This was a very nice trip on a beautiful fall day. There were quite a few people out and about as it was Columbus Day.

Our trip down to Rhode Island was interesting as the road signs on the way were quite a mess. In our attempt to turn off and stop at a visitor’s center, we found ourselves on the way to Worcester, MA (that is the wrong direction for those not in New England). After 30 minutes we found a closed building so we retraced our path and got back on track. That was about 45 minutes wasted there. . .

We arrived around noon at the main visitor center in Newport, RI. Many of the tours were already booked so we decided to take a short walk and figure it out on our own. We headed toward the Cliff Walk and took several pictures along the way. Downtown Newport is very pretty.

When we arrived at the Cliff Walk which is even more amazing. By the way the Cliff Walk was repaired by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1970′s. Along the walk you have the ocean on one side and some of the mansions on the other side.  The mansions are huge and the walk is very pleasant. The cool fall day made for perfect weather.

Two hours into our short walk we were just over two-thirds of the way down the path and pretty far from downtown. We found a place to exit and headed back toward downtown for a bite to eat. On our way toward downtown a lady asked us for some tips and directions. Her language led Deanna to correctly guess that she was from Canada. It must be her college training in speech or something.

Back in downtown Newport, we found a small grill with a wide range of food. Since we were so close to the ocean Deanna ordered a pulled pork sandwich and Brad order a blue cheese burger. I guess we weren’t in the mood for seafood….

Here is our list of places to go and things to do in New England. There are so many fun things to do and we want to accomplish as many as we can. So, this is the list setting our goals. If you think we are missing something important, please let us know! As we work through the list we will provide an update.

• Amherst-Winter Festival and the Eric Carle Museum
• Attend another Red Sox game
• Niagara Falls and Toronto
• Plymouth Plantation-No, we haven’t been yet!
• Skiing, Snowboarding and snowshoeing
• Camping-Vermont
• Hike the Appalachian Trail (of course only part of it)
• Fish for Striped Bass
• Kayak the Charles River
• Fourth of July in Boston
• Newport, Rhode Island in the summertime (we did this in the Fall)
• Cranberry bog
• Nova Scotia
• See the Nutcracker in Boston
• The Cape-Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard
• Eat at Blue Ginger
• Go to a Celtics or Bruins game or both if we can afford it
• New York City in Autumn; a Broadway show, a hot dog and the Empire State building (oh, and one more Pashmina)
• Concord-Minuteman trail, historic sites, museums
• Whale Watching
• Walden Pond
• De Cordova Museum (Pictures coming soon)
• Purgatory Chasm
• Walk the Freedom Trail
• Boston Commons/Quincy Market
• See a show – the Rockettes
• Arnold Arboretum
• Camping at Old Orchard Beach in Maine
• Sled down Jerico Hill!
• Six Flags Water Park in Springfield, MA
• Fire on the Water in Providence, RI
• Camping and Tanglewood in the Berkshires
• Camping in the White Mountains

Places we want to kayak:

• Assabet River
• Concord River
• Charles River
• Walden Pond

After a late night at the baseball game we woke up on Saturday morning. Our bus took us to the Hiroshima Memorial and the Arlington Cemetery. What an amazing sight! I am sad to say that our time there was limited. From there we went to the National Mall where we walked around taking loads of pictures! It is amazing to look at all of the buildings in the capital and think about all of the work that takes place there. Thank goodness we have people that work for the government in different capacities so that everything is taken care of. There is so much we take for granted. If you ever get the chance to visit D.C., you will thoroughly enjoy it. All of the buildings feature the most beautiful architectural detail. I got goose bumps just taking it all in. Some of the places we saw were the Lincoln Memorial, The Washington Monument, the IRS building, several museums, Capital Hill, the Jefferson Memorial, the Smithsonian Institute, the Naval, Korean, and WWII Memorials, and the White House. Again, our time was limited. We were not able to enter the Archive building to see the Declaration or Independence and the Bill of Rights due to the wait. For security purposes, only 400 people are allowed in at a time. With that in mind, you can get an idea of how many people visit it on a daily basis.

Brad and I LOVED the trip. We hope to go back and spend more time so we can take in everything. I would recommend that you allow no less than two full days to complete this tour! I think it is a must for every American. God bless America!

This past weekend, Brad and I went on another adventure. I must say that I TOTALLY LOVE TRAVELING! This trip included a bus tour to Baltimore and Washington, D.C. We loaded the bus at 7 a.m. on Friday. Our bus ride this time was on one of the charter buses with roomy seats, a bathroom, and movie showings on the way down. After a few bathroom and food stops, we arrived at the “Home of the Orioles” at around three that afternoon. Brad and I were able to head down to the harbor and take in the sites. We also experienced some authentic food from Spain. The harbor area was beautiful. It seemed like a boardwalk area with various shops and restaurants.

There was also several historic ships and fancy yachts. After taking in the sights, we headed back to the ballpark where we settled in our seats behind home plate. It was a really nice night to take in a game. The weather was very comfortable and there were blue skies above us. I have to admit that the game was not as exciting as I was hoping for. Well, at least not until the tenth inning. Yep, the Sox and the Orioles played 13 innings! The Sox got the job done by scoring two runs in that inning. We were hoping to see Manny hit his 500th home run that night (it was his birthday!), but just being there and seeing the Sox win was enough for us. That night offered us a good night’s sleep-we didn’t get settled into our hotel room until 2 a.m.

Tomorrow it is of to cruise around Washington DC.

A nice weekend in Old Orchard Beach – camping near the beach and enjoying some down time.

Sara and Alexia were the first ones up. I really think Alexia was the most excited about seeing Mickey. Shortly after that Brendan was up too. The three of them went down to be first in line for the Breakfast buffet at the hotel. I think they were.

Shortly after that Deanna and I headed down for breakfast. We took the second bus to the park and hauled all of our stuff in. When we made it to the park we had to go to guest services to pick up our tickets. Oh – I forgot to mention that the tickets were in Deanna’s bag
- the one we left behind. Well, luckily the place we purchsed the tickets could fax the info to Disney and arranged everything for us.

We made it into the park and went on several rides. Brendan was the one to drag us all to the fun rides. He even convinced Auntie Deanna to try a roller coaster. She had a blast and is now planning our trip a one of those Six Flags parks. They have the best roller coasters.

The next day was more of the same with some trips on Splash Mountain. This time even Sara rode it with Brendan.

Later that day we went to California Adventure and tried out the River Rafting ride. Brendan just barely reached the minimum height requirement, but we were sure glad he did. He and Deanna both rode it twice – Once with me and once with Sara.

When we were in the Bug’s Life area of the park we ran into our neighbors. Dave and Erin were there – it’s a small world after all (sorry – had to say it). We met them for the first time at our neighborhood potluck two weeks before.

Brendan and Deanna rode thier last ride and then Brendan finished up the day playing in the water. He was soaked, but he had fun!

We finished up the trip with some ice cream and headed back to the hotel to start the drive home.

The drive was pretty uneventful – Brendan, Alexia and I slept…Sara and Deanna talked….the whole way.

We finished up with some Japanese food and went home to go to sleep. It was a great trip and we were tired.

Once we woke up in the moring we raced Kohl’s and had a small shopping spree. Yes ALL of her clothes were in the bag we left behind. Luckily Kohl’s was there to save our marriage and I even helped pick out a couple nice outfits. It was the least I could do.

After we finished our shoping at Kohl’s Deanna and Sara left for the park to set up for the birthday bash. Lane and Cheryl took Brendan to soccer practice. I met them at the practice to watch him play. It was the very first day so they started off with some basic drills.

We left for the party and there were a few people there already. It was fun and Brendan had a pretty good time. He received several nice gifts and had fun playing with all of his friends

After the party we went home and loaded up for trip to Disneyland. Alexia and Brendan packed up the car and made sure we had all of our bags. We started down the road and watched Finding Nemo from the back of the van. Of course I started to get a little car sick, but could not turn my head from the screen. That show is addicting

We made it to the hotel and checked in. After we were settled we went across the parking lot to a great Italian restaurant.

Deanna and I took a day and headed down to Bisbee. This is an old mining town that has been turned into a small artist hangout. The old mine now has a tour through a small section of it. The tour is worth the trip as it is run by miners that used to actually work the mines there.

We took the tour and they had a lot of informational tidbits for us. There is over 2500 miles of mine just in Bisbee. That is huge! On the tour we were dressed up like miners and rode the little rail cars into the different zones of the mine. We saw the supervisor bicycle that ran on the tracks in the mine. That looked like a good workout. After the trip through the mine we had lunch and walked through the town.

The extreme road trip . . .This trip was long and it included Brad, Deanna, Lane, and Cheryl. It all started about 3 AM on the 20th. We stuffed the jeep full of bags and people and raced to Denver. We only slowed down on the way and never really stopped. But we made it in time for dinner and had a nice time with Freddy and Chris.

We left the next morning around 11 AM (yea, like always a little later than planned, but you will see a pattern in our trips like that). This leg of the journey we did not have a deadline to meet. So we cruised along and stopped for breaks every now and then. It started to snow so we changed our route a bit. We drove through the Black Hills and saw some very light snow. This was a twisty, scenic road that was pretty slow. Once we made it to Rapid, we had our normal stop at Arby’s (you may notice this is another regular item in our trips). We made it to Uncle Steve’s farm a little after 10 PM on the 21st. Not bad for just over 1500 miles.

We were hoping for some snow to play around in when we got there, but there was nothing. It was actually the same temperature outside as it was in Tucson on a couple of the days we were gone. Very nice weather for South Dakota, but we wanted snow. Luckily we were staying with Steve and Deb so there was never a dull moment.

Sammy was still at home when we were there while Aaron and Ashley arrived within the next couple of days. One of the days we went out on the four wheelers to goof around. This was Deanna’s first time on one and what do you know, as soon as she gets brave enough to drive she gets it stuck! Luckily Brad used his super powers (nobody was looking) to lift the four wheeler over his head and moved Deanna to safety.

One day Deanna got this great idea. She planned to scare Steve just as he was walking up the stairs. As we are writing this we realize that that is not the safest thing to do. What if she would have actually succeeded and he fell back down he stairs? Hmmm… Well, luckily she didn’t. Just as Steve reaches the top of the stairs Deanna jumps out and yells (really, she thinks she yelled) “BOO!” Steve just walks on by. He had no idea she was even there. He didn’t even hear a peep. The next time she tries to scare him she will probably need a 2×4 so she can smack him and then “yell” at the top of her lungs. At least that way he would at least see her.

Other days we just followed Steve around and watched him do a million farm related chores. There sure is a lot required to keep a farm running. We made some trips to the next door neighbors. Gary gave Brad a couple of deer antlers to make pens.

Christmas Eve was nice. We went to church in town and came home to clean up around the tree.

On Christmas day, Deanna got a new pair of panties from Santa. The Pfeifer household has a “tradition” of passing out silly little skimpy underwear and didn’t want Deanna to feel left out. We ate . . . and ate . . . and ate some GREAT cooking. Brad ate a whole ten pounds of cookies before and after dinner.

Grandma Agnes was there too. It was nice for Deanna to meet her and listen to her chuckle.

We actually left a day early since the weatherman said a storm was coming in. We never saw the storm, but it was better to be safe than sorry. On the way home we stopped in Denver, at Chris and Freddy’s again. The next day we stopped at Roy and Donna’s to hang out with the kids and check out Roy’s CNC Plasma cutting setup. He makes some really cool metal artwork. We went out to dinner later that night with most of the rest of the gang. Fern, Allen, Tiffany, Zach, Marcy, Steve and Roy all met us at the Outback Steakhouse. That night we stayed at Roy’s house.

We hit the road around 6 AM the next day and drove straight home. Not too fast and not too slow. We stopped and ate a time or two along the way. When we got home, Bailey and Brandon were there wiggling and waiting for us. They missed us as much as we missed them.