Spring Break 2016 – Cross Country Adventures

To change things up, we decided to do something different for Spring Break this year. But first here’s an update of how we passed the months leading up to it.

We kept the fun rolling right into January. After a week of school, we loaded up and headed to Charlotte to see Kristie’s cousin and his family. We had a great time with them. We had a blast at the jump park and then ate a nice meal together followed by ice cream. On Sunday, Kristie, Ansel, Sam, and Anne went to see Wicked. Parker and Jay took the time to finally go see Star Wars.

Santa gave Parker a skateboard for Christmas. Jay’s version of the story is that Parker convinced him to get a board of his own, but let’s face it, it didn’t really take much convincing. They’ve had a great time going to the skateboard park. Until… The kids (all three of them) were out of school on MLK Day. One of Ansel’s friends invited her over for a playdate. Jay and Parker took the chance to slip off for a skate session. Parker fell and a trip to the orthopedist the next day revealed a broken wrist. He didn’t let this slow him down too much.

Mom Mom came to visit us over President’s Day. We had a nice visit and she continued to show us how extreme she is by tackling the Sky High Safari ropes course at Riverbanks Zoo.

With Parker’s cast off at the end of February, we loaded up the bikes and drove up to Greenville for a nice 15 mile ride on the Swamp Rabbit Trail. It was great to get out and we enjoyed a picnic on Furman’s campus.

Spring Break:

As I mentioned, we decided to mix it up for Spring Break this year. In past years, we have headed for the hills, but this year, we decided to head to the city. And I really mean THE CITY. As in The Big Apple. We loaded up Friday afternoon and began our journey north. First stop was a LATE arrival at Mom Mom’s house in Delaware. We woke up Saturday morning and the kids went right to work. Their chore was to clean up the sticks in Mom Mom Hertz’s backyard. Parker pulled the lawnmower around and they loaded up all the sticks in the wagon and hauled them down the street to feed to Fred’s goats. After that job was complete, they moved on to pressure washing Mom Mom Hertz’s shed. To celebrate a hard day’s work, Uncle Paul took us all out to Cool Springs for dinner. The next morning, we headed to Marydel for church. Then it was back home for Easter lunch.

If Jay has been to New Jersey, he doesn’t remember it so the next stop was a chance for him and the kids to bag a new state. We loaded up Mom Mom and the kids and set off for the Garden State. Our first stop was the capital building in Trenton. We toured the statehouse and learned a little about the history if New Jersey. After a quick bite to eat, we moved on to our next stop on our New Jersey adventure, Princeton University. Our good friend Alexis has worked at Princeton for a few years, and we were eager to see the place that she calls home. We walked around campus and then met Alexis for dinner. We had a lovely evening with her and enjoyed catching up. After dinner, we went to our hotel and the kids enjoyed a nice swim before retiring for the night.

We woke up early the next morning with our sights set on New York City. Our first stop was the Statue of Liberty. It was fun seeing the City from our ferry across the Hudson River and we enjoyed walking around Liberty Island upon arrival. We climbed up to the top of the pedestal and enjoyed the view. Afterwards, we walked through the museum and learned about the Statue. We returned to Liberty State Park and took one last look at the Statue to remind us that we were in New York and not Chicago (it was very, very windy!) and geared up for our drive through the Lincoln Tunnel and into Manhattan.

We managed to make it to our hotel and got checked in. The Knickerbocker was right on Time Square which was a perfect headquarters for our big city adventure. We enjoyed walking around Time Square and looking at all the buildings, shops, and people. We had a delightful dinner at the Italian restaurant Mercato. On the walk home, we did some shopping. What better souvenir from Time Square than watches from the Swatch store!

Wednesday we ventured back out into the City. We hopped on the Big B Bus and let them take us around. When we arrived in China Town, we hoped off for lunch at Excellent Dumpling House so that we could make sure that the kids still remembered their Chinese. Parker was kind enough to order for Jay. Afterwards, we walked around downtown. We stumbled on a CBS crew shooting the pilot for a show called Bull. We continued our walk and ended up at the 9/11 Memorial. We hopped back on the bus and continued our trip back to Time Square. Kristie had a brilliant idea so that we could officially experience New York. Rather than getting off at our hotel, we stayed on the bus and kept going for a few stops. We finally jumped off and hopped on the subway for our return to the hotel.

We concluded our trip by heading to Rehoboth Beach for some shopping. Parker and Jay went to the Epworth SkatePark while Kristie shopped. We returned to SC Friday with plenty of good memories from our adventures and ready to finish up the school year.