A few months ago, I got the idea from a friend to take all of our children on a 13th birthday trip to a destination of their choice in the United States. After thinking about it, I thought that it would be only logical for me to take the girls on their trips and for Ron to take the boys on their trips. After pitching this idea to Ron and receiving his stamp of approval, I immediately contacted my good friend, Kerry, who I had hope would play a large role in Lia's trip. Kerry and I became roommates and close friends during our two years living together in Huntington Beach before we both got married during the summer of 2005. Kerry then had a baby girl named Lacey a year before I had Lia and these two girls became penpals the summer of 2016 when Lacey first sent Lia a letter after meeting one of Lia's favorite authors, Valerie Trip, who has written many American Girl Doll books. After receiving that letter, these two girls have faithfully exchanged letters and postcards several times a year for almost five years now. Since Lia has never met Lacey and since she has wanted to visit NYC for many years, I thought that this would be the perfect, 13th birthday trip for her! After calling Kerry and proposing this trip to her, she whole heartedly agreed to host us in Baltimore and accompany us on a side trip to NYC and a day trip to Washington DC. Luckily, since our spring break was scheduled so late in April this year, Kerry and her family would be home from their trip the previous week and would be available to host us during five days of Lia's spring break. We quickly made a plan back in December and I purchased plane tickets for Lia and I to fly out there and then the wait began as I decided that this trip needed to be a gift on Lia's actual birthday. So, after keeping it secret for 2.5 months, Lia "opened" a gift on her birthday full of little items wrapped in yellow tissue paper that provided clues about this trip. Once she figured it out, Lia was so excited! The very next day, Lia and Lacey spent almost two hours on the phone and only hung up because it was a school night and Lacey needed to go to bed. Needless to say, I had a hunch that these two would hit it off.
We just flew home yesterday after a whirlwind trip to the East Coast. We saw so much and did so much and had such a great time! As I had hoped, Lia and Lacey totally hit it off and had so much fun being together. They turned out to have very similar personalities and so much in common (down to reading books at the moment from two different series by the SAME author). It was so fun to watch them talking to each other and just enjoying one another's company. Although Kerry and I have not seen each other since 2009, we had such a blast being together and picked up right where we left off. It was as though it had only been a few months instead of 12 years since we have seen each other. We walked almost 30 miles during our four days there and spent two jammed packed days in NYC, another half day in Washington DC, and another afternoon in Annapolis before Lia and I flew out on Sunday afternoon. It was so fun to share seeing some amazing sights and cities with Lia and to also get to see two of my other closest friends in addition to spending the long weekend with Kerry (Amy and Sarah). Overall, the trip was a huge success and I am so grateful to my dear friend, Kerry, for hosting us and for also being an amazing tour guide for us. Thank you, Kerry and Lacey, for showing us such a good time! Lia and I made some memories that will last us a lifetime!
After spending the night at my parents house on Tuesday night, my mom drove Lia and I to the airport early Wednesday, April 14th, before continuing on to our house to watch our three younger children for two days while Ron worked. Just by luck, one of Lia's best friends, Sienna, and her family were flying out that morning on the same airlines and had their gate down the same corridor as ours. We were able to stop by and visit with them for a few minutes. I just couldn't resist taking a picture since Lia has never been in an airport with one of her friends at the same time!
After boarding our plane, Lia and I spent a peaceful and uneventful five hours flying to Baltimore. I just can't get over how relaxing it is to fly with only one, older child compared to a gaggle of young children.
Lacey and Kerry were already waiting for us when we walked out to baggage claim at the Baltimore airport. Although we left behind stunning and sunny weather in Washington, it was cloudy and raining in Baltimore. We didn't let it bother us though and we quickly drove home to Kerry's home where we spent a relaxing evening eating dinner and getting to know her family. Lia immediately bonded with Lacy and the two of them spent quite some time down in the basement--including painting nails with Ella and Riley (not pictured).
We got up early on Thursday morning, April 15th, to catch our 8:45 bus from Baltimore to NYC. We drove the three hours through Delaware and New Jersey and arrived in NYC by 1 p.m. in the afternoon. I was able to find the time to call my dad while in New Jersey to wish him a Happy 82nd Birthday! He told me that I would be just one hour away from his beloved, childhood home at one point in our drive to the city. I so wished that I could have made the detour to see it with Lia! Here is a picture of Lacey and Lia on our bus ride to NYC.
After arriving in the city, we quickly caught a taxi cab to our hotel. Here is a picture of Lia and Lacey sitting in the back seat of the cab. This was Lia's first time in a taxi and definitely a quintessential NYC experience!
Kerry's in-laws graciously allowed us to stay in the Marriot Hotel right off of Time Square using their points. We got to stay on the 41st floor and the view was amazing from our hotel room. I have never stayed in such a fancy hotel in my life in a large city, no less for free! It was amazing to say the least!
After we dropped off our belongings in our hotel room, we grabbed our rain jackets and umbrellas that Lia and I had brought with us from home since NYC's weather forecast was for rain until the evening. Although this was a bit of bummer, we didn't let it slow us down and we still did everything we had wanted to do that day! First stop was to the Disney Store in Time Square to purchase some souvenirs for Logan, Ella, and Emmett.
Since it was past 2 p.m. and we were all starving, we then stopped at a cute, little pizza restaurant for some well-needed lunch. Here are Lia and me enjoying our delicious, pizza lunch!
While walking to Rockefeller Plaza, we passed a cool fountain that pours down a wall over a tunnel. We had to stop to take a picture...
and in doing so, stumbled across this unusual statue titled, Paparazzi Dogman & Paparazzi Rabitgirl.
We then walked right past the entrance to NBC studios where the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon is filmed.
Still making our way to Rockefeller Plaza, we stumbled across the FAO Schwarz toy store and just had to go in to check out the infamous and life-size piano keyboard on the floor. Since there was nobody there (the one big perk of Covid that allowed us to have no crowds or very little crowds wherever we went in the city), the girls were able to play on it for several minutes.
We finally made it to our destination in Rockefeller Plaza--the American Girl Doll Store. Although I visited this store with my mom on its opening day back in 2017, Lia had never been and I was dying for her to check it out and be able to say that she has visited all three, AGD flagship stores in the country (LA, Chicago, and New York). Although Lia has really outgrown most things AGD in the last year or two, it was still fun to wander around this store with her for several minutes.
Lia and Lacey doing the "Toyota" jump in front of the massive, AGD sign inside of the entrance of the store.
Lia sitting inside the life-size version of Julie's egg chair. She has sat in the same chair in the LA store.
Mother and daughter standing in front of the main entrance of the AGD store.
We then walked down part of 5th Avenue on our way to Lacey's favorite candy store. We passed the iconic, St. Patrick's cathedral.
We had a great time wandering around Dylan's Candy Bar, the largest candy store in NYC. It is three stories tall and is utterly amazing!
After visiting the candy store, we crossed the street to Bloomingdales to make our way inside to one of the many Magnolia Bakeries located in the city. Although I tried to buy their infamous banana pudding the last time I in NYC, the lines were always too long to wait in every time we passed one of their bakeries. So, I was thrilled that I only had to stand in line for a minute or two to finally buy the pudding!
We stopped for a well needed break to eat some pudding before heading back out onto the streets in the rain! Needless to say, the pudding was delicious and I enjoyed every bite!
A cute picture of Lia and Lacey walking through the streets of NYC in the rain.
We then walked down a few more blocks of 5th Avenue so that Lia could have another quintessential, NYC experience. We ended up going into Tiffany and Co. and wandered around the massive, engagement ring floor. We had so much fun checking out all of the diamond rings...
and were even allowed to try on one of them in person! Here I am wearing a 4.6 carat ring that is selling for $218,000. As I explained to the girls, this ring costs as much as a house in some parts of the country! I just love how huge the diamond is compared to my half carat diamond. Just ridiculous!
A fun, group photo that we got in the Tiffany Photo Booth on our way out of the store.
Before it started to get dark, we headed to our last stop of the day before dinner: Central Park. We passed a skyscraper being built and couldn't get over how bizarre the building looked with the top not finished.
Lia and Lacey standing inside Central park.
Mother and daughter with their blue umbrellas.
Lia, Kerry, and Lacey walking down one of the many paths in Central Park on our way to look at The Plaza Hotel (which we weren't allowed to go into due to Covid).
After walking around Central Park, we ran into our only trouble of the entire trip. I had planned on meeting up with my one of my dearest childhood friends, Amy, and her three kids for dinner and walking around Time Square. We had planned on meeting at a restaurant that Kerry's husband had recommended at 6:30. We walked there from Central Park and got there only a few minutes late to discover that it was closed for renovations. I quickly called Amy (who was parking her car) and told her that bad news. We decided that she should drive to the other restaurant of the same chain located in another neighborhood that the construction workers had told us was still opened. After waiting for 20 or so minutes, Amy called me to tell us that the second restaurant was also closed. This was a total bummer as we only had a limited time to spend together this evening (since it was a school night for Amy's kids) and we were already losing so much time. After looking over our phones for several minutes to find another place to eat, we just gave up on eating at a classic, sit-down, NYC restaurant and decided to meet at Shake Shack in Times Square--a fast food burger restaurant that started up in NYC 20 years ago. Since the four of us were so exhausted, we decided to take a cab there and learned after he dropped us off that Amy had driven to another Shake Shack near Times Square! I was getting so frustrated! While we were ordering our food, Amy drove over to the restaurant where we had been dropped off. She luckily found a parking spot three cars down from the entrance of the restaurant which is amazing for NYC. We were all so happy to have this miracle happen after so many things going wrong! Little did we know that Amy would have her wallet stolen right out of her purse while she was paying the parking meter on the street RIGHT in front of the restaurant after I had gone out to bring her kids inside with me. It was such a shock and such a bummer after so many things had already gone wrong. And if we had been able to meet at any of the previous three restaurants that Amy had gone to, her wallet never would have been stolen. But Amy is amazing and she was able to put it out of her mind (after calling her husband and telling him to cancel all of her credit cards, etc) and enjoy the next two hours with us. Although I didn't get a picture of us eating together at Shake Shack (for obvious reasons), I enjoyed getting to know her kids and laughing over high school and college stories with them. All eight of us then walked the short walk to Times Square to spend some time together there looking at the lights, taking pictures, and eating doughnuts at Krispy Kreme.
Lia and me with Amy and her three children, Olivia, Clayton, and Addison.
Amy and me. Although I haven't seen her for 11 years, it was like we had never been apart! It was so fun being with her and getting to know her darling children.
The massive, neon sign with the words, "I heart Times Square" on it.
Lia and me with the crazy, lit-up billboards in the background.
A shot of the glowing signage in Times Square.
A fabulous, NYC-themed, Disney sign.
Another large, American flag all lit up and glowing!
After walking Amy and her kids back to their car at 10 p.m., we said a sad farewell and sent them on their way. Here are Lia and I heading back to our hotel.
A view from our room of Times Square all lit up as we were heading to bed!
For the third morning in a row, we started bright and early to leave our hotel (with bags in tow) by 8 a.m. to make our way down to Battery Park to catch our ferry to Liberty Island and Ellis Island at 9.
We first sailed to Liberty Island where we spent almost an hour wandering around and taking in all of the views of the statue and of the city.
Lia and I and Lady Liberty.
Kerry, Lacey, Lia, and me with the Statue of Liberty behind us.
Lia and I posing with Manhattan Island in the background.
We wandered into the museum and enjoyed learning about the making of this incredible monument.
We were able to see the original torch that is no longer on the statue.
Lia, Lacey, and Kerry back on the boat and heading to Ellis Island.
Lacey and Lia heading into the Ellis Island museum.
Lia sitting at one of the desks located at the end of a very large and long room called Registration Hall. This is the room where all of the immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island were processed through before learning if they could leave the island or needed to be sent to a detention room. I never had thought about how nerve wracking and stressful this moment in their lives must have been--especially when travelling with other family members.
A shot of Lia and me standing next to a cool sign pointing to NYC and New Jersey.
Kerry and I getting ready to board the boat to leave Ellis Island. Behind us is one of the many hospitals or dormitories that was used to temporarily house immigrants on the island before being grated permission to leave.
The main processing building on Ellis Island.
After arriving back at Battery Park, we started to walk our way through the financial district and stumbled across the infamous, Charging Bull statue on Wall Street. Kerry said that she has never been able to get a picture taken with this statue without crowds of people in the background.
We then made our way to Trinity Church where Alexander Hamilton was buried. This church was built almost two hundred years ago and is just surrounded by large buildings in the Financial District on all four sides. It is a beautiful church, complete with a very old fashioned looking cemetery that looked straight out of a Tim Burton movie. Unfortunately, the entire church and grounds were closed due to Covid which made no sense to me.
Luckily, Alexander Hamilton's grave is located right next to the fence, so we were still able to see it up close and personal.
Lia and me with the grave of Alexander Hamilton behind us. Although I have only seen the musical, Lia has several friends who are huge fans of this Broadway production, so his grave was still interesting for her to see.
We then walked to the 9/11 Memorial for both of the girls to see for the first time. It is such an expansive and impressive monument that was built to honor such a horrific event in our country's history. I loved being able to share this historical sight with Lia.
Lia and I with the memorial in the background.
A shot of one of the two pools that sits inside the former footprints of the Twin Towers.
We then walked over to hit our last, NYC adventure: going to the top of the One World Trade Center. Although I knew that it would be really cool to see the 360 degree view of NYC, I had no idea what an incredible experience this would be! From the elevator ride to the top to eating at the cafe to listening to a presentation about the five burrows in NYC to soaking up the amazing views, we spent over two hours up here and loved every minute of it! Here is a picture of Lia, Lacey, and Kerry entering OWTC.
The three girls staring out at NYC Harbor and New Jersey from the 100th floor.
We enjoyed eating a delicious lunch and giving our feet a break from the cafe located on 101st floor.
Lia and me with Manhattan Island behind us.
Lia and Lacy on top of the world!
A view of Manhattan.
A close-up of the Manhattan skyline.
After finishing our time in the OWTC, we took the elevator back "down to earth" and exited into the fascinating, Oculus building which houses a mall and very large subway terminal. Since we had no idea that we would be exiting into this building, it was quite the fun surprise! We then caught a taxi back to where we needed to catch our 5:30 bus. After boarding the bus on time, it then took our poor driver an hour to get out of NYC and onto the freeway due to Friday evening, rush hour traffic. Kerry and I didn't mind and talked the entire four hour ride back to Baltimore.
After a much needed slow morning on Saturday, April 17th, we headed out to spend the afternoon in Washington D.C. with Kerry and Lacey. We drove right into the city and enjoyed walking around the memorials located around the Tidal Basin. Here are Lia and Lacey standing next to the statue of FDR located at the Roosevelt Memorial.
Lia and I standing in front of the Tidal Basin with the Washington Monument in the background.
A close-up of the Washington Monument.
Next stop: MLK Jr. Memorial
And the Korean War Veterans Memorial.
Next, we walked to the Lincoln Memorial which was the only crowded place we visited all afternoon long.
But Lia and I were still able to get a picture with the statue behind us with no one in it!
A view of the reflecting pool and the Washington Monument behind us as we stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
The girls sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Kerry and me.
Another shot of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Next, we walked over to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
The memorial with some small flags placed in front of the wall.
We then walked our tired feet all the way to the front of the White House to discover that the majority of it was blocked by a massive, temporary wall due to all of the protests in our country. It was a bit disappointing to say the least! Before walking several blocks to see the backside of the White House, Lacey took this cool picture of Lia "touching" the Washington Monument.
After a long walk, we finally made it to the backside of the White House to discover that it also had been blocked off, but only by a chain link fence that we were able to look through. Here is the shot I was able to get through a space in the fence.
Lia and I with the White House in the background.
We then walked to meet Kerry on a street corner (who had run back to get the car as our parking meter was expiring). She drove us to see the U.S. Capitol building which ended up being the perfect thing since our feet were hurting so much! Lacey, Lia, and I were able to hop out of the car and run up to take a picture.
Lia, me, and the capitol.
Lastly, Kerry drove us to the Jefferson Memorial since I wanted Lia to have the chance to see it up close. While Kerry waited in an illegal parking spot, the three of us quickly walked over to see the monument. Although it is covered in scaffolding, the girls were still able to run up the steps and see the statue of Thomas Jefferson inside.
A shot of us standing in front of the the Tidal Basin in front of the Jefferson Memorial.
We then drove to the Arlington Cemetery, but arrived there at 4:55 p.m. and it closed at 5 p.m., so we were unable to go in. As a result, we just turned around and headed straight to McClean, Virginia to see my friend, Sarah, who had invited us over for dinner that evening.. Sarah was my mission companion in Montreal back in 1998 and we have remained close friends ever since and it was so fun to see her again and her beautiful house that she just bought last year. We enjoyed a delicious, homemade dinner out on her back patio before heading back inside to visit for another hour or so. Here are Lia and me with Sarah and her husband, Thomas.
Sarah and I standing in her backyard.
Lia, Sarah, and me standing in her living room before saying 'farewell' and heading back to Baltimore.
After another slow morning and packing up most of our belongings, Lia and I headed out with Kerry and three of her four children to spend the early afternoon in the charming town of Annapolis. This has always been Kerry's favorite town since she moved back East in 2005 and now I can totally understand why. It is so cute and quaint and has that colonial charm that can still be found in some East Coast towns. The warm weather finally returned on this day and so it felt so nice to be walking outside in the sunshine after three raining or cloudy days. Here are Lia and me standing in front of one of Annapolis' marinas (also known as "Ego Alley") with the Chesapeake Bay in the background.
One of the many restaurants in Annapolis located inside a quaint, old building.
The darling Main Street that runs down the center of Annapolis.
Several of the streets in Annapolis are home to charming houses that were built in the 1800s and are still lived in to this day. Here is one of my favorite that we walked by with blue shutters.
After checking out the marina, Kerry led us down the street to see the capitol building since Annapolis is the capitol of Maryland.
Here are the girls standing on the beautiful, capitol grounds.
A group shot of Tanner, Lia, Lacey with Ella on her shoulders, and me with the capitol behind us.
All four kids posing on a cannon next to the capitol building.
The three girls relaxing on the capitol grounds.
Lia, Lacey, and Tanner standing on the back steps of the capitol.
The governor's mansion is just across the street from the capitol building. After Kerry left to go to church with Ella, the three older kids and me walked all around this beautiful home. Here we are standing next to the fence on the backside of the house with a beautiful fountain in their backyard.
The older kids and I enjoyed a leisurely stroll back down Main Street where we walked in and out of several cute shops along the way.
We finished up back down at the marina where I treated everyone to ice cream at Storm Brothers, their favorite ice cream shop in town.
Kerry then drove back to pick us up after finishing church. We then drove the 30 or so minutes back to her house to finish packing our bags and headed out the door to catch our 5:30 flight back to Seattle. Here is Lacey seeing off Lia at the airport.
One last hug! It was so fun to watch these girls become fast friends over our long weekend there!
And one last picture with my dear friend, Kerry, who was wearing a dress I gave her 16 years ago when she moved away from Huntington Beach. It was so great to see her and get to know her family during out trip out there. Thanks for such a fabulous time, Kerry!
