Things I learned on my trip to Delaware

1) Who vacations in Delaware?

2) Delaware was the first state but is only larger than Rhode Island. I’d think if you’re first you ought to be able to grab as much land as you want. It could have been the founders wanted to be nice and took just a small portion of land to let others have what they needed. I’ve done that with sharing dessert but my objective is deceit. Those who follow usually don’t want to look like pigs so they also take smaller portions. This eventually allows me to have a huge heaping dose of seconds. With Delaware, there apparently were no second helpings.

3) Driving through Delaware you see license plates from multiple states. In fact I think there are more out of state vehicles than actual Delawareans. (That’s their term for themselves, not mine; spell check even corrected my spelling so it must be true)


4) The Delaware license plate is yellow lettering/numbers on a dark blue background. There’s no colorful backdrop that depicts a facet of what Delaware is famous for. Perhaps that’s why there’s so many out of state plates; newcomers delay as long as possible putting those ugly plates on their vehicles. It could drive down resale prices. Again, first state, plainest plates.

5) The mascot for the University of Delaware is the “Blue Hens.” What? The Blue Hens? Now, that is creative. The football team with a feminine name? Why a hen and not a rooster? Makes me wonder…


6) I apologize for dissing on Delaware. After all, the state does have fireflies which delight Jan.

7) Sitting in Jordan and Christina’s (to be referred later as JC) living room, Tia ran down the hall toward her bedroom announcing she was going to “use her imagination.” She used that phrase a lot and she’s not kidding. She and Hayley changed up the story of Cinderella and played the parts of the wicked stepsisters for several days. Tia even occasionally addressed Christina as stepmother. The names of the stepsisters according to Tia were Grizella and Anastasia. I’m not sure if their names were ever mentioned in the original story but she was “using her imagination.” If I were in school I’d use that phrase as a politically correct term for daydreaming.


8) Hayley is a rough and tumble girl that has incredible speed for a six year old. Tia is demure who loves pink and princesses. However, both are sensitive, caring girls who love their Grandpa best.

9) I think we saw every museum in Philadelphia. The most impressive was the “Touch me Museum.” Children’s services could be concerned with that name. However, it was a museum for kids that included a river with running water that meandered while kids floated plastic boats and played with water wheels. There were rooms with large plastic crawl through hearts, science exhibits illustrating flight and electricity and even a kid sized grocery store where children could put as many plastic loafs of bread, fruit and cardboard bakery goods into a shopping cart. There was also a McDonalds where kids served up rubber meat on buns. Oh, I’m sorry. That’s what the Mac serves in their real restaurants.


10) Speaking of electricity…Jordan touched a metal ball at an exhibit explaining static electricity. He reached out his finger and touched Jan on the hand. The shock caused her to jump. However, electricity can use a body as a conductor. Jan was holding Tia’s hand at the time of the shock. It traveled though Jan and jolted poor Tia who was minding her own business. Tia’s little body jerked like it had been de-fibrillated. She thought twice before taking Grandma’s hand again.

11) There was also a room that allowed kids to try various facets of the world of sports. At one exhibit kids could throw a baseball through a pitching net while radar showed the speed of the ball. Of course, Jordan and I wrestled a baseball away from the clinched hands of a child to display our masculine prowess. Jordan’s pitch registered at 51 mph. My speed was 41 miles per hour but the ball took a sharp right shortly after leaving my hand. The kid next in line raised his eyebrows at this errant pitch. I turned to him and bragged, “Wow, I can still throw that curveball.” I also threw out several ligaments, joints and sockets.


12) To sample some of the native foods JC took us to Rita’s. Philadelphia has something they call “water ice” which resembles Hawaiian ice served out west. The only difference is the Philly ice is more “slurpy”. Rita’s adds a different dimension to their water ice they call a “gelati.” I’ve heard of the Italian ice cream named gelato. But this is your flavor of water ice with vanilla or chocolate custard layered at the bottom and top of the ice. I chose orange cream flavored water ice with vanilla custard. That was great and worth every freezer head ache.

13) Perhaps our most adventurous journey was to the place where taxes are born, Washington D.C. Driving through Baltimore we parked outside Washington and rode the subway to the National Mall. With all the tourists walking around with cameras clicking it resembled Disneyland more than the birthplace of the nation.


14) We toured the Smithsonian Natural History and Air and Space Museums. We saw the Hope Diamond, dinosaurs recreated from fossilized bones, and an exhibit on how forensics is used to identify bodies of some of America’s first settlers. That was at the Natural History Museum, not the Air and Space.

15) Jan and I really wanted to see the White House. As we walked down Pennsylvania Avenue we and many other tourists were stopped by security guards from going to the usual viewing point. I noticed a group of people gathered on a field some distance from the White House so we walked over to see if we could get a view. The move worked and we could see the columns on the front of this stately house. We zoomed the lenses to maximum to snap some photos. Soon after we heard the whooshing of helicopter blades slicing through the air. The crowd turned and we saw three marine helicopters flying toward the White House. This is why the streets were closed off. The President was coming home from buying a cappuccino from the nearest Starbucks. (Note for LDS readers: A cappuccino is a coffee drink)


16) Although we were feeling beat we stopped off at the Air and Space Museum. There was the Wright Brother first plane, not a replica, but the actual plane. It still had Orville’s nail marks scratched into the wood when he realized he was flying and didn’t know how to stop the contraption. There were several Gemini space capsules along with the first manned capsule that orbited the earth with John Glenn. Jordan and I couldn’t figure out where Glenn sat. The interior of the capsule was extremely cramped and I wondered what Glenn’s thoughts were as he hurdled through space in a chunk of metal. I think I saw his nail marks scratched into the window glass when he realized the only way to stop the contraption was by falling like a rock thousands of miles to earth.

17) I was sad when one young lady came out of an exhibit showing the aviation heroics of World War I and II pilots and announced to her friends, “Don’t go in, there’s nothing interesting there.” I’m sure thousands of air force pilots shed a tear in their graves.


18) In a past blog Christina wrote about a song by Taylor Swift that the girls would sing along with. When the girls hear the first few notes of “You Belong to Me” they join in, belting out the words along with Taylor. They are Grandma and Grandpa’s American Idols. By the way, Grandma now wants to buy the song.

19) Grandma and I enjoyed playing hide n seek, playing tag while chasing the kids through playground bars and swings, and getting a tour into the lives of the East Coast Smith family.

20) I have to mention we went to a farmers market on Saturday. Although those roaming the aisles didn’t look like some of Delaware’s finest, one of the first things I noticed was a Stoltzfus Bakery booth, just like what we saw at a market outside of Scranton, apparently owned and operated by the same Mennonite family. I wonder if this is a franchise. If so I want in. You know that baked goods created in a Mennonite kitchen are the best you can get.

21) Finally, JC and kids gave Grandpa an early Father’s day gift. It was a gray University of Delaware t-shirt. I’m honored and will wear the shirt with pride. Besides, I have the only University of Delaware t-shirt in Oregon.
Love you guys. Thanks for the adventure!