Big Apple, Day 2

We ate a good breakfast at the hotel and then began our day. We walked a few blocks to where we boarded the city tour bus...this is a hop off--hop on type of tour bus.

We stopped at the Empire State Building...and saw great views of the city even though it was a little hazy.

Here are some sights we saw from the double-decker bus.

Jackson wanted me to put this picture on the blog and tell you that this clock is the oldest mechanical clock in NYC and it has to be wound every 8 days. The rest have all been electrified.

We had lunch at "America's restaurant"...and saw where the calories are posted as well as the price. This practice is done in all restaurants here...sure makes you think before ordering.

We went to Battery Park and got our tickets for the ferry ride to Liberty Island where we could see the Statue of Liberty.

As we got closer to the island, you could really feel the importance of this precious lady.

As we walked around the statue, we had a tour with a Park Ranger and Jackson worked through a booklet and became a Jr. Ranger...badge and all! We learned about different parts of the statue and their meaning. One bit of trivia...there are 7 spikes on her crown and they represent the 7 continents and the 7 oceans.

We then boarded the ferry again and went to Ellis Island. This is place where immigrants first landed in America.

As we were returning to Battery Park, the rains approached. They arrived before we got back to our stop, so we were given these beautiful pieces of rain wear!

We were fairly soaked by the time we got back to the hotel so we had pizza in the room!

New York, New York

We are on a trip to NYC...Jackson's third grade trip. We left Cleveland this morning

and flew from Chattanooga to Atlanta and then on the New York

We arrived at the hotel, unpacked and then walked a couple of blocks to Times Square. Lots of hustle and bustle in the city.

We stopped by one of the stops on Jackson's list...Toys R Us. He had heard from a friend that they had a life-size dinosaur and he wanted to see it.

I think that we walked every aisle in the store! So many toys...so little time.

We were getting hungry and stopped at

for great meals...pasta, fish and chicken.

We strolled around Times Square a little more

and as we headed back to the hotel, we HAD to stop for a little dessert!

A great ending to the start of a great trip.

Excitement Reigns

We are so excited around here...our favorite brown eyed grandson is arriving this afternoon on an airplane into Birmingham. Our favorite granddaughter is accompanying us to pick him up.

Home Again, Home Again

We are now home after driving 16 hours today! I'll fill in details of our time spent since the beach in the next couple of days.

Last Day

We ate breakfast,

packed up, and then loaded the stuff in the car.

Then we were "on the road again"!

We drove to Galveston where we passed the Bishop's Palace.

We also stopped at the far end of the island to see the ships in the Houston ship channel.

When we got to Houston, we had lunch at Pappasito's. The enchiladas and beef tacos were great.

After we got to Lufkin, we had some errands to run and then went to dinner with Deb, Sid and Jim.

It was a great trip and glad we did it!

Surfside, Day 3

It was cereal again this morning and then time to "hit the big ones" or at least go to the beach. Since it was more of the same from yesterday, there's not much to add!

By late afternoon, it was time for us to pack up our tent and chairs .

For supper, we went to the Red Snapper Resturant and had a wonderful meal of chicken fried steak and home fries for Jim and jumbo fried shrimp with salad, baked potato and black eyed peas for Mike and me. We dove into our meals before we realized that we forgot to take a picture!

After we ate , we drove to the Port of Freeport to see if we could see any of the cargo ships that we have seen heading that way. But when we got there, we couldn't get close enough to see any ships...we were disappointed.

Surfside, Day 2

After breakfast this morning, Mike and Jimmy took the car to the beach and began setting up the canopy.

That was really hard work and required a little nap!

The day consisted of reading, sleeping, getting in the water, walking the beach and then doing those things over again.

We cleaned up and went to supper at an interesting "dive" where we all had hamburgers and onion rings or fries.

We came back and took a walk on the beach.

Side Notes

Just to say congratulations to Payne for making All-Stars again this summer...baseball continues.

Also a Happy Birthday wish to Ashley, the favorite Missouri niece.

We're Heading to the Beach

We told Sid and Deb good bye this morning and went to pick up Jim and head to the beach. He was packed and ready to go when we got there!

We stopped in Houston to eat at Mo's bar-b-que and it was as good as ever.

The drive to Surfside Beachwas pleasant but hot!

We arrived with no problems and quickly found our accomodations for the next few days.