The Seventeen State Vacation, '09

The purpose of this trip was to attend Larry's nephew's wedding in Cleveland. That post is below this one. We had planned to fly up just for the wedding, then after looking at the maps and realizing how close we would be to Niagara Falls, which I have always wanted to see, we decided to drive. Then we realized how close we would be to Washington, DC. And the trip began to plan itself after that! This was my "nest" in the car---the Rand McNally Road Atlas, the Tom Tom, and my iPhone, which amazingly, gave me access to emails and Facebook all across America! I was kept VERY busy! The first night, we stopped in Muscogee, Oklahoma, then on to Illinois, with a quick stop at the arch in St. Louis, as we crossed the "Mighty Mississippi." A couple of weeks later, we would cross it going west!

We did take other pictures of it, but we were too close to really show the magnitude of it.

This cross was on the highway, in the middle of nowhere...a reminder of just who created this beautiful country we were traveling in.

The beautiful lobby of the Hyatt Hotel where the wedding party stayed. The lower two levels were filled with restaurants and retail shops. The rest of the levels were hotel rooms. This hotel was originally built in 1890 as a shopping arcade---the first enclosed shopping mall in the nation! Hyatt bought it just a few years ago, and converted the upper levels which used to be shops and offices into beautiful, re-modeled hotel rooms. The skylight is 300 yards long!

Cleveland is referred to as the "Birthplace of Rock and Roll" from a term a dj used in 1951. On Saturday morning, we toured the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum." Since Michael Jackson had died just a couple of days before this, the flags in front of the museum were at half-mast and his music was playing outside.


We were not allowed to take pictures except on the first level, where the gift shop was and a few special exhibits. As we walked in the door, this huge gloved hand held a giant guitar with pictures of Michael Jackson. When we left a few hours later, people had begun putting little memorials around the base of this. It was a great museum with relics and clothing from every group imagineable--Elvis, MJ, The Beatles, Mick Jagger, Buddy Holly, Madonna, Les Paul and Mary Ford, tons of videos and audio everywhere. The Michael Jackson area was heavily guarded.
We left Cleveland for a short drive up to Niagara Falls on Sunday morning to spend a couple of nights. This picture doesn't do it justice. Did you know there are actually three falls? This picture is just a portion of Horseshoe Falls from the US side. The next day, we were picked up by our good friends, Ted and Marge Meyers and they took us across the Canadian border for an even better view.

While we were strolling along looking at the falls, I felt something wet hit my head! It was a seagull who decided to poop on a Texan! Luckily, Marge had some "Wet Ones" in her purse, and cleaned it up for me! What are friends for? It was not a pleasant experience, but it made for some good laughs!
Marge and Ted encouraged to take one of the Maid of the Mist boat rides which goes almost into the falls, but after watching one of them and seeing how wet everyone got, I decided we didn't need that experience! We left the Falls and drove north along the Niagara River for about an hour to an area called Niagara-on-the-Lake in north Ontario right on the Ontario Lake. This community was postcard perfect, with gorgeous little bed and breakfasts, wineries, beautiful green lawns and flowers everywhere. Temps were in the 70's. We had a beautiful lunch with Marge and Ted on the porch of a restaurant in this area.
Using the internet was priceless when planning this trip. One day, while surfing for B&B's in the Niagara Falls area, I found this one, The Hillcrest Inn. It was a house built in 1920 with a darling couple running it. Cassidy made us feel so at home, bringing us fresh lemonade both afternoons when we got back to our room. Here are a few more pictures of this beautiful home. Notice the rug in the room on the left. It is needlepoint! Cassidy said each room had a "splurge" item and this was the one in this room! The room on the right is where coffee, tea, and scones were served every morning until breakfast was ready at 9:00. We missed reserving the "Master Suite" which was a large room that had views of the Niagara River by just a day, but our room was lovely in blue, white, and yellow. The room on the right was our bathroom. Fresh flowers were in little vases everywhere! Breakfasts both morning were to die for--eggs Benedict one morning, pear/almond pancake souffle the next with fresh fruit and great conversation with the two other couples who were staying in the house also. It was a memorable experience. The next day, we headed south, toward the DC area with an overnight stay in Pennsylvania. We got to DC in the early afternoon the next day, checked into the Hilton Hotel, in Alexandria Old Town, and headed to Mount Vernon which was not far away. It was a great tour of George Washington's house on the Potomac River. The views from the front of the house were beautiful, as were the grounds with gorgeous flowers blooming. The tour inside the house was interesting and afterwards, we visited the museum which was beautiful and informative. We even saw his dentures!


We used one of the Hop-On, Hop-Off buses to get us started on our tour of the city, but soon realized we had picked the worst one in the city. We endured it for a few stops, then covered the main memorials on foot. Above is the World War II Memorial which is relatively new. Of course, we also saw the Lincoln, Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Vietnam, and Jefferson Memorials. Everyone has seen these or pictures of these, so I'm not posting any of ours. The next day, we rode the Metro into Arlington Cemetary and took a tour there, which was awesome. One of the highlights at the changing of the guard for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was when they picked a WWII veteran out of the audience who helped lay a red, white, and blue, flower wreath on the tomb for the Fourth of July. It was an extremely poignant moment, that Larry and I will never forget. We left Arlington, and rode the Metro to the Holocaust Museum, which was another highlight of the trip. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos in the museum, but the images we saw will be with us for a long, long time. Don't miss it if you are in the DC area! We spent some time in the Smithsonian Museum of American History before we called it a day. The crowds were building each day, and by the fourth of July, we were ready to get out of the area, so we headed south. We traveled through Virginia and North Carolina which was a beautiful drive.
On Sunday, July 5, we arrived at The Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. Again, pictures were not allowed inside. This is the largest privately owned house in our nation. It is owned by the Vanderbilt family and was built by George Washington Vanderbilt in 1895. Three years later, he married and he and his wife had one child, Cornelia. Sadly, George Vanderbilt died in 1914. In 1924, Cornelia married and lived in the house with her family until in 1930 when it was open to the public--in order to bring in money to preserve the estate during the depression. The house is filled with incredible European antiques and art work. The Vanderbilts filled their house with many guests every week and kept the 250 rooms full and active. Great care has been taken to restore and reproduce the beautiful furniture and decorations in the house. Silk and velvet wallpaper has even been reproduced in France to restore that which was decayed. Interesting to me was the area where the maids and servants lived. It took a huge staff to maintain the house and to take care of all the visitors. The grounds of the estate were beautifully landscaped and there is even a winery. If you are ever in this area, don't miss a visit to The Biltmore House.

The trip ended with a visit to see Larry's best high school buddy, Gene, who with his wife, Carol, moved from San Antonio two years ago. This is the friend who Larry has met for coffee every morning since they retired several years ago. It was great visiting them again and driving through Peach Tree City, near Atlanta in their golfcart! What a life! After spending some time in South Carolina doing some genealogy research, we spend a night in Vicksburg, Mississippi. We had contemplated a stop in Memphis on the way home, but by the time we left Atlanta, we were tired of hotels and eating out for every meal! We headed to Texas and visited Larry's very ill 95-year old mother, sister, brother, and sister-in-law in Sulphur Springs. That night we went to eat at one of our favorite Mexican food restaurants and then back to Larry's sister's house for strawberry shortcake! This was Larry's portion, below, and yes, he ate every bite! It was a great way to end a wonderful vacation.