Solseth girls trip to Connecticut and beyond

Boston - The Old North Church and Paul Revere

Boston - Laurie and Lisa at the USS Constitution, Old Ironsides

Boston - the beautiful view from the top of our hotel, The Custom House

Newport, Rhode Island - In front of "The Breakers"

Newport, Rhode Island - nice picture of Mom behind The Breakers on the Cliff Walk

Central Park - Leslie, Laurie, Mom, Lyn and Lia outside of Tavern on the Green

New York City- at the Today show

Central Park - what a beautiful place. During daylight anyway.

Central Park

Mom and Leslie at Mystic Seaport Connecticut

Glastonbury CT, where we used to live

Sam broke his hand on Tuesday playing baseball. He caught a ball and tried to trap it with his right hand, but somehow his pinky finger got in the way. It is called a boxer's fracture because it usually happens to someone who has punched a stationary object, like someone's face. I asked Sam if he tried to take out the runner with a jab, but he swears he did not. Anyway, we did not know it was broken and he played another game (even pitched). I finally took him to the doctor yesterday and today he got the beautiful pink cast. Sam is nothing if not confident in his masculinity. Baseball 2008 is over! New nickname - Lobster Boy.

Gas Prices

Someday I will look back at this picture and remember fondly the day gas was only $4.17 a gallon!!!

Welcome to the Gun Show

From Sam: Thank you for the shirt Uncle Jonny. My exhibits are getting bigger.

From David: Uncle Jonny, thank you for the t-shirt. I will wear it to widely proclaim the size of my exhibits. AWESOME!

From Jack: Thank you for the shirt Uncle Jonny.

Philadelphia

We spent Feb. 16-19 in Pennsylvania, since the boys are on school break right now. We started in Valley Forge, then the next day we went to downtown Philly, then through the Amish country in Lancaster County, then to Gettysburg and ended in Hershey PA. It was a quick and busy trip, but very fun.

We spent a long day in Philadelphia touring the historic sites. It was very interesting, and I am so glad we went. Independence Park is an area in downtown Philadelphia that has around 40 buildings you can walk through. We toured only about 5 of the most historic sites. After spending the morning and afternoon rooted in history, we headed to the science museum, then off to a very famous spot called Gino's to have a Philly cheesesteak. Yum!

This is the City Tavern. It was a spot where Washington, Franklin, Jefferson and our other founding fathers spent a lot of time. We ate lunch here, served by waiters in period costumes. We all loved it!
This is the room inside Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed. The boys with the Liberty Bell. You can see Independence Hall behind them through the window.
The first Senate chambers. Also where Adams and Jefferson were sworn in as President.
Independence Hall.

Franklin Institute Science Museum

After touring the historic sites we headed to the science museum where there was a Star Wars exhibit of many of the original costumes and props. Very cool.

The original Darth Vader costume.
Wookies. And Chewbacca and a friend behind them.
Jack was walking back to the truck to get something and did not see this Stormtrooper walking behind him. Brian yelled "Jack, look out for the Stormtrooper!" Jack jumped about a mile. It is very hard to read the expression of Stormtroopers, but I am pretty sure he was laughing.

Gettysburg

We took a driving tour through Gettysburg, with an audio CD we bought in the gift shop. That worked great as it led you from one site to the next explaining what happened. The battlefield is huge and it took us almost 2 hours to get through it, and I think by the end the boys were ready to move on to the hotel pool. Brian and I liked it though! We plan on watching the mini-series on Gettysburg sometime soon, and maybe then it will all become clearer.

David and Jack by the statue honoring the Minnesota battalion that fought. Most of them died near here during Pickett's charge.
This is near where Lincoln gave his Gettysburg address.
The Yankees once again have the high ground on Little Round Top!