Vacation Viewmaster

So I'm finally taking some time to write about our vacation. We had a fantastic time in PA and actually had a lot of first-time experiences. Other than the flying, it was a great time! Here, in a nutshell, is a look at our vacation:

• Our first day up north, we went to NY City. I've written about this in a previous blog. We saw the Naked Cowboy, rode the Ferris Wheel in the 3-story Toys-R-Us, saw the Statue of Liberty (across the water - we missed the ferry), went to Trump Tower, and did just about a million other really cool things.
• We lost our tickets to get back on the tour bus. Somehow my brother-in-law managed to get us on anyway.
• Spanky bought things from street vendors. Bootleg DVDs, actually. SuperHubby came home with a NY cap, FrogBoy got a picture of Lady Liberty, and I walked away with a Chanel purse.
• On the way home from NY, our rental van got a flat tire. We sat on the side of the PA highway for over 3 hours, arguing via cell phone with AAA and Enterprise Rent-a-Car (one on each phone). When the tow truck finally showed up (almost midnight), the guy looked like a serial killer. Seriously. And he couldn't find the spare. Thankfully SuperHubby was there.
• Once we made it back to our hotel, we all had Quarter Pounders with cheese. SuperHubby and I agreed those were the best burgers we'd ever had.
• We toured the Crayola Factory. Pretty cool for little kids. Lots of interactive stuff. Also extremely hectic as it filled up.
• We visited the PEZ Museum of Easton, PA. I've been in walk-in closets that were bigger. Wanted to get something to add to my uncle's collection. You'd think a "museum" would have unique items. They didn't.
• SuperHubby and his brother toured the Yuengling Brewery. Oldest brewery in the US. Lots of history. Whoopee. I remember hearing "prohibition" when they droned on about it. I'm sure it was thrilling.
• We went to the biggest outlet center I've ever seen. I could've shopped there for days.
• I saw a baby bear on the side of the road. He was eating soap and drinking beer.
• We saw more deer than I've seen the rest of my life combined. They come up in the yard.
• The boys went swimming in the pool in my brother-in-law's backyard. That was an almost daily event. They loved that.
• We made smores in the backyard fire pit.
• We went to the horse races at Pocono Downs.
• We spent 3 days searching the mountain for souvenirs for my niece and nephews. Alas, they ended up with flattened pennies.
• We went to the top of a mountain and looked out over what might possibly be one of God's most beautiful creations. That's good stuff.
• We never got the minivan back. We spent the week in 2 convertibles. What a shame.
• We ate a lot of good food and had a tremendous amount of fun with family we rarely get to see. The boys were able to spend time with their aunt and uncle and everyone got along great. It's nice to get some one-on-one time. Hopefully we can do this more often as the boys get older.

We had such a wonderful time, we were commenting on how great it was every night. We just couldn't believe how blessed we were to get to go and to be having such a fantastic time. Even the things that went wrong were fun. We don't have much to compare it to (mostly time spent at MUSC), but this may well have been the best vacation we've ever known.