Working our way up the East Coast!

Well, we have made it to our final destination! Cape Cod! I have realized how much I miss the ocean.  When we were growing up a lot of our vacations were to the coast.  I have been to a few sunny beaches in the past few years but there is something about the cooler temperatures and the ocean that I just love.  We drove around today after church to look around at all the different beaches and houses (and many Dunkin' Donuts, Bank of  Americas and Post Offices).

Since my last post Marissa and mom caught you up on most of it. Also, if you got my dad's email, they all three cover what has happened pretty well.  So check them out.

I do want to tell a little story that happened at our first condo.
So while everyone else is in their rooms Marissa and I are laying out in the living room. Me trying to sleep and Marissa reading. All of a sudden she says, "Ohhhh gosh.... that is huge!!!!" in a freaked out voice.  I immediately know that she has seen some kind of bug.  It's a spider. And it has made it's way under the bed. Perfect. So we freak out a bit, pick up our bags off the ground. I sit there well awake now and Marissa is telling me to just go to bed.  I hate spiders.  No way.  Mom comes out to read for a bit and we tell her about the spider.  A few minutes later she says in a semi calm voice, "Oh, there's your spider."  We tell her to kill it and she says she wants to kill it just as much as we do.  She tries to get it with the trash can (Marissa won't lend her super heavy nursing books) and the spider takes off.  All of us freaking out once more.  We tell mom to turn off the light as she makes her way back into the bedroom so we don't have to get out of bed.  She stands in the doorway and gives a slight good luck-so long-I'm going to protect myself first wave and shuts her door.  Thanks mom.  We never did kill that spider, we only saw it once in a while the next couple nights.

When mom first planned this trip she didn't think that Washington D.C. would fit  in, but I was happy that it did.  Besides New York (which we also got to drive through) this is a place I have always wanted to go that is on the east coast.  We got to see the Lincoln Memorial (but the hot security officer wouldn't take his picture with us) and we got to see three of the memorial sites.  Going and seeing the Vietnam and Korean War Memorials was very nice.  I have always really wanted to see was the National Law Enforcement Memorial one.  It's very different knowing a family that has a loved one engraved in the stone.  There were a lot less people here so it was easier to have a more private experience.  We were able to sketch over names and hear my dad talk about a few that I didn't get a chance to know.  Washington D.C. was definitely one of my favorite stops so far.

Like I said before we were able to drive through NY, more specifically... Queens. Where Zachary Scoffield is serving! It was really exciting for Marissa and I, even though we didn't seen him... It was the closest we will be to him for the next year and a half.

While at Philly we were able to have some Philly Cheese Steaks. Cheese Whiz makes them just that much better! We got to walk around with dad at night and go to LOVE park and hold some snakes :)  Marissa and I went out a little later to get some food.  There is a curfew for teens and some cops came in to the diner and saw me, stared at me, and kinda smiled before taking their seats. Obviously I didn't look old enough to them or something.. haha

We still have a week left and that means many more stories to tell!!