Dear blog readers,
This blog update will be about the road trip I made with my dad. It was such a great opportunity to do this with my him! We saw so many places in less than three weeks. May, 29th, the end of my time with the best host family ever, but also the beginning of an unforgettable trip! My dad and I left around 8:30am bound for Memphis, TN, our first stop. Before I left, Lacey gave me a book to read during the car rides. 'Kisses From Katie' is the name of the book and it's truly amazing! What a big difference one person can make! This book was such an inspiration and a good distraction. The day we left, I was recovering the whole day from the split with my host family, but this book kept me busy and really helped me. I really recommend it! When we arrived in Memphis, we parked our car and walked to the centre. We walked on Beale streat, visited an Asian/Judaic art museum, took the trolley, and walked on Main street. We had dinner at Rendez Vous, which was really good! Their bbq ribs are really good (but not as good as Brad's). After that, we walked back to our car alongside the Mississippi river. The next day we left for Nashville, TN. Somewhere in between Memphis and Nashville, we stopped at a civil war site, where the Confederate(south) army won the battle against the Union(north). There were some trails we followed with the car, and we stopped in some sites to understand the development of the battle. We continued our trip to get to Nasville. Nashville is so much bigger then Memphis and has many more things to do! It's the capitol of country music for a reason. When we got there, we first checked in into our hotel from where we went to the Hermitage, former president Andrew Jackson's plantation home. It's a really big estate, and there's a lot to see. The mansion is probably one of the oldest houses I saw in America so far. :) After that, we drove to downtown Nashville, where we walked on Broadway street. Broadway street has bars and restaurants only. The cool thing about it is that all of them have bands playing at night. All live music! My dad and I were almost 4 hours in just one bar/restaurant, named 'Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville'. We had dinner there and just listened to the country music! The next day, we visited the country music hall of fame museum. This museum shows the origins and history of country music. It also shows the most famous country musicians. From then on, my dad and I had been listening to country music for the rest of the road trip. :) Prime Country! (with a real country accent) Our next stop was Lancaster, Ohio. We have family there, who moved there from Romania a while back. I haven't seen my cousin in so many years! I was just a little girl. On our way, we stopped at Abraham Lincoln's birthplace in Hodgenville, Kentucky. They rebuild the lille cottage that he was born in. He actually came from a really poor family but still ended up being president. After this quick stop, we had lunch at chick-fil-a that I spotted next to the interstate! It was the first time I saw one since Mississippi. I was so excited that we stopped. Besides, my dad had never had chick-fil-a! We both got a chicken salad(the healthiest thing you can get, which isn't that healthy with all the dressing on it). We finally arrived in Lancaster around 9pm. The kids were still awake and were so excited to meet us! The next day, we went to church with my family, and met some friends of them. Later in the afternoon, we went to spend some more time at those friend's house. They were so sweet! The next morning, we had a large breakfast before we hit the road again. We had a short but such a nice time with our family! They are so kind for having us, and I'm so thankful that I got to see my cousin after such a long time! Our next destination was Niagara Falls, Canada. We had to drive through Ohio, the state of New York, and then pass the border with Canada. The city of Niagara Falls is really nice, especially the Canadian part of it. On the Canadian side you can observe both falls so much better. The first night, we barely parked our car, and then we had to run to be on time for our boatride reservations. At 9:30pm we were on the boat, which brought us to the American falls and the horseshoe falls twice. Both falls were illuminated, which made it all even more spectacular! Only after that, we got to our hotel. The next day, my dad and I walked alongside the rapids of the falls, and then we met up with some distant family of ours who moved to Canada from Romania, again :). We had lunch together and just spend some time catching up. After that, we descended to the river, where the water comes crashing down in front you. We made sure, that we had our raincoats and ponchos because you get really wet there! After we told our goodbyes, my dad and I went to the top of the observation tower for a nice view over the falls. After this wonderful part of our jouney, we continued our roadtrip, and this time we were on our way to New York City, US's most populous city! We got there late at night, which proved to us that the city truly never sleeps! It carries so much life that bustles with so much noise both day and night! Our hotel was located in Long Island over the East river, so it was on the east side from Manhattan, which means that we had to cross the island of Manhattan. There was so much traffic, that our GPS went all crazy and we had to trust my map reading skills(which aren't actually that bad). Eventually we got to our hotel after a long wait in the traffic and paying a lot of tolls. The next day we took the metro to Grand Central, the biggest and most popular metro station in New York City. From there we walked to 5th avenue and then we walked in the direction of Central Park. We passed the St. Patrick's cathedral, which was in full restoration. Central Park is such great facility for New Yorkers who like to escape the city once in a while but not having to drive too far. when you are in the middle of the park, you don't even see the buildings. That's how big it is. People run there, have picnics,... We were on our way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and had lunch in Central Park. The Met is such a big museum that it might take months in order to see all of the art displays. You can find everything there; from Greek and Roman mythology sculptures to modern art by Pablo Picasso. There were also a lot of paintings from Dutch artists, like Peter Paul Rubens. We spent the whole afternoon in there. For dinner, we went to Carnegie Deli, one of New York's culinary landmarks! You can almost only get sandwiches there, but they are huge, and are always served with pickles! Afterwards, we walked on Times Square and passed TKTS. Lacey told me they sell Broadway tickets with a lot of discount, so we decided to buy tickets for Chicago, since there were no lines. A Broadway show is also something that attracks a lot of tourists because it has really good acting and singing. This show had really good singing, comedy, and acting in it, but it had more bad language than I had heard in the past year! The next day we took the metro to Wall street. From there we walked to the ferry. We got on the ferry in order to go to Staten Island, and island south from Manhattan. We had lunch there, and then we just took the ferry back to Manhattan. Back in Manhattan, I did some shopping for my sister and I. I bought us both a necklace with a cross on it at this jewelry stand on the market place before the museum of American Indian, while my dad was digging up files about distant family ancestors that imigrated to the US. Not far from there, there's a charging bull statue, that represents the change of the stock market. My dad absolutely wanted a picture of that. :) Afterwards, we walked north on Broadway, a street that runs all the way through Manhattan and across from the island. We went to visit the World Trade Center memorial and admired the new building. They're building a new metro station and a shopping center there. The highest may be done, but they're still building others and developing a new multi-purpose center. After that, we had Starbucks because my host family was so kind to give us a gift card! Then, we walked further on Broadway, through China town and little italy. Btw, we walked a lot during our stay in New York! We walked all the way passed the Flatiron building, from where we walked towards the Empire State Building. We went to the observation deck and enjoyed the wonderful skyline of New York City. We were there just before dusk came, and the sun was just about to set. This gave us the opportunity to take pictures of New York City by day and by night! We were up there a long time, and took pictures from every side of the observation deck. My dad actually saw a fire break out north from the Empire State Building. It was pretty serious, for it was on the news the next day. After we had breakfast at the hotel the next morning, we left New York City. This was such a great part of our trip! We saw so much! It was definetely worth the walking! This time, we didn't leave the way we entered NYC. When we came into NYC, we drove through the holland tunnel, but this time we drove through Staten Island, which didn't go much quicker. NYC is busy all the time! Our trip was going by so quickly! There weren't that many places left anymore. The next place we spent the night at was Alexandria, Virginia, just outside from Washington DC. After we got to our hotel, we just went to the center of Alexandria. It's a small but really cute town! We had dinner there and I had frozen yoghurt too. The next day, we went to Washington DC! In Washington DC, we visited the Pentagon, the Abraham Lincoln memorial, where Martin Luther King gave his 'I Have A Dream' speech. We also saw the Washington DC monument, and the monument of all the states. We also went to the White House, and then we had lunch in China Town. Afterwards, we also saw the Capitol, and that's about it. After that I facetimed with my host family. Washington DC is so different from other cities. It doesn't have skyscrapers like New York City does. It's a city more focused on memorials and monuments. Our next night we spent in Brunswick, Georgia, and the next day we went to Jeckyll Island to swim in the ocean. The beach was pretty, but the sand turned into mud once you went into the water. That's caused by two large rivers that flow into the ocean nearby. I still had a nice swim though. I just tried to stay of the ground as much as possible! After that little bit of muddy beach fun, we continued south to Orlando, Florida because that was are next destination. We were going to our family I visited earlier this year in march. We got there late in the afternoon. The boys were really excited to see me again. We had a really good dinner, after which we talked for a while and then went to bed. The next day, we did some grocery shopping, walked around the community, and swam in the neighborhood pool. It was a hot and relaxing day, but it was so much fun! I'm so glad I got to see them one more time we left the US. I'm so thankful for everything they did for us! When we left Orlando, we were heading to our final destination in the US; Miami. We had a little house we could stay in in Hollywood, FL, right outside from Miami. It belongs to our family in Ohio, and it was so nice of them letting us stay there for a couple of nights! We did grocery shopping for the next few days, and just made are own meals most of the time. On friday, June, 13th, we went to Key West. Key West is the furthest island of the Florida Keys, which are a row of islands underneath Florida. You drive from one island to another over bridges. It took us about 3 hours to get to Key West. Then, we parked our car and walked around the city and the shoreline. Driving there is a lot of fun because you can see the islands around with the mangrove trees, and the beautiful beaches! It's so pretty. I think that the ride up there or back is more fun then visiting Key West. The next day, we relaxed at the beach, and that's basically it. I got so tanned but sunburned on my back. Sunday, Father's day, we went to a baptist church that was just around the corner. My dad came with me, which made really happy. There were 3 persons getting baptized that morning. My dad told me: "Now you see how it will go". I was getting really excited that morning because in exactly 2 weeks from then I was going to get baptized! After the service, we walked around Hollywood, had starbucks, facetimed my mom, ate lunch,... June, 16th, our last day in the USA, Our plane was scheduled to leave at 4pm. All we did the whole morning was cleaning the house and doing the laundry. Eventually, we left at 1pm, but had to turn back because I forgot my wooden bracelet on the kitchen counter. We also still had to return our car, which took longer than expected. After that, we just figured out our gate and ran from the check-in to the gate. The check-in took longer since we didn't do it online. In the US, you can only check in 24hours before the flight, and we didn't have wifi. I was also really nervous because we had a lot of overweight! It's impossible to stick with the restrictions if you have to take back luggage with stuff that cover a year! I prayed we wouldn't have to pay for the extra weight, and we didn't have to! I asked the Lord, and he gave. :) The security went smooth too, although my dad had to throw away all of the drinks he packed, for which we didn't have any time for! Even if we did, those drinks could have kept us for 2 days! After that, we just had to wait for the boarding time, which was a little bit delayed. Eventually, we took off around 4:20pm! I'm so thankful the trip with my dad went smoothly and that we were always safe! We didn't have almost any troubles, which made the trip much easier than I could ever imagine! After having to hear my dad getting frustrated at mindless drivers, covering more than 5,000 km, watching my dad experiencing America, I was kind off happy to go home. Next time I will go, I will probably not go as a student but go as a tourist with a tourist visa. The feeling of leaving the USA was relieving because I would finally hug my mom after all this time, but it was also sad. On that moment, it felt like something was taken away from me, a part of my personality, another life,... But I know God will replace it with something else. Even though, this is a one-life time experience, it's something nobody will ever take away from me. It's a part of me, and it was the beginning of a different way of thriving. You'll hear from me soon :) Hasta Pronto! xoxo Suzanna Monard Ps: I still have a lot of pictures to post! I will post them by the end of July.
0 Comments
I can't believe the day that I had to tell my host family and friends goodbye came so fast. May, 29th, was the day I got to spend my last morning in Madison, a day I will never forget.
|
Author
|