We know better than most how costly it is to fly to visit family+friends, as we’ve been traveling back to Oklahoma for 9+ years now. Family visits to see us are rare due to how expensive it is. Last summer, Anthony’s brothers talked about coming up to celebrate graduations/acceptances (Noah graduated high school, Taylor started medical school), but time got the best of all of us. We were able to finally get them up here this summer! We spent 3.5 days visiting Philly, NYC, Princeton + Six Flags Great Adventure as well as celebrating their birthdays. The boys have “birthday week” – Taylor’s birthday is July 15th, Noah’s is 18th and Anthony’s is the 20th. While it was a week later than the normal celebration, it was still the perfect time to have ice cream birthday cake from Halo Fete, the patisserie part of Halo Pub/Halo Farm business. (ignore the 1, 2, 3 candles – it’s what I had so we went with “birth order”).
The boys + I are avid roller coaster fans (years back we spent a week at Cedar Point in Ohio together!). It made complete sense to visit Six Flags – it’s only 20ish minutes from our place! The weather was absolutely perfect, especially for a mid-July afternoon. The lines weren’t too terrible. We were able to ride all the rides we set out too, including finishing the day on the best rollercoaster in the world, Kingda Ka. It’s also happens to be the tallest in the world + the fastest in North America. When we visited Cedar Point back in 2006, Top Thrill Dragster held both of those records. We rode that coaster many times over, though Noah was still a tad young back then and didn’t ride it. I believe he was only 12. This go round, being 20, he was game. The wait was 2 hours, by the time we got onto the platform, it was pitch dark! We thought we had timed it perfectly, that Anthony+Taylor would be in the 2nd to front row, while Noah+I would be right behind them. Last minute someone came up on the other side, grabbed the seats that Noah+I were slated to grab. That was probably the one ride that I would have wished we’d all been able to ride together. Funny how that works out. It should also be mentioned that our very first ride, the Superman, I lost the keys to our car. They flew out faster than I was able to grab them. 🙁 I texted a friend, she broke into our apartment, grabbed A’s set of keys, and brought them to us. It was a very kind gesture and we are forever indebted to her! Luckily I received a phone call the following evening that they found my keys. YAY!!
We also drove up to Staten Island, had lunch at Pizzeria Giove (seriously if you are ever looking for amazing pizza, go to Pizzeria Giove!!!!), took the ferry over to NYC, walked around the 911 Memorial Park, then entered the museum. I knew that I was going to be emotional going through the museum, though the creators did a beautiful and tasteful job. If you ever are in the area, I’d highly recommend seeing it.
