The Bookstore In Maine

Maine was by far one of the best places on the trip. Portland was our next destination and we were about to meet some of our mothers friends at their bookstore there. After only about an hour or two from Old Orchard Beach we were finally arrived, and found a place to park. Portland had rich culture and we were very excited to experience it! The bookstore we were going to was called Carlson and Turner. The book store was great, and known for their antiques. There was art on the walls, and a sight that you wouldn’t see much anymore- a moving ladder on the wall. This shop was dedicated to very old stuff! While we were there we asked them about places to see and met them and their dog.

The first place we wanted to go was to the waterfront. We found a great restaurant that was a converted Yacht. Once we found a great place to sit we ordered delicious crab meals. I got the crab sandwich, which was a lot more than it sounded like. It was the absolute best thing I had ever tasted!

Portland was a very commercialized city- much more than we thought. There were many venders along side the ocean, but the stuff was a little too expensive for our liking- so we moved on. We checked out a bunch of shops and we found a deal on T-shirts, but they were so plain we didn’t get them- They didn’t even say Portland or Maine on it. After we checked out the city, we left to see the famous light house that everyone was talking about! We got the chance to meet some locals (which my dad thought were Spanish but were Jamaican- I’m trying to learn Spanish) and were able to experience the absolutely stunning view. After that, the time had come to go back- we left to get to Old Orchard Beach again, and hung out at the beach before returning home and getting a good nights sleep for the following day- trying famous Maine Lobster!

The City by Lake Erie

Only a couple of hours had passed when we arrived late in the afternoon at our next destination (Erie, Pennsylvania). The beautiful, shimmering green leaves glowed in the light and welcomed us into its beautiful town by the lake. As we drove to the nice sized city, which was not small yet not too large, we were amazed by the beautiful sites that it presented to us. Our plan was to spend a couple of days there and visit some of our friends which we had recently met. Although there is not much historical value in the part of Pennsylvania where we were spending the next week or so we decided to just use it as a break to take inventory and get the rest of the trip settled. We pulled into the KOA campground that we had booked, which was full, and found our spot. I visited the gift shop as I always do in the campgrounds we visit, and spent time with some other people in the park. I met some other people that I got to talk to with my brother and that is how we spent the rest of the night. Eventually one of the campground managers made us go back to our camps because it was sleeping hour for the park so we did. The next day looked similar, and so did the next. After 5 days we moved to our friends house, a nice intelligent woman named Jan, to stay at her place. We parked in front of her house in her driveway, which was near the bushes, and met her neighbors. They were nice so we talked for a long time there. Jan’s house, as we soon found out, was beautiful. Her front yard was enclosed by a 7 foot tall (Maybe more) row of bushes that enclosed a grassy area, her patio that held 4 decorated shells (with seashells attached) along with a tree that was many yards high, possibly 20, and a trail that led to her backyard. In her back yard she had many bushes as well that left enough room for a very good sized soccer field (a short one though) or perhaps a baseball field. Her living room overlooked it and the front yard, and included chairs and 3 of its 4 sides were made of 90% window glass. Her nice two story house had a great luxury theme to it and was the perfect size for her. Bernard Waber, the owner and create of Arthur the Anteater, used to full-time live in her house before she bought it. His first book was written in her room. I know almost nothing about Arthur or his friends, but that’s still kind of cool and I guess you could consider him a celebrity. After a couple of days our friends from Pittsburgh visited us and we talked for a long time. This was the 3rd time we had seen them, but I have not blogged about the last time. Their cousins were there and we very much enjoyed their company as well. I got to know Sarah the best of them, and she had a good sense of humor. Max and Alex were just as nice as last time. When they got to our house, however, we were so excited to see them even a bit more this time. We had the most fun we had ever had. Music played and we all drank C0KES and DIET CR3AM SODAS (Both brands are copyrighted) while we talked. We had a great baseball game (which my team won 28 to 5) and a game of soccer (or football for some of my non-american friends) before going inside. We did manage to slip in a game of AMERICAN football, too. We put up some mattresses for them and hung out all the way past 11 or 12 o’clock. We saw them the next morning but they needed to leave. The day after we would need to leave, too. Sadly an incident occurred… My little brother, Aidan, was at the neighbors house. I was getting tired and wanted to go to bed and so did everyone else. I went to go get him and he didn’t want to come back. That’s when it happened. He was chopping wood for their fire and creating “Kindling bombs” with Ellie, the youngest one. I gave him a couple more minutes. He put them in the fire and it got bigger. One of the pieces fell out of the pi and… He tried to put it back in. All of the sudden I heard a yelp and I ran over to see him. The top joints of all of his fingers were black light the night sky that glared at us from above. It all of the sudden went away and we got him some burn control items from a first aid kit. All of the sudden it came. Our father, a retired Fireman Captain, claimed that it was a 3rd degree burn… the worst one possible. The rest of the night went badly and I was sad to need to watch my brother go through this. I went to bed before him and that was all for the night. I think I’ll draw the curtain and end the post there.

Arriving at Pittsburg

 

Transitioning from our adventures at the Beach Party and Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania included a LOT of farmland. Though towns are a lot more exciting to look through and see what they had to offer, it was entertaining to watch the unusual illusions of light the rolling hills gave out. We passed through a couple of small towns but nothing big enough to be exciting. Once we did finally arrive at our campground that we would spend the night it was around 3:00-4:00 so we were able to set up quickly in the light. When my mother was a kid she met a girl named Colleen and became instant best friends, and when her mom met Colleen’s mom they immediately became best friends, too. Colleen was now a mother of two kids, much like ours, and we were soon going to be able to visit them when they arrived at our site. We got out some drinks and food and prepared a huge fire so when they got here it would be more exciting. My brother and I each pulled out an axe and chopped up some lumber that we could use for the fire. After a couple of trips we had everything we needed to build a large respectable fire. They eventually pulled up and we introduced ourselves, as did they. It wasn’t long until WE were best friends as well. We all shared common interests, and I mostly talked to Max, the older one that was my age while my brother talked more to Alex, the one that was almost HIS age. We eventually came back from our short walk (that we didn’t know we had gone on) and walked inside to give a tour. They loved my room that was in the back of the camper and said that it was so awesome that we could travel the country like we were doing. WE had some drinks and chips and they pulled up their favorite youtube channels and we showed them ours, and were both hooked on each others. We later went outside so we could have s’mores and talk with the adults and exchanged memories of our past couple years. I always loved burning my marshmallows so that the crunchy outside would contain the liquid inside. Many people don’t think it would taste good at all but it’s actually better than the original version of s’mores! Max tried it and loved it. We snuck chocolate inside and ate some of it and talked some more. Time passed and not a second of it was wasted, laughing and excited the entire time. They eventually needed to go around 11:00 but we would see them tomorrow. We laughed as our group walked to the car and we were still talking even as they climbed into their seats! We told them we’d see them tomorrow and walked into the camper for another 30 minutes after the fire was out and settled down until we fell asleep soon after. What a great start to Pittsburg!

Notre Dame

Our journey through Chicago was over; it was time to pack up and leave. We carefully set up the camper, out the slides in, and drove away. We were not going to miss the campground, but we were going to miss Chicago. Our goal for the day was a driving day, but when we got a call from some friends that lived in Indiana that we were close by, we had to visit them. I did not recognize them because it had been at least a decade since we had seen them last, but our parents did. After hours of mountains and small lakes going by and through different fields with hundreds of colors we were finally there. How would we get our 40-foot home through the narrow streets or Notre dame?

When driving through neighborhoods we realized we weren’t in the best area because of how many cop cars PATROLLED, not just drove, across the streets. In one of them we met 2 cop cars on the same little road! We pulled up and called our friends. We were near the college of Notre Dame, home of the Fighting Irish. When we saw a black truck we realized it must be them. We parked our home, they parked there car, and we got out and slowly walked towards each other family as if we were in some sort of a movie. The “kids” (meaning the 4 of us) awkwardly waited, not knowing each other. Last time we had seen each other (which I once again don’t remember) none of the kids were born. I was the oldest of all of them by far, having the youngest being the only girl at 8, her brother, Will at 10, and my little brother at 11. I sort of hung around the adults for most of the time but I got to meet Will and Natilee as well.

We got a chance to look around the college, starting with the most famous part “Touchdown Jesus”. It was and old mosaic but it was kept in such great shape (even being hundreds of square feet) that you would think it was made a few weeks ago. Touchdown Jesus was at the far edge of the courtyard where students could roam whey they pleased. After that we played a short game of football (american) with the ball that we brought. After our team won we went inside for a bit (probably seeing far less that 1% of the college) by walking upstairs to the library. I don’t quite know why we visited the library exactly because it was just a regular library, but it did give us a chance to see the area briefly AROUND the library. It was a VERY expensive looking school (from what I saw) and had huge glass windows everywhere to look over the massive courtyards. I was kind of jealous!

Being a very Catholic-based school, the two main attractions of the campus were Touchdown Jesus, and the on-campus church. That’s what we decided to do next. We stayed for a little bit marveling at the architecture and then left. We decided to go back to the camper and then maybe go out for some dinner with them. When we finally got back to the camper we set it up and invited our friends inside. We went to get some chairs so we could sit outside before it started to storm, we saw the clock. We were 5 hours away from our destination and it was already 7:00! We told them we really needed to go, sadly said goodbye, and left. After a long time of driving through mountains, on cliff sides, and over rivers, we finally got there at midnight. We hurriedly checked in and then parked our camper. We loaded it up, not very rushed anymore, and went to sleep.

 

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#Fighting Irish    #Friends    #NotreDame

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