Miami - Orlando - Chattanooga

October 24

We woke up when we felt like and went to play in the waves of the oncoming hurricane Sandy.  We got sufficiently thrashed relatively quickly and sat in the hot tub a bit before heading off to Miami airport to drop Caitlin off and then to Orlando.  We stopped at a good little restaurant in Miami and got a swordfish BLT and a Mahi Mahi sandwich.

October 25

Disneyworld day!!! We got a chill start after some amazing waffles and headed off to the Magic Kingdom.  I ate a turkey leg :)  We went on all the good rides (and the jungle cruise and teacups) and then went to Epcot.  At Epcot was the annual food festival, so we were able to have food from all over the world, including Swedish meatballs, Belgian waffles, churros, an apple tart, and a whole lot of other tasty stuff.  All in all, I'd say it was a pretty good birthday :)

Disney is all Halloween decorated

October 26

We got up early in Orlando and drove at a pretty good clip through Georgia to make it to the Brandon Heath concert in Chattanooga.  It was pretty rad.  We were able to watch most of the concert and we got free t shirts.  J  Then we went to say with my friend Lauren and her husband Josh. 

October 27

Drive to the campground near Lookout Mountain, GA

Chickamauga Civil War battlefield with Lauren and Josh.  After some wandering, we picked up Karen again and went to Fork and Pie.  I had some amazing chicken pot pie and we tried some pecan pie and some chocolate chess pie.  17 miles

Miami and more

October 19
Caitlin (friend from college) flew into Raleigh.  Karen and I went to pick her up after a day of driving and hiking in Shenandoah National Park.

October 20
We drove from the NC/SC border (Little Pee Dee State Park) to Hilton Head and then down to Miami.  We stopped in Savannah for some pecan pie, but totally struck out.

October 21
We sat on the beach at our hotel in Miami.  We pretty much only left for food.  Karen and I got pretty burned, but Caitlin seemed to fare much better.  A movie from Red Box, and super chill day was complete.

sunburn aftermath

October 22
We went over to the Everglades to look for some crocodiles and some fun birds.  Well, the bird watching was less of a draw.  We did see some crocs and went canoeing from the ocean to a lake in some gnarly wind.  We tried to go to Biscayne National Park, but it closed at 5:30 PM :(

Canoeing bliss

croc

October 23
We went to Biscayne in the morning and I went snorkeling and saw some fishies, but mostly just sea grass as we didn't have the time/resources to get out to the coral reef part of the park.  Then we drove down to Key West.  It was a crazy/gorgeous drive.  A couple more snorkeling fails and we decided to just BBQ on the beach and wait for the sunset.  Then we went to go find some legit key lime pie.

in Key West

Key West Sunset

Key West Sunset

Washington DC

We wandered around the nations capital yesterday. We spent a good chunk of time in the holocaust museum. It was just as intense as I remembered as a 12 year old. Then we walked all around the national monuments and saw a tiny bit of the smithsonian museums. We walked about 7 miles plus whatever we did in the museums, but we didn't drive any, so it was a good day.

New York!

I'm by the statue of liberty! More to follow.

Me, Karen, and Melissa from Liberty Island

Chicago doesn't know what hit it...

Oh, that's right. Kate, Karen, and Hannah did.

We wandered all over the place.  Mostly along Michigan Ave, aka the Magnificent Mile.  9.26 miles according to mapmyrun.com... not too shabby.

Pizzeria Uno... JBIC