Camping with ticks, lightening and more...

So after being gone for 3 and 1/2 weeks it sure felt good to be home, back in MY home! Yet only after being home 1 and 1/2 days Garrett decided he was ready for a vacation, since he worked the whole time we were in CA. So he found a State Park on Long Island that we could camp at for the weekend. This park also happened to be only 1 hour from Manhattan... so off we went to camp on Long Island, and... take a few trips into New York City! So here I am 37 full weeks pregnant, driving the 7 hours it takes us to get to the city, camping out in a tent, and sleeping on an air mattress. Surprisingly I didn't really complain, it wasn't so bad, that was until I got bite by a tick in my enlarging stomach! Thankfully we got the tick out and I am still alive! The trip was really fun, the camp ground was beautiful, except for being tick infested, and was just a short drive to the beach!

The beautiful camp ground!

We had quite a crazy weekend while camping, we saw a tree get hit by lightening, had a raccoon attack our tent in the middle of the night, I got bit by a tick, discovered that our windshield wipers didn't work in the middle of a rain storm, and enjoyed playing at the beach!

This was the beach at the camp ground, not the best beach but still fun!

The tree that was hit by lightening, not far from our tent!So after staying on Long Island for 2 days we were ready to head to Manhattan. We weren't sure how long we wanted to stay in the city so we played our trip by ear. Our first stop was Ground Zero. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, I guess I thought I would see so much damage and blown up airplanes, but instead all we saw was construction.

What was I thinking that we would see such disaster all these years later! We went to the 9/11 Museum, but after paying 30$ to park for 2 hours, we couldn't make our selves stay and enter the museum for fear we would have to sell Ciella to pay to park any longer. Although looking back, I wish we would have taken the time while we were there!

Next we decided we would spend some time walking through Central Park and enjoy the scenery. We walked almost all the way up the 2 and 1/2 miles of Central Park to get to the Guggenheim Museum so Garrett could get his fill of the awesome Architecture in NYC.
But when we got there, they were doing construction like crazy so all we saw was scaffolding.

Let me just say we had a wonderful time, I am so glad we went, but the weather was unbelievable, in a bad way. It was 97 degrees with what felt like 100% humidity! So besides my already bright red face from being VERY sun burnt from our day playing at the beach, then I got so hot (being so pregnant) walking every where possible in NYC that I must have looked like I was about to die.

So after walking to the top of central Park we walked all the way back down to Rockefeller Center. Which I think was like 50 some blocks! By the time we got there I thought I was going to die so we sat down to take a break and didn't even get out the camera!

Then we walked several more blocks to Time Square to enjoy the sights!

By the time we enjoyed Time Square and the excitement that lives there I was quite done walking for the day, actually after walked around for hours I am surprised I didn't put myself into labor. So we made the few more blocks backed to our parked car, payed to park with our life savings and decided to head out of the city!

Overall it was an awesome trip and I am so glad we did it. I was even the one who drove around through the city while Garrett used his mad navigation skills to lead me through the streets! I can't wait to go again when friends come to visit!