November Roadtrip

Dear followers,

A few weeks have already passed. To keep you updated, here comes an update. In mid-November, we received a visit from Nürnberg by Nessy and Julia. The two spent the first two days with us in Pittsburgh. Then, on Thursday (21.11.24), we all set off on our road trip.

Our first stop was Cuyahoga Valley National Park, followed by Cleveland. Because on Thursday evening, the Cleveland Browns played against the Pittsburgh Steelers. We definitely couldn't miss this football game! In hindsight, we can say: It was a unique football game. Just before the game started, it began to snow and didn’t stop until after the game. We sat bundled up with blankets for 3.5 hours in the stadium, freezing in the snowstorm during the game. As mentioned, a unique experience!

The next day we continued to Niagara Falls. On the way, we showed Nessy and Julia the Presque Isle State Park, and of course, a wine tasting was a must. For your information: A 60-mile wide wine region stretches along Lake Erie from Erie. So good wine must be tested! We spent the evening and the next day at Niagara Falls on the American side and the Canadian side. We didn’t go on a boat tour. After our stadium experience, we didn’t want to freeze again. After that, we headed to Buffalo. There we tried the famous Buffalo Wings and took Nessy and Julia to the train station. From here, our paths separated for the time being. The two took the night bus to New York City. Julian and I also continued on, but to Scranton. We spent a night in a super nice Airbnb before we headed to New York City as well. Since we had already seen a lot in NYC, we explored on our own during the day. We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge again, visited Brooklyn, went to the 9/11 Museum (since we didn’t have enough time for it last time), walked down the 5th Avenue, strolled through Central Park, and much more. On our last evening in NYC, we met Julia and Nessy one last time for dinner. After that, it was time to say goodbye..

The next day, we continued to Philadelphia. On the way there, we made a stop at the Gateway National Recreation Area, as well as a stop for shopping at an outlet. The next day, we explored Philadelphia and watched the Philadelphia 76ers basketball game in the evening. Fun fact: We wanted to take the bus to the game, so we waited at the bus stop... The bus arrived a bit late, and we got on. We were a bit confused when the bus driver asked if he could help us. So, we explained that we wanted to take the bus to the basketball game and that according to the internet, this bus would take us there. However, the bus driver said that the last bus ride was already done, and he was just taking the bus to park. But since it was heading in the same direction, he still took us with him. In the end, we had a free bus ride without any stops, and we were dropped off directly in front of the stadium, where there was no bus stop at all. So there are great bus drivers out there!

On Thursday, we drove further to Washington in the morning and spent the next two days in Washington D.C. sightseeing. On Saturday, we moved on to Harrisburg with a short stop in Gettysburg to visit the National Military Park and the Eisenhower National Historic Site. A stop at Hershey's Chocolate World was also a must. If you want to see something typically American, Hershey's Chocolate World is definitely a place to go. Lots of people, a lot of chocolate in various forms, many food stalls, and everything full of merchandise items of all kinds. It is definitely an experience of its own.

On Sunday, we headed back to Pittsburgh. However, we made a stop on the way: at the Flight 93 Memorial... This was the fourth plane on September 11, 2001, which was supposed to fly into the Capitol in Washington but crashed in Shanksville due to passengers and crew members..

Afterwards, we finally went back to Pittsburgh. Monday and Tuesday, Julian was back at work. On Tuesday afternoon, we boarded the plane to San Francisco again....