Category: Roadtrips

First stop on Carter's road trip this year was the Adventure Aquarium in Camden, New Jersey. I've been there with Sean, but this was Carter's first time. She says that her favorite part was petting the stingrays in the touch tank - but a close second would be the shark tunnel.

I found these on the camera once we got back home. She must have been taking them in the backseat while we were on the road. I especially like the one of her giving *herself* bunny ears - I don't think she gets the idea of that joke. :)

Next stop on day five was Niagara Falls State Park. It was pretty impressive - the falls just seem too big to be real. Although hilariously, Carter's first comment on seeing the Falls was "I thought they would be bigger". I don't know what she was expecting, but I was pretty impressed. She was burning out and knew we still had a pretty long drive ahead of us that day, so I couldn't convince her to try the Maid of the Mist boat tour. I'll have to come back with Lori sometime and give it a try.

First stop on day five was the Buffalo Museum of Science. It was pretty cool, but some parts were being renovated and under construction, so we only got to see a subset of the museum. But the parts we *did* see were pretty awesome. They had both a tornado simulator and an earthquake simulator that Carter really enjoyed, plus some really cool hand's on exhibits about the human body.

As our final stop on day four we visited Erie Bluffs State Park right outside of Erie, Pennsylvania. I've never seen one of the great lakes, and it was pretty impressive. You can't see the other shore, so it must have been difficult for early explorers to determine whether this was a lake or an ocean (aside from taste, I suppose). The rocks along this part of the coast of Lake Erie are all wave-polished shale - or in other words, the *perfect* stones for skipping. They were flat, smooth, and palm-sized. We stood on the shore skipping rocks for quite a while - I just wish it had been less windy so the waves would have died down some. It was pretty tough to skip rocks with the swells.

Day four also included a visit to Cuyahoga National Park in Ohio. Carter and I took a hike there, which meandered through a gorge and crossed a little stream several times. This was when the weather started turning cold again, so we were feeling pretty averse to getting wet. Carter still ended up ankle deep in the stream at some point, and I had to stick the hotel's hair dryer in her shoes later that night to get them dry enough for the next day's adventures.

Day four started with a trip to the house where they filmed my favorite Christmas movie - "A Christmas Story", which was based on a set of short stories written by Jean Shepard. We got to explore the house and touch pretty much anything we wanted - I was expecting a bunch of velvet ropes. What was cool is that the house is just in the middle of a normal, Cleveland neighborhood.

Second stop on day three was the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. I've been spoiled by the amazing zoo in San Diego - but I've still got to say that this was a pretty good zoo. They had some really nice enclosures - the African exhibits were especially nice. They had the lions, zebras, ostriches, and giraffes all together in one giant enclosure, with the lions separated from the others by a very well-disguised dry moat that you could only see from certain angles. Carter got to feed a giraffe too - that was quite an experience! She said that he had a really weird, really slimy tongue.

First stop of day three was to visit an old friend of mine. He lives in Ohio now, and I don't think we've seen each other in person for almost twelve years. It was great to see him again! It's so weird - we both grown men with families now, but I suspect if our kids weren't around we'd slip right back into our ridiculous high school ways. Hopefully it won't be another twelve years before I see him again!

This was the view from the patio behind the hotel we stayed at in Pittsburgh - gorgeous!