Month: August 2018
VIP Camp – Awesome Park Cleanup Crew
Thank to the awesome helpers who came out to participate in the Park Clean Up Fundraiser. Not only were we able to raise enough money for one field trip with busing next year but Konely and James both walked away with free backpacks supplied by the Lincoln Park Police Department who hosts a Cops Care benefit each year. Once again we had the privileged of participating in their fun event after our clean up! Nothing like free food and backpacks after a little bit of work!
Did you miss out on a chance to help raise funds for VIP? It’s not too late cause next weekend VIP Camp will be hosting a booth at Lincoln Park Days Festival and we would love for some of the families to come help us out at the booth and spread the word about out awesome campers! If you are interested in working our booth for a few hours please contact us for time set up.
Lincoln Park Days Festival 2018
Big festival in Lincoln Park with tons of rides, midways, and even a small petting zoo. James visited to support his VIP camp and bought some lottery tickets at the VIP Camp booth. James participated in the Police frisbee throw and won a frisbee, he also got a free water bottle at one of the booths so he was very happy about that. Later we visited the petting zoo and were totally impressed by two turtles that they had there (there were other animals but the turtles were pretty cool). On the way home we stopped at Sears, then picked up lunch at Wendy’s, all in all a very fun time.
First Halloween Store Open For 2018
This year our first Spirit Halloween store that was opened and reasonably stocked was in Canton MI. The fact that its mid August did not deter the family as we made a quick visit and Mom bought a T shirt (she had a 20% off coupon she got in email). James really liked the blue fog (we took several pictures of it) and says he wants that for his Birthday, not sure how practical that is but the important thing was we all had a little Halloween fun at a very early stage of the year.
Pocono Speed Way 2018
After Dads class in New York, we all began the long trek home from our weekend excursion but little did we know we were to walk into a big surprise. About 3 miles of I80 is the Pocono Speedway and we thought we would stop in and check out the souvenirs. What a big surprise we got when asked if we wanted a tour of the raceway. When asked how much the tour cost we were told it was free. We went on the tour which took about an hour and boy was it ever great. The tour guide even gave us a ride around the track which we videotaped, and showed us everything about the race track including its self contained power source using a gigantic array of solar cells which powers everything at the race track. The Pocono Speedway is the last privately owned race track in the Nascar circuit which is why the tour was free, the owners want people to be happy and come back…and we will!
Liberty Park 2018
Our journey to the Statue of Liberty both begins and ends at Liberty Park where an old train station is used for tickets to the boats that take you to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. We had a long walk to get here as the place was very busy and we figure we parked about a mile away. We caught the 3:30 ferry from here (after going through security) and returned around 6pm. On exiting we visited the 911 memorial which has two parallel walls with the names of all those souls lost that horrible day. When looking directly at the memorial it creates an illusion of hose the NY skyline must have looked from that location before 911. At the front are twisted metal from the fallen towers on display which really brings the reality of the tragedy home.
Liberty Island 2018
What a thrill it always is to see the Statue of Liberty on a beautiful day in August. While it was a bit hot, it made the cool breeze coming across the Hudson river that much better as we walked around the giant colossus and trying to get the perfect selfie with a structure so big (many of those selfies are in the gallery of this post). After our walk around the statue we took a break in a nice shady area of the park and James bought us all water which made for a perfect family moment. After relaxing in the park drinking our water we made our way to the souvenir stand where James got a hat, Mom got a T shirt, and Dad got a sweatshirt all featuring the statue of liberty!
New York Skyline 2018
No matter if we were at Liberty Park, on the boat, Ellis Island, or Liberty Island, the one constant picture was the fabulous New York Skyline. When last we saw it construction was still being done on One World Trade Center so this is technically the first time we saw it completed (it opened in 2014). The building has 104 Stories and is 1776 feet high (a symbolic height for sure). Also far to the left of the One World Trade Center is the Empire State Building which is actually taller than the One World Trade Center building minus the spiral on top. Regardless of who is taller, its a beautiful skyline and we literally could not get enough pictures of it.
Ellis Island 2018
Ellis Island, in Upper New York Bay next to the Statue of Liberty, was the gateway for over 12 million immigrants to the U.S. as the United States’ busiest immigrant inspection station for over 60 years from 1892 until 1954. It was the first stop on our journey from Liberty Park to Liberty Island. While it no longer is a place where immigrants enter to U.S., it has been modified into a beautiful museum and a tribute to another era when immigration was done the right way. We included a pic of how the NY skyline looks from Ellis Island, taken from the boat docked outside the museum. One has to wonder what the immigrants of the past thought seeing the NY skyline as they awaited their entrance into the United States.
Washington DC Jefferson Memorial 2018
There were many places we did not get to see as we only had a finite amount of time in Washington before we had to drive to New York. One place we saw at a distance everytime we took a cab was the Jefferson Memorial which was located on the other side of the Potomac. This was as close as we got to the monument, although we did try driving there later, only to make a wrong turn and end up heading back toward the hotel (and NY so we kept on driving). The driving is not easy in Washington DC and we did not take the car out of the parking garage until we left for NY. Our apologies to Thomas Jefferson but we tried.
Washington DC 2018
While the monuments and three branches of Government were all impressive, one of the funnest and most interesting things to do was just walk the streets of Washington DC. Almost every building is “something” such as a dept of agriculture, FBI building, Library of Congress, Hubert Humphrey building, FEMA, etc. Mary even found a Marshall store (which is one of her favorites) in one of these buildings. We tried to keep these pics in order as we saw them, so we started with a picture of where our adventure began, in the park, and our day ended with James taking a much needed dip in the pool.
