Poconos

New Jersey

I originally started out for Blairstown New Jersey to see Camp Crystal Lake, but took a detour to the Poconos because well it's the Poconos and it's famous.  I ended up going to Bushkill Falls.  I went out of my way because I passed the entrance to the park.

The Niagara of Pennsylvania

Bushkill Falls is known as The Niagara of Pennsylvania or what everyone else calls a waterfall.

Uprooted tree

I was originally going to go on the green trail which you see one waterfall and takes about fifteen minutes, but after paying $12.50 for entry I decided to go on the red trail which is suppose to be for avid hikers.  I am now an avid hiker because of $12.50.

  

Waterfall

The walk lasted me about an hour and a half and I nearly died.  

More waterfall

Not sure if this is called Eden Tree or Den Tree

After I left I drove to Blairstown, again driving out of my way because those street signs don't make any sense.  I finally found Camp Crystal Lake where Friday the 13th was filmed.  Camp Crystal Lake is actually a Boy Scouts of America camp called Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco.  So when I rolled up there were about 20 Boys Scouts standing around.  I asked the boys where the sign was and they said it was inside on private property and I couldn't go in, the Boy Scout leader said the same thing.  So I didn't get to see the sign that I drove there for and got lost for a half and hour for, but one of the Boy Scouts asked me "spreken ze deutsch" so there's that.

Washington DC

So DC is amazing.  Traffic was awful coming in from Maryland, all through DC and leaving through Maryland.  What should have taken me five minutes ended up taking twenty, but seeing the city was worth it.  I of course got lost in the city trying to find the Visitors center, said screw it and ended up parking for free by the memorials.  I walked the city in about seven hours seeing as much as I possibly could, I got a little tied up in the Newseum museum so I didn't see everything.  The only sign I saw coming in was DC city limits.  Couldn't get a picture of it because Traffic and I would have had to pop a curb.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial

I started my day at the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial and moved to the Lincoln memorial both were massive and amazing.  At the Lincoln Memorial they had armed guards caring machine guns.  DC does not mess around.  You try to climb on Lincoln you will get shot.

Lincoln Memorial

 I then moved onto Constitution Avenue to see the Three Servicemen Statue and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.  The Vietnam Memorial wall was very long and is name after name after name.  It blows my mind that people get a picture smiling next to it, it's not a happy place especially knowing that the reason the war started and all these lives were lost was because of a miscommunication.  (It might make me a hypocrite because I did take a picture of the wall to show how long it was).

Three Servicemen Statue

 I knew a lot of people died in the Vietnam War, but to see all the names together in one place is staggering and unbelievable.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Washington Monument

 I walked to see The White House, you cannot actually go on the lawn, but you can stand across the street behind a fence with everyone else and take the pictures.  That does come in handy when you are alone and need a random person to take your picture.  It was really cool seeing it "up close" and of course like everything else in DC it's massive.

The White House

 The National Christmas Tree was not on the lawn of The White House it was a across the street with the lonely tourist.  Side note I saw a tourist wearing a hat that said "I pot leaf Kush" she was about 13 and I'm guessing Japanese since Japanese clothing has some weird sayings and she was with a Japanese tour group.

National Christmas Tree

 I got to walk through the Natural History Museum and saw a lot of cool stuff; genomes, animals, mummies, insects, Tyrannosaurus being scanned and put together, cat mummies, etc...  I also bought a fountain drink that cost me $3.80, which is stupid expensive.

Natural History Museum

Triceratops

After I left the museum I walked up to see the Ford Theater which of course was under construction and right across the street was the House were Lincoln passed.  I also walked by the FBI building, Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and US Botanic Garden.

Pulitzer Prize Photographs Gallery

The place I spent the most time at and was my favorite thing in DC was Newseum.  Newseum had everything to do with speech, press, publication, photos, and news old and new.  I mainly went there because I wanted to see the Anchorman Exhibit, but there is a ton more to see.  There are seven floors with multiply things to see on each floor.  My favorite exhibit in the museum was the Pulitzer Prize Photographs Gallery, I spent about an hour there looking at all the photos and reading all the descriptions.  They were amazing.  "It showed every winner of journalism's most prestigious photography award in one gallery."  

Piece of the Berlin Wall

 If you ever get a chance to see Newseum GO you won't be disappointed.  Another gallery in Newseum was the Berlin Wall Gallery.  They had a small piece you could touch, a huge chunk showing both the East and West sides of the wall, it also had information about the fall of the Berlin wall.

Anchorman Exhibit at Newseum

 So, the exhibit I went for Anchorman.  It was great.  They had clothing, the set, you could read a news transcript, take a picture with a cut out of Ron Burgundy, background on the characters, annnddd THE sex panther cologne.  I made the exhibit just in time it closes at the end of next month.  I spent two hours in Newseum and didn't see half of the galleries.

Part of Anchorman

Everything you can see in Newseum: Hearst Orientation Theaters, Berlin Wall Gallery, Comics, Pictures of the Year, FBI Exhibit, Greenspun Terrace, Pennsylvania Avenue Timeline, Today's Front Pages, One Nation with News for All, News Corp., Pulliam Great Books Gallery, Smith Big Screen Theater, HP New Media Gallery, Make Some Noise: Students and the Civil Rights Movement, 1964: Civil Rights at 50, 9/11 Gallery sponsored by Comcast, Cox First Amendment Gallery, Time Warner World News Gallery, Journalist Memorial, Bloomberg Internet, TV and Radio Gallery, Knight Studios, First Dogs: American Presidents and Their Pets, Bancroft Ethics Center, NBC News Interactive Newsroom, Anchorman: The Exhibit, Pulitzer Prize Photographs Gallery, 4-D Movie, and Blood and Ink: Front Pages From the Civil War. 

US Capitol

 One of the last things I saw was the Smithsonian Castle, which was beautiful, but I didn't go in.  You need at least a few days to see everything in DC and that still may not be enough time.  On my way out of the city I saw police lights coming up behind me; the first vehicle was a limo with lights, then an SUV with lights, and a car with lights.  I'm pretty sure it was the President trying to hit me up so we could hang out, but then they passed me.

Smithsonian Castle

Gettysburg

I headed to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on July 28th.  I passed through Maryland in the morning nearly missing the sign.

Traffic was rough in Maryland


I made into Gettysburg in the afternoon and went directly to the Visitors Center to find out how to get started and find a hotel.  The woman working the desk called the Eisenhower Inn and they said it would be over $100 for a room, later I found a room on Trivago for half the price (baller).  Most of the hotels/motels I've stayed in are way overpriced, but I much rather pay a little more than get murdered.  When I first arrived at the Visitors Center there were two people both in their 70s or 80s.  The man was playing on his cell phone and the woman was knitting.  They were a lot of help.

Hello

After I checked into the hotel I headed for stop one on my driving tour of the Battleground of Gettysburg.  Thanks Hank for the CD Gettysburg Field Guide "The Ultimate Guide to the battle."  On the tour they give you background information about the battle as well as detailed information about the 16 stops.

Battleground of Gettysburg


The stops included McPherson Ridge, Eternal Light Peace Memorial, Oak Ridge, North Carolina Memorial, Virginia Memorial, Pitzer Woods, Warfield Ridge, Little Round Top, The Wheatfield, The Peach Orchard, Plum Run, Pennsylvania Memorial, Spanglers Spring, East Cemetery Hill, and High Water Mark.  But there was way more to see than just what was marked on the map.  You could park get out of your car and walk around to see the statues and areas better.  You could also walk up the towers to see everything around you.

View of the City from a tower

I pulled into a parking spot at one of the wooded sections.  I walked around the woods thinking I could get to one of the sights, but when I reached an opening I got nervous about being attacked by a bear and ran back to my car.  I think it was only parking for the porter potty.

Canon

After the three hour drive around Gettysburg I went to the Soldiers' National Cemetery right next to the Visitors center.  Which was very sad, but something you have to see if you are in Gettysburg,  just to pay respect.

Both old and young are buried here

These were over a thousand unmarked graves

Charleston, West Virgina

I started for Charleston on July 27th.  I ended up just passing through Virginia, which was a very beautiful drive even though it rained most of the way.  On a side note I stopped at a Love's and my car was immediately surrounded by bees, one of the truck drivers pointed out that one of the truck trailers had a bee hive on top of it.

When I finally arrived in West Virginia I went to see the Capitol Building first.  The building was completed in 1932 and was designed by Cass Gilbert.  The dome was molded after the U.S. Capitol, but is five feet taller than the actual Capitol.  The dome is covered with 23 and 1/2 carat gold.  I also saw the Governor's Mansion which was next to the Capitol.  I didn't get to see the State Museum & Culture Center since it is closed on Sundays.

What up

Governor's Mansion

State Capitol

Spring Hill Cemetery Park.  It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

Appalachian Power Park which is home to the West Virginia Power, the Class-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates.  It was of course closed so I couldn't really see it that well, but I figured when in Rome, might as well see a chain gate with a field behind it.

Can you spot the field

The LaBelle Theater, it was originally built in the 1940s by Walter B. Urling.  He named the theater after his mother and daughter.  The name was changed to Cinema South in the 1960s, closed in the 1980s, reopened as a church in the 1990s, and in 2003 the city of South Charleston purchased, renovated, and reopened it as a working theater.

Movie theater

My last stop for the day in Charleston was something really interesting and something I'd never seen before.  It's called The Mound and it is the second largest remaining Indian burial mound in the state.  It is a large earthen pile measuring 175 feet in diameter at the base and is approximately 35 feet high.  It is believed that the earliest inhabitants of South Charleston were a tribe of people referred to as Indians of the Adena culture.

The Mound

Burial grounds

North Carolina

I stayed the night in Georgia before I left for North Carolina.  While I was stopped at the Visitors Center the woman said I shouldn't pull of to the side to take pictures of the state sign because it's dangerous, but what that lady doesn't know about me is that I'm a bad ass and my life is all about danger.  Proof:

Georgia

Just passed through South Carolina.

South Carolina

I ended up staying with my friend Heather in Elkin, NC for a couple days.  We didn't do much since it was such a tiny town.  But on the 26th we went down to the monthly car show.

North Carolina

While at the car show we saw a little girl about six running them streets wearing a Jose Cuervo shirt as well as a man in a motorized wheelchair racing a girl on a razor.

St. Augustine

Now bare with me while I describe everything I saw, it might get a little wordy and tedious, but I gotta give the people what they want and by people I mean my parents.

Third day of the trip I got to see St. Augustine, which has some small roads but a lot of interesting history.
St. Augustine was explored by Juan Ponce de Leon (don't know how to put the accent over the e in Leon, but you know what I mean)  in 1513 and settled by Pedro Menendez de Aviles (again accent over the e in Aviles) in 1565.  I went to see the Ponce de Leon's fountain of Youth Archaeological Park.  It is the original site of the Spanish colonial St. Augustine, the oldest successful European settlement in the US.

Hello Friend.

Spring House aka the Fountain of Youth: Had a cup of natural water from the Ponce's Spring of Eternal Hope.

Warm and Fresh

I better look 12 after drinking this water.

Navigators Planetarium: Saw the celestial navigation techniques used by early European explorers.  This navigation was used to find La Florida.  (Again the accent over the o, I'm not good with technology)

Juan Ponce de Leon

Discover Globe: The globe showed the explorers' routes to and from the new world, as well as where they settled and the establishments of the first Universities in the Americas.

And here's a picture of a peacock cause peacocks are cool

Mission of Nombre de Dios Church: The first Franciscan Mission church built in the US and served as the hub of the entire Spanish Mission system.

Gettin' their pray on

Weapons Demonstration: Saw a Matchlock Arquebus packed and shot off.  This was used in the mid-1500s by Span during the colonization of the New World.

This guy.

Timucuan Village of Seloy: The original inhabitants of Florida for thousands of years were the Timucuan Indians.  This showed what their villages would have looked like.

Timucuan Village

Cannon Firing: Watched a cannon be fired (duh).  Pedro Menendez de Aviles brought 20 of these to the settlement of St. Augustine in September of 1565.

Canon Fire

Astillero and Chalupa: Saw a  Spanish work boat being built.  All the people working to build the boat are volunteers and after they are done they take kids on field trips from the park to the lighthouse.  The one they were building today should be done by December.

All by hand

After I saw all that history I decided to see history in the making at the St. Augustine Distillery.  It is the only and oldest Vodka distillery in Florida.  They make both Vodka and Gin and are in the process of making Bourbon.

Vodka, Gin, and real copper mugs

And coming soon