Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!! We are now basking in the 85 degree weather. We are at Mam Mam and Pop Pop's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone have a wonderful Thankgiving and be careful going back home. And we hope you find that great sale on black Friday , we will be still sleeping unlike you wild and crazy people that live for the Friday after Thanksgiving, and you know who you are. We will be updating the blog once or twice a week for a few weeks. Then we are off to another adventure, we are off to Peru. Keep posted so you can find out where Johnny is when we set off to Peru.

Day Fifteen Part II

We stopped by the Tovar house which is the oldest house in St. Augustine.

We opted to do the tour ourselves instead of getting on a trolley. It was a good idea because we could get out and take pictures and drive to the next site as fast or as slow as we wanted. The sites are all really close and very easy to find.

We also went to see the Indian village that Ponce de Leon met when he landed in Florida. The chief stood seven feet tall and the average height was over six feet 7 inches.


Our last stop was the Castillo de San Marcos. This is the largest fort in St. Augustine and was used by the Spaniards.
This was our last stop for this adventure, we had an eight hour drive to Miramar.

Day Fifteen

The Fountain of Youth in St. Augustine, Florida


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AFTER

















After Savannah, we crossed into Florida and spent some time in St. Augustine - which is the oldest settlement in the United States (founded by the Spanish in 1565). As we were exploring the town, we came across the location of the Fountain of Youth - the legendary spring in which explorer Ponce de Leon was attempting to locate when he discovered Florida.

After we paid our admission, we quickly learned that we would not be able to leave without hearing about 27 lame jokes on the Fountain of Youth. For example, as we approached the site of Ponce's landing, a group of people passed us and one of the men pointed to Johnny and said, "There he is. He comes here every week....he's 58 years old!" Yuk-yuk-yuk.

In keeping with the spirit of these "jokes", we decided we would have a little fun too. As part of the tour, everyone gets a sample of the spring water (Incidentally, it tasted like warm well water and, ironically, it probably took a few years off of you after drinking it). John posed for a picture while drinking the water, then took off his shirt and hat and put them on Johnny for the "After" shot. Oddly, the tour guide and some of the other tourists were not amused by this. John suggested they were in a state of shock after seeing his amazingly sculpted pectoral muscles - but somehow I don't think that was the case.

After completing the tour and hearing someone say, "Hey, is that your Dad?" (pointing to Johnny) - we were off to the next site.

Day Fourteen

The next state we went to was the "Peach State"...Georgia. This town is home to Paula Dean, we were able to go by her restaurant she owns with her two sons.
Savannah is so beautiful with all the mansions and history. Therefore, we had to eat in a mansion. We ate at 700 Drayton. It is located across the Forsythe Park. The food was delicious. John had an open steak sandwich in a Burgundy onion sauce. The steak was soft and juicy and the sauce was just and explosion of flavor. I had the green fried tomato BLT. It was perfect. Here is John and Johnny in front of the restaurant.
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While seeing the sights we were able to see the bench where Forest Gump said his famous line, "Life is like a box of chocolate". The white mansion is where the movie In the Garden of Good and Evil was filmed with Kevin Spacey.

Day 13

Yesterday we were in Manassas, Virginia and walked the Battlefield. The actual battlefield trail is eleven miles, we took the three mile trail. We said good-bye to Aunt Luisa and continued going south. Time didn't permit us to stop in North Carolina for more than a few hours. We made it to South Carolina and stopped to see the commemoration of The Tuskegee Airmen.
Johnny was able to go on the tar mat and see some of the private luxury airplanes that leave from this airport.
The weather here is so much warmer than up North.

Day Twelve

We had a really nice time in Washington D.C, along with all the monuments we visited we were able to go in the Holocaust Museum. I recommend everyone visiting the museum, it very sad but it is history we should never forget. We also went to the Native American Museum and they have a restaurant, the food is delicious. Try the buffalo steak.

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The next city we went to is where the "The First Battle of Bull Run" took place. This is also where Stonewall Jackson got his name. Johnny is standing in front of Stonewall Jackson's statue.

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This is the home of Mrs. Henry, who was the first civilian casualty of war. She was an elderly woman who refused to leave her home. Unfortunately, her home was smack in the middle of the battlefield and the union soldiers had invaded her home. When the gun battle began confederate soldiers riddled the house with gunfire and canons.

Day Eleven

Day 10

Yesterday's trivia was the word Pennsylvania which is misspelled on the Liberty.
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We entered this city last night and met up with Aunt Luisa. She has lived in this area for about five years and hasn't toured the city. We are taking her with us. There are about 4 tour bus services. I recommend the two day pass tour. There is so much to see, and a lot of the buildings close at 5:30 p.m.. You can use the subway system to get around but find out if they are under construction the waiting time for a train can be about 45 minutes. Usually the subway runs every 15 minutes. The tour bus was great, especially with Johnny because we started our tour about 1:30 and around 1:45 Johnny took his nap for the next hour and a half. He would of slept longer but the tour finished.

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This was taken in front of the Union Station. It is a well known bell. But for the life of me, I cannot remember what the significance is. If anyone knows let us know. This was taken just before we boarded the tour bus.

Washington National Cathedral it is beautiful from the outside but more beautiful from the inside. There are 25 tour stops and we noted which ones we will see tomorrow.











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Day Nine

Philadelphia had the largest city title from 1800-1830 beating out L.A and New York.


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Philadelphia was laid out by William Penn and he
had no idea that this estabishment would be the birthplace to democracy. There is a lot to see in Philly, like museums which are nice but you can't go by this city without stopping by and seeing the Liberty Bell. Does anyone know when the final expansion of the crack happened? What is the only word that is misspelled on the bell? We enjoyed Pennsylvania and its history but we were sorry that we weren't able to visit Hershey Penn. I hear you get to take home free chocolate samples. So after touring this city we were off to the next city.