Vacation 2007: 10 of my favorite memories.

Alexandria, Virginia at night.

There are so many pictures I felt that it would be unfair to everyone to post every picture we took - unless you want to click here to view all of the photos. Instead, I picked my favorite pictures and those representing my favorite memories of the trip. It has always been my belief that good vacations are a mixture of the sights, good food, family or/and friends, a few hiccups, and memories to last forever. Here are my top ten memories of our vacation.

#1. Taking three days to stay away from the hustle of the big city and relax in the country at Sterling Ridge Resort Cabins in Jeffersonville, VT. Craig purchased a spider man and princess fishing poles and went fishing for the first time with them. We also canoed a couple times, swam at the pool, and kicked back with nothing to do but have fun. The girls also got to stay up every night until dark and try to catch fire flies.

#2. I was so anxious for the girls to have some quality daddy time. Fishing, the country is all in Craig's element and where he's the most relaxed. The girls really enjoyed fishing with him and were so interested in everything he said. Nini, particularly was excited to practice her casting and I was excited to sit and read a book while they fished!

#3. We really had a great time canoeing as a family. The girls did a great job staying in one place in the boat so we didn't tip over. We canoed, both in a stream and a large pond. I am not a big fan of canoeing in ponds, but really enjoyed the clearer waters of the stream.

#4. Viewing the Fort Ticonderoga Reenactment of the French and Indian War Battle at Fort Ticonderoga. It was amazing to see so many people involved, from the french in Quebec, to British, Indian, and Militia Reeneacters. They also had a village of colonial craftsman, and baked goods you could buy that were baked in a brick fireplace.

I realized before heading back to the car that I hadn't been in a single picture that was taken about our day. So, this was it, my only photo at the Fort!

Can you guess who my tomboy is?

One side of the encampment - really neat to see.

Check out this video from the end of the reenactment:

#5 Finding Craig's brick was one of my favorite memories. It may seem like such a small and silly thing to capture as a favorite moment! However, entering Craig's Alma Mater for the first time with the girls, allowed me to realize that all the goals and dreams we had back in school days, had come to reality.

Craig's brick - not an easy task to find!

#6. We love to find new places to eat. We are always a little leery and have often had good reason to be, but many times we are pleasantly surprised by our choices. On the upstate NY and Vermont roads there is a plethora of "snack shacks" or food stands that pop-up as soon as the good weather hits. The only other place we had seen these temporary food shacks was in Delaware. Some are individuals and others are from small fast food type company's. We stopped at Hoss's Dog House in St. Albans, VT and didn't have a hot dog, but a Hamburger that was very good. I wanted to take a picture of the stand, but felt that the local townspeople were a bit too interested in our Quebec liscense plate - and I didn't want to make a scene. Maybe next time I'll get the brass to take the picture!

While in DC we hit three favorite restaurants. The first is an Iranian restaurant, one I used to frequent when I worked as a Marketing Rep. in Arlington, VA. It's off of Wilson Blvd in Arlington and is called Kabob Bazaar. The chicken and beef Kabobs are so, so good, but it's the rice that just made my day.

Our second hit, was Five Guys. I forgot that when you order a "Hamburger" it's loaded with two patties - so I had to take one patty off. We also forgot how large a regular fry is and ended up with a brown bag of fresh fries, but ate maybe an 1/8 - we'll remember next time. It is the best burger - if you live by one, go!

Our third hit was Joe's Pizza and Pasta. Craig used to eat here on his mission in 1990, with his companions. $3.99, all-you-can eat pizza, pasta, salad, and soup. When we moved to the DC area in 1996, we averaged at least once a week here. Really good! The one we frequented moved it's location to Fairfax, VA - but we went anyway and still loved it, even at it's $7.99 price.

#7 We loved being able to meet up with Loan and Susan. Both young lady's Craig met on his mission to DC in 1990; they were five and six at the time and used to hang off Craig's tie! We moved back in 1996 and were able to attend the same branch. I met them when they were 11 and stayed close to them through the years, and keeping in contact after we left. Both graduated from college this year and both just started their first after college "real world" jobs! We loved seeing them!

Susan, me, and the girls at the Silver, Diner in Arlington.

Visiting with Loan and her parents- her parents took the photo!

#8. Sitting on the Mall in DC and 4th Fireworks were so fun. Partly because of fond memories and mainly because the heat and throngs of people were lessened because of the torrential rain storm that hit DC around 6:00 p.m. It was by far the least amount of traffic we've ever had to go through to get to the fireworks - yeah!

Loan came with us to the mall, the girls were so excited about her coming!

Click below to view part of the finale. FYI, you may notice the fireworks going from left to right! I didn't think before I recorded it as I wanted to get the full scope of the fireworks going off. So it's not your screens, it's my filming!

#9 Alexandria, VA, Mt. Vernon, and DC mall we had a great time seeing in a very speedy pace. We were only in the area for 2.5 days and just couldn't see everything or everybody we wanted to, but we did take in a few sites. Our favorite spot was Alexandria at night, I found my night/twilight feature on my camera and did a bit of experimenting with it - what do you think?

The girls were a little hyper after having ice cream we bought from Ben and Jerry's. This pic is taken at the Wharfs in Alexandria, Virginia.

City Hall, Alexandria

At the Potomac at Mt. Vernon.

Flag at night on the mall. We really wanted to visit the WWII memorial, but it was still blocked off. It was really neat to see this flag waving in the night sky, quite fitting for DC.

#10 My absolute favorite memory of our vacation was seeing our family relaxed! The girls just had so much fun in the country, not too much in the humidity of DC, but loved to run, jump, and play. It was so refreshing and I have many fond memories of our vacation.

Giddy on the bus to our drop-off point on our canoe trip. I love this picture!

My absolute favorite picture of the entire vacation was this:

Click HERE if you want to see all our pictures!