On 14th of July we headed to the airport in Helsinki. Just ten hours in airplanes, briefly stopping by at London Heathrow, and we were finally there in America. Seeing New York from up in the air was something I wasn't all that prepared to. It was so much bigger than I could have imagined, even trying really hard.
So the first thing to do was to see
New York.
Magnificent as the Big Apple is, I am glad we got a chance to see a piece
of American small town life, staying with Kimmo in Princeton Junction.
Not all summer vacations take you to the suburban areas, where everyone
has a house and at least one car. We shopped at
QuakerBridge Mall
and local grocery stores, too.
Next trip took us to Philadelphia. We saw the
Philadelphia Museum of Art
and after walking it through were tired enough to stop at
Franklin Mills mall
and head back.
We visited the New Jersey shore, too. After consulting a seven-year-old
AAA TourBook, we chose to go to Ashbury Park.
That was a mistake.
Ashbury Park was nothing like the pretty little town with Victorian houses
we had in mind after reading about it. Thank God we decided to go south
along the coast before heading back to inland. There were the Victorian
houses, too.
But the towns had different names. We drove all the way to
Spring Lake and could not help noticing other beaches, cleaner nicer and
much more crowded, too. We didn't wonder why.
Now it was time to go to Delaware. We stopped by at NewCastle
where it seemed like time had almost stopped. What a beautiful and
peaceful little town! I was anxious to see Newark,
the town my husband had lived in. It was a long time ago and I guess many
things had changed.
But I enjoyed visiting the places that were familiar to him.
The first overnight trip took us to Baltimore and Washington, D.C. We went
to the
National Aquarium in Baltimore
pretty much to the delight of the youngest member of our family. They had
a nice dolphin show
there and a large collection of sharks. What really
made us wonder was the huge amout of trash on the water in the harbor.
They were busy cleaning up the place, but for the time being the harbor
was like a huge stinking trash dump.
We drove down to Washington in the evening and took a monument-seeing walk
in the darkening evening.
Washington monument was not exactly what was
pictured in the brochures, the marbles were being replaced. The view was
not very great either and we could not take any pictures. The monuments
nevertheless gave a good view of the history of the United States.
The next day we spent in
Smithsonian museums.
Naturally on our list were the Capitol
and the White House.
We rented a car for nine days to drive south to Florida. Spending some
four days in the car
might seem like a lot, but I enjoyed the chance to see a little more of
the country instead of just hopping in an airplane to get from one place
to another. So it was going to be a scenic route to get as much out of it
as possible. Since we had been driving around before, the first new thing
to see were the mountains. We drove through the breathtaking scenery of
Shenandoah Valley.
Everything was so peaceful and quiet. We didn't take too many photos, they
never do justice to the views.
But we did enjoy every overlook on the way.
Basically the
speed limits were 65 or 70 mph and our estimated driving time was based on
55 mph speed limit. So we had time to stop ever so often to eat or refuel.
And stay in nice motor inns with pools
and sleep in bed instead of driving
all night or sleeping in a truck resting area. On the
morning of the third travel day we arrived in
Orlando. Days flew by in amusement parks and
all-too-soon it was time to head back to New Jersey.
On the way back we
stopped to soak our feet in the ocean in Daytona Beach.
Where else could you drive to the beach to select a perfect spot to stop?
The waves were amazing, at least to someone like me, who has spent most of
her childhood on shore, but not ocean shore.
So the way back was a scenic tour, too, but in a different way. We stopped
in Annapolis
for lunch. Too bad seafood does not come with an eating
manual, so we didn't dare give it a try.
Chesapeake Bay Bridge
was amazing, too. All of the bridges in Eastern Coast seem unique in their
own way.
Three and a half weeks might seem like a long time but then it suddenly
was over. And we packed our suitcases, drove to the airport
and said goodbye to the big apple
and flew back to
Finland.
All of the pictures of our trip are in Artsi's image collection