Wow! I can’t believe it’s been two months since our last post. The time has flown by, and the months of June and July were two very different months.
June
After returning from Niagara Falls on May 31st, we ushered in a very uneventful month of June. We had just moved into our new hotel a week prior and took some time to enjoy the sport court, indoor pool, and fire pit that the hotel has to offer. We found some new local parks and playgrounds to explore and even joined a few meet-up groups. We started meeting with some local people to play touch football on Sundays and outdoor volleyball a few days a week. We got a great chance to settle down from all the hustle and bustle of the first couple months of traveling. Below are a few of the pictures from our low-key month of June.
July
On the other hand, July was an extremely busy month. It started, of course, with the celebration of our Independence Day. We found a great small-town style festival at a park that was not too far from our hotel. We went early and set-up to spend a great day celebrating our country’s freedom. The kids enjoyed seeing the parade, riding the carnival rides, and playing on the playground with all of the other kids.
For fireworks, we decided to go to a cliff-top park that we had been to several times before. From there, we were able to see the fireworks in downtown Albany, as well as several other fireworks shows from communities in the area. It was a very different experience watching the fireworks from such a great distance. The fireworks seemed to be going off at the same level as most of the buildings, and the smoke began to really billow from the town. It looked like a city under siege, and gave a great illustration of the battles that raged over 200 years ago that brought us our independence. Unfortunately, because of the dark and the distance, we weren’t able to capture the experience through pictures very well.
The following week, the boys and I set off driving down to Georgia for vacation. Ashley flew down a few days later and we spent the week visiting with family and friends. It was so great to see everyone and spend a Sunday at our home church.
On the final day of our Georgia trip Ashley flew out, back to Albany, and her sixteen-year-old brother, Joe, flew in. He joined the boys and I on our road trip to NY. On the way up, we stopped and spent a couple days in Washington D.C. It was Joe’s first trip to our nation’s capital. We did all the typical tourist things. The boys and I even got to experience some new things this time like the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, Arlington National Cemetery, the National Archives, and a private tour of the U.S. Capitol Building. As a History major and a government enthusiast, it was extremely surreal for me personally to have the chance to see these incredibly historic places.
We made our way up to Albany with Joe where he spent the next week hanging out with us and checking out everything that Albany has to offer. We checked out the NYS Museum, got a tour of the NYS Capitol building, checked out some parks, played at some playgrounds, and got to play some volleyball. It was a great week hanging out with him.
On his last couple of days with us, we took a trip down to NYC. It was Joe’s first trip to NYC, and once again, we did all the touristy things. We went up to the observation deck of the historic Empire State Building, walked through Times Square, visited Central Park and Grand Central Station, where we checked out the Whispering Arch, took a trip out to Ellis Island and Liberty Island, experienced the 9/11 Monument, explored Chinatown & Little Italy, and walked on the iconic Brooklyn Bridge.
Yesterday, Joe flew home to Florida to get ready to start his junior year of high school. It was good for him to get to have a summer trip, get to spend some time with his favorite sister (sorry, Maria), and hang out with his nephews. He called it the trip of a lifetime and we were so happy to be able to hang with him for it.
Well, that wraps up our eventful July. We’ve got just under two months left here in Albany, and we are looking forward to wherever our next adventure takes us.
The Traveling StarNurse 