Summer plans afoot

Here I sit in front of the Super Bowl multi-tasking. Chip's out of town, the kids are playing video games in the other room, so I've got some time to myself to get planning. I've now completed the hotel reservations and mapping of the eastbound portion of our summer trip to the east coast. Not too much sightseeing is going on in either direction, but we'll do lots at various destinations.

Our first stop will be at Four Corners Monument, we'll head east through Colorado into Hays, Kansas. After a night in Kansas, we'll head for St. Louis, MO and spend 2 nights and 1 full day. For sure we want to see the arch, ride to the top, and visit the museums on the site, but we don't know how long that will take, or what else is great to do with two kids (8 & 13) in the area. If you have any ideas, let us know! From there, it's a ride to Columbus, OH for the night, then a quick ride (relatively speaking) to Pittsburgh for most of the day and 1 night. While we're there, we'll ride the Duquesne Incline, and maybe do the "Ducky" boat. Then we're Jersey bound! We'll stop in Philadelphia along the way, IF we can get an early enough start to get to Independence Hall and environs before they close at 5:00. If not, we'll do a day trip back into the city later.

We'll rest a couple days with the family in NJ, then head to see more family in Virginia Beach. We'll spend about a week there, then head back north via Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Washington, DC (depending on which friends will be around to visit). We hope to spend a day in DC (especially the Air and Space Museum we skipped last visit) and back to NJ.

Now, I've lived most of my life in the mid-Atlantic region of the country and I've never spent a day in NYC. We hope to change that this summer. Those plans are still pending, but I'll take suggestions. If you had two days and one night in NYC with 2 kids, yourself, and your mom, what would you do? I'd like to say that money is no object, but it is. We're thinking a GrayLine 2-day all loops bus pass. It should take us to most of the "must sees".

Another busy summer for us. I guess we wouldn't have it any other way. It would sure be easier to stay home...cheaper too. But where's the fun in that?

I'll post more when there's more to tell. Life just keeps on keeping on, so surely there will be something to write about soon.