Since we had a couple of weeks until our subletter (word of warning: bachelors don't clean so well) moved out of our Cambridge apartment, we spent the extra time visiting fam in Utah. We had a niece and a nephew we'd never met, and a brother and a sister back from missions (F's brother, Adam, back from Japan and B's sister, Steph, back from Brazil), so we had ample reason to spend our ample time in Utah.
Felicia received a Japanese kimono from Adam...
And Brandon got a Brazilian shirt from Steph.
Amidst our family gatherings, we found time to take a hike (literally--haha!) or two. First we hiked to Donut Falls! (Don't you love Brandon sporting his dad's sunglasses?)
We really enjoyed our last hurrah for the summer. We're glad to be back in Cambridge, but there's just something about Utah that we really like. Maybe it's the green jello. Or the dry desert air. Or maybe it's that our families and friends are so close by there.
To top off our New York adventure, we took the 2 hour metro ride to the Bronx Zoo on free zoo day. This was our only attempt to venture into the Bronx territory (our neighborhood was sketchy enough), but the zoo was pretty great. I had never seen a tapir before or a black leopard.
For our last full day in town, our friends and long-time New Yorkers, the Heywoods, took us to see the Met... ...and for a canoe ride in Central Park...
...and to the Whitney Museum for some psychedelic exhibits. I have never been to an art show that requires you to take off your shoes before entering. Very interesting. All in all, it was a great New York day and a great ending to our stay in The City.
We decided to make the 4-hour drive to DC to visit Brandon's brother Brad, and wife Kim, and new baby(!) Amelia. We opted to take the Chinatown bus and bought our tickets beforehand to be sure we'd be set to go. Unfortunately, we missed our 8 o'clock bus by 10 minutes (oops! my bad!), showed several people our tickets (and got chewed out in Chinese for missing our bus) and were told to get on Bus X and wait until 9 o'clock to leave for DC. No problem. Soon Bus X filled up, 9 o'clock came, and we were off to DC! Until we stopped in Philadelphia and everyone got off Bus X. Turns out the bus that we were told was the DC bus was actually the Philadelphia bus. So we waited for an hour-ish until a nice Chinese lady came and got us and told us that the DC bus was leaving. Off to DC! Except the bus made a stop in Baltimore to let off and get more people. Luckily, the bus started moving again pretty soon and we finally arrived in DC--only 7+ hours after we had left! Since by this time, the entire day was pretty much a bust, we decided to wander around Georgetown with Brad, Kim, and Amelia instead of driving to all the cool places we were planning on going. (note to self: make enough money to live in Georgetown.) We were also able to hang out with our good friend Baxter Oliphant and meet girlfriend Gwen. We visited the DC Temple and happened to see our friend from BYU, Kaeli--er, Sister McCall--and had a great time visiting with her. To top off our weekend, the Wilson families decided to head up to Luray, Virginia to see the Luray Caverns. It was an adventure! What made the cave so cool was A) it was a really big cave B) the stalactite organ and C) our tour guide was hilarious. The organ was constructed over 50 years ago by hitting different stalactite's with a little mallet to get the right note. Here's a video (sorry it's so dark) of us listening to the stalactite organ. You can't really see it in the video, but we were watching the little mallets hit the stalactites.
Here's a video of our tour guide talking. He was the king of bad puns, pronounced 'caverns' as 'cavrens,' and was just funny to listen to. You might not be able to make out what he's saying, but just listen to that voice inflection. It makes you want to become a tour guide!
So, to summarize: Chinatown buses=don't trust the bus you're on Georgetown=looks really ritzy DC Temple=very large Luray Caverns=ask for Scott to be your tour guide
