The Statue of Liberty Crown Tour we booked 4 months in advance because of the limited amount of visitors allowed per day. Approximately 240 people only are allowed to visit the crown each day. This tour included the following: access up to the Crown of the Statue of Liberty, priority entry into the Boarding Queue, which saved us wait time at the departure point and access to the grounds of Liberty Island and Ellis Island.
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I really enjoy our short New York trips. One time we visited NYC at Christmas Time. The other time we spent time in Chinatown and Little Italy. This time we were there for a Broadway show and the Statue of Liberty Crown tour.
Dave and I were looking forward to see The Book of Mormon musical for a while. Finally, The Book of Mormon musical arrived at the Opera House of the Kennedy Center in DC. Dave bought the tickets in advance for the first row of the balcony.
This is a picture of The Book of Mormon Proscenium (the stage opening) and Scrim (special effect theater curtains). I was wondering what they exactly mean, and I found the explanation from the playbill.com site: “The Proscenium, which is inspired by contemporary Mormon temples and other religious architecture, is filled with illuminated stained glass windows that transform in color throughout the evening, and is topped by the gilded (and rotating!) statue of the Angel Moroni. This frames our entire evening, attributing an important pageant-like quality to the story. The Show Scrim and the architectural panels installed above each of the audience boxes are inspired by galactic views of the universe, combined with an inspirational greeting-card-style sunrise to create an imagined vision of Mormon heaven.”
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The Wegmans supermarket was opened at Hilltop Village Center, just 3 miles from our home, last month. Dave and I finally visited this premier grocer in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast United States today. Not an exaggeration to say that this supermarket is the best supermarket I have ever seen! Shopping at Wegmans is like a journey through a small, beautifully maintained, self-sustaining city. The food selection here is unparalleled, especially the cheese selection!
Recently, I noticed that the Visit Alexandria website was advertising the arrival of the ship “Hermione” to the Alexandria harbor. The event included various activities and the ship looked beautiful from the picture. The Hermione was supposed to be there for 10 days, but it was almost over by the week-end. After Alexandria, the ship was planned to visit several historical ports, one of them was Baltimore next week-end.
Early Sunday morning Dave and I arrived at the Baltimore Inner Harbor to explore the Hermione, visit the National Aquarium and enjoy a beautiful sunny day on the Harbor. Isn’t she beautiful?
The last day of our stay in Orlando, Dave and I spent at Islands of Adventure. We visited this amusement park a few years ago, but decided to re-visit it. We went through the attractions that we missed last time and enjoyed our favorite rides again. We started our journey with the most popular The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Island, which was already crowded.
Each spring, the cherry blossoms burst into color at the Washington DC’s Tidal Basin. But the peak bloom period lasts only a few days, and precisely when it happens varies each year. This year we had late peak bloom around April 10th.
Dave and I arrived at the Tidal Basin early in the morning to beat the crowd and catch the sunrise. We had no luck with the sunrise because of the clouds, but we did beat most of the crowd.
After enjoying the cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin, we moved towards the Washington Monument to see more cherry blossoms there. I am glad that we came earlier, because it was getting very crowded by 10 A.M. Here are some pictures of the gorgeous cherry blossoms from this morning.
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On our last day in Aruba we decided to visit our favorite beaches one more time. In the evening we were going to have dinner in one of the restaurants around the Palm Beach Plaza. This lonely palm tree below is from Bachelor’s Beach.
In the afternoon, after spending some time on the beach, Dave and I decided to check out the local Butterfly Farm, where hundreds of fascinating, gorgeous butterflies flutter freely in a richly vegetated mesh enclosure. A Scarlet Swallowtail butterfly is in the picture below.
The main reason we decided to spend a day on De Palm Island is snorkeling. This unique coral island is the only place in Aruba, where you can swim with the Blue Parrotfish, native only to this area. De Palm Island is an all inclusive private island own by the De Palm Tour Company. There are numerous activities included in the ticket, but we added the Sea Trek tour for an additional fee. It was a beautiful day in Aruba like almost every other day and the island wasn’t crowded at all. Below is a picture of the cute little beach on the island.
