South Carolina

Sunday, November 3rd, 2013 @ 12:24 PM Anna Blankenheim Vacation boone hall plantation, charleston, garden, magnolia plantation, road trip, south carolina, swamp

Ok folks, this is going to be a long one. The last stop on our 2nd Anniversary Road Trip was Charleston, South Carolina. Our first visit was to the Boone Hall Plantation. It’s actually America’s oldest still-working plantation, functioning non-stop for over 320 years. Of course, it’s not a true plantation without the Avenue of the Oaks:

We took the house tour and then wandered the grounds.

The gardens were absolutely beautiful, even this late in the year. I bet they’re amazing in the spring!

We also had some amazing food while in South Carolina. The first night we had dinner at Fiery Ron’s Home Team BBQ… it was amazing. I’m not a huge BBQ or rib fan, but these were delicious. And their sides were to die for… I had mashed potatoes and mac & cheese with mine. We ate two meals at Jestine’s Kitchen – their famous fried chicken was awesome but I loved their meatloaf even more. I also introduced Mike to Cracker Barrel and Zaxby’s (hellooooo sweet tea)!

The highlight of my trip was a visit to the Magnolia Plantation Swamp Gardens. While they’re more well known for their plantation house and regular gardens, we skipped all of that and headed over to the swamp in hopes of seeing an alligator.

They had these great little walkways that traversed a pretty big swamp area. We wandered for a while before we saw this little fella

After we spotted him, we noticed them everywhere… in the water, on the platforms, on the shore. It was so cool. We also learned that the green stuff that covers the top of water isn’t algae… it’s called duck weed and are the smallest flowering plant on the planet. We saw all sorts of cool critters – head over to my Facebook page to see the rest. Ok, ok, one more of this really cute baby turtle:

Finally, we got to spend some time with my cousin, Jared. He joined the Navy a couple of years ago (just after our wedding) and it’s been a while since we’ve seen him. It was so great to give him a great big hug and to have dinner with him (twice!). See Facebook/Instagram for pics.

Just like that, the trip was over. By this point I was sick as heck and definitely did not enjoy the flight home, but we made it.

North Carolina

Sunday, November 3rd, 2013 @ 11:47 AM Anna Blankenheim Vacation charlotte, epicenter, north carolina, road trip

The next place we went to on our road trip was North Carolina. We headed into Charlotte for the night. Right about now on the trip is when I started to suffer the beginnings of the cold of death… the same one that I’m still battling. We got to Charlotte after dark and couldn’t believe what a beautiful city it was. I didn’t take pictures, but really wish I had… that city at night is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. We checked into our hotel and then headed out in search for food. We were given directions into “the Epicenter” – basically the happening spot of the downtown area.

Mike and I both commented that even though we’re not really “city people” we both loved it here. I’m not sure exactly what it was… there was just a great vibe. I really liked how they kept the history alive via markers.

We didn’t spend a ton of time here because we wanted to get down to South Carolina, but I really enjoyed the time we were there!

Virginia

Sunday, November 3rd, 2013 @ 11:34 AM Anna Blankenheim Bucket List, Vacation blue ridge parkway, fall, road trip, virginia, virginia beach

Once we were done in DC, we headed for Virginia. We spent the night in Virginia Beach, which was absolutely beautiful. The view below was actually taken from our hotel room… there was literally boardwalk and sand between us and the water. The weather was lovely as well! We didn’t find much to do there, so we stopped at Bad Ass Coffee for some breakfast and headed on our way.

Our friends Chris and Kassie had recommended we take the long way from Virginia to North Carolina via the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was an absolutely stunning drive and I got to check another item off my bucket list – to see Fall on the East Coast.

We pulled off down a little back road to this hole in the wall place called “Gertie’s” for lunch. It claimed fresh BBQ daily and all of the locals were there, so we decided to give it a try. The food was really good! We headed back out on the Parkway for the rest of our drive.

The views from this road were absolutely stunning – you literally drive along the ridge and can see all the different valleys. The trees were beautiful as well, although we were probably just a few days late for the actual peak. Poor Mike got really good at stopping in the middle of the road without getting us killed every time I yelled “STOP!” to take a picture.

That was pretty much it for Virginia… next stop, North Carolina!

Washington DC

Friday, November 1st, 2013 @ 6:00 PMSunday, November 3rd, 2013 @ 11:36 AM Anna Blankenheim Vacation lincoln memorial, national mall, road trip, washington dc, washington memorial, white house

The next stop on our road trip was beautiful Washington DC. We spent two days there and could have easily spent more… they were two very jam-packed days full of lots of walking.

On day one we decided to try to hit up all of the memorials, monuments, etc. Our first stop was the White House. I was really excited to see the White House garden… they keep bees! While we were there, they closed the street we were on and drove some big caravan by… lots of police cars and black SUVs. The President? Maybe. Sasha and Malia going to school? Maybe. It was neat to see, either way.

I loved this picture – as we were walking away from the gates near the White House, we saw this mounted officer giving her partner a little break:

You Can Lead A Horse To Water... — You Can Lead A Horse To Water…

After that we headed over to the National Mall – Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, as well as the Korean and Vietnam Memorials.

The Washington Monument was under construction. Apparently there was an earthquake a couple of years ago that did some damage to the monument… nothing structural, but stuff that needed to be fixed. It was kind of neat to see it with all of the scaffolding.

We then headed to the Lincoln Memorial via the National Mall. I loved standing on the steps and looking back at the Washington Memorial and across the pool.

Then we went on to the Korean War Memorial… this one was really moving to me. It features a series of stainless steel statues that represent a squad on patrol. It’s especially moving since I know my grandpa was there.

After that, we headed to the Vietnam War Memorial. This one was very special as well… my father-in-law and my uncle both fought there. I was in awe of the sheer number of names on the wall.

Finally, we walked across the river (technically into Virginia) to see Arlington National Cemetery. This was something that I’ve always wanted to see… I felt honored to be there among the so many who gave their lives to our country. Yes, I know that not all there died in battle, but all did in some way serve.

There was a little bit of comedy. Arlington allows a spouse and up to two children under 18 to be buried with a service member. As we passed this headstone I noticed something strange… see if you pick up on it:

So, to me, at first glance, it looked like he buried his two wives together (which he did). Once you look closer, you notice that the first wife died the same year as the infant son… probably during childbirth. Still…

We also had the chance to watch the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The whole process was very cool to see and so respectful.

On the second day we decided to hit the Smithsonian museums. There are bunch of them, so we narrowed it down to two that we really wanted to see. The first was the National Museum of Natural History. I think the highlight of that one for me was the dinosaur exhibits. To be honest, I was a little disappointed in the museum. Maybe too many people just built it up too much, but I felt like there wasn’t anything that I hadn’t seen before. Ok, except the Hope Diamond. Don’t get me wrong, it was beautiful, but anything that big ends up looking fake to me, even though I know it’s not. The second museum that we went to was the National Air and Space Museum. This one was actually really cool… I wasn’t expecting to be that interested (Mike wanted to go there) but was surprised by the really cool exhibits they had. I loved seeing the old space craft… and was amazed at the fact that people actually agreed to be shot into space in them!

From there we headed into Virginia, but that’s another post!

Pennsylvania

Friday, November 1st, 2013 @ 5:35 PMSunday, November 3rd, 2013 @ 11:36 AM Anna Blankenheim Vacation amish, famous 4th street deli, gettysburg, liberty hall, pennsylvania, philadelphia, road trip

The next state on our road trip was beautiful Pennsylvania. After a rough start in Philly/New Jersey, we returned to Philadelphia to check out a couple of the key attractions. The first was Independence Hall. We didn’t actually go in because the lines were crazy long, but it was a beautiful building to look at. This is where both the Declaration of Independence was signed and where the US Constitution was debated and adopted. It’s always cool to me to stand somewhere that history was made. We didn’t go see the Liberty Bell because the line for that was super long too.

We stopped for lunch at the Famous 4th Street Deli for lunch. Let’s just say that they don’t do things small there… Mike had an enormous sandwich and I had a pretty good grilled cheese. We ordered fries that came in a gigantic mound. The food was awesome and the walls were lined with pictures of famous people who visited – from movie stars to presidents. I definitely recommend visiting this place!

After lunch we started our drive across the state towards Gettysburg. Along the way, we passed through Lancaster County, home of the Amish.

Gettysburg was absolutely amazing. It took a lot longer than we had expected… we spent an entire day doing the auto tour… you basically drive yourself to sixteen different points on the battlefield based on a map that the visitors center provides. I was amazed at how big the battlefield actually was. We started with the museum which walked you through the battle and had some great artifacts. I really liked the self tour… we could go at our own pace and take time for lunch when we felt like it.

There were amazing monuments scattered throughout the battlefield – both to the North and South. The North basically had a monument for each regiment, while the South went state by state. They were absolutely beautiful and reflected the individuality of each group. I liked the Alabama memorial (my grandpa is from there!):

Even though we had a rough start in Pennsylvania, we ended up having a wonderful time. The weather was beautiful and we really loved seeing the sights!

New Jersey

Tuesday, October 29th, 2013 @ 5:46 PM Anna Blankenheim Vacation atlantic city, new jersey, ocean city, pennsylvania, philadelphia, road trip

The year that Mike and I got engaged we were on a road trip… from Seattle into Canada. The year prior we had done one through Wyoming. Last year for our first anniversary, we went up the Northern California coast and into Oregon. We’ve decided that we pretty much love those kinds of trips – they give us the freedom to go where we want, when we want. He’s even convinced me that it’s ok to book your hotel rooms the day of. Those of you who know me well know that something like that totally freaks out the OCD in me. But it works, we have fun, and we’ve come up with some great stories. We’ve decided that we’re going to continue the tradition and do a road trip for every anniversary.

This year, we decided to fly out to the East Coast and rent a car. We flew into Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and drove through Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Washington DC, New Jersey, North Carolina, and South Carolina. It was a seriously great adventure! I’ve decided that there’s way too much to post in a single post, so I’m going to go by state. Today’s state is New Jersey.

Wait, you ask. Didn’t you fly into Philly? Yes, we did. I had booked two hotel rooms – the very first night we were there and the very last night, just to make things easy. I figured we got there late and it’d be nice to note have to think about where we were going. Our flights were surprisingly smooth – one layover and it was virtually non-existent. We landed in Philly at around 9pm and headed towards the hotel, which was just across the bridge in New Jersey. That’s where it all went wrong.

Apparently, I forgot to look at the hotel reviews when I booked it on Expedia:

We asked for a non-smoking room and the room we were given REEKED of cigarettes.

This room was infested with bed bugs.

First impression – stepped on a used condom walking into the hotel.

Those are the nice ones. There are also discussions of “ladies of the night”, cigarette burns on the sheets, drug transactions, and all of the seedy neighboring establishments. When we got there, the “manager” checked us in and gave us our keys. We went to the room and when I opened the door a serious smokey smell came out… when I had specifically requested a non-smoking room. We went back down and asked to change rooms… the manager asked us to come with him. He went to open the other room that he planned to give us only to find that the room was already open – and he muttered something about someone staying the prior night that shouldn’t have.

If that wasn’t enough, I also didn’t know that it was in the lovely little city of Camden. For those of you unfamiliar with Camden, three of its mayors have been jailed for corruption and at the end of 2012 the FBI ranked it #1 violent crime per capita of cities with over 50,000 residents. Had I known all of this, I may have chosen a different hotel… despite the fact that it looked really close to where we wanted to go. Needless to say, we politely asked for our money back and moved on. Word to the wise, don’t stay at the Days Inn Brooklawn Philadelphia. Just sayin’.

By this point, it was almost 11pm, we’d been up all day and really just wanted to go to bed. We made the 1/2 hour or so drive to Ocean City, NJ where we booked a lovely hotel that literally was directly on the beach. MUCH better! The next morning we woke up and drove into Atlantic City. We wandered down the boardwalk and checked out the sights.

From there we headed back into Pennsylvania… stay tuned for the next post! I’ll eventually get around to getting all of the pictures up on Facebook… I’m home sick with a heck of a cold right now, so I’m trying to do some serious resting.

Down The Road I Go

Thoughts from my little corner of the world.

road trip