May 2009- Philly, Rachel & Butterflies

Amazing Race TV show - season finale 14. The contestants and Phil Koeghan (host) were are the hotel to watch the Season Finale. What an incredible night! Phil is so great. He had just finished a bike ride from the Pacific to the Atlantic ocean (3,500 miles and 42 days) to raise money for MS - he raised $400,000. Below is me, Phil, and Jeff (Marriott PR).

Phil and the contestants of the Amazing Race.

Me in the kitchen at Lombardi's Pizza - Little Italy - first and best pizza in NYC!

You can build your own muppet for one $120 at FOA Schwartz in NYC. I could only afford this picture - but very cool!

Rainy day at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetary at the Headless Horseman bridge - scary! Run Rachel Run!

Philadelphia for Memorial Day 2009 - Traditional Philly sites - Liberty Bell with Indepenence Hall in the background.

Across from the Residence Inn, we stayed in and Love (JFK) Park is a great public art display of giant sized "game pieces". From our hotel room on the 20th floor we had a fantastic view of the clock below William Penn on the City Hall Building and the big game pieces. We were so excited to finally play on them. Below is the wheel barrow from Monopoly. That looks heavy - even without Tessa in it.

B-1: Is that your winning BINGO number? Those are some big BINGO chips!

Look at all those giant game pieces from Bingo, Dominos, Chess and Parchesi - this kids are pretty cute too!

That is one big iron! I wish the girls could iron - can't have it all... In the back (tan building just to left of light colored City Hall) is our hotel - amazing renovated art deco bank building.

LOVE sculpture in Love Park with my Love - it is a lot smaller than I thought it would be.

How sweet are they? They want to wade in the fountain at Love Park to rest their tired feet from walking all over the Zoo - but they were soaking wet after an hour and a half of being in the fountain - kids - what do you expect? They played tag with other kids they met in the fountain. They found their own pool when the hotel did not have one...

The Philadelphia Zoo ROCKS!!! It is the first Zoo in America - 150 years old! They have over 1800 species there - a few that are only there and in San Diego. It was amazing! (we did not ride in the balloon...)

The children's petting zoo - That bunny is sure checking out that carrot... Good thing the carrot runs fast.

"Never smile at a Crocadile... They were exciting to find an animal they could ride together on the Rain Forest carousel. It was beautiful!

Tessa was in love with the Peacocks. She said she had never seen one before - I am pretty sure they have them in Boise. She thought there was only one in the zoo and was amazed how we saw them all over the zoo. Finally she saw two and realized there were more than one... She is so cute!

Creepy gross - king cobra are much more nasty than the pythons. There are tons of people bitten by them every year in India - this should tell you something... Tessa is pretending to be a Cobra- that is also her puppy impression...

On top of a 1950 "Big Bus" double decker tour bus of Philly with the City Hall in the background.

ALBANY - NY state Capitol. Dagny has wanted to show us Albany for months ever since she went on a tour there for her field trip. She is learning so much about NY history - it has been great for is all - since Joel and I know Idaho history - NY goes much further back. The Capitol Building is the most amazing building I have ever seen. I cannot believe it was built with public money - $25 million in 1899 after 42 years of construction. Built at the same time as the White House ($11 million). Teddy Roosevelt stopped construction and many of the stone works were never completed. Everyone should see it. The Empire Plaza we are standing in is incredible to see as well!

Orange County Choppers (we live in OC) - we did not realize there was a popular reality TV show on from our area. The motorcycles are incredible - all should see them! All sorts of themes - very amazing! Good thing Rachel knew about them...

Rachel and I visit the Sleepy Hallow Cemetary. This is the grave site of Washington Irving - the Author of Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle.

Sleepy Hollow Cemetary - Andrew Carnegie grace site.

Lyndhurst mansion - home of Jay Gould - overlooking the Hudson River - WOW especially in the rain...

Rachel and I visit West Poitnt millitary academy. Absolutely beautiful!

Girls grow butterflies from caterpiller we get from 4-H. Dagny had three that we set two free one was injured - we still have him, and Tessa's we set one free - the other one has deformed wings due to the plastic cover in the show box - fell on him when we were in Philly - after a day we realized he was still alive and we are taking good care of the cripple butterflies includine one that got stepped on at the play ground at PineTree.

Dagny with her chrysilas.