The Final-Final Destination: Milford, PA

Day 35:

Sadly, yesterday was our last stop to the home base of Milford. We left Virginia first thing in the morning at around 10:00 am. We drove through multiple places such as Washington D.C. and I believe Baltimore. We also spent 3 hours of our trip to go to the Gettysburg National Park, where the biggest battle of the Civil War took place. We read up on all of the events on the significant 3-day battle and then we were on our way. Two hours later we ended up about 30 minutes from Milford, picking out familiar places and doing a little bit of shopping and restocking. The Wal-Mart there was apocalyptic, with almost all check-out machines out of order and the shelves were nearly wiped out. Sadly, the trip of 2010 has come to a conclusive end and I would just like to say how lucky we were to be doing this, especially in this time and age. I would just like to thank my parents for thinking of this, and multiple friends who inspired this blog and support it. This is Aidan and the Rubenstein family, signing off for good. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM & DAD!!! (8/27/10) 21 YEARS!!




******Day 6:******


We spent the last four days in Omaha because of this:

The weather was so nice and we were in such a remote town....ahh forget it!


The real reason is classified and no one will get to know it. It was a real and important event very close to us, and this will remain classified for as long as this blog lasts. There is the truth.

This blog is officially over.

Final Destination - Williamsburg, Virginia

Day 34:
Today we hit the long awaited and final stop of the trip: Colonial Williamsburg. The prices of the tickets and souvenirs were extremely overpriced, and the women at the front desk were incredibly rude, so we decided to just get shuttle bus tickets and see what there is to see before committing. There were a lot of very unique shops and very interesting characters and reenactments. The whole mile long area was intact from the 1700s. We went to a Church that George Washington would visit whenever he was in Williamsburg and his wife Martha is even buried on the grounds in the courtyard. It is the very church that inspired the separation of church and state rule. I managed to get a three-cornered hat, and a hand-carved maple fife both of which I promised my parents I would get great use from. There was a British marching band around 5:00 that played fifes and drums. The hardest part about that I would say is growing some hair and staying in formation as they march through multiple horse droppings the whole way! We ended the night with a brownie sundae and made a list of all the very funny quotes and experiences from the trip. We laughed all night. Sadly, the trip is starting to come to an end unfortunately. But fear not, there will be one last day of adventure (hopefully) and a deep reflection of the trip AND the surprise from day 6. Hang tight people!

The Wright Stuff

Day 33:
Today we left Cape Hatteras and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. On our drive north we stopped at the Wright Brothers Museum in Kitty Hawk, NC which is where the famous brothers flew their very first plane. They picked Kitty Hawk because of the wind conditions and the fact that it was a beach so that if they fell the sand would be a soft landing. We were a part of the first in flight, or first in Wright! We learned all about the mechanics of the first glider and airplane with hip-cradles and rudders and all that jazz. Once again, my sister received a junior park ranger patch (with help from me, of course.) There was a demonstration of the flight of the Wright brothers making history and we stood on the actual site of the first take off (which lasted only 12 minutes). We would have gone up to the obelisk, but it was too far, and we already saw a time-capsule of the first century of flight, to be opened in 2103. While we were driving, we encountered a strange alien saucer that looks like it's occupied by very alien-like owner. We drove to Williamsburg, VA, but missed the WELCOME sign as it's the smallest thing you could possibly see. We had very good Italian food at a restaurant called (I'm not kidding), "Sal's next to Victor's". After dinner we went mini-golfing and sadly, my dad won, then my mom, then a dead-tie between me & my sister. I wish I could have crushed her under my heel. Tomorrow we will visit the Historic Quarter of Williamsburg and stay for one more night and then make our way home.

No Joke Okracoke

Day 32:
Yesterday we visited one of the most pirated places back in its day: Okracoke Island in North Carolina. It was very attractive to pirates such as world renown Blackbeard, or Edward Teach. We took a 45-minute car ferry from Cape Hatteras, which was really fun! It made me remember the time I once drove a ferry like that with my mom's cousin, Jeffrey who is a boat captain. Once we got to Okracoke, the sun was blistering at a high 90 degrees, but the experience of being on a pirate-infested island was really cool! There were tons of ponies and a lot of info about Blackbeard. He suffered about 25 mortal wounds before being beheaded, and the actual battle was about 6 minutes. They were defeated by being outsmarted and outnumbered by the British. We got a neat book for me about the history of the island and famous pirate tales. Speaking of British, did you know we actually visited Great Britain, while also visiting the U.S.A today? It's true! During the second World War, a British naval force was destroyed by a German U-boat, and about only 4 of the bodies were recovered and identified, leaving many of the crew unidentified. A cemetery was built to honor the fallen soldiers and the cemetery is technically part of Britain and a British territory. We visited the site, so I guess we have bragging rights to say we were in another country this summer. We have about 2-3 more days left! Today we are driving to Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia and will spend at least a day there and leave the next morning and be home in time for dinner. Milford, ready or not, here we come!

The Inner Outer Banks

Day 31:
It's been a full month since we left on July 21st. Today we went to the Outer Banks in North Carolina, where we saw our first draw bridge and waited for the ship to pass through. Not too many of them in NY. We got a very cool villa of our own, where we did a little home cooking and took it easy after a day of beach swimming. The Atlantic Ocean was very rough today, and we were nearly killed by the waves but we had a blast swimming for hours. They rose nearly 11 feet high!! The water was really clean and you could see fish all around us. We are staying in the town of Hatteras which is at the very bottom of the Outer Banks. It is so narrow on the island that from the road you can see water on either side. There were little markets and stores and a marina, which had strange funny T-shirts and trinkets. Don't even ask what tomorrow is, we're so loosey goosey about it. Go J-E-T-S!!!

Trading South Carolina for North Carolina

Day 30:
Today my mom went to the famous Charleston Marketplace and saw all the neat stuff there. There were woven pottery made by the Gullah people (descendants of slaves) who still live there. We hit the road and went to Wilmington, NC. We had a nice lunch at a place called "The Eat Spot", but had to leave before the free riverside concert of Satisfaction, a Rolling Stones ripoff. We left Wilmington hoping to make it to the Outer Banks of North Carolina but found out that everyone else had the same idea. We spent almost 2 hours trying to find a hotel but there was no availability. My parents are not big on planning ahead and we found out that this is the last weekend for people in SC and NC before school starts on Monday (kinda like our Labor Day weekend) which is why every place was booked. We decided to stay in Washington, NC (established in 1775 and the first place in America named for George Washington) and leave for the Outer Banks tomorrow morning. We DID get a condo for tomorrow night in Cape Hatteras. We took the back roads to get to Washington and drove on a 2 lane road through Tobacco County and saw really poor mobile neighborhoods and also really nice homes and tons of Tobacco fields which look like big brown leaves. In Washington there was a nice Dairy Queen...that we couldn't find. It was the smallest joint that was in a strip mall next to a Piggly Wiggly, which would only take some good pair of eyes (mine) to find. As we ate our blizzards and ice cream, we received word a friend of ours has left PA to go to California to finish his last year of college today. We wanted to make a shout-out to you Ben: Good luck and we'll see you around Christmas (Boo Phillies!!) Class of 2011!!!!!

Chewin' on Charleston

Day 29:

We headed out of Hilton Head, but not without taking a look at one of the houses of our current neighbors who owns a beach house, so we took a drive to see it and it was pretty cool (invite us over Tracey!). We were all dying of hunger and couldn't find anything to our liking in Bluffton (which was a big bluff) or Beaufort. We had to take an emergency pit stop at Wendy's, but me and mom refused to eat fast food, so I was a trooper and waited until we went to Charleston which was originally called Charles Town. We took a walking tour of all the colonial houses and it is unbelievable that they are still the same as they were in the 1700 with very small cobblestone streets and real gaslight lamps outside each house. There are also posts outside the house where people would tie up their horses and a random stone step near the curb that we are guessing people used to step off of their horse. We walked along Bay Street with all of the historic houses and saw Ft. Sumter, which is exactly where the Civil War began against North and South. We were imagining that all the people in the houses along the water were pretty terrified just looking out the windows from their mansions. We wandered around the downtown area which is very young with a lot of college kids and we ate at this really superb sushi store, I was so hungry I could eat a horse! Today we will go to North Carolina, and stay for a while and progressively make our way to Milford.