Our dear friends, Edd & Paulette (a.k.a. Eddie & Poppy to the kids) came to visit us the last week of July. Jon & I became friends with E&P while living in Alabama from '96-'98. While there, they "adopted" us into their family and we've been great friends ever since! Last spring, we went down to visit them, and our kids met them for the first time - there was instant chemistry - it's like having a 3rd set of grandparents!
Edd & Paulette came to visit us one other time in 2001 and we spent our time locally, but this time, we decided it would be fun to go the Big City and the Capital City! They had never been to either, so it was very fun to be with them as they experienced them for the first time.
NYC
We rented a mini-van so we could all drive up together. We stayed in a hotel right near Times Square (not worth mentioning the name because it was not so great!). We got a 2-day double-decker bus pass and hopped off and on to see as many sights as possible. Our favorite thing was the night tour where we went across Manhattan bridge and had great views of the city from Brooklyn. On our second day, we went up to Central Park and toured the upper East Side - after seeing that part of NYC, Paulette said she could understand why people would actually want to live there!
We had pretty good weather, except for a couple of times when there was a light sprinkle. Fortunately, the bus provides you with rain ponchos!
It was a fun jam-packed 2 days and we were ready to come home and rest! We were happy that Edd & Paulette got to experience a lot of the New York must-do's!
DC
We came home and rested for a day and then headed to Washington DC (in hindsight, we realized we should have had 2-3 days of rest). This was the kids' first time to DC as well. We stayed in Arlington at a nice Hyatt that was in walking distance of the Metro. On our first day, we went to Arlington National Cemetary, one of the Smithsonian Museums (Natural History) and some of the Monuments. We did A LOT of walking!!!
the kids at the base of the Washington Monument
Our second day was spent at Mount Vernon. E&P's daughter Marty and 2 of her children, Gracie & Tanner met us there. It was fun for the kids to get together again as they had met last year on our Alabama trip. Mount Vernon truly does take an entire day to see - quite an impressive place!
At the end of the day, we went our separate ways. Edd & Paulette stayed in the DC area for a couple more days with Marty, Gracie & Tanner, and we headed home. We were pleasantly surprised at how interested Sophia & Anthony were in history and learning all about our country. We will definitely have to go back to DC some time for an extended period of time as we did not see even 1/4 of what there is to see there!
It was such a great visit with Edd & Paulette - we are so glad that we have stayed in touch all these years and have enjoyed watching our kids get to know them too.
Thanks for visiting us Eddie & Poppy! We miss you already!
