October 2006 - East Coast Tour

We needed to travel back to the east coast for Nicole's wedding in October 2006, so we made a grand East Coast Tour of it and saw lots of sights, old friends of Mike's, and had lots of fun.

Nicole and Alex's wedding in Newport, RI.

We stopped at a mall in NY for dinner on our way from Newport, RI to our condo in the Poconos, PA. Nicole and Alex were there, along with Grandmom and Grandpop Rowand, and we found a carousel for Caitlin to ride. Aunt Nicole couldn't resist taking a few turns around with Caitlin.

2006-10_EastCoastTour001.avi (Caitlin and Nicole on a Carousel, 14Mb)
2006-10_EastCoastTour002.avi (Caitlin and Nicole on a Carousel, 7Mb)

We took a day trip to see the Lehigh River Gorge. Deb and Caitlin were enthralled with the scenery - out here in Seattle, WA the trees stay green all year - it's not called the Evergreen State for nothing - so the leaves and the colors were amazing to them. I missed them too.

We took another day trip to Easton, PA to visit the Crayola Factory Museum, and they also had the Museum of Industry (or something along those lines) in the same building. The working model of a canal was uber-cool.

2006-10_EastCoastTour003.avi (Caitlin working a canal boat rudder, 6Mb)
2006-10_EastCoastTour004.avi (Caitlin learning about pulleys and weights, 24Mb)

We also drove through the Delaware Water Gap and had dinner at a converted train station on the way back to the condo.

Another day trip was to Bushkill Falls, PA. I'd been there a few times as a kid, and had lots of pictures from my parents to show for it, and now Caitlin has some of the same memories as I do. It was even more spectacular than I remembered. The temper tantrum Caitlin threw on the way back up the trail was picture and video-worthy as well. See if you can find the "temper tantrum picture" in the group below. :-)

2006-10_EastCoastTour005.avi (Caitlin throwing a temper tantrum because she didn't want to walk anymore, 26Mb)

On the way out to York, PA we stopped at took a ride on the Strasburg Railroad - a live steam engine powered trip through Amish Country. I'd been there before; Deb and Caitlin spent a lot of time staring and saying things like "wow" and "ohhhh". It was well worth the time to visit on our way through the area.

2006-10_EastCoastTour006.avi (Riding the scale model steam train, 9Mb)
2006-10_EastCoastTour007.avi (Turning the scale model steam train around on a manual roundtable, 6Mb)
2006-10_EastCoastTour008.avi (Steam engine coming into the station, 13Mb)
2006-10_EastCoastTour009.avi (Caitlin and the conductor, 2Mb)
2006-10_EastCoastTour010.avi (Pulling out of the station, 13Mb)
2006-10_EastCoastTour011.avi (Steam train at a grade crossing - matches picture sequence above, 10Mb)

Our final stop on the tour was to spend a few days with the Weschers - old friends of mine from NJ. They adored Caitlin and we had a blast seeing them. The final photo in the set of Kathy, Roy, and Caitlin is perfect and worthy of framing.