blog.LucasQualls.com

*Editor’s Note: This post was originally typed and posted on June 30. Pictures were added later on July 4. The images from TwitPic were taken with my phone. The others were taken with my digital camera.*

We weren’t even originally going to leave until tomorrow (Thursday). Today was added on at the last minute and so we had no real plans or reservations. Here’s how it went down.

We left home at a little after 5am. The plan was to drive about half way today and then the rest of the way into Washington DC tomorrow.

Our first stop was at Shoney’s in Jackson, TN for their breakfast buffet. It was awesome. I highly recommend it to anyone traveling through the Jackson, TN area, or anywhere else that has a Shoney’s.

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After that, we were looking for a rest stop that was also a visitor’s information center that had brochures. We ended up stopping at two rest stops before we finally found the right one. At that rest area, I saw a brochure for the Ripley’s Aquarium in Gatlinburg. I said I wanted to go there, and we decided we would when we got into Gatlinburg.

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They then made the fateful decision that they wanted to drive through Cade’s Cove. This is an 11 mile somewhat-circle around a wildlife refuge in the Ozark Mountains State Park. It was pretty, and we did see some animals, but there was no cell signal and we were there almost 4 hours, so by the end, I was getting more than a little bored.

After that, we drove on to Gatlinburg and went to the Ripley’s Aquarium. They have an awesome display of aquatic life there. They have a huge Shark Tunnel which is a completely enclosed acrylic tube that has a moving sidewalk. All the way through this tube, you can look up and see the Sharks swimming all around you. It’s pretty awesome. Also, the whole reason I wanted to go was to see the PENGUINS. I love penguins. I’m not really sure why. But penguins are awesome. And they have an awesome habitat set up for the penguins there.

I will be posting pictures later,(Pictures are now posted) but right now, I’m completely exhausted, and i was just told that we are planning on leaving at around 7AM, so I’ve got to go get some sleep.

I will try my best to make another post tomorrow night with pictures from today’s events as well as pics from whatever we end up doing tomorrow in DC and along the way there.

I’m headed to vacation here in a few days. My parents, my sister and I are going to Washington, D.C., and New York City, New York.

Here are some of the things we are planning to do along the way. First of all, we are driving. So, the first day we are planning to drive to Pigeon Forge, TN. My parents apparently have vacationed there before. We will spend one night there and then drive on to Washington, D.C. the next day.

In D.C., we are planning on doing these things:

• Tour White House
• Tour Capital Building
• Tour Monuments
• Arlington Cemetary

In New York City, we are planning on doing these things:

• Broadway Show (Hopefully Phantom of the Opera, because this is what I’m looking most forward to…)
• See Times Square at night (the second most looked forward to thing on my behalf)
• Statue of Liberty
• Possible Tour
• New York City Fireworks

Also, we’re going to try to go through Atlantic City on the way home. I want to tour the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, but I don’t know if that will fit into the agenda or not.

Of course, I will have my phone and my laptop with me. I will be taking plenty of pictures with my digital camera. I will try to make daily blog posts with pictures. I don’t know if this will happen or not. However, I will be trying to check into most places on FourSquare and Gowalla. I will also probably be posting plenty of updates on my Twitter ( @lukenova ). You can also follow me on Facebook for some updates and possibly pictures.