Slice of Life # 44 ~ Famous Places

This weeks Slice of Life is Famous Places that we have visited.  How Ironic that this was the prompt for this week, as I have been thinking about this trip, and had just sent a request to some of my family asking for pictures, as I seem to have lost mine.


It is July 2001, I had just come home from my mission a few months before and the "Jack Dillon Clan" set out on a adventure of our life.  This is one of my most memorable family vacations.  You see most of our family vacations were camping or going to Washington to visit family, we did go to Disneyland when I was 14, but that is the only time I have ever been there.


Back to July 2001.  My parents and my 4 sisters and myself headed to Buffalo, New York on an airplane and then we rented two mid-size cars, to fit all of us and we started our driving tour of the East Coast.  We then ventured to Niagara Falls, going over into Canada and raiding the Maid of the Mist right up to the falls, oh that was so worth the trip!  We then traveled to Rochester, NY and the next day spent the day in Palmyra, NY and saw the Hill Cumorah Pageant.  We then traveled to New York City, our hotel was on the New Jersey side, and we were running late to get to our Broadway play of  Les Misérables, wonderful play, we took the subway from New Jersey into the World Trade Center, and since we were running late we decided not to ride to the top of the World Trade Center.  This was July 11, 2001, just two months before they fell.

The next day we went to the Statute of Liberty.
The line was so long to get into it and then it was so long to wait for the elevator to go up.  But here is the kicker, you can ride the elevator up, but you had to walk the 23 flights of stairs down, unless you had some kind of disability that would let you ride it down.  Well my family decided we had had enough of waiting in line as we had already waited for about 2 hours just to get inside by the gift shop, we decided to climb the 23 flights of stairs up and then the 23 flights of stairs down!  We still made it to the top before some of the other people we had been waiting in line with did.  


We also went to Elise Island and then we made our way to Gettysburg, Washington DC were we saw the sights, some of my sisters spent a lot of time in the Holocaust museum.   Then Jaclyn and I left everyone else at the National Scouting Jamboree, and we went and saw Williamsburg, Bush Gardens, and the Washington DC Temple before we went home. And Mom, Dad, Emily, Wendy, and Alysha visited those sights before they came home three weeks later.  Emily ended up meeting her husband to be at the Jamboree, so I think it was more memorable for all of us because of that!


I still want to go back to New York and see some of the other sites that we just didn't have the time for and get in another play, maybe one day Dan and I can do this type of trip with our kids.  It will be one that I will never forget.  Of course I can't find any of my pictures from this trip as this is before I got a digital camera.


I want to say Thank You to my Mom and Dad for taking us on this grand adventure to so many famous places!  The best part I think is that since we were all ranging in age from 23-16 that we will all remember this trip!
Thanks Again Mom and Dad for all the wonderful memories from not only this trip, but other family vacations.