Tennesse to Boston

Once again, we were unable to post due to lack of  service/Wi-Fi...we are now on the East Coast so we should be able to finally stay on top of things...
We last left off at Graceland...

Our boys happen to be huge Elvis fans so they enjoyed touring his house as much as we did!

 

 

Afterwards we met up with my cousin Scott who lives outside of Memphis- I hadn't seen in about 15 years!

 

Then we were off to Nashville...the boys took a 3 hour nap so that they could stay up late and "party" in downtown Nashville...

I was sad not to be able to break out my boots and line dance, but I will surely be back; with hat, boots and friends!! 

 

 

Upon leaving Nashville, we headed for the Great Smokey Mountains.  This National Park located in the southern Appalachian  mountains of eastern Tennessee and is absolutely majestic.  We stayed in a super-fun campground with water slides, but a thundershower cut our fun short.  We ran back in the pouring rain getting muddy and soaked and a bit frightened from the rumbling thunder! 

The next day, Peter met up with his long-time friend Shane whom he hadn't seen in 6 years for a round of golf while I took the boys to a water park in Gatlinburg.  We had a blast testing our courage down some steep and fast water slides, and floating around the lazy river.  We had so much fun, we forgot to take pictures except for this one of the boys earning their 4th National Park badge.

 

 

Next was Shenandoah National Park,

another portion of the Appalachian mountains in northern Virginia.  We took two days to enjoy nature,

 

explore trails to waterfalls,

 

 and watch wildlife...

centipede

(note the deer in the back)

 

We also earned our 5th National Park badge!

 

 

Next Stop:  Washington DC!

It took us 1.5 hours to find a dang parking spot for our rig!  Annoying!!  Once we finally parked, we took the Metro, which the kids thought was cool..

Then we rode the "Old Trolley" through the city to tour the sites. 

We stopped at the Air and Space Museum (we easily could've spent the entire day here...) where we saw jets, rockets, satellites and space suits.  We also played with air and telescopes...

 

The Lincoln Memorial was our favorite National Monument. 

 

There happened to be a 150th commemorative exhibit in honor of Gettysburg where the boys met a "colonial blue-coat" who taught them how to salute arms.

 

 

They also earned their 6th badge: "The National Mall" National Monument.

 

On our way to the White House I got ran over by a cyclist while crossing through the crosswalk.  Holy cow, this was frightening and we felt lucky that I didn't wind up in the hospital (just a scratch and a bruise...)!  And for the record, I had the right away.  By the time we saw the White House we were pretty beat, but it was still awesome to see. 

 

(Front of house)

 (Back of house)

 

We left Washington DC, clearly we could've used more time to explore here, but we'll be back one day! We drove as far as we could en route for Boston to spend the 4th of July with our friends, The Lawsons...detour: with buddies Craig, Tammy and Luke!





 

 



Until New Hampshire, may the force be with you.

 



Happy and safe 4th of July everyone, and Happy Birthday America!!