Away From the Fishbowl

If you've happened to be following our blogs (or facebook) for the past week or so, you know that our family has just enjoyed a wonderful, 8-day vacation to our nation's east coast. Amy has already written very well about what we've done -- I'd love for you to check out her description of what we did day by day here , here , here , here , here , here , and here.  She does a nice job summarizing the highlights of each day -- lots of museums, monuments, restaurants, and just an all around good time together as a family. Hailey, in Philly, 2014 Hailey, getting her first glimpse of NYC. The idea for this trip began in the mind of our oldest daughter about three years ago. In 2014, I led a team from Sunnyslope Church to work alongside of a sister church in northeast Philadelphia -- this was the third year in a ministry partnership in which we served, worked, and build relationships between our two churches. That year, Hailey, who was only 8 at the time, was a

Yesterday was a long "planes, trains, and automobiles" travel day.  Thankfully we started in a fun way by going to the Kellog's NYC restaurant .  We stumbled upon this place on Sunday as we were touring Time Square and put it on the schedule for our last day. You walk into the little cafe and are greeted by an employee who hands you a "cereal menu."  You place your order and get a pager.  The pager goes off with a number.  You open up a cabinet with the corresponding number and pick up your food.  You never see any kind of waiter or kitchen staff.  Our joke was Snap, Crackle, and Pop themselves were working in the kitchen. There are hundreds of options for making the best cereal combination including some suggested combinations.  Little did I know my children basically ordered "dessert cereals" with cocoa Krispies, cookie dough, whip cream, chocolate syrup, and more.  My youngest ordered the "smores combination" which was Frosted Flake

Today marks our final full day in New York City and our last museum trip.  We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (aka The MET).  We spent the majority of the time viewing European art from the 1400 - 1800's, modern contemporary art, and some Asian pieces. The kids recognized some well known artists like Rembrandt, Matisse, Seaurat, and Picasso from art class at school. I think we enjoyed the modern and contemporary art the most.  We tried very hard to decipher what it meant or what feelings the pieces brought about versus saying it looks easy to make. I appreciated seeing some of this old Dutch pottery from the Netherlands.  It reminds me of something I might have found in my grandma's house back in the day We all recognized the Van Gogh paintings.  This one was a particular favorite. Mattisse became my favorite artist in fifth grade when we studied his work.  I had to make a picture of flowers for an art show in his style.  I loved the variety of Mattis

 Our main activity for the day was visiting was the New York Natural History Museum.  We purchased "city passes" ahead of time which most large cities offer for tourists.  You get multiple  tickets to various sites and sometimes some extra perks (such as not waiting in a long line to get in).  I was grateful our city passes allowed us to visit this museum because we could not squeeze into our schedule the Natural History Museum in Washington DC. We started off our morning with a quick breakfast at Mc Donalds.  We have really tried to stick to a tighter budget when it comes to meals because honestly you could spend hundreds of dollars a day on food alone.  I am thankful for the health and wellness program (called Zults) I was on last April that  helped me drop my addiction  strong cravings for soda after numerous attempts in the past.  We have found every single restaurant and museum have complimentary water and there are water fountains everywhere. The Natural Hi

We probably walked 4-5 miles today and I wish I could invest in a foot massage...probably could not afford it anyway because everything in NYC is expensive.  Not to mention fast moving and crowded.  We ate breakfast at a bagel stand in one of the subway stations and we experienced our first jam packed subway ride full of people on their way to work in Manhattan. We were en route to the ferry taking us to Liberty Island and Ellis Island.  We went from extreme heat in Washington DC to cooler temperatures and pouring blustery rain in NYC.  We figured we are Oregonians so we packed zero umbrellas, raincoats, or even jackets. Big mistake. It was only a spitting rain when we approached the ferry.  Then it turned into a windy cold blast of rain coming off the frigid waters. We got a nice view of Lady Liberty herself coming onto the ferry.  After braving the rain and getting very soaked, we ran to this gift shop to figure out what to do.We were one of the few families not wearing jacke