Spring Break Vacation Part 3/3

Days 8-9 were spent in the Pittsburgh area.

Day 8: Carnegie Mellon Museum of Art and Museum of Natural History. Awesomely they are in the same building and one admission price gets you into both. The boys were over the moon with the dinosaurs. J loved the art museum. And I really liked everything. I really am a museum whore and proud of it!

Pictures: Working lab, Allosaurus, boys in front of the T Rexes, Boys being paleontologists, main staircase, Terpsichore Muse of Lyric Poetry

Day 9: We drove about an hour outside of Pittsburg to see Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater. I've been to his house in Oak Park (Chicago) and see the designs there. But I've always wanted to see Fallingwater. The boys even enjoyed it! Unfortunately you can't take pictures inside the house.

Day 10: J and I drove back to Omaha. On to the moving!

Spring Break Vacation Part 2/3

See Part 1

Days 4-7 were spent in Philadelphia, PA. We stayed at a beautiful house in the Mount Airy/Germantown area north of downtown. It was a quite neighborhood full of some great restaurants. B&Bs or the like are the way to go in big cities.

Day 4: We drove from Hershey to Philadelphia. First stop: the zoo. Did you know the Philadelphia Zoo is the oldest in the country? Built in 1847, you can definitely see the old designs mixed in with newer ones. Of course we all loved the zoos. Who doesn't?

Pictures: Entrance to Zoo, pig-nosed turtle in the Reptile House (I hate snakes, but even I have to admit that house was pretty neat), very cool sculpture

Day 5: National Constitution Center, Old Philadelphia, Hard Rock Cafe (lunch). It was our big history day. While the boys just didn't love this day, I always enjoy history. My favorite was seeing an original printing of the Constitution. Very Cool!

Pictures: Alex and Nick chilling with Ben Franklin in the Signer's Hall, Me with Alexander Hamilton in the Signer's Hall (he was really short), Independence Hall (where Constitutional Congress was held), George Washington's family pew in Christ Church, Elfreth's Alley (longest continually habited street in U.S.)

Day 6: Eastern State Penitentiary and Franklin Institute. I loved the prison (very creepy and kept in semi-ruins) built by the Quakers. Al Capone was even kept there for awhile. And the boys and J really loved the Institute.

Pictures: Cell block 1, Alex in front of an original door to cell in block 1, outside of Franklin Institute, real meteorite that you can touch, Ben of course, the boys learning about physics in Sir Isaac's Loft (I think their favorite part)

Day 7: We crossed the Ben Franklin Bridge to go to the Adventure Aquarium in Camden. From there, we drove towards Pittsburg.

Pictures: Philadelphia sky line from New Jersey, giant aquarium with multiple species of sharks, Nick in an aquarium, I braved the shark tunnel to get this awesome pic of Alex next to a huge shark

Part III coming tomorrow...

Spring Break Vacation Part 1/3

We're back! Okay, so we've been back for a week, but that week has been super busy. Packing an entire house for our impending move to California delayed my vacation posts. I finally got to them... here we go!

Day 1: J and I drove to Indiana... no pictures. Driving through Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana is really boring.

On to...

Day 2: Drove to Dayton to the National Museum of the United States Air Force. The boys and I especially loved the WWI era planes. The newer stuff just isn't as exciting. Plus some of those models are at the SAC Museum right here in Omaha.

Pictures: Wright era glider, post WWI era plane, WWI Model T ambulance, Japanese Zero, B-2 Spirit

Day 3: Drove to Harrisburg area to the Indian Echo Caverns. First time the boys had ever been in a cavern. And I think they really enjoyed it.

Drove to Hershey, PA for Chocolate World. Best part: make your own chocolate bar. You get to pick the chocolate, the fill ins, and the packaging. The boys loved watching their bars get made. And We all loved eating them...

Pictures: Boys in their chef finery, Outside of Chocolate World, candy bars being made

We stayed the night at the Red Caboose Motel. Not the fanciest place, but the boys were excited to stay in real train cars. Supposedly the entire motel started as a bet and has grown over the years. J stayed there as a child. The best part: real bacon (like slaughtered pretty close to that day) at breakfast.

Part II coming tomorrow...