Hello. Thank you for following us along on our last adventure! I am here to tell you about our new one! We have recently purchased two printers and set them up in our garage. Greta, my parents and I have been working hard to get everything set up. We now have an Etsy store, and we are working on our website. The primary item that we are selling is wooden puzzles. You can have up to 6 pictures of your choice printed directly on the wood block puzzle! They are a great gift for your loved ones. We also sell a few other items too and will be coming up with new items as we learn more. We have sold a few puzzles already but we wanted to let all of you guys know about this exciting news.
I think it’s really cool that we are able to do this right from our house. Greta and I are very excited to grow our business! If you are interested you can check it out at http://www.etsy.com/shop/myimpressiveinks. You can also follow us on Instagram at myimpressiveinks for updates! Stay tuned for a new post shortly!
We got home last week on Tuesday. It’s nice to be home and have some space. We are getting into a routine again now. We have been busy for the past week so sorry for the lack of posting. Here is a video of our getting home and what everybody thinks about the trip.
Today we spent our time at Crater of Diamonds National Park in Arkansas. It is the worlds only public diamond mine and was created from volcanic activity. It was really muddy because it had just rained the day before but they told us that means that nature did the work of uncovering the diamonds for us. We didn’t find any diamonds but we did find pretty rocks. My mom even found a purple gem called an “amethyst”. We are starting to work out way back home and everyone is ready to sleep in there own beds. We drove another 5ish hours until we got to Memphis. So close but still far away. Here’s a video I made of the day(:
-grace
AND it is a very, very special day here in our RV today! We are celebrating another teenager in the McCleary Family! Greta is 13 today! Greta is a joy and her smile can light up any room. She is a gem far more valuable than any we could have found in the diamond mine yesterday! I’m so very thankful God gave her to me! Happy Birthday, Greta! Love you forever and always. – mom
Today we spent our day in New Orleans. We experienced some live street bands. One spot we went to had a super good violin player. She was playing with a girl who was playing the guitar.
We saw magician on the street doing some really cool magic tricks too. We stopped at a few shop to get key chains. We also got some masks. There are a lot of homeless people in New Orleans. And quite a lot of crazies too.
We saw the statue of Andrew Jackson and his horse, Sam Patch. It was kind of cool seeing it because we learned quite a bit about Andrew Jackson on this trip. We went to a graveyard that had the tombs above ground. Even though it was closed, we still looked through the gate.
My dad helped a man push his “hot dog” cart down the road because it was really heavy and he was doing it alone.
Next we went out to eat at a restaurant and we had “poor boys” it was a lot better than it sounded. They are just a sandwich/sub. Apparently that’s what your supposed get when you go to New Orleans. On our way out we got to people watch from the car. There are some strange people in this town so the boys had a lot of questions. Glad that we are only spending one day here.
Today we drove to the Andrew Jackson plantation. There we saw the house him and his family lived in. We saw his slaves houses, the kitchen, the cotton field, and the museum. This museum was much smaller than the others and that wasn’t a bad thing. It was very interesting to hear and read about.
After that we went to Nashville, Tennessee. We went out to eat and stopped at a few boot stores when we came across a store that was buy one get two free. A few hours passed and we found ourselves still there. Everybody was fine but my dad. He was ready to leave but my mom was determined to find a pair of boots for him. He was tired of looking and wanted to leave but he finally found some. So we walked out of the store with a total of nine pairs of boots. (My mom and I both got two pair) we then took a picture by the boot and drove home. That’s what we have started calling our RV – “home” but it’s not going to be for much longer and I think everybody is homesick.
All in all it was a super fun day and I even got a lot of time to catch up on my school work. Here is a video I put together of the day, enjoy!
Yesterday we went to Martin Luther King Jr.’s home town. We saw his childhood home and his tomb. We also saw the church that was in his neighborhood. His internal flame was pretty cool too.
Martin Luther King Jrs Home in Atlanta, Georgia
These pictures are from Ebanezer Baptist Church. This is the church that Martin Luther King Jr was a pastor at. As we walked through these buildings you can only image what went on between their walls.
There pictures are of Martin Luther King Jrs tomb and an eternal flame in his honor.
We also went to the doctor yesterday to get an x-Ray of my foot. The x-rays confirmed that I have a small fracture. It’s getting better though. In the waiting room my mom and I where accompanied by a man with an unknown rash, a couple who had bee stings, and a lady who had the stomach flu.
We then went to the Coke factory. We were able to watch a 4-d movie. The boys thought that was super cool. They also had a bunch of history about Coke. They also had a super cool area on the top floor. It was a bunch of pop machines labeled with a different country. They had a bunch of options. It was super cool to try all of them. We did this thing where we took a tiny bit of 3 different kinds of pop from each country. Then we all tried it. Greats was definitely the grossest.
Overall it was a super fun day. My favorite was trying pop from all the other countries.
Today we went to Washington D.C (again) but this time it was our last day. Because it was our last day, we were running out of energy. So we wandered around a little. Our first stop was the Fords Theater.
The Fords Theatre, for those of you who don’t already know… Is the theater where Abraham Linlcon was assassinated. When we got in the theater we went to the higher level so we got a very good view of the presidential box. We didn’t watch a play or anything, but just listened to a man tell us about what happened there. Let’s see what you know about Lincoln by answering these true or false questions. The answers will be at the bottom of the page.
T or F: Aberaham was the 16th president
2. T or F: Lincoln is buried in Kentucky
3. T or F: Lincoln’s middle name is Thomas
The next place we went was to see the White House. We didn’t get very close but it was still cool to see. Let’s see what you know about the White House. These questions are going to be True or False as well.
4. T or F: George Washington oversaw the construction of the White House, but he never lived in it
5. T or F: The White House is not open to the public
6. T or F: Presidents are allowed to make changes to the White House décor during their term of residency
The answer to these questions are:
True
False, although he was born in Kentucky he was actually buried in Illinoise.
False, he doesn’t have a middle name!
True
False, up to 5,000 visitors go inside daily
True
We encourage you to comment and let us know how many you got right!
Here is a video I put together over the weekend. The audio is Martin Luther King Jr. , I have a Dream , and the Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln.
Today we spent the day in Washington DC we were able to see quite a few monuments. It was a lot of walking (over 10 miles) and some sore legs but totally worth it. We started out by our car and walked to our first stop, the Washington Memorial.
The Washington Memorial is a Tall Building standing at 555 feet tall. It took 36 years to build, 1848-1884. When it was finished this building was the tallest building in the world. This monument symbolizes the awe, respect, and gratitude the nation felt for its most essential founding father, George Washington.
Another Monument we went to was the Lincoln Memorial. Considering we learned a lot about Abe yesterday it was cool to see this statue of him. The whole Monument has 36 columns surrounding “Honest Abe” representing the 36 states that where established in the time the he was elected. He was the 16th president to be elected. He was also considered on of our “best” presidents. It was him who had a major roll in stopping slavery and that is one reason of many why we honor him. This monument opened to the public in 1922.
Next we went to the World War II Memorial. My great grandpa Clifton served in this war. This monument was one of the saddest ones. It honors all of the more than 16 million who served to defend our country. And the 400,000 who died during the process. This monument opened to the public in 2004. And It is open to visitors 24/7. It was a very cool place to be and see.
The next place we went, my favorite of the day, was the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This is a very special place where active soldiers protect the tomb. What’s so special about this tomb? This tomb has three very important people inside of it. They fought for our country and died doing it. They fought for what they believed in and for what they loved. The only thing is that we do not know who these people are. This tomb located in Arlington National Sematary represents all of the soldiers who are killed in war and we are uncertain of who they are. Thus its name “Tomb of the Unknown Soldier”. During the time that we where their we where able to witness the changing of the guards. The guards are there 24/7 to guard the tomb, rain or shine. On the front of the tomb is written “Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God”.
We would like to know how many states YOU have been to. We invite you to take participation in this poll. And we cant wait to hear from all of you!
These are just some of the places we went today. Here are a few pictures with some of the monuments. -grace
The Sculpture Gardens
World War II Memorial
Thomas Jefferson Memorial
The Washington Monument
Abraham Lincoln Memorial
Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial
The Vietnam Memorial
The Korean War Memorial
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
John F. Kennedy’s gravesite with the Eternal Flame – The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier – Arlington National Cemetery
Yesterday we went to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. There we stopped at a few Amish stores and looked around. There were all sorts of homemade items for sale at the stores we stopped at. As we were driving around we also saw a very neat steam engine train. You could go on train rides but we were holding out for a buggy ride!
After eating a family style Thanksgiving type meal at a place called Plain and Simple (which was supper yummy, buy way too much food) we got to go on a buggy ride behind a horse. It was cool to see how their life style is so much different from ours. Our buggy driver informed us a little bit about the Amish life. Their life seems so much more simple but hard work! The men milk the cows and do the farming while the girls cook and clean all without the use of electricity. We got to play with some cute kittens as well. They had a lot of work horses pulling buggies that we saw along the road.
The horses that pulled us where named Jake and Sid. Jake got a little more distracted by things and was a little bit more eager. Over all they both did super well and it was very fun to go on that ride.
Here is Jake and Sid
We played with all the kitties hanging out by the barn.
After the ride we headed to a Walmart for a few groceries then went back to the camper and made kitty cocktails to eat with some of the treats we bought. It was a fun day filled with new experiences.
Here is the parking at the Walmart that we stopped and bought some groceries at.
We started our day yesterday by sleeping in. Everyone was very tired from the late night in New York the day before. After everybody got ready and showered we headed out to High Point. High Point is a memorial not far from our campsite that honors New Jersey Soldiers that fought by land and by sea. My dad was a little, okay… a lot freaked out because it was pretty high up. There where a lot of stairs in that building. After High Point we made our way over to an Ethiopian church. We mainly went there because Hannah has to write a report about an cultural experience that she attended. Even though we could not understand anything they where saying, other than the often “hallelujah” and “thank you Jesus”, it was pretty cool. We could not stay for the whole thing due to Amanda having to be to the airport. So we quietly left trying not to make a scene, which is kind of impossible for our family. So a lady followed us out to say bye and we explained to her that we just had to go to bring Amanda to the air port. We felt a little better knowing that they didn’t think that left because we didn’t like it. After getting out to the parking lot we realize that someone has parked their car behind our car in the street. My dad maneuvered the way out. He said its a good think he has practiced turning a car around in our garage just in case he would ever need to know how to do it. Then we made our way to the air port. We said our last goodbyes to Amanda as my mom walked her into the air port. After that we headed into to NYC for the night tour on the bus. (I was against it for the record.) I have definitely had enough of the city for a while. When we got to the bus line and boarded the bus we realized that we should have brought some warmer clothes. After we boarded we drove around the city. We even went over the water on the big Manhattan Bridge. That was another thing that my dad could have gone without. After a long cold bus ride we went home. Most of us kids slept on the way home. After getting back to the camper we all tucked in and went right to sleep.
Here are some picture from High Point, New Jersey
We were so glad Amanda joined us for the weekend!
This was the awesome Ethiopian Church we went to.
Our night tour of Manhattan. The last picture is one we took over the double decker bus ride over the Manhattan Bridge.
Here is a Video that I put together of videos that my mom took over the last few days.
McCleary Kids 