Better late than never!

Hello friends!

Sorry we haven't blogged in a while, but things have been crazy. Also, most of the hotels we've stayed at the past few days haven't had good internet!

After NYC we drove through New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virgina! We stopped at Rehoboth, Delaware and swam at a really pretty beach! Then we drove down the Atlantic Ocean, across as 20 mile bridge and tunnel over the ocean and into Virgina Beach! We spent a good day at the beach enjoying the sun and the sand! We bought boogie boards and had a blast!

After we got tired of the heat we packed up and started the drive to Tennessee! We got to Roanoke, Virgina, stayed the night and got to the Smokey Mountains in time to hit up the outlet malls. We found a coupon for a buy one adult plate and drink get one free at Cici's Pizza. We hit them up, only to find out that this Cici's pizza was a special one. The staff was constantly yelling things across the buidling, like "welcome to Cici's!. and Cheese pizza on buffet. COOOOOMMME and get it!" It was really fun.

Then the good part...we found a really cool path up the smokey mountains and walked up a trail for a little while, until we found another trail! That path took us down to the river. At the river we found some really big rocks that we could jump to. We decided to set up a little camp there. We took our books and water and just decided to relax for a while. Well...after about an hour Tanner jumped up and started screaming, because a snake had tried to swim up on his rock. Then the snake swam under a pile of rocks he had to use as a step to get back to land. Brooke had made it back to land in a flash and was just lauging as hard as possible, while poor Tanner was trapped by a snake in the middle of the river. After about ten minutes Tanner finally saw his escape and beat the snake back to land! It was an experience we don't want to relive.

The next morning we got up and went Zorbing. Basically zorbing is riding a giant plastic ball down a hill. Your inside of the ball with some water. It's basically like swimming and riding a roller coaster at the same time. It was really crazy. If you ever make it to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, that is the thing we recommend the most!



That afternoon we went and floated down the river in Townsend, Tennessee! It was super relaxing and a great way to spend a hot afternoon.

After a few hours we dried off and headed out to Music City, or Nashville, Tennessee!

We decided to have a night out and went and had amazing chinese food at P.F. Changs! Then we stalked Taylor Swift's apartment for a little while and went to sleep!

The next day consisted of
-Andy Warhol Exhibit
-The Parthenon
-Belmont University!
-Gigi's Cupcakes
-Cookie Dough Eggrolls
-Sonic <3

We had a blast in Nashville, but had to move on to Memphis!

(By the way-by the time we got to Memphis we had logged over 4,000 miles)

So far in Memphis we have seen Graceland and the City by night! We are actually staying in Mississippi with Brooke's family! They are the sweetest people and we are really enjoying staying at their B-E-A-UTIFUL house!

We're probably going to the Memphis Zoo! :)

So we'll catch you up soon!

-T&B

Concrete Jungle!

Well. We're in New York City. The Concrete Jungle. Basically it's amazing. We're having a blast! I'm going to give you a photo rundown of what we've been up to here!


(THIS BLOG CONTAINS A LOT OF PHOTOS! IT COULD TAKE A MINUTE TO LOAD)

We parked the jeep at the Newark Airpot. Took a train into Manhattan! (We got in trouble with the train nazi, because we didn't know where to put our bags.)

We came out of Penn Station with beating hearts and glowing eyes, because we were finally in New York City! We took a taxi to our incredible hotel, the Pod Hotel. The pod is kind of like a youth hostel, but nicer! We have a cool room with bunk beds and little private tvs!



We have to share bathrooms with other people on the floor, but the bathrooms are super nice!



Our Hotel has a really cool rooftop lounge we can chill at!











On the first day we wondered through Chinatown and found the Brooklyn Bridge! It's a beautiful sight! Especially because it is in so many books we have read!





We got tired. Went back to the room and took a nap. After we woke up we went on a mission to find cupcakes. This city has some great ones. Sadly, however, we forgot to take the camera on this part of the journey. But here are a few more pictures from day 1 in NYC.








DAY 2

Day 2 was great!

We slept late!
We ate good food!
We saw STEVE FREAKING CARELL!

First we went to the top of the Rock! THe view was incredible!







SO then we went to this crazy harry potter exhibit. Basically they had every prop from every movie including all of the wands, most of the robes, and even a life size Dobby! :D :D :D

Afterwards we just wandered around time square.



That was until Brooke decided we needed to chocolate. So we went into the Hersey's Store. (this is where our good fortune began.) They handed us FREE! yes FREE! Chocolate! then when we were leaving we must have looked so nice they gave us more FREE CHOCOLATE!

SMILES!

Then....

This lady walked up to us and asked if we wanted to be in the audience of the David Letterman show and we were like Uh yeah. what's the catch? THERE WAS NO CATCH! (well kind of. a trivia question we got right!)

So Bam! We got to sit on the front row of the David Letterman Show! STEVE CARELL WAS THE GUEST! GASP!



We couldn't comprehend what was happening. :)





Because not even 2 hours after seeing David Letterman, Steve Carell, and being in the audience of nationally syndicated television show...we got to see the Tony Award winning musical WICKED!



The show was fantastic of course! We had a "wicked" good time! Then we went shopping in time square!





DAY 3

Day 3 started out with a much needed breakfast of pancakes. Then a subway ride uptown to the MET!



At the MET we saw some great works of art and some cool stuff from EGYPT!





We also saw some "modern" art.





Then we went shopping some more! We also saw a lady get in a brawl with a man in chinatown...kinda crazy, but funny!



We spent our last night in NYC eating Japanese dumplings on the roof of the POD! This is the life!

We are writing this blog from New York City, but...we'll take you back a couple of days!

After we left Niagara Falls we headed out to Salem, Mass! Yes, Salem as in witches! We started off the morning by walking around the historic town square! It was in the place that many people were accused of being witches in the 1600's. We bought tickets to a show called "Crying Innocent," which was basically a condensed version of "The Crucible." The show started in the town square. People dressed up like they were from the 1600's started mingling in and then eventually there was a town meeting. At this point someone ran out and accused this one girl of being a witch. We then all watched her get dragged into a court house, where we became the jury and got to listen to testimony from the accused and decide if she should be put on trial or not. Woah. It was crazy fun. We decided she wasn't a witch.





After the show we went and had some great soup! Nothing beats eating New England Clam Chowder...in New England!

Basically Salem is covered in all things magical. There are witches, wizards, ghosts, and everything in between. There are a lot of people who are actually wicken. It's insane.

Next we decided that there wouldn't be a more magical place than Salem to see the Harry Potter Movie. We cried like babies! We can't believe it is over. :( We really enjoyed the movie, but somehow every single person in theater was smacking their popcorn as loud as possible and it was really annoying!



Thennnnnnnn we walked around Salem until we found the boat docks! Salem used to be the largest port in New England so they have a really cool bay area. We sat on the edge of the dock and watched the boats and just tried to relax a little. We had a long night ahead of us!



At 6 o'clock we went to this crazy old house and had our fortunes told to us. We both had a tarot card reading, a palm reading, and a health scan. It was interesting...Tanner was told that he was a creative animal person...he had on a t-shirt with a cat and his arm had "dream" tattooed across it. Brooke was told that she shouldn't smoke, because it would be bad for her lungs, and that she should do a job that involves paperwork. ;)

The last thing we did in Salem, was the funnest! We took a walking ghost tour around Salem! We learned a lot. Pretty much every Parker Brother board game was based off things in Salem, including the old Salem Jail. We even got to see the little houses that the houses on monopoly are based off. We saw a really old cemetery-the same one where the old man Giles Corey was crushed to death after being accused of being a witch in 1692. It was crazy to see everything we had learned about in school come to life!



The next day we took the train into Boston! Boston seems like a really cool city, but it was dead on a Sunday! There were literally no people out and about. We honestly just walked around the city and took pictures! Here are some cool ones.

China Town


The Bridge


Creepy Person who looked like a statue!


After Boston we went to Cambridge and walked around Harvard! It was really cool to see the place where Facebook was invented!


We got in the jeep and drove to New Haven, Connecticut, and had dinner at Ikea! Then we kept going and stopped for the night in East Rutherford, New Jersey!

More to come from New York City!

-T & B.

Recap!

Since we've gotten a little behind on the blog we decided to write a recap blog talking about Cleveland, Niagara Falls, and Salem!

The bad news, though, is that we can't find the cord to upload pictures :(


fFirst we owe a big thanks to our friend Marlee (and her family) and Molly for being such awesome hosts for our stay in Cleveland. In Cleveland Marlee and Molly took us to the Rock and Roll hall of fame! It was great because we got to see things like John Lenon's Piano, Taylor Swift's original handwritten lyrics to "Change, and Lady Gaga's Meat Dress from the VMA's.


We also did a lot of eating! We had a macaroni and cheese plus chips pizza pie that was to die for. We had the biggest grilled cheese sandwiches in our lives. We ate peanut butter, banana, and honey pita bread things. AND...we ate so much ice cream it was ridiculous. :) Ridiculously amazing. The best meal, though, was the one that Molly and Marlee cooked for us themselves!

Probably our favorite thing we did in Cleveland, though, was chill out on the beach of Lake Erie! We just got to relax and have fun after some long days of traveling!

Thanks Marlee and Molly! We miss you guys....We miss yall!


NIAGRA FALLS!
It was short three hour drive from Cleveland to Niagara! We got there around 3 and signed up for a 4 hour tour of the city and the falls. Little did we know...we had fallen into a tourist trap. We were forced to walk around for hours and learn all this stuff that was really odd and already forgotten! The falls are beautiful, we just don't like being told what to do. We got to ride literally right into one them. That's us in the blue.



We also walked all around this deck and got soaked! :)




Well. That's it for now. We have to go out into Boston!

-T&B

Time is slipping away!

Sorry everybody, but the last few days have been nonstop action and fun! We've spent the last few days in Chicago, Illinois and Cleveland, Ohio! In Cleveland we stayed in a tent with some friends from Belmont! We haven't been in a place where we can upload pictures and all that jazz, but we were able to make a new video! We'll post a new blog with lots of pictures soon!







-Tanner and Brooke

Day 2: Speechless

Well. Day 2 of our trip left us speechless. It was incredible.



We started off by making our way to the historic Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri! The Arch is 630 feet tall and we got to go to the top! Woot Woot! The elevator ride was 4 minutes up and 3 minutes down. The elevator was more like a futuristic space pod than an elevator. At the top we were able to see so far. The view was amazing and we felt really lucky to be in such a great place! We weren't lucky, however, because the humidity in St. Louis was horrible!






We left St. Louis we drove for about 5 hours through the most green country side you can imagine! It really was beautiful!

Of course we managed to hit Chicago at 5 o'clock rush hour, but the traffic wasn't really that bad. The traffic wasn't that bad, until we got to downtown! Our faces light up and we freaked out when we saw the HUGE buildings and the massiveness of the city!


We call the GPS system Pat. Pat is our friend! our BEST FRIEND!

We had to make the same block three times to get to our hotel. We would try to turn, but literally 50 people would be trying to cross the street at the same time. Horns were blaring, people were yelling, and we were laughing our heads off, because we couldn't be happier!

Our Hotel is literally right next to an elevated train track and we had to drive underneath the train to park. We are thankful that we learned how to parallel park! We made a friend with the valet man and he helped us get checked into our amazing hotel! We're staying at the Silversmith in which is in the Diamond district of Chicago! Our room is huge!


The jeep underneath the train tracks!

After we were situated in the room we ventured out into downtown Chicago and came across the famous "bean" sculpture!



We had an awesome dinner at the Noodles and Company on the beautiful Michigan Ave. We ordered some Pad Thai noodles and Japanese Rice Noodles! They were fantastic!



At 7o'clock we got on a boat and took a great boat tour of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. We saw some awesome buildings and landmarks, including the building where Abraham Lincoln got nominated to run for president and the park where President Obama found out he had won the 2008 election! We also found out that Chicago isn't called "the Windy City," because it is always windy, but because a group of politicians were considered to be windy when they lobbied in Washington D.C. to have the World Fair in Chicago! They won their battle and had the World Fair in Chicago 19 years after the town burned down in 1871!

Out on the lake we got to see a beautiful sunset and all of the buildings in the distance. We decided that there is a God, because man couldn't make something as beautiful as what we saw.




:)
-Tanner and Brooke

Day 1: Party in the U.S.A

Hey everybody! We're having a blast on our trip, even though it just started! Today we got up, not like we slept, and hit the road! We drove all day and went through three different states! Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri! You guys back in Texas would sure be jealous of how green Missouri is!

We had a good time loading up the jeep! We're lucky everything fit!



It was tough saying goodbye to our parents, but we managed, we think they managed, and off we went!

Our fist big stop was in Groom, Texas! We found this giant cross and took a picture with it!



We drove over 800 miles today! From Levelland, Texas to St. Louis, Missouri! Of course there was some napping on the way!





We made it to Oklahoma and had a good time reading all the signs about the Indians that lived there. We also enjoyed looking at their casinos! We didn't enjoy, however, paying all the road tolls in Oklahoma!



We got to Missouri and stopped to take a picture at a road side park! We drove through Joplin, Missouri and saw a little bit of the damage from the Tornado in may. In Springfield we stopped to have supper at Fazoli's and frozen custard and an ice cream shop next door! :)



Now we are resting in our hotel on the edge of St. Louis! We have a big day tomorrow! We're going to the historic Gateway Arch and then driving on to the windy city, Chicago, Illinois!

This blog was short and sweet, but today was mostly driving! Hey! We still have 18 more days to go!

Peace and Blessings,
Brooke and Tanner