some more of the trip.

i'll quick post about the next part of our trip to new england...with connecticut as our destination.

what really 'sparked' this trip. was a great friend i had made online. michelle and i got along so great and on so many levels. i kept saying it'd be soooo cool to meet her in 'real life'. and i talked to shaun about driving to see her. he thought i was 'half serious'...but all that half serious turned into...LET'S DO IT! so we started planning the trip.

we drove through ohio and pennsylvania. then there was a crazy part of pennsylvania. it was insane. drivers were crazy. at one point we just had to pull to a rest stop to...rest. literally. we both were just crazy. it was a bit of a shady rest stop. but we survived and made some peanut butter sandwiches. yummy! i love just peanut butter sandwiches.

we ventured on then through pennsylvania and onto new york. where crazy fast driving continued. did i mention...on not very straight roads? and on mountain like terrain? we were not in wisconsin anymore!! there was also a scary bridge in new york that we had to pay to get on and cars from the most left lane needed to get to the most right lane in a hurry and didn't care that they cut you off. we were very watchful! when we saw the sign for connecticut we were SO happy. so happy to have made it to the state. we checked into our hotel. it was super nice and super cheap!! i called michelle to let her know we had made it. also to say how it isn't wisconsin anymore.

i'm serious. the speed limit is 65. people do 80. speed limit slows down to 55. people do 80. unless there is a cop. then they slam on their brakes. seriously...i think the cop knows how you were speeding up to him! i will be honest and say i contemplated skipping nyc after driving in new england. i mean HOW was nyc going to be. but i took the advice of our pastor's wife, be 'in the moment' we were in connecticut not nyc. so be IN connecticut!!

the first night we were there we hung out with michelle and her cool family. her son was so surprised we had came all that way 'just' to meet his mom. :0) we got some pointers on what to do and see and decided to do the aquarium in mystic the next day. and the night after that michelle's husband promised to cook us supper to spend our last night together.

the aquarium in mystic was SO COOL!! we don't have aquariums very close to us and it was the first time any of us had been to one. we pet sting rays and sea stars (star fish...which really are not fish) saw a sea lion show. and loved experiencing all the animals. it was so cool. the kids had a great time. and michelle scored us a discount!

after spending the day at the aquarium we checked out mystic village. it has a bunch of quaint little shops. little. as in too little to really 'enjoy' with two strollers and eight arms grabbing. so we didn't see inside all of them. but shaun did manage to find some cool kites. he's wanted some nice and 'cool' kites.

after our day in mystic. we decided to find the ocean. so we drove over to rhode island. which was like a half hour? away. we found it. the ocean. and it was beautiful. i LOVE the ocean. and most all of us did. except caitlyn. she hated it. she doesn't like sand for some reason and screamed most of the time we were there. but here's a video from the trip to the ocean....

after the ocean we went back to our hotel. and enjoyed watching biggest loser!! woo hoo. one nice thing is that shows are on an hour later than we're used to on the east coast. biggest loser is the only show i watch that  i 'caught' the whole week..but i'm not complaining! i'd miss all my shows for another family vacation!!

the next day we headed out to a museum all about the native americans that originally were in connecticut. it was very cool...but cameras weren't allowed! i was very bummed though because we missed michelle's kids' science fair. i thought it ran until 230. we got there at 220. and i found out they had to be OUT by 230. so we missed it. ((sorry again michelle)) in between missing the science fair and supper we found a cool mcdonald's to play at. the mcdonald's ROCKED! it had a HUGE playland. the kids loved it and made two little friends while we were there as well. then we went off to michelle's.

michelle's hubby rocked supper. he made us chicken tacos...made with wildtree taco seasoning of course! and we just enjoyed supper and fellowship. michelle even let us eat on her 'fancy' pier one mexican dishes. that's how special we were!! AND we got to drink out of her fanciest glasses! what a rockin' hostess!! josh treated us to a mini-concert and the girls loved playing with michelle's daughter. the night drew to a close and i was super bummed our visit to connecticut was over! we had such a blast with michelle's family! her son was super happy to take a picture of michelle and i though with my camera. (and he is super cool and totally deserves one of his own!!)

as we got back to our hotel we rounded up a bit of our things for the night and slept well...the best night the whole trip...due to the best apple crisp dessert for supper i'm sure!

and the next morning...we headed off on our next adventure...NYC...