Wednesday August 6, 2003
We first went on a virtual factory tour ride at Hershey Park. This was free. Then we tried to drive to Pittsburg to see the Liberty bell. On the way we accidently drive into New Jersey. This is a mistake, all gas stations seem to be operated by muslim types that can not give directions. The roads in New Jersey are strange also. To Make a left or right you have to get into the right turn lane before the intersection. Also where traffic merges onto the highway you have to stop because there is no yield space. We finally get to Pittsburg. The town has small streets and parking is terrible. We drive around looking for a parking space then end up in a 10.00 dollar lot. We walk about 5 blocks to the liberty bell. Security is tight. They are wanding every one. I have my pocket knife, so I put it under a leaf behind a bench outside the security trailer. We see the liberty bell it is cool.
We now try to go to the mint. The security guy says we need a letter from our congressman and to have made reservations months before. We do not get a tour of the mint.
I retrieve my knife it is still there.
We did get a nice carriage ride in Pittsburg. We had Philly cheese steak sandwiches for lunch, they were good but greasy, kind of like a roast beef sandwich with extra grease. We then end up this day by driving from about 2:00 PM till 9:00 PM and get to Hartford Connecticut. This is the main destination on our trip. This is where Caitlins skates in the National State games.

Thursday August 7, 2003 Hartford Connecticut
We are awake in Hartford at 4:30 AM! Caitlin has practice ice at 5:30 AM. We are staying at the Marriot Residence in downtown Hartford. We drive west about 5 minutes to the ghetto. The people where all up early and waving, they seemed friendly. We continue west about 30 minutes drive to the skating rink. Caitlin gets about 15 minutes of practice ice. Later that day about 9:00 AM Caitlin skates again in compulsary exercises. We tour a little in Hartford they have a courthouse downtown and we walked a bit. About 4:30 Caitlin skates her Digga Digga Dog routine. It was nice but I think she was still feeling sick.

Friday August 8, 2003 Hartford CN
We drove about 40 minutes south of Hartford to Mystic Seaport a museum of the sea. We spent the whole day walking around here and looking at stuff. We sailed on a small sail boat called a Cat. We walked on large sailing ships with 3 big masts. After we left here we tried to go see a lighthouse but the people had it on private property so we could not walk up by it. We ate dinner at a country style resturant.

Saturday August 9, 2003 Hartford CN
Caitlin and I went over her routine in the hotel parking lot a couple of times. She seems to be feeling better. We went to a rose garden that was near down town Hartford it was nice. Caitlin skates in the evening in a beautiful green dress to Irish music called Meteors it was a great performance. We have dinner at chinese resturant. This was our last evening in Hartford. We drive south towards New York and stay in a Red Roof Inn 30 minutes north of New York.

Sunday August 10, 2003 New York, Manhatton Island
Mcdonalds breakfast. We are driving into New York and notice signs that say avoid downtown Manhatton because of a hispanic parade today. It is early about 10:30 AM. We are beating the start of the Hispanic parade. Manhatton Island is down town New York city. We drive to Time Square. There are a lot of taxis and people walking and traffic jams on Sunday morning. Time Square has large buildings with big screen tvs and large brightly lit advertisements all around. Time Square is at 42nd street and Broadway. Doris gets out right in the middle of Time Square in the wedge with large red letters that are "TCKTS". This is where you get the half price tickets for a Broadway show. So the tickets were 55.00 dollars a piece. They would have been 110.00 at the door if Doris had not known about the TCKTS booth there in Time Square. So we got tickets to see 42nd street. Then we drive to 40th street and that is where our hotel is. The valet parker guy takes the car. He notes that there are dents on it already. We take our stuff to the room on the 24 floor. Then we go to the show. The theatre was called the Ford theatre on 42nd street. The name of the Musical was 42nd Street. It was a real nice show. Before the show I mentioned to Judy that on our last vacation to Florida we stayed in Homestead, and that town was devastated by a hurricane a week after we left. I then said, " so I wonder what is going to happen here".(New York had their black out two days after we left.) After the show we walked back to the hotel and then got on the subway and went to see the World Trade center. It is a large city block with a fence all around it. The sidewalk is nice. Where the buildings were there is a hole about 3 stories deep in the middle with construction all in it. Vehicles can drive in. There is a museum on the west side across the street that has some stuff from WTC and proposals of what to do with the site.
We then get large pieces of pizza with much grease for dinner. These were good as we had walked for about 7 hours so far this day. We then got on the Staton Island Ferry, this was free and went by the Statue of Liberty. It went from Manhatton Island to Staton Island and back. Then we took the subway back to the hotel on 40th street.

Monday August 11, 2003 Fire Island Light House, Long Island
We only had one night on Manhatton so on Monday we were out of the hotel early. I was glad to see the car was still working when the valet guy brought it back. We wanted to go up in the Statue of Liberty but did not know about parking on the Jersey side. We tried to park on Manhatton by the WTC and we ended up leaving. Judy likes light houses and I like the beach so we drove out on Long Island to see this Fire Island light house. Doris was the navagator and we did real well getting there. We came to a state park entrance and it was 8.00 dollars to get in. We parked as close to the light house as we could and then walked on this nice wooden walkway for about a half mile. There was ocean views on both sides and green sand dunes and deer that were not afraid of humans. The light house was neat but it cost to go up in it and you had to wait for a tour on the hour so we did not go up in it. Caitlin and I walked to the beach first. Judy and Doris were coming along the walkway. When we got on the beach and looked back I noticed a sign that said "Clothing Required Between Arrows" and I said oh no where is the clothing not required. So we go to get a picture of the gals with the lighthouse in the background. Then this naked guy comes just walking down the beach. I said "Don't Look!" but I am sure they did. We then tried to walk to another board walk that we could see 100 yards down the beach but there where to many nude people so we went back to the original boardwalk. I did not intend to take my 10 year old daughter to a nude beach. Maybe they should have a sign or something at the state park entrance!!! So we went back by the bath house and went swimming this area of the beach the people had on suits. We left there and headed for home stopping at a Italian resturant this evening. We drove until about 12:30 AM and the gals did not want to drive all night so we stopped in a hotel called Best Western just south of Hershey Pennsylvania.

Tuesday August 12, 2003 Driving
Best Westerns breakfast coupon was at Waffle House so thats where we ate. We stopped at this place called 50,000 hubcaps and got a hubcap for the Voyager it had fallen off on the first day of the trip. We arrived home about 9:00 PM that evening and had a White Castle dinner. Thank God the car did not break down any place. We had a nice trip! Questions or comments tom_gately@yahoo.com