Continuing down the East Coast
May 12, 2021
And just like that, as quick as we were back in Houston, we have left again. In fact, we have officially moved to Charlotte, North Carolina! We’ve talked for a long time about possibly moving to North Carolina, and we loved it when we visited last year. It has mountains, ocean, fall leaves, and a fairly temperate climate – what’s not to love?
Sean and I have switched roles; he has started a new job at a small company based in Charlotte (although he’s mostly been working remotely) and now I’m the unemployed one. I’m full-time interviewing, although based on some recent final-round interviews I think I’ll be starting something new very soon.
New York
The journey through New York state to our campground on Long Beach was long and treacherous. There are lots of very old, very short bridges throughout the state, even on major highways. This presented a challenge for our ~13′ tall RV. As Sean was diverted off our original path, I scrambled to research another route with higher clearances. We eventually made it after adding at least an hour to our route. Driving through New York in an RV is not for the faint of heart.
Having dropped the RV at our campsite, we ventured into New York City in our boat of a truck. We headed straight for Central Park for a stroll with the fur children. We visited Shakespeare’s Garden, Belvedere Castle, the Alice in Wonderland statue, the Ramble, all within Central Park.
There were lots of cool statues in Central Park.
After Central Park, we decided to wander further into the city to see the skyscrapers and to look for some New England clam chowder.
After some quick research, we found a promising restaurant with clam chowder to-go in Union Station. The station was very empty.
We also explored a few of the many mini-parks throughout New York City. They were like little oases amidst the towering skyscrapers.
Of course we also had to walk through Times Square.
We made a quick pitstop at The Battery to see the Statue of Liberty.
If we hadn’t had the dogs, we would’ve taken the ferry for a closer view.
The traffic in New York was stressful with the RV, but as an avid Seinfeld fan, Sean was excited to see signs for the Van Wyck on our way out. “They say no one’s ever beaten the Van Wyck, but gentlemen, I tell you this – [we] came as close as anyone ever has.”
New Jersey
In New Jersey, we went to the Atlantic City Boardwalk. Dogs are only allowed at certain times of the year and lucky for us, that window had just started.
We stopped at a biergarten for beers the size of our heads and to people watch (although the boardwalk wasn’t particularly crowded on a random weekday).
We also discovered that you could take drinks to-go on the boardwalk!
Philadelphia (Pennsylvania)
While in Jersey, we drove over to Philadelphia to visit two friends who moved from Houston to Philly shortly before we also left Houston to embark on our year-long adventure.
First we stopped at Elfreth’s Alley, the oldest residential street in America.
We also took a quick peak inside Paddy’s Pub from the TV show It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
We went to see Betsy Ross’s house (she created the first stars and stripes flag).
I’d say it was about at this point that we realized that Tyler & Lauren seemed to have become professional Philadelphia tour guides since they left Houston. We legitimately felt like we had accidentally stumbled into some tour group. They even presented us with a complimentary bottle of hand sanitizer at our first meet-up. 10/10 for the Berlin Family Tours.
They showed us all of the insider’s spots for the sights. Here we got to see Benjamin Franklin’s final resting place (without standing in the long line of tourists waiting to get into the cemetery).
On our last day in Philly, we decided to visit the Eastern State Penitentiary, a very old and famous prison.
Eastern State Penitentiary is famous for some of its more well-known prisoners, such as Al Capone. It’s rumored that Al Capone received special treatment during his stint here, although accounts apparently differ.
There was also a cell block where each cell was dedicated to an artist to create their own exhibit.
And at this point it was time for us to carry on our journey, so we locked Tyler & Lauren in their cells and waved goodbye.
Maryland
I had been to Assateague Island when I was younger, but I wanted to take Sean here to see its famous wild ponies.
The Virginia side doesn’t allow dogs, but we were lucky enough to stay right on the island on the Maryland side. The shore was right across from our campsite.
We didn’t see any ponies on our first day but on the second day I woke up early with a feeling that I should look out our window. I woke Sean up to see several ponies grazing right outside our RV!
They are wild so you can’t get too close to them, but I did walk around to take a few pictures of them. It was a magical morning.
And then these two ponies…mated…right outside our front door. So if you’re thinking of bringing your kids here just be ready to have “the talk”. A voyeur pony came to watch too I guess?
We knew we wanted to have some crab while we were in Maryland, so we went for a little drive and found some more ponies along the way.
We went for a walk along the Assateague Island National Seashore.
Virginia
Finally it was time to visit a couple of my friends from back when I used to live in the Washington D.C. area, Jennifer & Katie! They and their little families (they are both first-time moms) came to hang out with us at our RV campground one day.
We spent most of our time in Virginia drinking wine and chatting nonstop late into the nights.
Despite Katie’s numerous attempts to kidnap me, we had to say goodbye and headed on to Shenandoah National Park to see what it had to offer in the way of fall leaves.
At Shenandoah National Park, we hiked the 2.6-mile Hawksbill Gap Loop.
The dogs were exhausted after our hike.
Up next: we explore our new home state of North Carolina. See the beautiful fall sights from last year that would ultimately convince us to move to Charlotte.
Very cool! Loved seeing all of the sights–and Katie and Jennifer and their little sweeties! You may not have seen the big herds of running ponies at Assateague but you saw a thing or two we didn’t see the first time we were there. LOL Can’t wait to see your new hometown!! Mom