Great Smoky Mountian National Park

The Lookout in Great Smoky Mountian National Park is amazing! It was .5 mile hike on a blacktop surface, but it was all uphill. we gained over 300 feet in that half mile! We could really feel it in our legs! But it was so worth it!

another view of the tower

us at the top. This is the highest point in the park.

Just a little further up the road we came to the state line.

It was a fun day. Tonight we are in Pigeon Forge Tn. Tomorrow we plan on taking a short hike (about 2 miles ) to a water fall in the park and then heading west again. Tomorrow night we plan on being in Huntsville Alabama, then on to home Thursday.

Pa to NC

Sunday Morning we left Wilimington Delaware and headed south on Highway 1 along the coast. Our first stop was Dewey Beach, Delaware. Because of the danger of riptides people were not allowed to get into the water so it was not to crowded. We walked along the beach and enjoyed the waves splashing our feet and legs.

Then we continued on to Ocean City, Maryland. Ocean City was bussier and more touristy than Dewey Beach. The tide was out so people were allowed in the water and we watched several surfers. The waves came in pretty big because of Hurricane Bill that had just passed.

Then we continued on and came to the Chesapeake Bridge and tunnels. It is considered the 7th engineering wonder of the world. This photo was taken ot the end of the second tunnel where they have built a fishing dock off the bridge.

We Spent the night in Virginia beach and this morning (Monday) we continued on. Our first stop was First Landing State Park. It was beautiful and very nice facilities. It would be a great place to come back and camp!

They had a walkway over the sand dunes to the beach It reminded us of Destin, Floridia. Since we were here pretty early there were not many people on the beach yet.

This park is on the Chesapeake Bay so the waves were not very big, but we saw lots of horshoe crabs and many small shells.



Our next stop was the Cape Henry Lighthouse. It was built in 1791 by the order of President Washington! Pretty cool. We did go to the top. It had a great view of the Fort Story Military base; and where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Chesapeake Bay.

Then we drove to Virginia Beach beach area. This photo is of the boardwalk along the ocean. It is very clean and well maintained.

The beach was pretty busy. It was hard to get pictures without a lot of people in them. We walked several blocks down the board walk then walked back along the edge of the water.

We ate lunch along the area where all the shops and hotels are and then headed west.

It made for a late evening, we didn 't get to our hotel till 10pm. But the beach time was so worth it!

Tomorrow we will visit Great Smoky Mountian National Park.

Philadelphia

This is a view of Independence Hall as seen from the Liberty Bell

The Liberty Bell

Independence Hall

We left Pittsburgh before 8 this morning and made it to Philadelphia soon after 2. We went to the visiters Center and picked up our tickets for the tour of Independence Hall. It is free but you can reserve tickets ahead of time for a small fee. We had time before our tour to eat a late lunch.

The tour was very well done. It was amazing going into a building that George Washington once walked in! After the tour we went to see the Liberty Bell. Visiting here is a great reminder of how blessed we are to live in the USA. We the drove around the city a little and walked along the river before heading out. We had not been back in the car more that five minutes when it started to pour! (the rain bands from Hurricane Bill)

We are now in Wilmington Delaware for the night. Tomorrow we will drive part of the coast south.

A trip to New York

Our trip to New York was great! We left Friday morning and drove to the town of Dunkirk right on lake Erie. We stopped at the lake and went to the lighthouse. Brent wanted to see the Marcellis formation along the lake. It was beautiful and we enjoyed our short time there. We then drove to Batavia where we found a hotel for the night. After we checked in and ate we drove to Niagra Falls to see them at night. We found out there would be fireworks so that was an added bonus.

On Saturday morning we got up and drove to the Finger Lakes. We followed highway 89 south along Cayuga Lake. We stopped at a winery and got a tour and did a little wine tasing. It was espically neat beacuse this winery was a family run winery and our tour was given by the owner.
It was very interesting.

We then headed to the south tip of Senica Lake to a State Park "Watkins Glen" all of the photos on this post are from there. This has to be in the top ten of parks we have ever visited and we only had a few hours to spend!
We arrived at the park late in the afternoon and the park closed a dusk. So we started on the gourge trail. Breathtaking is not a big enough word to describe it!

The above photo was taken at the beginning of the trail. The trail had 19 waterfalls and at each bend we would think it couldn't possibily be as beautiful as what we had seen. IT WAS!

At one point on the trail I just had to stop and Praise God! It was just so overwhelming!

The trail was a pretty easy trail with steps to help with the elevation climb. They did a wonderful job keeping the trail natural lookng and safe.

Since the park closed at dusk we could only do part of one trail we made it to the 1 mile point on this 1 1/2 mile trail before we turned back. We would love to return some day and camp there. !

On Sunday we got up and drove to another waterfall that could be seen from the road then headed to Syarcuse. There we visited the Erie Canal Museum. We wondered why it was not on the canal and were told that it had been. The road "Erie" used to be part of the canal. They made it into a street when the canal was no longer used! It was very interesting.

Then started the long drive back to Pittsburgh. We got on the road by noon, but because of road consstruction we didn't make it back to our apartment till 11pm. Long day, but the trip was so worth it.

Train Ride at Cass Railroad State Park

Cass Railroad State Park in Cass West Virginia. The whole city is now part of the park.

The engines are all restored Shey enginesand were actually used in the lumber camps. The railroad was built in 1901 and they used it to haul lumber from the mountians to the lumber mill

Lookout on Bald Knob the third highest peak in WVa. It was an 11 mile train ride to get here. This was the end point. From here we rode the train back to the town of Cass. At this point we were only 4 miles away from the town of Cass(at lest if we could fly)

The passenger cars were the old logging flat cars that have been made into passenger cars.

It was a fun day. I had ridden a train here when I was a little girl. The park was pretty new then. They have expanded and there are three different destinations for the train rides.