#43 Go on a Cross-Country Trip/ #56 Smithsonian

#43 Go on a Cross-Country Trip

Thanks to the USN my family and I went on a cross-country adventure. The kids and I first travelled from Georgia to New York after my graduation in December. As some of my readers know, I am originally from New York and I wanted to see my family before I moved back out to the West Coast. If you have ever had family on the other side of the country, you know how difficult it can be seeing them throughout the year. 

My mom helped me make the move from Georgia to New York. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of our trip because I lost my phone on a two-day stay in Washington D.C. The only picture I uploaded before that day was this one (of DC traffic).

We got into DC during rush hour. So that was fun! We spent the next two days exploring DC by foot. We took the subway into the city because we stayed on the outside, and we toured the Smithsonian (Check off #56 on my bucket list!) and we went to Capitol Hill. It was a little chilly, so we had to stop often, but we saw a lot of neat things like Dinosaurs, Ruby Red Slippers, The American Flag, and Airplanes. Our only wish is that the museums stayed open later!

Anthony was in school in Virginia and he was not set to graduate until the middle of February so I stayed in NY with the kids for a couple months. It reminded me how much I hate snow! While I was there we got about 4-5 feet. No thanks!

When Anthony was done with school he drove up to New York so we could begin our cross-country adventure. Our plan was to avoid the northern part of the country because it was February and there was bound to be a lot of snow. So we travelled down PA over to OH where we met up with my dad and grandparents in Newark. Then we travelled through Indiana, and made a stop in St. Louis. In Kansas we stopped at a place called "Truckhedge"

It was a special place, and by special I mean I am glad we didn't get murdered and thrown into the woods for creatures to feast on. It was a residential place set up by a rather odd man who was incredibly friendly and weirdly artistic. He had some crazy artifacts on his property and he gave us a tour of his abode. I would recommend anyone to stop by here if they are in Kansas because it was an experience I will never forget. And the guy gave Zoe a piece of petrified wood and showed her dinosaur and mammoth teeth. It was definitely not a stop I was expecting! I thought it was a roadside attraction that we would stop at for 10 minutes, take a picture and drive away. Kind of like this one...

This is the world's largest easel. I think this was in Colorado where we were stranded for a night because of a snow storm that we hit. We stopped in Denver for lunch and stayed outside of the city for the night. Apparently Colorado doesn't have a great snow management system, so it took us three days to get through the state. We also had to make a pit stop at Volvo because I was having a problem with my windshield wiper fluid because it was below freezing and Georgia filled my tank up with +32 fluid.

These photos were all taken at Hot Springs Park in Wyoming. Another highlight of our trip. We had the chance to eat with deer, see roaming buffalo, and take a dip in natural hot spring pools. We also made a trip to the dinosaur museum in town, which was an awesome stop that Zoe LOVED. 

We finally made it into Washington State!

In case anyone was wondering, Lou made the trip too. He had a blast sneaking into hotel rooms. He did really well the entire 10 days of traveling.

If I could choose one picture that would sum up our trip it would be this one. It was such an experience traveling across the country and we got to see so many beautiful landscapes along the way. This picture is through Montana, which I think was my favorite state along the way. Fun fact: Researchers at Cornell University have stated that if a zombie apocalypse were to ever happen, the safest place to be in the United States would be Montana. Probably because there aren't very many people around.

And surprisingly the kids took the trip just as good as Lou did. Anthony slept for most of the time, and we tried to stay at hotels with swimming pools every night so Zoe could swim and run around after spending the day in the car. We only did about 6-7 hours a day, which is why it took us about 10 days to get to Washington. We wanted to make the trip memorable and fun for the kids. I think we succeeded!