Shenandoah and its black bears

As we searched for a campsite in Mathews Arm Campground in the Shenandoah National Park, we had to stop Bessie in her tracks as a black bear sauntered across the road and picked its way through the underbrush from site to site.

After finding our campsite and backing in, we hopped outside and then the kids and I hopped straight back in again as a different, smaller bear came around behind Bessie and crossed the road to a tree on the other side.

He then grabbed a hold of the tree with his front paws and quickly lifted his back paws to gain purchase, then using front, back, front, back, had climbed several metres up into the tree in just seconds.

From his vantage point, Nath managed to capture an image of him as he started his climb.

The boys and I came back outside to watch him tearing at the branches high up and gorging himself on acorns.

We know he was a boy because a ranger passed by and explained he was one of a pair of two-year-old brothers who roamed the area in addition to the mother, father and three new babies.

He stayed up there feasting for the remaining hours of daylight but was gone the next morning when we checked.

Further south in the Park, we hiked the Dark Hollow Falls Trail (2.5km return), a pleasant out-and-back path mostly following a creek, replete with Autumn foliage and with a waterfall reward at the base of the valley.

The bear's climb was definitely a highlight of our two-day drive through Shenandoah which follows a ridgeline offering vistas of valleys and neighbouring mountain ridges and ends at the start of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Star-spangled history

Leaving the boys behind in Bessie, I caught the bus/train from our campsite for a day exploring Washington D.C. on my own. 

The Mall, arguably home to America's most precious monuments (and the museums we've been visiting), is a bit of a hike in its entirety and not one I think the boys would have enjoyed.

So off I strolled down Pennsylvania Avenue to stop in at the White House and give my best to the Obamas.

Next I visited the Albert Einstein memorial and loved his quote there inscribed:

"Joy and amazement at the beauty and grandeur of this world of which man can just form a faint notion."

The Vietnam Veteran's Memorial was decorated with so many other tokens, photos and memories brought from home that it was a reminder the effects of that war are still being keenly felt in homes across America (and elsewhere).

Being just over 50 years to the day since his famous speech, I felt inspired standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where Martin Luther King Jr had shared his dream with the world.

The grandeur of Abe Lincoln's statue and the gravity of the inscriptions on either side - his second inaugural address and the gettysburg address - leave you feeling fairly insignificant.

Gazing down the reflecting pool to the World War II Memorial and the Washington Monument which is under repair, I felt quite jealous of Americans and the general majesty and awe their capital inspires. 

I also felt pretty hungry.

So off down the Mall I trotted and thankfully came across an entire street full of food trucks.

With a greek gyro under my belt, I took to the Museum of American History (yes, another completely free Smithsonian institution) and joined an hour-long "highlights tour".

After meeting the original Kermit the Frog, eyeing off Dorothy's ruby red slippers, admiring and criticising the First Lady's choices in inaugural dresses and dinner settings, checking out some of George Washington's personal items, touching part of the Berlin Wall, gazing upon the first copy ever made of the Declaration of Independence and gazing upon the first ever flag to bear the 'stars and stripes' - amongst other things - I decided I simply had to bring the whole family back.

And so I did... 

We revisited the museum together and this time concentrated on the halls "America on the Move" and "On the Water" which explained everything from interstate highway development to on-ship fish processing.

The boys' reactions to exhibits in other halls were amusing.

Indy was not impressed by the grand-daddy of today's Apple iPad but was very happy to have seen Harry Potter's Hogwarts uniform and to have stood at a Presidential podium to give a pretend press conference.

Afterwards, some Hill Country barbecue brisket with all the fixings was just the ticket to fill our hungry tummies. 

Nath had sought it out when he'd spent his own day exploring the capital and had wanted to share the experience with us.

We've stayed for six nights in Washington D.C. - that's the longest we've stayed anywhere. It's an indication of how much we've loved it here!

Homo Erectus and Friends

Have you ever wondered what you would have looked like as an early human?

"How you doin'?"

The face morphing station at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History suggests that a Homo Habilis version of Nath would have looked something like this guy.

No wonder Homo Habilis is extinct! That's a face only a mother could love.

But we did love this hall of human evolution, with Nath even returning to explore it on his own after we visited it together as a family.

The Museum houses countless fossils, life-size recreations, dioramas and skeletons of both living and extinct species.

It's a well-created but overwhelmingly huge parade of familiar and not-so-familiar animals.

Perhaps for this reason, the dinosaurs weren't what the boys picked out as their favourites when we asked them to reflect on the experience later.

It was the small, more singularly memorable moments in the visit.

For instance, Indy had sat for half an hour digging through a plate of stone fragments in search of tiny fossils and bones, guided by a museum staff member.

And we had a fun time capturing a sample of our own DNA (well, it could be the DNA of the lunch we'd just eaten, but don't spoil the story) in little wearable pendants at the Human Genome Exhibit.

Indy's very favourite though was the display of rare rocks and gems which included the infamous Hope Diamond.

The boys had spent a lot of time testing out the magnetic properties, fluoro colours and glow-in-the-dark nature of a variety of rare rock samples before moving on to the exhibit of gems.

The rocks were certainly very cool, but they had more of an impact than I'd expected.

Indy left the museum saying "I want to be a miner!" Luckily mummy knows about Mining Oil and Gas Jobs!

Dash's favourite was the insect collection and live bee exhibit. He loved it so much that we revisited again on a second day to see what the bees were up to... Yep, still building their hive.

A cumulative total of three visits to this awesome museum is indicative of how much we enjoyed it.

To infinity and beyond!

Forget Buzz Lightyear...

Today we've been connecting with some real-life heroes.

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. houses some of the greatest artifacts in the history of aviation and space exploration.

And it's completely free to visit!

Chuck Yeager's plane (the first to break the sound barrier), the command module from Apollo 11 (the first moon landing mission), the Spirit of St Louis (which Charles Lindbergh flew for the first solo transatlantic crossing) were some of our favourites.

Then you've got the biggest, baddest nuclear missiles of the cold-war era (decommissioned of course) sitting there like giant two-storey toothpicks along with full-size planes that saw action in theaters of war from WWI onwards.

They even have examples of the seriously sleeky stealth machines and drones of the 21st Century.

The kids loved the room explaining how things fly.

It gave simple explanations about concepts like gravity, drag and air pressure and explained what flaps and rudders are for along with other aspects of aeronautical engineering.

Lots of the exhibits were interactive, including a Cessna with working controls.

There are also exhibitions dealing with star-gazing and studies of the planets and celestial bodies, highlighting insights gained from America's space program.

The rooms dealing with navigation and satellites aren't the big drawcards but they're still informative.

The space shuttle exhibits are extensive but I wondered if I would have been more excited if I'd visited before the program was wound up.

I felt a respectful nostalgia (similar to how I felt looking at rockets from the 50s) rather than the super excitement I remembered feeling when I watched space shuttle launches as a child.

We spent ages in the aircraft carrier area watching the planes take off and land from the two 'sides' of the faux navigational tower.

It was great to see that the boys had remembered some of what they learned on the U.S.S. Midway back in San Diego.

Having all of that aeronautical history hanging up there in the air reminds you how amazing humans can be when they put their minds (and money) into adventurous endeavours.

Later, as we strolled up to the Capitol Building for a look-see, I was still amazed that all of that was free!

The Amish Spectrum

We've just spent a gorgeous day exploring backroads throughout Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, acquainting ourselves with Amish culture.

The township of Intercourse (yes, it's really called that) had a great collection of home crafts, bakehouses and smokehouses where we picked up a variety of nibbles.

The kids also met some farmyard friends at a free animal feeding station.

We tried a traditionally-made soft pretzel. I hadn't been much of a pretzel fan before today, but that's all changed.

Nearby Lititz has the nation's oldest commercial pretzel bakery, so I guess we picked the best area to try a 'real' one.

We also stopped in at a few roadside farm stalls.

So we've managed to restock on fruit and vegetables, bread, cheese, and various smoky meat delights.

We also bought a Shoo Fly Pie (apparently it's the bee's knees of the pie world) but I'm now too full to try it after a big lunch at Dienner's Restaurant on Lincoln Highway.

The traditional Amish fare went down an absolute treat with all of us.

On the quieter streets, we've delighted in seeing Amish siblings driving themselves home from school in little carts led by donkeys.

On all roads but the interstate we've seen countless Amish adults driving their horse-drawn buggies here, there and everywhere.

Sometimes we just had to close our eyes and cross our fingers as the trucks and other vehicles crossed on to the other side of the road to pass them. There's certainly a high potential for head-on collisions here.

We saw a lone man trying to harvest corn from his field with his team of horses and an ancient-looking harvesting device.

Around another bend we glimpsed an entire family working together in a field.

It seemed to us the epitome of the Amish way of simple living.

Then further along the road we came to an intersection, stopped behind an Amish buggy.

As it put on its flashing right-turn indicator, we simultaneously turned off our little session of idealising.

Then we hit the next road and spied an Amish man zooming along the sidewalk on his mobility scooter.

So clearly there is a spectrum of Amishness and the Amish can't all be sitting at the super strict end of it.

Either that or there's a lot of ineffective shunning going on.

Another surprise for me today was that although the Amish are known as the Pennsylvania Dutch, they're not descended from the Dutch at all.

The word "Dutch" came from "Deutsch" because they were in fact German-speaking Swiss immigrants who sought to escape religious persecution by settling in a more tolerant place.

As we drove into our campsite which just happened to have electricity and cable TV and the boys became instantly transfixed by Spongebob Squarepants and his salty silliness, I couldn't help but wonder if the Amish aren't on to something...

They get to spend most of their lives outdoors working the earth (big-time satisfaction there); they believe in simple living (imagine the money they'd save on electronics alone); they embrace humility (they probably get ready for the day as fast as superman); the girls all wear long dresses and bonnets (hairy legs and hat hair would be de rigueur); they have on average 7 children.....

Okay, clearly I need to give this a little more thought.

New York: Pastrami and Playgrounds

You see a completely different side of New York when you're travelling with young children.

Camping on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River at Liberty Island, we had great access via train and ferry over to Manhattan for two and a half days exploring the Big Apple.

There are toy shops here that will BLOW YOUR MINDS peoples.

Talk about fun! We spent hours in the Toys R Us at Times Square and FAO Schwarz on Fifth Avenue.

FAO even had a massive floor piano like in "Big".

And there were lego sets for sale beyond anything I'd ever imagined. Like the entire Ewok Village on Endor! Awesome!

Yep, still LOVE my lego!

Between the toy stores, the Apple Store and M&M's World, we wiled away several hours!

Central Park was also a massive part of our visit with so many playgrounds to explore, Belvedere Castle (used by Gargamel as an evil lair in "Smurfs") and of course the Central Park Zoo.

The most impressive feature of the Zoo was its incredible collection of tropical animals, birds and reptiles.

The kids also loved the children's section where they were able to feed animals like alpacas and sheep and goats.

The first full day we had in the city had been so unseasonally hot that we spent a few hours in a water playground in Central Park with the kids running around in soggy clothes.

The next day, we got caught in an intense rain storm that hit as we were walking past the boat lake, so we were all running around in soggy clothes after that!

The Staten Island Ferry round-trip gave us great views of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline while allowing the kids to rest their little legs.

We also did a customary walk past Wall Street. (The last time we were here five years ago Lehmann Brothers was collapsing and there was action aplenty). This time, things were pretty quiet.

We felt a little on edge, with it being September 11.

We had arrived by train at the World Trade Center stop and had emerged into the sunlight to a sea of servicemen and women.

The throng of people paying their respects at the Memorial Preview was as numerous as you would expect, but everyone was polite and patient.

The Preview's timeline of events from 2001 was particularly resonant on its anniversary.

The other focus of our visit was Pastrami.

We visited Katz Delicatessen on the Lower East Side for an unbelievably juicy sandwich of melt-in-your-mouth Pastrami on Rye.

Katz was the location of that famous scene in "When Harry Met Sally" - you know the one.

I think maybe she was having pastrami on rye.

We had more pastrami on rye at the Brooklyn Diner on 57th Street.

Let's just say we are big-time pastrami fans now.

Well, New York has delivered big-time fun, but there's only so much walking two pairs of little legs can handle.

We'll all probably need a week to recover!

Click HERE if you want to see more pics.

Rhode Island

Dripping in wealth and opulence, the "mansions loop" south of Newport on Rhode Island is something to behold.

The residences here are extravagant in the extreme.

The word "chateau" doesn't do them justice; "castle" would be better.

"Marble House" as an example uses 500,000 cubic feet of marble. Excessive much?

We had a bit of a laugh driving our lovely little house on wheels past some of these monstrously obnoxious temples while gazing out at the spectacular views (where visible) that the owners have the pleasure of enjoying.

For the most part those views are theirs alone, with the rocky outcrops and ocean glimpses guarded by privacy hedges and fences.

Wherever you are able to glimpse the ocean, you immediately understand why so many well-heeled types built their homes here.

Earlier in the day, we had driven up the eastern side of the Sakonnet River from Sakonnet Point and thought how lovely rural Rhode Island was.

Almost as soon as we crossed from Massachusetts, we encountered waist-high rock walls as a feature separating home sites.

The drive up the 77 was incredibly picturesque and quaint and didn't hint at the grandiose to come over on Rhode Island itself.

That night we found a campsite on the Charlestown Breachway, on the southwestern edge of the state.

The boys had a fantastic play on a lovely white sand beach, reminiscent of home.

Cape Cod

After checking out the Plymouth Rock memorial where the pilgrims had come ashore to settle, we nighted at the Scusset Beach State Reserve.

Positioned at the corner of a beach fronting Cape Cod Bay and the northern end of the Cape Cod Canal, the site provided plenty of entertainment.

After a massive play on the beach, we checked out the ships cruising through the canal and the fishermen trying their luck using the biggest lures we've ever seen.

One guy caught a MASSIVE fish and had troubles even pulling its weight up on to the rocks but nobody else seemed to be having much luck.

The canal was built in the early 20th century as a way for marine traffic to pass through the area without facing the perils that lay offshore the Cape.

Later during our exploration of the Cape we visited the Race Point Lighthouse which sits at the Cape's very tip.

There sits a lighthouse and lifesaver's hut where men used to train each day and then wait for the inevitable call out to rescue shipwreck survivors out of treacherous seas.

Despite the perils, this ocean-facing side of the Cape offers up the most beauty, with its shifting sand dunes and barrier islands.

The Cape itself won't be around forever.

It's simply the leftovers of a rocky glacial moraine and the ocean is, bit by bit, taking it all back.

Not being built on anything but gravel and sand, the Cape is gradually being washed away.

The site where Marconi sent the first telegraphic message has, in the century of winters since, been clawed back by the ocean, along with most of the cliffs along this stretch.

The Salt Pond Visitor Centre's exhibits and films explain what is happening in the area.

The landscape near the Chatham Lighthouse at the south eastern end of the Cape is also very beautiful.

But most of the Cape feels like a clown car -- too many people trying to squeeze into too small a space!