People in New Jersey are mean...

Day 12: Washington, DC

Lincoln Memorial
Jefferson Memorial
White House (We saw no snipers on the top of the White House, so we couldn't wave at any...apparently when the President is out of the country the White House doesn't need snipers...How can we have any fun without snipers?)
American History Museum (Dull theatre except for the First Lady Display)
Ford's Theatre (Lincoln was shot here!)
Peterson House (Lincoln died here!)
Korean War Memorial
World War I Memorial
Starbucks (This was more appealing to us at this point than standing in a 40 mile long line for the National Archives...guess we'll be back to see the famous historical documents of our country's history.)
7 plus miles of walking
Free parking!
And topped off with a great dinner with Mike and Hilary at Amphoras. Yup, we were tired but felt very productive.

Day 13: Washington, DC to Cheesequake State Park, NJ (What kind of name is Cheesequake? It matches the park, we'll leave it at that.)
We started the day off by going to Arlington Cemetery via an illegal spin in the Pentagon parking lot. "Um, Officer, we're from Arizona, and we're looking for the Metro." (our words if we had gotten pulled over.) Then we took the Metro to the Capitol, where we were given a tour along with 130000000 other people. After the Capitol, we decided to go to the Library of Congress and use our new cards. We were very intimidated, but we did read some children's books before leaving to go back to our car and drive to New Jersey.
We got to the park at 7ish and read a sign that said open from 8-8. Well, apparently that means something different in New Jersey because they were closed and the gate was closed. So, we finally found a number to call, and a ranger came and promptly yelled at us. Then, we went to the laundromat and got yelled at again.
Question of the day: Why did God create underwear? So that we can go grocery shopping of course....we'll leave it to your imagination....(:

Day 14: New York City
We got yelled at by the train conductor for getting on the train without tickets after he told us to do so...??? Luckily, we scrounged around and found enough cash (two quarters under the seat...j/k) so that we didn't get kicked off on the next stop. Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Central Park, Times Square (weird), Empire State Building, Ground Zero (of which we could see zero), and New York Pizza...mmm. AND THEN, drum roll, please, we got tickets (cheap tickets) for Phantom of the Opera. And they weren't standing room only tickets either. IT WAS AWESOME. Then, we took the subway and the train back to NJ and didn't get mugged or yelled at all the way back to our tent.

Day 15: Cheesequake, NJ to Portsmouth, RI
After finding out that we couldn't get into the campsite that we wanted for the night and couldn't get into any campsite that we called, we decided to drive to RI and hopefully get there before all the first-come, first-served spots at Melville Family Campground were taken. So, we drove through New York and encountered almost no traffic. And then we drove through Connecticut and sat through enough traffic to make Lew pound on the steering wheel and Ark kindly took over so that she could be equally as frustrated of sitting in bumper-to-bumper for hours. But, thank God, we still were able to get a site. We went to bed early and were kept awake by our drunk neighbors who had a blazing bonfire and screaming kids most of the night. Not the best day or night of our trip, but we survived it and God was still faithful.

Day 16: Portsmouth, RI to Wompatuck State Park, MA
We spent a pleasant day driving through Newport, RI, seeing the mansions and the Shore Drive; Cape Cod, where we didn't see much of anything because of all the people; and Plymouth, where we barely saw Plymouth Rock since it's very small and where we sketched a Mayflower wannabee because we couldn't find any lighthouses to draw. We got to our campsite and get a couple hours to relax before going to bed tonight.

And that's it...if any of you are still reading this. We know we're wordy, but we know that you all are so interested and intrigued by our travels that you anxiously wait for our updates...(: