Road Trip: Day 3 - Onward to DC/Maryland

We started the license plate game off with a bang today - first plate Alaska!  Boom! 

We said our goodbyes to Chris' parents and left Cincinnati early in the morning and drove thorough Columbus, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and arrived in Maryland around 7 PM. 

We saw a sign for the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania so we decided to take a slight detour. I am really glad we did. This is the beauty of not having a schedule. If you have the opportunity to go, I would do it. They are in the midst of construction, but it is already a really nice tribute. As we drove up, we happened to put a radio lab podcast on "60 words" we had no idea it was related, but it provoked some thought. 

As you walk up there are detailed signs about the events and timeline, a place to leave messages and an area for reflection presentations a few times a day

You walk along a path that is parallel to the plane impact site to the memorial - its hard to see but the boulder in the middle distance is about where the crash was

Each panel of the marble wall has the name of those who passed. The gate in this photo look over the impact of the plane

There were probably about 200 people visiting, more than I expected

This stopped me in my tracks, I forgot a pregnant woman was a passanger until I saw this, its hard to see "and unborn child" 

The Harley Davidson crowd was well over half of the visitors 

A beautiful memorial and a nice peaceful day

We headed back on the road the scenic route and arrived to a BBQ at my cousin Layla and Jeff's house well under way. So far we have clocked 836 miles. One more day in the DC area!

Road Trip: Day 2 - Cincinnati Skyline & BBQ

No trip to Cincinnati is complete without a trip to Skyline and hands down the Clifton Skyline is the best! We only went once this trip....one trip for the Kist's wedding we had Skyline 4 times in 36 hours. As much as I like Skyline, that was gross.  

Cheese Coney, 3-way and a sweet tea!

Rookie Skyline move is to twirl the spaghetti, you have to cut  it sideways

After our skyline visit we headed to Nick and Marie's for a goodbye BBQ with Chris' college friends.  It was a great night and you guys almost made us break our rule of not driving hungover the next day.

Thanks for coming Sarah, Scott, Eva & Ella, Nick & Marie, John, Emily & Graham, Julie & Ben, Steph and Dan, Rebbie, Jim and Chuck! We will see you guys in Australia, right???

Patio Party

Em, Chris, John, Jim and Nick talking about who knows what, chipies maybe

Even Chris held the baby

And so did I, he's so cute!

Everyone wants to hold Graham!  Eva and Ella were too cute, but its impossible to take a photo of three kids!

Speelman Siblings

Road Trip: Day 1 - Chicago to Cincinnati

We got an early start on Thursday so that we could make it to Cincinnati for the USA v Germany soccer game. Closing the door to the apartment for the last time was a bit strange...and then we realized we forgot to leave our mail keys, oops.

We packed up our car, stopped at Crossfit Etown to drop off some protein powder and headed to Lake Shore Drive for the last time. Within 30 minutes of driving we vowed to never drive hungover again. It was awful, good thing it was only a 5 hour drive. But seriously, we both felt terrible. The goodbyes the night before were worth it :)

We got to Harvey and Emily's House the second Germany scored the only goal of the game, boo.  We watched the rest of the game with the Harvey's and then headed to Hyde park for a beer on a patio.  

After a quick must take nap we headed to a Cincinnati staple, Montgomery Inn, for ribs with the Speelman family. They are DELICIOUS and the company was great as usual!  We will miss Marlene, Bill, Julie and Ben!   

No pictures from Day 1 - oops....

More Shipping Decisions

Nothing like the last minute to motivate you to get it all done. We were lazy in the research department for shipping companies, don't do what I did, unless you have a Jules and an Oscar. These two got quotes from a few shipping companies and did a lot of leg work, they are trustworthy, so we decided that was good enough for us and went with Suddath, the one they picked. Thanks guys!

We booked an appointment for a quote and we spent about five more hours the day before they came deciding what would go and stay from the kitchen.  We put everything on the dining room table that we would take - this was more for us than the shipping company.

I highly recommend doing this method if you aren't taking everything. Taking a picture helped so we knew what decisions we already made. But now that I look at this picture we changed our minds a lot - we defiantly added to this pile and took some away. It was helpful to sit on the decision for a while and think about it.

Its amazing how much stuff you accumulate.  We were able to give a lot of it away because really who stores a salad spinner. To give most of our stuff away we took photos of everything, added it to dropbox and sent a link to friends. Delivering stuff was actually a nice way to also day goodbye individually and throw in an occasional costume.

Bone Crusher Heads to Arizona

Despite my mom rolling Bone Crusher's face up in the window on the way to the airport, I think he is in good hands.  But seriously, thanks Mom for taking the little wee-man to Arizona. She even bought him a little pool to keep cool :)

The trip to the airport was easy. He got though security easily and was just a clam happy boy - I was more nervous than he was!

Travel crate, not the biggest fan

Little dude waiting to board, he was so calm

There was a Mom with 6 kids and he was very interested in the crying infant 

Bone's first flight was on the Southwest Penguin flight....I know he is just a dog, I don't need to be reminded :)  

The flight was 4 hours and my mom said he didn't make a peep.  Thanks Mama!  And no Lisa, Wendy, Van and Garrett you can't keep this one!  

Kangroo on Steroids

Did you know there are camels in the outback? I didn't. I can't wait to see all the wildlife, except for the deadly and poisonous kind. I just hope I don't come across a Kangroo in the wild like this one! I can't stop watching it!  

Credit to - YouTube/ ackoeppel

Australian School

There was a recent article in the NY Times about Sydney. All I can say is read it and then be very jealous or be taking notes about what you want to do when you come visit us! All visitors are welcome...but seriously we can't wait to have friends and family visit!

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/13/travel/in-sydney-lively-culture-amid-natural-beauty.html?_r=0

After reading this article I downloaded the book it mentions, Candy by Luke Davies. It was an interesting read, but I really only learned about being a prostitute and heroin addict. It's also a movie staring Heath Ledger, I had no idea it was that mainstream.

On that note, we are lucky that we have great friends Oscar and Jules who are real, live Australians from Sydney as our "Australian Ambassadors," as I like to call them. Oscar and Chris will be working together in Sydney and Jules and I will continue our life of leisure ladies, not really, but a girl can dream. Jules and I have started Australian School, where I barrage her with questions and she tells me everything and anything about Sydney.

My next Australia homework is to read Tomorrow, When the War Began. Apparently its all the rage with 13 year old Australian boys and Oscar. Also a movie, but I'll stick to the book.

Additional homework is to watch the movie The Castle next week and finish reading Frankie the magazine, if you look closely you can see this magazine cost $9.95! That is not a typo. I'm bracing myself for how expensive everything will be.