Going to NY

M and I are in NY for a couple of weeks. Chris is back home, leading a bachelor life (except he's got a very long "honey-do" list. I love going to NY mostly because of the drive there. Ok, the drive itself is no fun mostly 'cause we have to do with with a 3-year old who starts asking "are we there yet" 5 minutes into the trip and stops only to ask if he "can get out now".

Still, the trip's been a lot of fun ever since we've been taking I-81 instead of I-95. There are just so many things to see along the way and the traffic is non-existent (mostly). This time, just like the last time back in April, we stopped at the Frontier America. It is definitely one of my most favorite living history museums. The place is awesome! It's too bad that we only have about 2 hours to explore it every time we visit. You can easily spend a day there, if you wish (just pack some picnic lunch).

Last time we saw all the Old World farms, so this time we started with the New World homesteads. The first one, dating back to 1750's, was a shocker - just a small very rough log cabin with dirt floor and no conveniences of any kind. But 1840's and 1860's homesteads were lovely. We explored the houses, the gardens, watched cooking and quilting demonstrations, petted sheep, and M even tried a loom.

For our half-way stop we stayed at Hagerstown, MD once again. But this time we chose to stay at Homewood Suites and it was such an improvement over the last place we stayed at. We met up with my parents, went to dinner together, and then after putting M to sleep on a huge and very comfortable king-size bed went for a dip in the indoor pool and some lazing around in the hottub. I'm telling you, the best way to travel with little ones is to bring grandparents along!

The next day we went to Ft. Frederick. It's absolutely amazing how many awesome places are within just a few miles from Hagerstown! Plus every time we go to any of these places, something cool happens. Like that one time last fall when we went to Antietam Battlefield during their anniversary of the battle reenactments. Well, this time at Ft. Frederick we ran into a PBS crew filming a WWII movie. Dad spent most of our visit chatting up the extras, discussing the finer points of Soviet/Russian rifles and telling them stories about growing up in post-war Stalingrad.

In the mean time, the four of us - Mom, Chris, myself and M - went to check out the fort itself. And again, we were in luck. It just so happened that this weekend there was some kind of camp reenactment going on which made it look so much more interesting.

And did I mention that C&O Canal passes right by Ft. Frederick? Ok, so I didn't know about this canal until the day before our trip. But it sounded very interesting - a real canal with locks and all that. We didn't have much time left, so we only made it to the boat launch and the beginning of the Rail Trail. Mom, Chris and I walked while M drove the car (ok, so he was sitting in grandpa's laps, holding the wheel and pretending to be steering and the car was only going about 5mph, but to a 3-y.o. this kind of stuff is beyond exciting).

While walking to the canal we discovered what we thought were wild raspberries (see what I'm saying - lucky again). Turns out, those were wineberries (again, lucky us since wineberries aren't poisonous and are utterly delicious). So we ate some berries, sat by the canal and then it was time to get back on the road. Except, of course, that gradnpa got M a wooden saber from the gift store - a gift that M took to bed with him for the next 2 nights.

Now I really want to go to Hagerstown for a long weekend of biking along the canal, canoeing a bit and exploring the area some more.