Hanging around Philadelphia

Our last and final stop was Philadelphia - which happens to be where our good friend from work here in Germany is orgionally from. We were really lucky, that she was home for the whole summer and could hang out with us while we came to her city. Philadelphia is really really cool! We saw the liberty bell, and did a really cool tour of Independence hall - where I collected all sorts of

cool trading cards! We had a good time, and went to the new museum which houses the Constitution - which turned out to be very large, but with a really great theatre show! And then we finished off our time in the city with a free visit to the Mint - to learn where money was made! I loved that place the best! It was great to see all these places I have seen in National Treasure! Afterwards, we headed back to Steph's parents' house to try some traditional scraple, and dinner followed by a quick trip to get some water ice!

Recreating memories at the World War 2 Memorial

We had our lunch at the Native American museum - which I was glad to know was just as good as I remembered! It was such a hot day - it was much too hot to be walking out and about in D.C. But since we had come all the way to see David, it seemed weird to hang around his house all day otherwise.

The World War Two memorial is one of my favourite memorials - but it really is quite a trek out there! I was really pleased to have discovered this black and white dress in the back of my closet - the same one I wore when I visited Rachel way back in 2010! It was literally the cutest picture ever!

My first Space Shuttle

While we were in DC, we hadn't visited the Air and Space museum, (although we did grab lunch at the Native American musueum), we did want to visit the Discovery

Space Shuttle - which, while owned by the Air and Space Museum is in their museum a bit out of town. It has its own section at this aviation museum - and really that is all I wanted to see there. It was so big, it was a bit like the Acropolis, hard to even get it all in one picture!

Our national Cemetery, Arlington

After we said goodbye to Bekah, and made it very, very carefully out of New York traffic - we headed down to see David in Virginia. He lives really close to Josh's friend Ben and his wife Jacey. We spent the weekend with them, and their amazing hypoallergenic cats, and hung out with them for the weekend. It was really nice to be relaxed, and not do too much! In the morning,

Jacey showed us around on a tour of the Pentagon - which is where she works. It was really the coolest tour - it felt so important, everywhere! After, we headed to Arlington, the national cemetery. We really didn't spend much time there because it was so,so, so hot - so I snapped a few pictures before we went back to meet David at Steak and Shake!

The Top of the Rock

I was really dissapointed that everything in New York City was so expensive for tourists. It really just must make a fortune. It was tough for me to decide if I wanted to go up the Empire State building or the Rockerfeller Center, but they are both about 50 dollars! Because Josh has been to New York before,

he didn't wanna do these observatories - but I so did. I had kind of convinced myself not to go up there - mainly because I was scared. But while we were in the Rockerfeller Center basement, at some of the shops, we ran into some girls who knew Bekah - and they really recommended the Top of the Rock observatory. I booked my ticket, and then from there, it was really great! You go up a lift, and then there were two more escalators up. The first level was super great, but the top one was the best! It really was

such a beautiful view over Central Park on one side and you could see the Empire State Building! I took lots of selfies, before I worked up some courage to ask someone to take my picture. I chose the security guard, and it turns out he was pretty good at taking photos, becasue everyone asks him to do that!

Ferrying back and forth to Staten Island

We did get one day to explore New York by ourselves - and it felt a little weird to be out and about without someone to guide us! We decided that was the morning to go and see the Statue of Liberty. You can pay, and take a ferry to the visitor centre that is on Ellis island, pay a whole bunch and then go through security, and then another ferry to see Lady Liberty - but since EVERYTHING in New York seemed to be absolutely extoritionate we decided to head for the cheaper option - the Staten Island

Ferry. The Ferry is FREE (I have no clue how!?) and goes back and forth a lot more regularily. So in the morning, we headed over there - and it wasn't too hard to find the ferry. It was really big, and we got a nice shaded seat on the outside of the ferry. It was so amazing

as you left the city to see the whole skyline and the beautiful sky scrapers. I feel like that is the coolest thing about New York is the amazing skyscrapers. They are just so big, and so....shiny! About half way through the ferry journey, you pass the Statue of Liberty - it's pretty far away - but, hey, it's free!

Walking along the Brooklyn Bridge

I sometimes get Facebook envy, and since a few JET friends of mine from Japan had recently visited the Brooklyn bridge - and so I reallllllly wanted to go there. I had never realised that the bridge was more of a walking/ bike riding bridge and the actual bridge

for the cars went under it. It was super busy on the bridge - and there was a side for bikes and a side for pedestrians - and oh boy, were the bikes agressive! We took some great pictures, and I really enjoyed it the whole time - it was nice and sunny and we got such nice views of the city!