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#robertstakeontheeastcoast days 8 & 9


I’m going to throw these last two days into one post because I didn’t take many pictures. And both days involved a lot of driving.

Sunday we woke up and my dad had made biscuits and gravy. So we all filled up and got ready to head to Pennslyvania.
But not without going on a trip to Ikea!! It is a must if you are near one!
brothers on orange couch
They loved the adventure.
boys riding in ikea cart
We were just planning on driving to Nazareth, PA to stay the night so we could get up and do the Martin Guitar factory and then go to the Hershey’s Chocolate factory. But as we were driving, I realized we were driving through Hershey. So we pulled off and went there first.
boy and hershey trolley
dad and kids at chocolate world
mom and kids at chocolate world
little boy outside hershey chocolate factory

The tour was a ride. It wasn’t the tour I was expecting/hoping for. I was hoping to see the actual process in the real factory. This was set up to be an entertaining ride that just describes the process. Still neat but not amazing.

singing cows at the tour ride
dad and toddler boy
We finally reached the hotel!!
3 boys on hotel bed

Since we only had one tour to do the next day (Monday), we decided to try to drive all day and night until we got home. I think our whole family was so ready to just get home at that point. So we packed everything up and headed to the Martin factory. Don was really excited about it and I was happy to go along because I knew how much it meant to him.

martin guitar factory
The Martin museum
martin guitar museum
stool
As we were browsing the gift shop (and Don bought a shirt), the worker asked Don if he wanted to play some of the high end guitars. So we went back to a special room with all the guitars set up. I think these guitars are worth around $5-6k. Don can correct me if I’m wrong. So Don played some of his music for us as we sang along.
don roberts playing guitar
don roberts from strumcoach with martin guitar
don roberts playing guitar for kids

The tour was about an hour long and very detailed. It’s amazing that it takes so many people and steps to make a guitar. While I’m not big on the subject matter, it was still an interesting tour.

martin guitar factory tour
little boy wearing headphones

Since the factory is so loud, everyone got a headset to hear our tour guide on his headset. Pretty convenient. And of course, we got stopped along the tour by an Asian woman who thought our kids were cute.

It was finally time to head home!! We left a little after 1pm (east coast time) and had a 14 hour drive ahead of us.
Lots of pretty views from the mountains
driving home
I wasn’t able to sleep so I stayed up all night and took over the driving around 3:30 (central time) to finish the drive.
We finally got home at 5am and were welcomed home by these signs!
welcome home
sign

We’ve never been more excited to be home!

Thank you Lovings for the signs, the poptarts, and for collecting our mail for us everyday!
And after only getting 3 hours of sleep, I do not regret driving all night. We got home sooner and without the crying and bathroom breaks that kids require.
We had such a fun, exhausting trip! We would love to visit the Outer Banks again some day.
But now, back to real life!
Blog, Family, kids, obx vacation, vacation

#robertstakeontheeastcoast day 7


Saturday morning.

I wake up and feel like I had just completed the hardest workout of my life. Walking so many miles the day before in a pair of flats left my feet and legs sore. As for the rest of my body? A week of sleeping in different beds can make you ache all over. I can’t wait to get home to our bed!!
We had planned on driving up to Union Station and taking a trolley tour around the city. There was a chance of rain and the day had a gloomy look to it. We decided against the trolley because we had already walked most of the places that it would take us. Plus, it can be a huge pain to take everything/everyone out of the stroller and collapse it one time. So the thought of doing that all day didn’t interest me.
So we just decided to take the Metro again. Oh fun–couldn’t wait. Where is that sarcasm font when I need it?
We rode into the city and got off the Metro at the Post Office. Since the Washington Monument  is closed because of an earthquake, this was the highest point in the city to ride up and look out.
washington dc
washington dc 2
One of the views from our 360 degree view of the city.
lookout point
After this, we headed for the Natural History Museum–one of the Smithsonians. I wasn’t too excited about this particular museum because when you leave it up to unbelievers, they are always going to turn a whole museum about nature into a gigantic evolution museum. Evolution was included in almost every display, including a big section devoted to evolution and cave men. “Stepping back in time millions of years ago with our very close relatives, the ape.” No thanks. I can’t understand how they look at things like sea life, sand dunes, the human body, and explain it with chance and millions of years. I look at it all and am amazed by God’s Creation!
There were a few neat things to see in the museum, as long as you didn’t read anything.
We found Nemo!
clown fish
And Dory!
dory
The lighting wasn’t great for pictures. So I barely got any pictures of the day.
2 boys in stroller
I’m telling you–I love the architecture!!
smithsonian architecture
natural history museum 2

The Hope Diamond, biggest diamond in the world. It is 45.52 carats and has been around for like “65,000,000 years.”

largest diamond in the world
My legs were killing me at this point, but we still had two more museums and the Capitol building to see. The Capitol was a mile away from where we were. We started walking and saw a little sculpture park and my dad and Eileen offered to take the boys there while we walked to the Capitol building. It was a looong walk. But we made it! Another beautiful building!
washington dc
married couple with baby
We started walking back to the rest of the group. I was feeling like I couldn’t walk much farther. We got all the way back to where we left them and they said we were headed back (in the direction we had just come from) to go to the Air and Space Museum. Another Smithsonian. We didn’t want to spend much time here because everyone was pretty exhausted and it looked like it was going to pour any second. We only had one umbrella and it just didn’t seem fun to walk a mile in the rain to get to the Metro. So we quickly walked through the main section of the museum. It was actually pretty neat looking. If I hadn’t have been so exhausted, I probably would have suggested staying longer.
dad and boy at air and space museum
dad and 2 boys
Bad lighting=blurry pictures
dad and toddler boy
We started to walk back towards the American History Museum. That’s the one I was most excited about. But since that was still quite a bit of a walk, and the rain was seriously about to just come down, I decided against it. I was very disappointed that I didn’t get to see it though. There was a national book festival going on that weekend on the mall and there were tons of people walking around with orange tote bags. So we stopped by to pick some up for us. Who doesn’t love free swag?
They had some PBS characters there for kids to get their pictures with them. I asked Liam which character he wanted a picture with. But I had no doubt in my mind who he would pick. Princess Presto from Super Why. We almost missed her before she went on break but the worker let us go in line!
He was so excited to meet her. I finally got a genuine smile from him.
He hugged her right away
super why
boy and princess presto from super why
Finally! It was time to head back to the Metro! And we made it just in time. By the time we came out of the tunnel, it was raining, and continued to rain all evening. Everyone was so tired at this point. Kai proved it on the ride back
young boy asleep
And so did Kingston
two boys sleeping in stroller
We got back and ordered some pizza and spent the rest of the night relaxing. It was much needed.
It they were in a hair race, Scarlett would have lapped Evangeline at least a dozen times. (This is Eileen’s daughter, Julie’s, baby)
cute baby friends

We got so much of DC covered in 2 days. That was all I could take! We went to bed early so we could get up and get ready for the next part of the trip!

Moving on to Pennslyvania!