Friday, July 18, 2008

Home from New York




We are home and the trip was a lot of fun. There are so many stories that I think it will take several days to blog it all. I will start with the first day because there is plenty to tell. Colby and I left early Thursday morning so that Jayden would sleep while we drove. It worked pretty good but we still needed to stop. One of the stops along the way was in Hershey, PA. That was a lot of fun. There is a huge amusement/water park there but we did the free tour and of course bought some candy. The tour was like a Disney ride. Jayden loved the singing milk cows and all the lights. We then got to the Hotel and while we waited for everyone else to arrive we swam at the hotel pool. Colby went underwater and swam towards Jayden, he could see him coming and when Colby popped up Jayden went, Aagh!

When everyone got to the hotel it was a great reunion and everyone was hungry. We got a paper from the hotel suggesting some restaurants to try. Everyone decided to try Applebee's. The directions the hotel gave us were about 6-7 miles away. Dad bought a Tom-Tom (a GPS system) and went and found that there was an Applebee's closer on the unit. So we jump in the car and as she (Bonnie, the GPS voice) leads us to the Applebees we realize we are in a pretty poor African American neighborhood. OK, we are in a rough neighborhood. We get a little lost and Mom and Grandma make sure the car doors are locked. We find an Applebees and as we walk in we realize that we are the only white people there. One lady asked Dad why we were here. Grandma and Grandpa were a little worried but we were treated well, the service was great and you could really dance to the rap/R & B music :) All turned out well! We "survived" and we all got a little culture. At the end Grandma said it was great and from now on we will follow the advice of the Hotel. We were stared at the whole time. It was one of my favorite experiences of the whole trip. Poor Carl was rolling his eyes wondering if Mom was alright as she clung to his arm while going to the restaurant.

On the way home we got lost again. By the time we got to the hotel 1 1/2 hours later, we were all ready to strangle Bonnie and when we reached the hotel we did it on our own without her. It was a long but super funny day.

2 comments:

Anne said...

I am glad that you had some of those funny experiences too. We lucked out and Kristine's husband was with us most of the time. We did get lost in the middle of New Jersey around 1:00 a.m. and no more trains coming through until 6:00 a.m. The bad part about that, was the fact that Kristine had Ashton and they were at the hotel....he was starving and screaming his guts out. They tried to get directions from the front desk to find the spot that we were at, and they said they didn't know. Luckily they stopped on the side of the road to say a pray and some police officers pulled up behind them after they finished. They questioned both of them individually and then gave them directions. Chris was sick with a fever too!

When we got off the train, there was a sign that talked about this being a rough neighborhood. Luckily the only people we saw, were Chris and Kristine....and Ashton!

madsens said...

HOW FUN. Glad you made it out of applebees safely. Love the stories