last group of pictures from all over

We went to the Apple store in NYC the day the iPhones came out. There was a long line of folks sitting in lawnchairs along the street to get their phones that evening at 6pm.

News crews were lining the street in front also. The top of the store is perfectly clear with an elevator in the middle (under the apple). You can walk down or take the elevator down into the actual store part.

Dylan had to ride the ferris wheel in the Toys R Us store just to see the store from the ride. Brad was making faces at me while I took pictures.

Dylan

making

a

house

of

cards

in

the

hotel

room.

The entrance to Harvard.

It says something about everyone who enter seeking knowledge. And of course Dylan said "I don't want to enter".

Dylan &

Brad

sitting

in

Green

Monster

Section 1 during the Fenway park tour.

Dylan 'thinking' as he is looking at the falls. Notice his fingers stroking his chin.

Nolan Ryan's ho nitter display in Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame. Special because Brad & I saw his last no hitter in Arlington, TX (b.d. - before Dylan).

Brad & Dylan showing their muscles after climbing the 194 steps to the top of the Bunker Hill monument in Boston and then back down again. This did not count the steps up the hill to GET to the monument in the first place. Michelle chickened out and stayed outside the monument in case first aid was needed. (sure.. that was the reason). The vendor at the bottom of the hill joked that he was selling water for $100 a bottle. :)

more pics from all around

Dylan and I flashing the peace sign before boarding an Air Force One.

:)

Brad & Michelle outside the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame!

Getting wet on the Maid of the Mist.

pictures of everything...

Dylan & Brad getting ready to go into Lake Tenkiller to finish their scuba training.

Getting in and out of the wetsuit was the toughest parts.

ballgame in Cincinnati - if you can see the scoreboard in the background - the Rangers are kicking the Reds hiney. :)

post NYC

Where to start. Dylan didn't like Manhattan. I have always loved it. Maybe because it is so big and busy and when I manage to go anywhere and do anything I feel a sense of accomplishment. :) After all of Dylan's complaining, Brad & I did realize we have always come in the November - December time frame where the weather is cold and the air is crisp, everyone is in the holiday spirit, the stores are all decorated.... The air is quite different when it is 99 degrees outside and it seems like all the tourists in the entire universe are walking the streets in Times Square. It was crowded and STIIIINKY! And not just us visitors - the streets and the subways stink too. And we had to go to 4 or 5 subways before anyone had a subway map. Ugh. It even wore some of the shine off my NYC memories :)

We arrived around 4pm, checked into a dinky hotel w/ a dinky elevator, and a dinky room. We had one double and a twin. There was barely room to walk on one side of the beds and no room on the other. I personally could not turn around in the bathroom unless I got into the shower. Dylan was NOT impressed right from the start. We left the room and walked down to Columbus Circle where we stopped at the Time Warner building to cool off. Dylan loved the Bose store and the Samsung store. (They display Samsung laptops in the store but won't sell them in the US but they say that Dell and HP laptops contain a lot of Samsung parts.) They had the largest LCD and Plasma TVs I have ever seen - quite fun. And Dylan had Bose demo their entertainments system for us (it ONLY runs around $5000 - of course, that doesn't include the TV).

We figured out enough of the subway to ride it near Times Square without a map and finally found the TKTS booth. (They moved it Mom - while they build a brand new booth there in the middle of Times Square.) We were able to get 3 tickets to SPAMALOT - the play based on Montey Python's Holy Grail movie. We got these 3 hours before the play starts and less than a block from Times Square and Dylan says... "What are we going to DO for THREE HOURS?" We managed to kill time at Planet Hollywood AND the largest toy store in the nation (Toys-R-Us in Times Square) and get to the play in time for Dylan to buy a button that says "I fart in your general direction." (A line from the movie and play.) The play was hilarious and we managed the trip from the theater area to our hotel just off Central Park West.

The second day we went to the Natural History museum. Brad & Dylan could easily spend a week in that place. It is pretty amazing and had a planetarium show about collisions in space between stars, galaxies, etc. An IMAX show about the latest dinosaur finds in the Gobi desert and in the badlands in the Southwest US (New Mexico or Arizona??? we have already forgotten) and a display about where the ideas for mythical creatures such as Unicorns and Big Foot and the like probably get started. Astronomy stuff, biology stuff, zoology stuff. Not really my kind of stuff ... until we got to the GEM HALL :). I thought of my sister Pam when I saw this HUGE star saphire. It was gorgeous. I bought a postcard of it but it doesn't do it justice because you can't tell how big it is and it doesn't show the color well. It is bigger than a golf ball but smaller than a baseball, I think. Not as colorful - more white but still beautiful. We finally got so exhausted we left. Not because we saw everything.

We took a break in our tiny room then headed back downtown on the subway to the TKTS booth. I convinced Dylan & Brad to go see CHICAGO :) We had fun watching it. For those of us who are older: Harry Hamlin and his wife (from dancing w/ the stars and Days of our Lives) were starring. The other actors were actually better in the play -- but it was great fun and the audience stayed to hear the orchestra play "All that Jazz" one more time after the play. Just to annoy Dylan I did "Jazz Hands" all the way back to the room on the subway and walk.

This morning we got up and out by 7:30 in order to get to Rockefeller to see the NBC tour. Finally we had come up with something that Dylan was excited about. He wanted to see the SNL studio. We found some T-shirts Dylan wanted (I think these are the first soveniers he has purchased aside from the minature bats we get at the baseball fields.) They are pretty funny and the tour was fun. Then we went to FAO Scwartz, the Apple Store (yes - we went to the apple store the same day that the IPhone is coming out. There were tons of 'true geeks' waiting in line in their lawn chairs with their mac laptops. They go on sale @ 6p.m. The news channels were on hand.) We walked back through Central Park trying to find Strawberry Fields. Dylan doesn't remember any of his previous trips to Central Park. Brad kept saying "We took you to play there. We went to a fountain over that way." No Memories. :(

Finally found strawberry fields and then left our tiny room and picked up our van at the La Guardia parking garage and headed to the Philadelphia area. We cannot believe that ANYONE would live in New Jersey and drive in that traffic. It would come to a complete stop off and on almost the whole way here. Dylan actually took a nap on the way here. Our room in the Philadelphia suburbs is about 3 x the size of our manhattan one. Location, location, location. Must be true. Miss you all. Please wish Janice & Gary a Happy Anniversary. Happy Birthday Andy (our card will be late but it will be postmarked from NYC).

The boys say I have written a BOOK! Love you all! -- Michelle

odd observation

Why do both the Harvard & Yale bookstores carry "... for Dummies" books?

post Boston

Whew! We are really wearing down. Boston was great fun. The last day we took a tour of Fenway park and the young lady that gave the tour was great. Fenway's and the Boston Red Sox new owners promise to continue to play in Fenway thru 2012 which will make Fenway a Historical Landmark and ensure that it will not be torn down. It is the 3rd smallest ballpark. In February they hold lotteries for individual game tickets (sets of 4) to sit on the Green Monster (the section names are actually Green Monster 1, Green Monster 2,...) or some outfield tables with wait staff. We think it would be fun to enter the lottery for the next 10 years -- see if we can win someday.

We went to Bunker Hill also and Brad and Dylan walked the 294 steps to the top of the monument. I decided that it was not a necessary experience for me. We also stopped by MIT and Harvard. MIT has T-shirts in the book store stating that "Not everyone can go to MIT, that is why Harvard was invented." :) Harvard is a really neat area and the edge of campus has 2 story buildings around the edge (i think dorm rooms) making the interior campus very peaceful even though traffic and street performers are creating lots of noise outside. We traveled miles on the Boston subway and felt very safe.

BTW - There are Dunkin' Donuts stores EVERYWHERE we go. I am laughing about it because every time we turn around, there is another one! We also have seen several Ben & Jerry ice cream stores but since I am the only ice cream nut, we haven't made a special stop for it.

I am sure there is something else I am not telling - we can feel ourselves slowing down. Today we are going to see Plymouth rock & the Mayflower II then go to Connecticut. We may stop at Yale on the way, then take in a movie before heading into New York.

Missing you all.