Six Flags in Maryland

Derek and Jared get soaked on a water ride

I love how we could get on the metro and within 30 mins and a 10 min cab ride be 3 states over. That never happens in Alaska!

Im not complaining about Alaska though. By the end of our trip, I was so sick of millions of people everywhere we went. Plus traffic EVERYWHERE. It is nice to have the different things to do, but it's just a different life style to me. I like my Alaskan lifestyle so much better.

I think this may be the Six Flags where the movie Grownups was shot. I am not for sure, as I have not seen the movie yet, but there were poster shots and ads everywhere for it.

Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada side.
The American Falls
(View from our hotel window)

View from our hotel window!

Skylon Tower in the background

Derek's parents drove over from Alberta in there RV and met us in Niagara, and then watched most of Jared's hockey camp.

This is Maid of the Mist boat ride. It takes you right up next to the Canadian Falls. Well worth the money and a awesome experience.

Canadian Falls

Can you believe some people stand up on the ledge to take pictures or get their pictures taken. I have to look away. I didn't even like the boys being near the edge.

So while in Niagara Falls they have this haunted house called Nightmares Fear Factory. They take your picture while you are walking through. If you get too scared, all you have to do is yell out Nightmare, and they will take you out. Well you can see by the picture, that only Derek, Jared and Derek's dad Harvey went through.

Jared cracks me up...he is holding pretty tight to his Dad's neck! Oh well, at least he went, and wasn't a whimp like me! haha

Arlington Zoo

The great thing about DC is that all the sites and museums are free, including the Arlington Zoo. It was a fantastic zoo too. Lot's to see, lots of walking, lots of animals, and lots of treats. The weather was great too, warm, but not that can't stand to be out here heat, like on the 4th, and the few days following the 4th.

Reflecting Pool and Washington Monument

Lincoln Memorial

Air and Space Museum

So on July 4th it was so freaking hot! The humidity was just nasty. We ventured out early in the day and got about 1/4 of mile walk in, and turned around as it was just way too hot to be outside. We then went back our around 5 or 6pm, as a firework show was starting by the monuments at 9pm. We heard it gets crowed so we went early (even in the heat) to get a spot. Jared wanted to sit on the steps on of the Lincoln Memorial.....well take a look. This is how crowded that spot was by the time we arrived.

We didn't have anyone to take pictures of the four of us, so here Derek is holding the camera out. You can see the Washington Monument in the background....and Carson has the crazy eyes going. Jared said he did the perfect smile.

Monument at night.

Fireworks! They were really great. As you know living in Alaska fireworks for the 4th of July, really just don't cut it.

So it seems most people in DC travel around on the Metro system. It's like a subway. Very easy to access right from our hotel, and easy to use. We heard it is crazy on the 4th. So fireworks are happening, and our plan was to leave a little bit early, and run to the metro to try to beat the crowd! HAHA we stuck to our plan, along with the other zillion people who had the same plan. I'm not joking, we did manage to get ahead of thousands of people, but we were still in a huge crowd of other thousands going to same way. Suddenly we were in a mob, and literally everyone is hanging onto their loves ones, or else you would get seperated. Trying to keep 4 of us together, was near impossible. Carson and Derek kept together and Jared and I did. The metro can only fit so many people, and to get to it, you go down a couple different escalators to get to the train platform. These platforms are no joke. There is no wall holding you back from the train. We read there were 9 suicides already this year. So anyways, they were stopping the crowd at the top of the escalator and only letting a certain amount of people down at a time, or else I imagine that the crowd would have pushed people right down onto the tracks. So imagine being in what felt like 100 degrees, with about 1000 people pushed around you, with every single person dripping sweat. NO AC! Seriously, there was no room to move an inch in any direction. We must have stoop for 10 or 15 minutes in that spot, before they finally let us down. I was a college athlete....I don't think I have ever dripped sweat like that before in my life. Derek cracked me, as he said he loved all the people pushing into him as it wiped the sweat running off of his arms onto them! Gross!

But it wasn't over yet. Time to get on the train. We see one coming and hundreds of poeple are already on it from the stop before. (2 metro stops near the sites). And hundreds more waiting to get on. Im looking around, thinking no way are we getting on. It stops, Jared yells, run down to the end, it's full. He was right. We all 4 jumped on. Think armpit deoderant commercial now. No sitting room. Everyone squished in tight standing up holding onto the overhead rail. We had 8 stops. Everystop, hundreds more wanting to get on. I seriously, at each stop, very few got off, and at least 15 more managed to squeeze on our car. Pure crazy! But so worth it! Not even for the fireworks, but just to see how life works in different areas! HAHA we laugh about it now.

Our feathered visitors getting some peanut butter...