you could pee standing up (I know too much information but they really were super gross)                                                                  

We wandered around people watching.  I told Scott to keep his eye out for those guys selling fauxlex watches and purses.  We saw them but they didn't approach us.  I think Scott scared them off.  While we were waiting we watched a group of teenager/college kids do some pretty awesome hip hopping.  They were pretty funny too.

We were able to get tickets to climb the pedestal but not to go up to the crown. I thought that the crown was closed because we couldn't get tickets.  It turns out that they only let a handful of people go up a day because there is only 1 narrow stair case and it can't handle that many people.  

We did have to climb about 13 flights of stairs to get to the top of the pedestal.  It really wasn't bad 13 flights is not that far but we passed quite a few people that just were used to climbing stairs I guess.  They were panting and sitting on the floor trying to catch their breath, I was grateful that I am healthy enough to climb stairs without any problems.  

It was a whole other experience getting to be able to go to the pedestal.  It really was a tight catwalk all the way around but the view was incredible. One could get a better idea of the size of this iconic statue.    There is also a museum in the bottom of the pedestal with  life size molds of parts of the statue so you could see the comparison.  I love the the serenity of the island.  Most know that included in the trip over to Lady Liberty is a boat ride to Ellis Island.  We visited this as well but because of Hurricane Sandy most of the artifacts were not there.  Some got damaged and the others had to be put in storage because they could not control the temperature and humidity in the display cases due to damage from the storm.  That part was a little disappointing.

Main Entrance Hall to Ellis Island Immigration Center

Famous New York pastrami sandwich.  It was amazing.

Chrysler Building

Radio City Music Hall

Rockafeller Center