Day 2 - Fort Worth: Cars & Cattle

We had a great night's sleep. Honestly, we never would have known it was an airport. Our room was well-appointed, the airplane sounds minimal, and the lobby felt completely separate from the hustle and bustle of the airport.

We packed up our room and headed to the lobby restaurant for breakfast. It was a great meal! Scott and I shared croque madam and avocado toast... Yum! Tyler went for a bowl of frosted flakes and Sammy enjoyed the pancakes.

We collected our luggage and jumped a shuttle buss to the car rental lot.  We have a great vehicle - a Jeep Grand Wagoneer - so much space makes it very comfortable for the week and lots of leg room for the guys.

We are spending the first day in Fort Worth so its only around 30 mins to our first stop. The DFW Car and Toy Museum is a three level collection of Ron Sturgeon.  There were so many fun varieties of cars with sections for minicars, race cars, European, Asian, and celebrities.

We even found a section of "Cars That Shouldn't Exist" and the very first car was a 1985 Fiero which happens to be Scott's first car.  We had a good laugh.

Once we wrapped up, it was only a 10 min drive to the Historical Stockyards and our hotel for the night.  We were really excited that our room was available even before the early checkin time of 2:00pm. 

We decided to quick run over to the Stockyard Experience and learn more about the Long Horns that made this town famous.  

Then we walk around to explore.  First a raised walkway over the pens and then looked for a treat.  The area is full of stores and restaurants with so much to see and do. Sam grabbed a little cup of specialty ice cream and Tyler was thrilled to find Dr Pepper made with Cane Sugar.  

Today's temps hit 93* which is unseasonably warm for this time of year and definitely above Sammy's typical threshhold.  She had done great so far but we decided it was worth unloading our luggage and taking a short break in our room. I worked on some planning for tomorrow since we finished much of what I had planned already today. At 4:00 pm, we headed out to Exchange St to see the long horn parade.  

Since we didn't have lunch, we decided on an early dinner at Riscky's Steakhouse.  This place was opened in 1927 and has stayed in the Riscky family ever since, a whole four generations!  On our walk back we checked out a handmade leather shop with beautiful handcrafted bags and then the kids grabbed a shake from Shake Shack.  

We headed back to the hotel for a relaxing evening. Tyler and I worked on homework and then Sammy and I hit the pool to go swimming.  

Sammy got ready for bed. Tyler played some video game and Scott caught up on the news.  I decided to head outside and enjoy the last few moments of sunlight so I found a rocking chair on a porch and enjoyed people watching and reflecting on our day.  Once I had finished, I took a walk down the street, past the rodeo, and up Mule Alley.  There's so much going on and much to take in.

Today's Weather: Sunny: High of 93*; Low of 61*

Day 1 - Travel to Texas

Today was busy! Tyler had classes at GVSU, I was wrapping up an intensive class with LU and Scott had work this morning.  So rather than rushing to the airport to catch a 3:00 flight only to wait 4 hours for our connecting flight, we decided to rent a car and catch the second flight from Detroit. We left our house around 2:30 and enjoyed a more relaxed itinerary.

Dropped off the rental, checked in at the airport and found a pub to have dinner.  The waitress seemed super grumpy until we ordered our drinks and then she started dropping off trivia questions to the table for us.  We had a couple good laughs and enjoyed our meal.

Then we headed to our gate and waited for our 9:30 pm flight.

We landed in Dallas around 11:00 pm after a really smooth trip.  We grabbed our luggage and then took a bus to the Grand Hyatt.  We stayed on site at the airport because our flight arrived after the rental car offices had closed.  But we are all super tired so I'm grateful for a quick and convenient option!

Day 16 - Heading Home

I’m not sure I told the kids that we would not set an alarm but whoever woke up after seven should wake us all up. I woke up at 7:04. I don’t think they were very happy.

We grabbed Starbucks for breakfast and were around the road by eight. It was only 3 1/2 hour trip thanks to overnight charge from Kalahari so we pulled in just before noon.

Home sweet home!

Trip Stats:

• 16 days
• Appx 2000 miles - Tyler did all but 7 hrs (4 blocks)
• Cost to charge: under $225
• 6 different hotels 
• 10 states plus Canada
• 6 National parks, so many monuments, toured 2 federal buildings, visited 3 cemeteries 
• Daytime Weather - only 1 rain of rain, 72-82* hottest day in NYC, coldest in DC
• Transportation: car, subway, bus, boat/ferry, golf cart, escalators/elevators, horse carriage, Uber, rickshaw, hotel transfer
• Total Steps: 154,142 = 64.3 miles
• Avg steps per day 9,634
• Different Uber driver - 18
• Floors ascended in elevators - 306
• Flights ascended - 65

Day 15 - Water Slide Fun!

 Oh how glorious it felt to sleep in. The waterpark doesn’t start until 10 AM so we didn’t get up until after 9:30.

I had picked up some bagels yesterday from Panera so we just ate in our rooms and then got our Sutton to head out.

Coming to a waterpark in September on a weekday is the best thing ever. There was no one here for the bulk of the day , although it did get more crowded as folks started to check in for the weekend.

But for the time being, there are no lines throughout the space!!

I rented a cabana for the day to give us a place to rest and eat lunch. It also included a waitress. So we could just text our order and she would deal with pick up and delivery.

After we finished in the waterpark, we went back to our rooms and had steak and burgers delivered for supper.

We took it easy tonight and we’re all in bed before midnight.  Tomorrow we head home!

Day 14 - Heading Home

We have a big day ahead so we decided to set an alarm and try to be out the door by 9:00 am.  Everything went smoothly with check out and we were on the road shortly after 9:00 am.  Tyler took the first round driving and did a great job navigating us out of town.  On the drive we realized our route would be taking us past the National Memorial to Flight 93 that crash-landed near Shanksville, PA.  So we made a quick stop to round out our full 9/11 experience.

I was so glad we stopped.  The field is nothing like we had pictured.  The small museum was highly worthwhile and added to what we had learned at the 9/11 Museum in New York.  

Then we got back on the road heading for Sandusky, OH.  We have a room for the next two nights at Kalahari Resort, which is one of Sammy's favorite water parks.  We are looking forward to a relaxing stay with some fun in the water!

We checked in and got to our room at 6:45 pm, just in time for Tyler's 7 pm meeting.  Sam and I grabbed takeout from Outback and we ate together in the room after Ty's meeting and before his class began at 8:00 pm.  

It was a great trip today.  We are glad to be so close to home.

Day 13 - Washington DC

I had a Zoom meeting right at 9:00am so we ran to Starbucks for my breakfast and then the kids hit the lobby restaurant for a buffet.  We headed out as soon as I was finished for the Ford Theater, the location of the Lincoln Assassination.  Tickets included an audio tour of the theater, the museum below and the home across the street where Lincoln would succumb to his injuries the following morning.

The theater has some strange history during the years after the assassination and several more people died here during an accident where three floors collapsed.  However, the theater was restored to the original layout and now is a National Park location during the day and active theater in the evening.  Tours closed today at 11:00 am because of rehearsals.

After we finished, we grabbed pizza across from the FBI headquarters and then grabbed an Uber to take up to the Washington Monument.  We were lucky enough to get last minute tickets to go up in the monument.  This was an incredible stop and I highly recommend it.  If you miss the early release of tickets, 30 tickets each hour are released at 3:00pm the day prior. But you need to be on it, all the tickets included for the entire day were sold out by 3:01pm.

Next we headed over to Arlington Cemetery to tour the grounds.  We saw the Eternal Flame at the Kennedy family gravesite and spent a good amount of time at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  We stayed to catch the changing of the guard ceremony.  Did you know that the unknown Vietnam soldier’s tomb is empty today?  After the body was chosen for internment, improvements in DNA technology allowed them to identify the remains and the soldier was returned to his family home.  This got me.  

There was much to see on the tour.  Its a solemn way to spend the afternoon but very worthwhile.

Afterwards, we went back to the mall to see the monuments during the day.  We took a quick break by the reflecting pool and grabbed a treat from a food truck.

Then we visited the National Archives to see the Consititution and Declaration of Independence.  For a special event, they were also displaying all of the amendments as well as the treaty following WW2 and the original organizing documents of the First Congressional Congress.

 

While in line we realized a large group from Mid-Michigan were ahead of us on an honor flight.  It was very cool to see this stop from their perspective!

It had been a really big day, so we just decided to head back to our room and get take out.  Tyler has to work tonight so Sammy and I will welcome a quiet night snuggled up!

Tomorrow we will head north toward home and will stay at a waterpark in Ohio.  It should be a long drive but we are eager to get closer to home.