Pictures finally

Massive picture post before heading off to the craziness of Boston and the beginning of some fond farewells. Over 1,000 pictures to sort through. Here are some of the ones you haven't seen yet, but have probably read about elsewhere on the blog.

(The Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone - 5-story log cabin-style building)
(Jerry and Lisa dancing it up on the lobby floor)
(Sniffles of farewell to Jerry in Denver)(World's largest ketchup bottle in Collinsville, IL just out of St. Louis)(Us with Mr. Henry at his rabbit farm)
(Ted outside of Cozy Inn - birthplace of the corn dog aka "the cozy dog")
(Us in the Lincoln kitchen)
(In a German u-boat kitchen. There was clearly a photography theme going on here with us and kitchens)(At the end of our tour)(The U-Boat from the outside)
(Howie had issues with the accessibility of the content for some of the exhibits at the Museum of Science and Industry. Take this AIDS exhibit for example, there's a stack of "ACTUAL SCIENTIFIC STUDIES" )(Ted and Howie checking out their reflection in the Clouds Gate sculpture in Millenium Park, Chicago, IL)
(Hehe...silliness)
(Pucker up, Bryan)(Weirdos...)
(FIC-IL!)
(Howie's aunt's place in Cleveland. They had a beautiful house and garden.)
(What did the snail say while riding on the turtle's back? Wheee!!!!!)
(The World's Largest Crayon)
(Multicultural markers: So children "can more accurately color themselves")
(Attached to the Crayola museum was a museum about canals and trains. We decided to hitch a ride)
(Liberty Bell)
(Chilling with Ben Franklin at UPenn.)(Niagara Falls)
(on the border between the US and Canada)
(Ponchos are for wimps)
(17 days together and I think the guys were clearly ready to kill each other. Just letting out some steam.)(Yay circle pictures. No clue what Ted's doing.)
(Attempted prototyping for a new style of dance shoes)(Lincoln Center, NYC. Midsummer Night's Swing)(Museum of Natural History. Howie is doing one of his many dinosaur impressions)(Look who we ran into at the Met. Our first random meeting with a person we knew)

Good times in NY. Last leg tomorrow.

Days 17 to 21

Brief highlights:
- Crayola factory (easton, PA) - amazing marketing machine and corporate brainwashing for little kids and their parents. It was great
- Couple hours in Philly to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall
- Lisa had fantastic dinner with a friend from high school and the first separation from the boys in 17 days
- The boys went to Geno's to try a philly cheesesteak and were extremely underwhelmed and disappointed
- sweltering hot weather
- arrival in NYC
- slept until 12:30 pm
- met Howie's family who lives across the street
- rode the subways and bus
- Museum of Natural History (met up with Susie briefly)
- sprinted through The Met for half an hour before closing (saw Julie Yen working at the info desk)
- Ate in Chinatown and Flushing
- Ted slept over at Nate's house on Day 19.
- Had our first full separation for the first time in 20 days when Howie had lunch with his cousin, Lisa had lunch with a friend, and Ted worked in the NY Public Library.
- Watched Jurassic Park on Laser disc
- 3 of us fell asleep together on a full-size mattress
- 2 thunderstorms in 3 days

Days 12 to 16

Been delinquent on the blogging for the past few days.

Reporting in from Scranton, PA onroute to Philly. More incoherent than usual, seeing as it's 3 am.

Day 12. Northbrook, IL to Elk Grove Village, IL
Museum of Science and Industry. German U-boat. Hokey animatronics. Poor Daniel, I think he thought we were crazy. First home-cooked meal our whole trip (first Asian food too). Stayed at Blung's house. (Daniel and Bryan - Your parents are so nice...wow, thanks so much guys.)

Day 13. Elk Grove Village and downtown Chicago.
Woke up late. Mom cooked breakfast. Lunch at Joy Yee's in Chinatown. Figured out what Mickey and Daniel were raving about. Pretty good food, way too many choices, fresh fruit drinks, beautiful presentation. Dropped Bryan's HS friend off at the Art Institute and walked around Millenium Park. Really really awesome jellybean structure. (Pictures later at a more reasonable hour). Ted drove us through 2 hours of traffic. Chilled at Bryan's, did laundry (yay!) and watched "13 Conversations about One Thing" It was a pretty good movie, one of those discussion, thought-provoking indie films.

Day 14: Elk Grove to Chagrin Falls, OH
Woke up late, again. Said our farewells to Bryan (sad...) and headed out toward the Cleveland area, where Howie's aunt lives. Sat in 2 hours of noon-time downtown Chicago traffic (???). Drove through an enormous rainstorm and finally arrived around 8 pm.

Day 15: Chagrin Falls, OH to Grand Island, NY
Left late, again (it was really nice to get breakfast each of these "late" days...we just took longer to get on the road). Weather was clearing up for a day in Niagara Falls. Stopped for a couple hours to swim in Lake Erie. We swam in one of the Great Lakes! Neat! The boys didn't wnat to get in the water at first. Howie: Ahh!! Ahhh!! Cold! It's lakewater! Ted: I don't have clothes! I don't want to go in!! Lots of wrestling and splashing. The bottom of the lake is sandy! I was expecting it to be rocky.
Got in about 10-ish to a KOA campground on Grand Island (about 5 miles away from Niagara Falls). They had hot showers and they were showing Madagascar on a big screen. Ted remarked that it felt like a summer retreat, not a campground.

Day 16: Grand Island, NY to Scranton, PA
Got up early (8:30 am) to head to Niagara Falls. Got really soaking wet, not once, but twice. It was awesome. Everyone was prepared with our synthetic clothing today. The park gave everyone plastic ponchos, but we decided it was more fun to do things without it. Went on a boat ride around the Lower Gorge (Maid of the Mist). Then took a hike around the bottom of Bridal Veil Falls, definitely got drenched by the falls.
Walked over to Canada. View of the falls is far superior. Managed to get through and back, even though I forgot to bring my passport. Contingency plan if not: "Bye Lisa, have a nice life in Canada" (thanks, guys).
Drove a lot late at night and arrived here about 2 am. Howie's a trooper for driving the last 2 or 3 hours with Ted and I completely asleep.

Bedtime now. 3:30 am. Expecting to be in NYC tomorrow. =)

hi there we are blogging from cell phone at a campground 5 miles south of niagara falls. the campground was $38 but everything is expensive here. the picture is from buffalo, where we ate at the bar where buffalo wings were invented. anyway we are well again. chicago was awesome but more to come when we get internet .