Finally back in FL!

After a longgggg car ride home, we finally made it back to Florida! I definitely miss the snow though. Not so much the rude people, but the environment and the historical sights were amazing!! I wanna move up there after i finish college!

We all had an amazing experience while we were up there. We saw things that you wouldn't normally see in the small county of Franklin. We saw pilgrims in Pennsylvania!!! We also noticed very quickly that they don't have sweet tea in the northern states! So we were all in sweet tea withdrawl the whole time we were there. They also do not serve grits for breakfast!! Bummer!!

I think the thing that we enjoyed the most was New York City!! I would definitely go back in a heart beat. Everything was just as I imagined it....even better....because i was actually there in person! No more looking through a television screen to see NY! Time Square was so beautiful at night! Very very bright and tourists everywhere, so we fit in! Sponge Bob tried to charge me a dollar just to take a picture with him!! So i took a pic of him quickly and moved along so i wouldn't get mugged! LOL! Going on a ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island was fun! WE got to see the city from the water, which was a great view. Even though we didn't get to go inside the actual statue, we still got close up pictures of it! The museum on Ellis Island was boring, but the gift shop was full of cool things! I bought this really cool Mardi Gras mask for my friend! We got to ride down 5th Avenue, which was really cool too! We got to see the place where they have all of the world famous parades too!! We got to see the ice skaters at Rockefeller Center. We saw Ground Zero, but it was surrounded by tall mesh fence all around it, so we really didn't get to see it good. It was also a great experience for me because my mom grew up in NY, and to see the environment that she grew up in was cool!

Washington D.C was also a great experience. Even though we missed our capital tour, it was still cool to see it from the outside! The National Air and Space Museum was cool too. Although Jami and I only had time to go on this stupid waste of money simulator ride, it was still fun! We got to touch a piece of real moon rock, so we can now say that we have touched the moon! The National African Art Museum was beautiful too. Phillip's was an amazing all you can eat buffet that had everything you could dream of! From crab legs to corn dogs to cheesecake, it was there! The waiters were also very cute so it made our experience even better. :)

Pennsylvania was where we spent the majority of our time at. That place is amazing! The art museum that we helped Dr. Lois give out awards at was such a neat place. The gift shop was really cool too. They had all sorts of things in it. Purses, jewelry, kitchen accessories, tools, glass sculptures, and much more! It was a good experience to help with the awards. It was nice to see all of the kids faces as their names were called to get their award. We also got to recruit some future 2010 RYLPers! Philadelphia was full of tons amazing things! The thing I loved the most was China Town! It's nice to know that it's not what everyone says it is! I actually got out of the car and didn't get mugged! Chinese people are harmless! Seeing Will Smith's high school was pretty awesome too. We saw the same sidewalk that he walked on!! How cool is that?!?! We also noticed that Antoine (RYLPer from 09) actually lives right across the street from his school!! Upenn was a good experience. Since I attend a community college it was nice to see how it is on a University campus. It's cool to see all the college students walking around campus....and realizing that I'm a college student too!! The campus was cool, it had really cool statues everywhere. They also had a grocery store on their campus, and tons of restaurants all within walking distance. Sean's acappella show was awesome!! Hearing him sing his solo actually gave me chills! If you have never heard him sing you have to put it on your to do list! AMAZING! Seeing the Upenn game was cool too, even though the other team didn't show up until 5 hours later, we still got to see them play. The Liberty Bell was so cool in person! It's actually an all around boring thing to me, but seeing the ACTUAL Liberty Bell was cool. Chimas was a really cool place too. I've never experienced anything quite like it. I've been to places where i didn't know what the food was that they were serving, but this place was very fancy. I only understood like 3 things on the salad bar.....the lettuce, the rolls, and the red beans and pork!! The fresh mozzarella balls tasted like nothing! They gave us these weird appetizers too. We had little brown balls that were deep fried, and on the inside it was like meat.....tasted like cat food!! The real meat that they served on the skewers was really good too!! All kinds of meat that you could choose from, pork/beef ribs, top sirloin steak, lamb, blackened salmon, sword fish, pork roast, chicken wrapped in bacon, and more! Dessert was delicious too!

This has probably been the best vacation I've ever went on, and i wanna go back again!! The snow was so beautiful!! Playing in it was fun too, but really really cold!!

We all have Dr. Lois to thank for this amazing experience! We have life long memories, and tons of pictures to remind us! We love her so much! She does so much for us, from college advising, teaching us real life responsibilities that are used in the "real world", gives us advice about anything and everything, and takes us on extraordinary trips!! She is such a remarkable woman, and we are all extremely thankful for her. THANK YOU DR. LOIS!! WE LOVE YOU!