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Week 4
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| Overview |
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 |
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- Day 22 (August 18, 2001) - Today we got started at about 10:30 and headed first for a town called Fall River, Massachusetts
where Ikuko lived and worked for about a year and a half, 8 years ago. The company recently closed its office in Fall River but we
managed to find it. It brought back lots of memories for Ikuko. We also visited the apartment complex where she used to live and the
shopping center where she used to shop. She was very happy to find that a Chinese Restaurant at which she used to eat frequently was
still in business and still making what she claims is the best hot and sour soup anywhere. After Fall River we headed South to our
21st state; Rhode Island. Our destination in Rhode Island was the beautiful little town of Newport which is most famous for its lavish mansions. First we ate lunch (something Ikuko made
the night before) at a park along the waterfront. Then, we went on a tour of "The Breakers," the most famous of the Newport
mansions built by the Vanderbilt family. The sheer extravagance of it was mind numbing. After the tour we continued South through
Connecticut and then hit New York that night where we will be staying with a friend of Ikuko's who is now living in Queens. Tomorrow
it is off to see the Statue of Liberty.
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- Day 23 (August 19, 2001) - Boy did we sleep in today. We didn't even get out of the house until about 2 in the
afternoon. We decided to put off the Statue of Liberty until tomorrow since we also wanted to go to the Metropolitan
Museum of Art which is closed on Monday's. By the time we got to the Met though, we only had a couple of hours before
they closed at 5:15. There was no way to see all the exhibits in the few hours we had but what we did see was fantastic.
I particularly enjoyed the musical instrument exhibit and Ikuko liked the European paintings exhibit. There were quite a
few paintings by Monet which she liked. After the Met we headed down to Rockefeller Plaza. There were tons of teen girls
camping out near NBC studios. Apparently N'Sync will be the featured performer on the Today Show tomorrow morning...whooppee!
Next we grabbed some sushi for dinner and then headed over to check out the hustle and bustle of Times Square before heading home.
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- Day 24 (August 20, 2001) - Today we got an early start. We loaded up the car and drove back into Manhattan (Ikuko's friend Maiko
lives across the East River in Queens.) We drove down Broadway passing the Late Night with David Letterman Studios and headed for Battery
Park. There we hopped a ferry over to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty. Apparently, because of the heat and the crowds they
were only allowing the first boatload of people in the morning to actually climb up to the crown (I'm just glad they gave me a convenient
excuse for not having to climb all those stairs just to look down from the top...) Next we took the ferry back to
Manhattan and headed back uptown to Korea Town where we grabbed lunch. After that we took the Lincoln Tunnel over to New Jersey
and headed south towards Philadelphia. We stopped and checked into a motel just outside of Philly near Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
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- Day 25 (August 21, 2001) - Today was a busy day. We left at about 8:30 and headed for the Independence
National Historical Park in downtown Philadelphia. There was a lot to see but it was all concentrated in a small area
so we managed to knock it all out in a couple of hours. We first went to Independence Hall where the delegates from the
original 13 colonies declared independence from Great Britain 225 years ago and signed the Declaration of Independence.
From there, we crossed over to where the Liberty Bell is on display and then on to the Jacob Graff home where Thomas
Jefferson was renting a room while in Philadelphia and where he drafted the Declaration of Indpendence. Next it was on
to the Christ Church and the cemetary where Benjamin Franklin is buried and finally on to Franklin Court where the
Franklin home once stood (his descendants rather unsentimentally had the home destroyed to build an apartment after
his death) and where there now stands a museum celebrating his accomplishments. Next it was on to Washington D.C.
(passing through Deleware and Maryland) which is about 2 hours South of Philadelphia. There we visited the Supreme
Court, the Library of Congress and the Capitol Building. By then it was getting late and the exhibits were closing so
we hopped in the car and drove through the capital over to Georgetown University where we found a nice little Thai
restaurant to have dinner. We then headed over in to Virginia where we will stay the night before heading back into
D.C. tomorrow morning to see a few more things before continuing south.
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- Day 26 (August 22, 2001) - Well, apparently if you want to take a tour of the White House you have to get up at a ridiculous
hour and line up for tickets. We were told that people start lining up at 1am and if you aren't in line before about 6am you don't even stand a chance.
Jeez, it's just a house, and you don't even have to be literate to live there! Anyway, we had to settle for a quick
photo several hundred yards in front of the White House peering through an iron fence. I've toured it before but I felt bad that Ikuko didn't get the
chance to see it. After walking around the outside of the White House, we headed for the Lincoln Memorial. The coolest thing though was watching the
ducks flying in and landing in the Reflecting Pool. They came in waves. Apparently there was a duck meeting or something scheduled for that
particular day. After the Lincoln Memorial we made our way along the reflecting pool to the Washington Memorial. We then headed back into Virginia
to see Mt. Vernon; the home that George Washington lived in for most of his later years.
It was a beautiful mansion full of lots of interesting artifacts. After Mt. Vernon we continued South through Richmond and toward
Williamsburg, an old colonial style town in Southeastern Virginia.
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- Day 27 (August 23, 2001) - Today was a very cool day. We visited Colonial Williamsburg. Williamsburg used to be the capital of Virginia
and has now been transformed into a recreation of how it once was back in the year 1774. The town is full of people dressed in period dress and
engaged in activities of the period. It was a fascinating experience. We visited a shoemaker, a saddlemaker,
a blacksmith, a dressmaker, a printing company, etc. We also witnessed a recreation of a criminal trial as it would have been held 225 years ago
and we were treated to a public address and a question and answer session by someone doing a very convincing impersonation of Thomas Jefferson. I even got the opportunity to ask a question myself. After Williamsburg we hit the road again and made our way toward Virginia Beach. Once there we crossed over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge (a recommendation from my stepfather, Carl) and then recrossed the bridge to continue south into North Carolina. We stopped for the night in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. More on why we stopped here tomorrow...
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- Day 28 (August 24, 2001) - We got up and headed about a mile down the road to the Wright Brothers Memorial. Yes, contrary
to what we all learned in school, the Wright brothers made their historic flight in Kill Devil Hills, not Kitty Hawk (the next town
over.) Apparently, Kitty Hawk had a better ring to it or something. Anyway, we visited the spot where the Wright brothers flew their
planes. All the appropriate spots (takeoffs and landings) were marked with stone markers. There was a small museum with a replica of
the Wright flyer and up on top of a nearby hill was a memorial to the Wright brothers. All very cool. After that, we headed down the
Outer Banks taking several ferries and driving down some very narrow strips of land heading
for South Caroline. In the evening we crossed over the border into South Carolina and called it a night in Myrtle Beach. Apparently
Ikuko has had enough of museums and boring historical sites and tomorrow we will be spending the day at the beach. Now, where did I
put my sunscreen...
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| Overview |
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 |
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