Checking in

Well, I made it back in one piece on Monday night. Thank you SO much Melodee and Amanda for being my taxis. It was so nice not to have to park up at the airport. As promised, I came back with exactly one trillion pictures. I posted just a fraction of them to Flickr, so if you are so inclined, go check them out. I hope they reflect at least to some degree the great time I had. We had so much packed into our days, my head is still spinning and I'm still trying to catch up on sleep. Here's a brief rundown of what we did.

Wednesday: Jen worked, so I stole her car and drove to Philly to check out the Body World exhibit and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I also had time to take a walk down past the Water works and Boathouse Row.
Thursday: Again, I stole Jen's car and drove down through Amish Country in Lancaster County. I experienced covered bridges and the town of Intercourse. *Insert obvious sick joke here* The foliage wasn't extraordinary, but it was still pretty. I especially enjoyed the farmland. I guess you can take the girl out of Eastern Montana, but not Eastern Montana out of the girl. That evening, Jen and I drove to Newark to pick my mom up from the airport and we headed to our hostel in NY City.
Friday: We awoke at 5 AM and headed to Fox & Friends studio to hold up a handmade sign that says, "Big Timber MT loves Fox News". Then, we walked down and see Ground Zero, Wall Street and get on the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. Then, we headed back stopping off at Ellis Island to look up my great grandma in the manifests. Then, we stood in line for 2 HOURS to go up into the Empire Statue building (it was so NOT worth it), took a carriage ride through Central Park and then grabbed a quick dinner and headed off to Fiddler on the Roof, which by the way, is the COOLEST thing I have ever seen. I literally had to pick my jaw up off the floor afterwards. We headed back to Reading after that and made it home around 3 AM. Good on Jen for driving the whole way!! 22 hour days rock.
Saturday: Gettysburg. It was rainy and miserable, but we were in the car for most of the day doing the battlefield driving tour, so the rain actually added to the ambiance and made for some great pictures.
Sunday: Back to Philly for the historical sights - Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Betsy Ross' house, Ben Franklin's grave, etc. I had no idea how much history is in that town. Very cool. We also HAD to stop off for a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich for lunch. Yum.
Monday: Mom flew back to MT in the morning and I had a rental car and a few hours to kill, so I drove down to Delaware to see the beaches. Wilma made the weather a little crumby, but I was still able to say that I dipped my feet in the Atlantic (which I never had done before). Then, I headed back to Philly to catch my plane.

Whew. Just writing about it makes me tired. But I suppose I should get back to work and get SOMETHING done today.