Florida - The Rest of the Drive Home

Sunday

Everyone woke up and got ready pretty quickly and we were out of the hotel by 8:30. Ken had suggested to me that perhaps if we were up and ready it might make sense to stop in D.C. tonight as we were taking a different route home. I got excited about that, so that was the plan. The weather was great and the driving was blessedly uneventful. Ken did the first shift of driving and I took pictures of the South of the Border signs. I remember as a teen driving to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with my family and seeing all the signs for this place south of the border. It's basically a glorified rest stop. We didn't stop today, but we did stop when I was a kid. It looks like it's still as goofy as it was then!

I took a pic in the hotel parking lot because it was a palm tree and I knew we were going to be saying goodbye to palm trees.

I took pic after pic and Ken told me I didn't need to take a pic of every one, but then he kept pointing them out and I kept taking pics. I decided that I would take as many as I could and then I'd make a collage. It works!

On the right is the whole South of the Border rest stop area complete with a sombrero tower. 

Then you cross the state line into North Carolina.

And there are still MORE signs! It is ridiculous and awesome and I might be just a teeny bit sad we didn't stop. But it's all good. Ken's more said that we didn't stop at Buccees. Someday he will have brisket at Buccees.

The sky and the trees in North Carolina were so pretty. At some point after South of the Border, as it got closer to 10 am, I thought maybe we should tune into zoom church like we did last Sunday. But the sound quality had been pretty bad, so we opted instead to listen to two conference talks and a few hymns. "God's Favorite" by Karl D. Hirst is a really lovely talk, it was the one that was recommended in the gospel library app today, so I just went with it. We listened to Patrick Kearon's talk "Welcome to the Church of Joy" as well. I don't like missing church but this did make me feel a little better!

Kate sleeping. I think Alice took lots of sleeping pics of Kate and I think this is my only one. I'm thankful for gravol even if it makes Kate sleep the whole time.

When we crossed the state line into Virginia we stopped at the welcome center and I asked about boiled peanuts. I had an interesting and very informative conversation with one of the people that works in the welcome center and another visitor. Neither of them care for boiled peanuts. She said they were mushy which didn't sound good to me, but we still wanted the experience. Up the road four miles from the welcome center is The Good Earth Peanut Company. I had asked where one should get boiled peanuts, because I didn't want to buy them from a gas station. This was going to be the place.

The Good Earth Peanut Company did not disappoint. It used to be the post office and a general store. It was creaky and old and I'm sad I didn't take a pic, but it was perfect. In the store they told us that the boiled peanuts tasted like legumes, and they really do. 

We picked up roasted, salted peanuts, pecan pralines, chocolate covered peanuts and one cup of boiled peanuts. Ken ate most of them but I had a few. I liked them. I didn't love them but they are alright. The peanuts are boiled in a brine solution. They had pressure cookers going in the store. The other peanuts that we bought were so good. They are the perfect road trip snack.

We stopped at a second Virginia rest stop to go to the bathroom before we got into D.C. After that our next stop was &pizza in Alexandria. They had gluten free pizza and vegan cheese options. I really liked my pizza. Everyone had their own personal pizza. It was expensive but it was very yummy.

Ken didn't love his pizza. I think it was called the Farmer's Daughter? It had fried eggs on it. Oh well.

I took a selfie of me driving through D.C. because I was so excited to be back in Washington D.C. We got there just before dark so we mostly drove through the city as the lights were coming on, but also with enough light to see things. It was fun. Alice wasn't all that engaged but Fiona and Kate really enjoyed looking around and asking questions. Ken had also never been to D.C. so he was excited to look around too. I'm glad I was driving so he could enjoy it.

This was the pic of us crossing into Maryland - absolutely terrible pic, but I swear it says Welcome to Maryland!

Driving up to the temple made my heart so very happy. So happy. However, it was not what I imagined it would be. I imagined driving into the visitors center, having a fun conversation with a missionary about being sealed there to my family when I was 12, about doing baptisms there, about this being my temple. But that conversation was only to be had in my head and my heart. We happened to show up during the Festival of Lights which takes place from Dec 5 - Jan 1. It was madness and mayhem. Okay, it was orderly and no one was mad except Kate, but there was so much traffic. Ken ended up telling us to get out of the car in the stake center parking lot because it looked like we'd never get a parking spot. The girls and I walked over and we were just mostly overwhelmed by the people. I wanted to enjoy the lights but Kate was so so so angry. It made me sad. I wanted to have this special moment being near the temple and just go with it, but Kate was so angry. Alice and Fiona were fine but it was a little overwhelming with the numbers of people that were there. We walked around a little, went to the bathroom. Ken did find us, we took some pics. I took one pic with all of us, but Kate made a crazy angry face. She eventually said sorry. Sometimes things turn out the way you hope and sometimes they fall a little short. I did though, even in all of the madness of all of it feel the peace of the temple and it did make my heart very happy to be there. Ken and I want to go back to D.C. and see all the stuff! Maybe March break 2026?

After that we walked back to the car and Ken took over driving again. We started north and it was a bit busy for a bit, rainy too. As we got further away from D.C. the traffic did thin out. We missed the welcome sign into Pennsylvania, but I took this pic of the soap dispenser in the bathroom which I thought was a good substitute. 

I'm not sure if Ken really enjoyed the drive or not. It was a bit winding and a bit rainy. But he drove the rest of the way to the Holiday Inn Express in Williamsport, PA. It was starting to get colder but it was still 12 or 15 degrees Celsius which is really warm for this time of year!

Monday

The hotel that we stayed at was one hour south of Corning, NY. And what is special about that you might ask? Corning NY might just be the home of the Corning Museum of Glass, and Ken might just have wanted to go there for ages and well, all of his dreams might now have come true - except brisket at Buccees. We drove the hour north and it was fun to see the countryside. I don't like driving at night for the sole reason that you miss out on the changing countryside.

Welcome to New York!

We parked at a parking lot across the street. I think when it's really busy this parking lot is needed, but we could have parked right beside the museum. I had zero expectations about the museum and I really liked that. 

I had to take a pic of excited Ken!

Fiona wanted one too. She and Ken watched a show about glass art on Netflix and she loves it all too.

The tree behind us is made entirely of glass ornaments and it's beautiful and really big!

There were so many galleries, and just generally so much gallery space. It was really neat.

I loved this tree of life menorah, so beautiful.

Alice loved this infinity cube. When you looked inside of it you saw cubes going off forever.

Ken loved this glass meat.

And Fiona loved being out of the car! 

This corning ware display talked about the science of turning a class dish in to glass ceramic, it showed all of the different temperatures that the glass was cooked at resulting in all sorts of different colours. It was really cool.

From Frank Lloyd Wright windows to Tiffany lamps, vases to sculptures, to Christmas elves that had been created and hidden, there was so much to look at.

The funniest? Strangest? Part of our visit was the fire drill that wasn't a drill. We have no idea what was on fire, but the fire alarm went off and everyone had to evacuate the building. They have little evacuation areas set up, I assume with all of the live demonstrations of glass blowing and other experiments that involve glass and fire, that fire drills/alarms happen pretty regularly.

Eventually we got the all clear and we went back in the building. The only place left was the gift shop. We bought a magnet and a pig! And I took a pic of these Steuben figurines, because I think it was a glass Steuben ornament that my grandmother had that one of my brother's broke. I think? 

Yummy peanuts, all gone!

After the awesome visit to the museum we drove just over two hours to the outside of Buffalo and Chick-fil-A for lunch. I am so thankful for Chick-fil-A. There are a few fast food options for gf but this one is the crowd favourite.

Then it was over the border and stopping by Ken's parents, giving them the nutcracker from universal to add to their collection and picking up Milo! I can't believe I didn't take a pic of Milo. He was very excited to see us and he apparently still likes us!

We had a quick visit with Ken's parents and then we were off home. We got home at 6:45 p.m. We all helped empty the car and unpack and of course I started laundry. 

We had such a wonderful trip. The weather was amazing. The driving was amazing - a little rain and a little snow, but other than that, amazing. We stayed in great hotels and had an amazing time as a family. I am so thankful for this amazing trip and that I have the rest of this week off before I have to go back to work.