On the Road Again... (literally)

Yes folks, we're on the road again. But since I promised to give you a proper update this morning, we managed to use Lori's iphone to get her computer wireless...yahoo!
So, where did we leave off....

After we left Papa's house, we headed off to Hershey! We went on the cutest little ride at Chocolate World that explained how the chocolate was made (with some adorable singing cows)....for those of you Jon and Kate fans, this was the same ride they went on when they visited...

We also saw the WORLD'S LARGEST CRAYON at the Crayola factory....oh what a wonderful thing to be surrounded by so many crayons!

Then we hit the road for NYC and made a quick pit stop at a....drum roll please..... APPLEBEES!! Yes, we branched out for lunch and tried the local fare at Applebees. But we did enjoy it....so much so they we were able to finish off one of our gift cards there on the meal. Since the gift card was empty, I was trying to fold it in half so we would remember to throw it away....well little did I know but when I was folding it in half, it slipped out of my hand and flew halfway across the restaurant and landed at the feet of some man sitting by himself. I, unaware that this even happened, started looking around for the card when I saw a shocked look on Lori's face. I then noticed the card at the man's feet, who seemed a little shocked himself. Thankfully, he was very kind about me throwing things at him and told us a story about how some lady once hit his son in the eye with jello at a restaurant. We about wet ourselves with laughter after that my little incident....

After lunch/dinner, we made our way into the city....which was interesting to say the least. It took us about 3 1/2 hours to go, oh I don't know 30 miles. They have this thing called "traffic" which should not be fooled around with! But my mom fearlessly made her way through the streets and got us to our hotel safely (with only 1 minor interaction with law enforcement....apparently they have this rule about turning right during the hours of 4-7 pm....you can't! Thankfully the police officer had pity on our poor, tired, and lost selves that he let us off without a ticket.).

After enjoying some fresh cookies on the 33rd floor of our hotel (it had 43 floors), we hit the town ! We went into M&M world (so much fun) and then set out on a search for Junior's Cheesecake. After a few wrong turns, we made it there and tried some VERY DELICIOUS blueberry cheesecake. We crashed for the evening after that, with a plan to get up early to go by the set of the Today Show in the morning. Well, I woke up in the morning with a bit of a fever, "Bieber Fever" that is. For those of you that aren't 12 year old girls, Justin Bieber is the hottest thing since Elvis Presley. My mom and I headed down to NBC studios to see about 1,000 screaming (and crying) 10 year old girls and their moms waiting patiently for Justin to come out and serenade them. Unfortunately for us, we were quite far away and could barely hear a thing. But thankfully my "Bieber Fever" went down and we were able to walk around town some and then back to the hotel to pick up the ladies.

Our goal for the day was to see The Statue of Liberty and Central Park. We hopped on the subway (the train, not the sandwich, mom) and got off in Chinatown. We then had to walk quite a ways to get to the statue. We stopped at this little shop and Lori got a map to show us the different subway stops. And I probably should tell you, that when I say "got" I really mean "took." She didn't notice the $7.95 price sticker until I pointed it out to her when we were down by the water looking at the statue. Yep, we're traveling with a criminal here folks. So then our NEW mission was to make it back to the same store she took the map from so she could pay for it (easier said than done). We had lunch at some financial building and then after a few wrong turns, made it back to the scene of the crime so Lori could redeem her good name.

We then hopped on the subway and made it to Central Park. It was absolutely beautiful and WAY bigger than I expected! It was fun to see all of carriage rides and horses. If we would have had more time, it would have been a lovely place to go on a bike ride.

Then it was time to get back to our hotel, pick up our car and luggage, and get out of town before the traffic hit. Unfortunately, there is rarely a time in NYC when the traffic doesn't hit! Our quick trip to Connecticut ended up take us 2 1/2 hours longer than anticipated. BUT we made it to Connecticut!! We had dinner at a little pizza place and then got back to our hotel a little before 9 and watched the national spelling bee on tv.

Today we got up and enjoyed a lovely breakfast outside on the patio overlooking the hills and trees. And now you're pretty much caught up on all of the action! We're still on the road and should be at the Yankee Candle Factory in about 40 minutes (thankfully we are done with NYC traffic).

I've posted a few pictures from our journey and will be sure to keep them coming.

Hold on to your credit cards folks....look out Yankee, here we come!
Kt :)