New York

Daughters biggest go to destination was New York City. We planned one big day to tour the city as just getting there and parking or even taking the train in was going to be expensive and an event in itself. We took the train in from the coastal area of New Jersey where we were camping. We scheduled a tour company to take us around the best sights for the day. The tour started only about a half mile from the train station so it was convenient enough that we enjoyed the walk up Broadway before the tour began. We saw Time Square, Central Park, Grand Central, Wall Street, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the World Trade Center and memorial, Battery Park, and even went to the top of the Empire State Building. It was a day that started by waking up at 5am to be on the train by 6:15 and we didn't get back until after 10pm. What a city, but just a little to much peopling for us.

The New Years Ball over Times Square.

Another View of the ball just over the 2017 sign (ball is red right now).

Disney Store on Times Square.

More light up billboards than you can count.

Chrysler Building

Inside of Grand Central Terminal.

Train Schedules.

Front of Grand Central.

Old beautiful church (forgot name).

See street names.

Front of the stock exchange.

View from Battery Park.

View from boat to the Statue.

Ellis Island receiving building.

9/11 Memorial

New World Trade Center

View South from Empire State Building. (zoomed in on new World Trade Center to the left and Statue of Liberty in center).

Only a little zoomed.

Top of ESB, above observation deck.

View West. Edge of round building with blue lights near center is Madison Square Garden and underneath it is Penn Station where our train came into town.

Building just to the right of center with the front left corner cut off is Macy's. The street in front of it on the diagonal is Broadway, so that pie shaped area in front is Herald Square where the Thanksgiving parade performs.

View to NE with Chrysler Building.

Chrysler Building.

View North, with Rockefeller Building in center.

Rockefeller Building with NBC Peacock over Comcast sign.

Another of Grand Central.

The Battery at Battery park.

View from Battery Park (where boat ride starts).

Original torch. There is a new museum being built on the island that this will go into soon.

Ellis Island.

9/11 memorial.

South View not zoomed.

Checking out the views from the ESB.

Boston

We were timing our travels to be near Salem Massachusetts for Halloween. We aren't really into the witch stuff but this town goes all out for the whole week prior and even has fireworks that night. Some of the costumes were really extravagant or well thought out. Most were taken from popular movies of TV shows. We did tour the witch museum to learn about what happened during the witch hunts. I had been here a couple of times before many years ago for Navy conferences on engines, but this was my first time here for the Halloween bash.

We tried to spend some time in Boston but, several things like parking for a vehicle over 6ft tall and weather were against us. I couldn't park my 6ft 10inch Bronco anywhere but on the street which had 2 hour time limits and it usually took 20 minutes to walk into the old sections of town from where I could find parking. We did get to see some of the old buildings and tour the USS Constitution when we were there. The USS Constitution is also known as Old Ironsides, and is the oldest floating commissioned military ship in the world. It's frame was made from Live Oak and was so strong that cannonballs used to bounce off of it.

Niagra Falls

We made a stop at Niagara Falls, one of my wife's must see destinations. It was a fairly cool day and very breezy so the mist coming from the falls was going everywhere. We didn't take the boat ride as my wife easily gets motion sickness, but we got plenty wet anyway. Actually there was no escaping it that day. Very beautiful.

Almost too windy that day, but it sure made the mist fly and created several beautiful rainbows.

Dayton Air Force Museum and Son's Birthday

We had a couple of days left to fill before we were scheduled to be to the East coast, and even though it was a slight backtrack, we went to Dayton Ohio to see the Air Force Museum. It's the largest military aircraft museum in the world. It was kind of a birthday present to my son, who lives and breathes aircraft. We were even surprised to see several aircraft that were popular to use in the Civil Air Patrol (CAP), of which my kids are a part of and the organization was well mentioned at the museum.

Henry Ford

Eating in the old time diner.

Lots of nostalgia and old cars.

An art section.

Lots of farm equipment, from the antique to the modern.

Antique furniture has come a long way.

For those who don't know, the Henry Ford is actually two museums right next to each other. One section is indoors and is sometimes known as the museum of innovation. It has lots of examples of American innovation from the industrial revolution, to include things like steam engines, farming equipment, aircraft, locomotives, automobiles, homes, electronics and computers.

The second museum is know as Greenfield Village and is a set up like a community from the late 1800's. It has several historical buildings and old homes that have been moved to this property in an attempt to save them from destruction. Buildings include the Wright Brothers home and cycle shop and back shed where they worked on their kites and airplanes, Thomas Edison's Menlow Park laboratory where he worked on his light bulb and other inventions, and several other buildings and farm houses. There are also working Steam Locomotives and even a roundhouse and railroad around the property. We even took rides in an old Model-T.

This was one of the big items I wanted to see on our journey.

Mount Rushmore, Wall Drug, and Mall of America

Our first big stop after Yellowstone was Mount Rushmore. So neat to see.

The next day we stopped at Wall Drug, which is more of a roadside attraction in a little town with almost nothing going for it. The story goes that the town was hard hit during the 30's depression and even into the 40's wasn't doing so well. The new and fairly well traveled highway went right past the town but there was no reason to stop at such a small farming community. The drug store in town decided to put up signs on the highway and offer free ice water to the travelers to get them to stop at the store. The success story is a neat one and now the place is a small mall with several smaller stores included along with a few eating options. It's now well known to people who regularly travel the interstate through South Dakota.

We also detoured a little bit north to take a pit stop at the Mall of America in Minnesota. We had fun touring the mall and riding the rides. It is Nickelodeon themed, and geared for toward that age group, but there were still a few good rides.  

The pile of rocks below the monument shows the evidence of the drilling for the dynamite holes.

Mountain goats hanging out at the Monument.

Wall drug mechanically animated singers.

Goofy things in the Wall Drug kids play area.

For a quarter he will sing a song for you.

California, Aunt K. side trip

Mom and the kids went to see Mom's aunt and uncle, and also cousin with his new wife and new baby. They live in San Louis Obispo which is close to Morrow Bay. The even had a few days at the beach where the kids even tried out paddle boarding. This isn't a coast that we get to often so it had been a very long time since seeing them so it was a great visit.

Of course they had to tease me with pics from In-N-Out.

Playing on the beach in California.

Our newest cousin.