Showing posts with label challenge checklist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label challenge checklist. Show all posts

Friday, July 17, 2020

{All In a Day} To Ohio and Back

It has been on my agenda for quite some time to visit our final presidential grave, the William Henry Harrison Tomb outside of Cincinnati, Ohio. More than once, we've cut it from previous road trips due to time, as it has usually been on the final day's agenda, and we are almost always pushing it by rolling in late at night with Hubby planning to be at work early the next morning.

So, I'd planned to incorporate it into a short weekend trip back in the fall, but couldn't really find a weekend that worked. Then, I loosely had it as a possible option for a little road trip over spring break, and well, we all know why that plan didn't materialize! Besides the fact that, other than a couple of quick trips to the beach visiting with family, we've been staying home, well, this grave happens to be inside a tomb that has to be unlocked each day, and it's been closed since mid-March!

Oh my word...hindsight is 20/20, right???

 With nowhere to go and no family adventure planning to keep me occupied (we are typically in full on "road trip" mode in July), I've been stalking, I mean checking, the website (more) frequently (than I should be) looking for it to open back up, and finally it did!

So, being that I have no interest in staying in a hotel right now, I figured we would pack some food and make a day trip of it...because it's normal to travel from South Carolina to Ohio and back in a single day, right???

Ahhh, my family knows me better than that.  Normal or not, it's doable in my brain, and we shouldn't catch anything from a dead president or any of his dead family members!

We got a bit of a jump on the road trip yesterday spending the night with my mother, an hour closer to our destination.

Being it a Friday, Hubby was at work, so my mother accompanied me on the trek - I get it honest, I suppose!

We headed out super early (like SUPER early), and things were going along just fine until we hit a little backed up traffic near the Tennessee/Kentucky line due to an accident. This put us behind about 30 minutes, but we were still making good time until...

Leave it to my GPS to toss me some sort of unplanned adventure...

Remember the "stuck in the 'closed for the season' state forest" incident??? Bless...

We planned our first stop as the William Henry Harrison Tomb, the main reason for this trip in the first place, and knew that we needed to cross the Ohio River to get from Kentucky to Ohio. I kind of figured we'd cross via one of those big bridges in Cincinnati, but no... That's not near adventurous for us, right???

My GPS evidently decided that we needed a little unexpected fun (actually it must've just been the closest route), but imagine our confusion as we turned onto what I thought was Anderson Ferry Road...


until...


So, it went a little something like this...

"Wow, we're heading right down to the river!"

"Hey, kids...  Help me look for the left onto Anderson Ferry Road, please."

"There it is! Wow, there's a company called Anderson Ferry there on the corner."

"Oh cool... They must offer a ferry service."

"Ohhhhh, looks like we are now TAKING the ferry service! Okay, then!"

Well, check that one off...  Kids' first car ferry (amidst a pandemic), floating across the Ohio River!


So, after that excitement, we were finally in Ohio...

The small community of North Bend is only about 10 minutes down the road...


We arrived at the tomb and checked off B's final dead president...






39/39

From there we checked off two more "plaque stops" visiting the former site of President William Henry Harrison's home, also the birthplace of his grandson, President Benjamin Harrison...




as well as the former site of Benjamin Harrison's boyhood home...



We'd heard that North Bend may soon be getting the William Henry Harrison statue that currently stands in Cincinnati, so figured we'd so see it while it's still standing...


President Garfield was there, too!


From there, we made a stop at the Cincinnati Bengals' stadium...




as B is checking off NFL stadiums these days, too!

We'd packed a picnic lunch in order to cut down on necessary stops and decided to stop in the quaint village of Mariemont to eat...


I'd read about it and have wanted to visit for awhile.

We picnicked (in our car) on the town square and grabbed ice cream for dessert...





before beginning the trek back home...

This is one place I'd like to visit again someday...when the pandemic is over...

We stopped to pick up dinner at Petro's in Knoxville, a favorite spot L and I discovered on her Ten Trip back in September...


and made it home before the clock struck midnight...

What a day!

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

{CA, HI & MEXICO} Day Six - In and Around Honolulu, O'ahu, HI Day 1

Port of Call: Honolulu, O'ahu, Hawai'i

Island: O'ahu
Nickname: The Gathering Place
Official Color: Yellow
Official Flower: Yellow Ilima

Today we made landfall in Hawai'i - both our nation's and our family's 50th state!

We approached the port with much anticipation...



for several reasons...




Not only had we reached our 50th state (and the first land we'd seen in 4 days), but we were excited to reunite with Hubby, as well...



Because he couldn't be gone the entire length of our trip (2 1/2 weeks) and due to some old maritime law (The Jones Act - something about people not being allowed to board ships that are registered to another country while docked in an American port(?)...I am really not sure...It wasn't a problem in Europe, though - see "Exhibit C" below), he could neither board in Honolulu and sail home with us nor sail the front end of our cruise and leave early from Hilo, so he flew to Honolulu and is island hopping via plane and meeting up with us at each port...

Yes, it is a bit of a pain, but it is getting the job done, and it just isn't a true adventure in our family unless Hubby has some crazy way of meeting up with us late or leaving us early along the way!

Regardless...  We are sooo happy to have everyone here, in Hawai'i, and not to mention, B was happy to see a plethora of Hawai'i license plates (one of the hardest plates to find back home, obviously)!


We met our driver and set out to explore the capital city...

First stop, the King Kamehameha statue in front of the Hawai'i Supreme Court building...


From there, we cruised by the Honolulu City Lights, a downtown Christmas display...




before stopping at the Hawai'i State Capitol, so that B could run up some steps, his 48th set of state capitol building steps!


This building is one of the most unique state capitol buildings we've ever seen...



From there, we made a stop a the breathtaking Nu'uanu Pali Lookout...



It is 12,000 feet above sea level and has sweeping views of both the mountains and the ocean...







After this stop, we continued on to our tour at Pearl Harbor...


 It was really something.

I've always known the December 7th date (one of my best friends growing up was born on Pearl Harbor Day), but learned more about the great tragedy and loss of life as I grew up. Only recently did I learn that the memorial is actually situated over the remains of the sunken U.S.S. Arizona...

This has been somewhere I've wanted to visit for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately for many, boat rides out to the actual memorial have been closed for years due to repairs, and I am so thankful that they started running again a few months before our trip.

All I can say is WOW...



To see the list of names...




the remains of the wreckage...




and to stand over the actual place where so many perished...




it really takes your breath away...


I'm so glad that we were able to go and truly have the complete experience...

Wow, just WOW...

From Pearl Harbor, we made a quick stop at Kapi'olani Hospital, the birthplace of President Barack Obama, our 44th Commander in Chief...


before stopping for a late lunch at the famous Duke's Waikiki...






where we were able to dip our feet in the Pacific Ocean while waiting for our meal!

 

I'm kind of glad that we never made it out to (and into) the ocean all of the times we've been on the west coast... 

It was kind of neat to experience the Pacific Ocean for the first time in Hawai'i!


After lunch, our sweet driver surprised us with special malasadas from Leonard's Bakery... 


After a busy morning and afternoon, we went back to the ship to get ready for our evening adventure...


where the kids, my mom and me met back up with Hubby...






for Germaine's Luau, a traditional evening of singing, dancing and celebration...






Because of a slight change in our itinerary due to the forecasted weather, we're looking forward to spending Christmas in Honolulu again tomorrow!

More {CA, HI & MEXICO} 2019 Fun