Day One!

Well, after finishing up some last minute shopping at the biggest 24 hour Wal-Mart in sketchville North Bergen with Kristine and various toddlers that should have been in a deep REM sleep at 3 AM, followed by two glorious hours of sleep and an immaculate mini prayer service, held by the "leader" Deacon Dick,  Jen, Rob and myself have begun our journey through the United States of America! Clearly, since I, Stephanie, am a member of the road trip crew, we began our trip a half an hour later than expected; but anyone who has known me for more than 5 minutes knows that I won't even be on time for my own funeral. Naturally we retreated for a few necessities and a few more I love you's and I miss you's before reembarking. The trip began with a few laughs and a smooth drive until we were forced to come to an abrupt stop on route 17 due to the fact that a man, unworthy of the term "gentleman", decided to stroll across the 3 lane highway with his rolly bag and briefcase. (see exhibit A). Along with learning that some people are completely ignorant, Robert brought to our attention that the reason he is dragging us through Washington DC is because 12 years ago when we traveled to DC as a family, Robert seemed to have missed that huge white building, I'm pretty sure he means the White House! Apparently Robert didn't learn his left from his right until the following year. 

As we continued our adventure, the license plate game kept us plenty entertained. We spotted over half the states before reaching Maryland and also learned in the process that Jen may or may not need to get her eyes re-checked. As well as searching for license plates, we also set out to locate every "Welcome to..." sign! Luckily, fellow cars on their way to Delaware did not mind being cut off by the Bubble Cobalt & Co and I successfully took a picture below our first state sign. (Coincidentally, Delaware is named the "First State".) Maryland quickly preceded Delaware, but was no match for Rob's eagle eyes and NASCAR skills. Maryland welcomed us with a bang!  Miss Shirley's Cafe was the fuel to the fire creating the bang. Beginning with a cone of sweet potato fries matched with mango ketchup and citrus aioli we quickly began to satisfy the monsters inside our stomachs. Thanks to Tommy, we enjoyed a scrumptious lunch in downtown Baltimore aka Paterson's evil step sister.

With a full stomach and a new found fear of Baltimore, we continued our travels to our beautiful country's Capitol, Washington DC! (Due to the fact that Jeter hit his 3000th hit, we were a little distracted and missed the "Welcome to Washington DC" sign! Thanks a lot DJ!) After twelve years of disappointment, Rob finally conquered a lifelong goal of capturing a picture of himself with the White House! With the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting pool residing nearby, we decided to continue our explorations of the District of Columbia.  As any tourist normally does, we decided to ask a stranger to take a picture of us with the Washington Monument in the background. To our demise, we chose a camera illiterate stranger that completely ruined our picture. But to no avail we continued on reassuring him that it came out great. Delete! Rob entertained us by having Jen and I pose in front of the various structures; Thankfully he attended a photography class prior to embarking on our excursion! Excited to see the reflection pool, we scurried our little booties over there to only be disappointed. THERE WAS NO REFLECTION POOL!!! WTF?! Apparently, it is being redesigned to be able to reflect the Washington monument, Lincoln Memorial and newly added monuments.  Bummer!  On the bright side, I spotted a gentleman with a high-tech camera around his neck that was more than happy to take an amazing picture of the three musketeers!  Naturally, we stood beneath a structure picturing New Jersey on it, gotta represent the Dirty Jerz!  The Lincoln Memorial wrapped up our mini tour of DC, but not before hitting up Don John's port-a-potty. Could you imagine if there were port-a-potties lining the streets of Jersey the way they do DC?? Forget about it! Dirty Jersians would run around tipping over port-a-potties instead of cows! I guess we should count our blessings! 

Fortunately we returned to Bubble Cobalt and everything was safe and sound! Whew! The bubble is a great aid, the cobalt can be spotted from a mile away! This time, I was Rob's copilot and we continued on our way to the final destination of the day: Raleigh, North Carolina. Once again, we-or shall I say, I- was a tad distracted whilst taking pictures of the Potomac River and neglected to keep my eyes peeled for the "Welcome to Virginia" sign! Now, Washington DC was an exception since it is not technically a "state", but I'm sorry fellow blog followers, I failed my duty of capturing each "Welcome to..." state sign. No need to worry, Robert's eagle eyes were once again on top of their game and spied the "Welcome to North Carolina" sign in the nick of time!  My sleepy head woke up and managed to climb atop the guardrail to take a picture with the Nation's most Military friendly state sign! Now off to downtown Raleigh for some southern comfort food! Stay tuned for the pictures of the day! Peace, love and happiness, the nomads!