Family Tour 2014 (East Coast Nieces)

Jim and I just returned from a trip to Washington, D.C. En route, we visited three of our lovely nieces: Annie, Amalia, and Becca.

We met Annie at her office with Highlights, in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. We were greeted by this young charmer and his bird:

We met the famous Gigantosaurus:

Annie is the one with smaller teeth.

One of Annie's responsibilities is to make selections from the poems and drawings that children send in:

Wow!

We enjoyed dinner at Fiesta, in downtown Honesdale (I ate too much). We also enjoyed Annie's reading of Oh No, George! We recommend the book, but I'm not sure it would be the same without Annie's version of a British accent.

Oh, I almost forgot. Since we all appreciate school-boy humor, here is another view of that young charmer:

We stayed the night in the Hotel Wayne. It is old, and not particularly fancy, but our room was comfy and the Wi-Fi service was great. And if you're visiting Annie, it is super convenient!

From Honesdale, we drove to Philadelphia, to visit Amalia. Traveling through Pennsylvania is a treat: the landscape is simply beautiful. Here are two photos taken as we drove down Moosic Mountain:

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Amalia found a wonderful restaurant where we could eat at outdoor tables, watch passersby, and admire the neighborhood. This classic church was just across the street. Amalia said that there were some five different denominations that shared the building:

As you can see, it was a gorgeous day, and we spent a long time sitting and talking and eating. Our meal was delicious (I ate too much).

I am NOT as short as this makes me look.

From here, we drove to Baltimore. Traffic was as expected (I longed for Honesdale), but we did okay. We took Becca's advice and visited the National Aquarium, which was simply amazing. (If you go to that website, there is a very cool shark cam...) We looked at pretty much everything (we stayed too long, of course), and really enjoyed the Blacktip Reef exhibit and the Animal Planet Australia exhibit.

I'll bore you with just one photo (mainly because our camera battery died shortly after this!):

Rainbow Lorikeet

We went to Becca's afterwards (Chris was away at an artist's retreat), and met Ruffus. Ruffus adored Jim, but was very wary of me (who would imagine that I would seem threatening to such a large dog?!?). We had dinner at the Shoo-fly Diner - delicious! (I ate too much.) We had a seat at the back, and just talked and ate for the longest time.

Robin and Becca