Liberty Science Center, Jersey City, New Jersey

Marshmallow science - that's Sam and Noa's kind of science.  Making stuff with marshmallows and toothpicks.

 

Climbing tower

Marine animals touch tank. You can touch crabs, snails and other river and sea animals.

With Sam's new nail hammering skills, maybe he can be put to use to hang one of his parents' framed pictures which they never seem to get around to hang...

Noa and Sam in a "touch tunnel" - you walk/crawl through it in complete pitch darkness. This is the night vision camera's view of them inside of the tunnel.

Home of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Vanderbilt Mansion, in Hyde Park, Hudson Valley, New York

Home of President Franklin D. Roosevelt 

... I hereby urge the leaders of Congress to pass the following bill...

...So with that, let me take a couple of questions. And I will start with Megan Smith from Fox News.

Today we visited the house which Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) owned, often visited and where he entertained many foreign dignitaries during his 12 years as U.S. president between 1933-1945, including the king and queen of England. He was born in this house and he always considered this place home and his favorite.

The site also had a museum about FDR, including a kids play section here.

Valderbilt Mansion

Also in the same town of Hyde Park, a few miles from the FDR house, is the Vanderbilt Mansion. It belonged to Theodore Vanderbilt, whose massive family wealth derived from the railroads in the middle and late 19th century. Theodore only used this house for a few weeks each year in the fall and spring.

Some of the rooms were imported directly from Italian Renassaince villas.

Hmmm. how do I turn off this flash... got to adjust aperture and depth of field...

"The Niagara of Pennsylvania" - Bushkill Falls, in Bushkills, Pennsylvania

We decided to check out the waterfall which calls itself, not suffering from any excess modesty, "the Niagara of Pennsylvania" - Bushkill Falls. The waterfall is actually privately owned, and one has to pay $12.50 to go see it. I wonder what the owners say at cocktail parties.
      - So, what do you do?
Options include:
      (a) My specialty is waterfall operations management
      (b) I'm in the dropping water business
      (c) I'm a professional waterfaller
      (d) I'm a Descending Liquid professional

A lookout over the Pocono Mountains in eastern Pennsylvania

There were 8 other smaller waterfalls in this park. We could pass on a bridge on top of one of them

 

Under this bridge

 

Halloween

Bethlehem, Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania

Aunt Julia and grandma Gala  came along to hang out

In Moravian Museum, one side of a room had antique toys that you can't touch. So that this doesn't feel too unfair, the other side of the room had modern toys we could play with. Great idea!

 

Touring the old premises of a Bethlehem Steel plant.

With a matching jacket, Sam fit right in with this Mack Truck. Except for a small detail - Sam was smaller than the truck's wheel!

Bethlehem downtown, near Moravian College. The town was created in early 1700s by the Moravians who were a protestant community from Europe. Many of the stone buildings from that time still stand and are still in use.

Checking out the view of the Lehigh Valley.

Historic Richmondtown, Staten Island, New York

Yesterday we checked out Richmondtown, which is a village in Staten Island, NY, made up of historical buildings brought there from various places in Staten Island. Here we are in a house which was a tavern in the 1850's. Sam is trying a puzzle which the guests would have occupied themselves with during dinner - one has to take a circle off the key chain without taking off the triangle (neither Sam, mom or dad could figure it out!)

 

 

Around some of the older Dutch heritage houses.

 

Trying to imagine himself as the tavern keeper.

 

Stick + rope + Sam = loads of fun 

 

Valley Forge and Pennsbury Manor, Pennsylvania

Valley Forge National Historical Site, Pennsylvania

 

Sam (clutching a box of crackers) inside a reconstructed hut similar to what would have housed 12 patriot soldiers. George Washington's army spent a winter and a spring in winter camp here (about 6 months) in 1777-1778. History is nice, but how did they survive without Cheez-It's back then?

On a guided hour of the encampment park in a trolley

Stopover at Washington's headquarters. The wooden huts in the back are where the general's guarding troops would have been

At the Valley Forge visitor's center.

 

Pennsbury Manor, Morrisville, Pennsylvania

This is a reconstructed home of William Penn, the first governor of Pennsylvania (the word Pennsylvania means "Penn's woods", the land that the English king gave to William Penn's father in the 17th century. I wonder what it would be like to own all of Pennsylvania (about the size of Greece, or Bulgaria). Pennsbury Manor was William Penn's country "cottage", and he took a boat like this down the river there from Philadelphia in the summer

 

Making apple cider: Step 1: Crush apples. Sam really enjoyed this one and went at for a while!

 

Step 2: press and squeeze the crushed apples

 

Step 3: have fun drinking apple cider you just made!

In the Pennsbury Manor garden

Hmmm. That vehicle of Penn's must have had very high clearance. Horse SUV?