Albany, NY

I don't like waking my kids up in the morning. Oliver has consistently been the first one up lately. I like the fact that I don't usually have to wake them up on a school day, but today I woke them up at 7:00. My goal had been to be out the door at 7:30. We didn't quite achieve that, but we were still able to join the 12:00 tour of the USS Slater in Albany. The tour started with an 8 minute video. We watched that at the end of our tour since our group had already seen it when we arrived. Our tour guide and the other men who paid to be in the 12:00 tour were all veterans of the US Navy. Our tour guide joined the Navy in 1962. The USS Slater is a destroyer escort which was first used by the US in WWII and later by Greece. The tour plus the movie lasted about 1.75 hours. The tour guide said he was impressed by how observant Oliver was during the tour. He said this because Oliver likes to ask lots of questions, which is something Nadia wishes he did not do.

We then drove about 10 minutes to a children's museum that we could visit for free with our ASTC membership. When we arrived they were in the middle of a live animal program featuring box turtles. We spent about 90 minutes in the museum, and the kids had an enjoyable time. It was a four hour drive to Albany, and our hotel was another hour north. We stopped about 45 minutes along the way to the hotel to have dinner at Red Robin. Nadia *loves* their macaroni and cheese. The kids love that many of the items are bottomless - meaning unlimited refills. Nadia had three servings of macaroni and cheese, two servings of French fries, and two glasses of lemonade. Oliver didn't have seconds of anything. He had apple slices, macaroni and cheese, and apple juice. Ian had one serving of chicken tenders, two servings of Yukon chips, and two glasses of apple juice. Paul had a chicken Caesar wrap, two servings of fries, and two glasses of Coke. I had a bowl of soup and a pineapple smoothie. I had used some Discover points to get a $50 gift card to Red Robin, and including the tax and tip our total was $50. Hence the reason we very, very rarely eat at a sit down restaurant unless we have a gift card.

Our hotel has an indoor swimming pool. The water is COLD so I didn't actually get in although I had changed into my bathing suit. Nadia swam the longest. During the five hours we were in the van today we listened to music on the radio, listened to several chapters of Rifles for Watie, read some of their chapter books (Nadia and Ian), played some on the iPad or Nintendo Switch (Oliver and Nadia each had 20 minutes total, and Ian had 40 minutes), and watched one episode of the Brady Bunch and part of Frozen on the DVD player. We ate breakfast at home and packed our lunches which we ate on the way to Albany. The reasons we drove up here were to visit Fort Ticonderoga and Saratoga. We studied the Revolutionary War last school year. We're about to study the Civil War, but better late than never with visiting these two sites related to the Revolution. Next weekend we plan to visit Antietam which does pertain to the time period we're currently studying. I'm thankful the five of us could go on this three day/two night getaway together!