(not) NEW YORK {part 3: Philadelphia}

so, this little adventure is kind of following the England pattern of posting, where parts 1, 2, and 4 are in England, but part 3 is NOT in England. (I'm sorry, I always connect everything to England. that was seriously the best week of my life. but this one comes really close.) so part 1 and part 2 were both in the state of New York (even though Part 2 took an illegal turn to Canada for a few minutes), and now, Part 3 is not in New York! but really, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York all look pretty much the same when you're driving on the freeway and both sides are blocked by trees. everywhere you look, trees. 

we arrived in the City of Brotherly Love around lunchtime. we were kind of on a tight schedule, because our tour of Independence Hall was timed, and we could only stay in Philly for a few hours. so all we did was Independence National Historic Park. but it was awesome. we began our trip in the visitors center. we saw a guy playing an instrument that looked like a harpsichord, and I was curious and asked what it was. he said it was called a dulcimer, and it was popular in the late 1700s. I was very impressed, and he asked if I had any song requests. I said, "play the Star-Spangled Banner!" Before he did, he explained the history of the song. we all credit Francis Scott Key to writing the song, but he actually didn't. he wrote the poem, and his brother in law suggested that it be put to music. so, they took the tune of a popular drinking song from London, and set the words of the poem to that tune. The guy who played the dulcimer played The Star-Spangled Banner but sang the words to the drinking song. I had no idea that our national anthem's tune was originally a British drinking song, so that was really interesting. but I love the words of The Star-Spangled Banner, and it is a pretty powerful poem itself. but because I connect really well with music, it is even more powerful as a song. so, Francis Scott Key: thanks for writing such beautiful words. and to his brother in law, thanks for finding the perfect tune, even though it was originally a drinking song.

the first thing on our agenda was the Liberty Bell. the line was like 500 miles long, so we had Mom hold our place while Dad took the boys and me to get Philly Cheese Steaks. there were literally 3 stands right next to each other, so they weren't hard to find. I have eaten a few cheap fake imitation cheese steaks, but as I found out, it's not nearly close enough to the real thing.
PHILLY CHEESE STEAKS ARE THE BEST SANDWICHES I HAVE EVER EATEN.
real Philly Cheese Steaks, that is.
in Philadelphia.

I cannot describe how good it tasted. but man, it was delicious. I felt like I died and went to cheese steak heaven. I probably was in cheese steak heaven. after we finished our food, we got out of the hot, hot sun and went inside to see the Liberty Bell.

 brotherly love in the city of Brotherly Love. I'm not part of the family.

fun fact: on April Fools Day in 1996, Taco Bell announced that they purchased the Liberty Bell to reduce the country's debt and renamed it the "Taco Liberty Bell".

our next stop was the Benjamin Franklin museum. in 5th grade at Rock Canyon (the beloved elementary school that Justin and I attended since Kindergarten, and Wes attended through 3rd grade), the big project is the Wax Museum. You pick a historical figure (or an influential celebrity), do a report on them, and dress up like them. the whole school takes turns going down to the gym and looking at all the "statues" of these famous (and mostly dead) people. Justin was actually the only kid out of the 3 of us to end up doing it. I read every book about JK Rowling on the face of the Earth, made sure I knew every detail of her life, threw together an A+ quality power point, even got props and everything, and BAM, I wake up that morning, puking my guts out. Wes was at the gifted school from 4th-6th grade, so he missed out. Justin chose Benjamin Franklin because they had the same birthday. he had a wig and glasses and everything. so, of course, the only place he cares about is the Benjamin Franklin museum. but we were all good with that, because in London, I freaked out over everything because I had just learned about it in AP World History. so this time, it was Justin's turn. this place had every fact known about Benjamin Franklin. it was pretty cool, and we learned a lot. Benjamin Franklin reminds me a lot of Wesley, in that they are both very curious about how things work, and they have their own ideas. they also don't like being told what to do. we didn't take any pictures, but Justin enjoyed it the most. we learned that they do not share the same birthday after all. Ben Franklin was actually born on January 6th, but because the British changed the calendar, it says that he was born on January 17th. but it was close enough.

the next stop was...... Independence Hall!

we got a tour guide of this neat little place. this is the building where both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were signed. if what happened in this building.....didn't happen, we would still be under British rule, and our government wouldn't work the way that it does now. it was really cool to see it. I took American Studies in 8th grade, and I am taking AP US History this year, so it was good to refresh my knowledge for this year!

 the governor's council chamber

 the very room where both documents were signed

 Wesley is still in his goofy 13 year old boy phase, where he doesn't cooperate with...anything. someday, that kid will have a girlfriend and she will look at all these pictures and think," this is the kid that I am dating?" if he ever does get a girlfriend. also, nice shirt choice from 4th grade baseball.

next, we toured Congress Hall. Philadelphia was the capital of the United States for a while, so this building was like the White House. and it has been standing since 1789. pretty cool, right? some of the furniture was original, but we weren't allowed to touch that.

here was chamber for the House of Representatives. it accommodated 16 states. our tour guide asked if anyone knew what the 14th state was, and Wesley yells out "Tennessee!" the tour guide says, "close" and immediately, Wes yells out "Kentucky!" she says, "still not correct, but still close. finally, someone else yells "Vermont!" and Wes looks all embarrassed.
then, she asked what the 15th state was, and Wesley yells out "Tennessee!" again. and he was incorrect. again. the answer was Kentucky. Justin probably kicked Wes and told him not to answer any more questions. but at some point, our tour guide was talking about the Bill of Rights, and Wes said something about the "right to remain silent." that's not even in the Bill of Rights, kiddo. but 2 points for trying.

 the senate chamber

unfortunately, that was all we had time for. as much as we wanted to tour all of Independence National Historical Park, we simply couldn't. but it was great to learn some American history and see important sites! we drove to Lumberville, Pennsylvania, to stay with the Borzilleri's, some friends that my parents knew in San Diego. I guess Bob Borzilleri, Chris Boyce, and my dad all went to grad school together in San Diego, and their jobs have taken them different places: Chris works for a pharmaceutical company in New Jersey (I think, I am probably getting this completely wrong), Bob does research to find drugs to kill cancer (also in New Jersey, but he lives in Pennsylvania), and Dad is an Organic Chemistry professor at BYU in addition to doing research. The Borzilleri's left San Diego before I was born, so Bob has only met us once when he came to Provo years ago, and we hadn't met the rest of the family yet. they have 2 kids: 13 year old Sophia (who is actually Wesley's age but quickly became friends with me), and Mark, who is almost 11. they live in a really nice house in the Pennsylvanian countryside, right off the Delaware river. the backyard is a full on forest, complete with a zipline. there was so much room to run around and play. my brothers immediately became friends with Mark and Ky the dog, said, "see ya", and made a beeline for the forest. they had the time of their lives playing in the river, riding the zipline, and playing with the dog. when I was younger, I was terrified of dogs, and I still don't like them, so we have never had a dog. the boys, however, love dogs. (Wesley kind of hates me because apparently it's my fault we don't have a dog.) 

 J got in the river, so his shirt is pretty wet.

 Wesley, Mark, and Justin all slept together with the dog. wait. I don't think any sleeping took place!

we spent the night there, ate a delicious breakfast of waffles and real maple syrup, and the time came for us to say goodbye to the Borzilleri family. they were excellent hosts and it was definitely the best place we stayed the whole week. but it was time for us to drive to our next part of our vacation, which was.....

BACK TO NEW YORK!

(see? I am following the England pattern with these posts! part 1 starts out in the big city, part 2 is still in the same state/whatever England is but not in the big city, part 3 is in a completely different state/whatever Scotland is, and part 4 is return to the big city!)

stay tuned for part 4.

I'm actually getting through these posts a lot faster than I thought I would.

NEW YORK {part 2: Palmyra & Niagara Falls}

so, if you haven't read Part 1 first, you probably should. so, I will pick up where I left off from. we left our friend the Boyce's house in Flemington, New Jersey to drive to Palmyra, New York. the drive was about 5 hours long, and the 3 of the Castle kiddos were crammed in the back of a rental car. driving in the East is exciting for about 5 minutes, but there's only one thing to look at: trees. trees were everywhere. even in New York City, there were trees on the side of the freeway, and that's all you can see. so, after driving through trees all morning, we got a bit restless. finally, we made it to Palmyra, one of the most historic towns in the restoration of the Mormon church.

 the whole family outside the Sacred Grove, where Joseph Smith prayed to ask which church was the true church. if you aren't familiar with the story, God and Jesus appeared to him in this grove of trees and said that none of them were true, and he had to translate the Book of Mormon and restore the Gospel. and I am so grateful he did that! otherwise, our family wouldn't be at this grove of trees!

 because Provo is pretty much Mormonville, USA, a lot of people noticed the boys' shirts and said something like "Go Cougars!" or "I've been to Provo" or "I have family down there!" or pretty much anything related to BYU. good choice, boys.

 unlike my brothers, I was not sporting any attire that screamed "I'm from Provo!" Dad convinced me that it was going to be cold, so he made me wear leggings instead of shorts. well, turns out he was completely wrong because it heated up really fast! but I was grateful for the leggings because the Sacred Grove is a popular place for mosquitoes. I already have several mosquito bites covering both my legs, and I didn't want to add to the collection! I hope Heavenly Father protected Joseph Smith from all the mosquitoes when he went in to pray! that was never mentioned in the story!

after the grove, we went to Joseph Smith's log cabin, barn, and some other house his family lived in. our missionary tour guide has a great fashion sense. someday, if I end up serving a mission, that will be me. but I will have to grow a foot. or two! (I am definitely considering the possibility of a mission when I am 19, but it all depends on the circumstances. it's not a definite decision yet, but I have a couple more years!)

 after we saw the log cabin, the barn, and the print shop where the first Book of Mormon was printed, we went to the Hill Cummorah Pageant. last year, for youth conference, I went to the Manti Pageant, and I liked it, but it was super long. this one was a lot shorter, and it focused mainly on Book of Mormon stories. I really enjoyed it. before the pageant, there were a lot of protesters outside, yelling at the top of their lungs. they stopped as soon as the pageant started, but as soon as it ended, they were up and at it again. we decided to make our escape and drive to Victor, New York to find our next hotel.

the next day, we drove from Victor to...........

 NIAGARA FALLS!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Wes's version of either Magnum or Blue Steel from Zoolander. Sometimes I regret letting him watch that movie with me, but it's fun to have someone who can at least quote half of it with me.

 now, Wes thinks he's a hand model.

this was one of my favorite parts of the trip. I have seen so many pictures of Niagara Falls, but it is sooooooo much more spectacular in real life. we did the "Maid of the Mist", where we got on a boat that went right under the mist of the falls! we got to wear these stylish blue ponchos, and we even entered Canada illegally! while I was on the boat, my phone vibrates and I get this text that says "Welcome to Canada! please turn off data in order to avoid charges" or something like that. it was quite funny. so now, I've been to the USA, Japan, the UK, and Canada! but then again, I've never set foot on Canadian soil, so I probably shouldn't count that.

 the mist up close!

 "take a picture of my arm hair!"- Justin. guess it didn't turn out the way he wanted!

 I won't even say anything anymore about Wesley's faces.

next, we turned in our blue ponchos and did the "Cave of the Winds". we got some really ugly sandals and some yellow ponchos. we walked in the caves right by the falls, and we got sooooooooo close. the spray felt sooooooo good too!

 the Family of Bananas.

we were literally getting a shower from the waterfalls. 

my brothers loved the sandals so much, they took them home as souvenirs. unfortunately, our time at Niagara Falls had to come to an end, and we got back in the rental car to drive towards Philadelphia, our next stop on our trip! we drove to the Whitmer Farm and took a tour of it, and saw the same missionaries we saw at Palmyra! my brothers enjoyed playing the computer games at the visitors center. 

we got one picture, and a bonus thumb in front of the lens! the first church meeting was held here, I think. I don't quite remember. pretty sad.

after our quick stop, we drove to Binghamton, New York to sleep for the night. we were not very impressed with the town, which looked like it had seen better days. my brothers were probably not the most courteous guests at the Holiday Inn there, because they enjoyed riding up and down the elevators and jumping out and scaring people. I spilled my lemon water all over myself. good job boys. 

well, I had a great trip, and I promise Philadelphia will be up pretty soon. I was at girls camp all week, so I couldn't get this up as soon as you probably wanted. just kidding. not that anyone even checks my blog anyways!

NEW YORK {part 1: Manhattan}

remember that one time I went to England? I did 4 separate posts for it and everything? Well, England was fun and I could do 5 more England posts, but for the sake of time, I will skip it. and I still haven't done 4th of July, more tennis update, and other things. but I leave again in 2 days, so I figured I'd at least start this one. and it will be done in......

different parts again. 

if you can't tell from the picture, or if you are too ignorant to read titles, I went to NEW YORK. and Palmyra to see some church history stuff. and Niagara Falls. and Philadelphia. and back to New York again. I've always wanted to go to New York City. Ever since I watched the Disney movie Enchanted, I put going to New York City on my bucketlist. the movie made it look so exciting, and then, my desire to go there just grew after seeing Elf  and Zoolander and several more movies and reading books. So, in the typical Castle family vacation style, I ask Dad if we can go there, and of course, he says, "not right now but we will consider it" and of course, i know that it's bullcrap. but then after we got home from Tokyo, my dad said we would take a low-budget vacation that summer (Moab, which was pretty fun), and that we would be able to do something fun the next summer! I asked if it would be another stupid hiking vacation (I still haven't forgiven him for promising me a trip to San Francisco but deciding to go to Yosemite instead), and he said, "No, I'm actually thinking of New York City, and Philadelphia, and Niagara Falls. Let's take a trip back East!" then, the whole London thing came up, and I briefly forgot about our plans for New York, but then my dad announced in February that he already bought our plane tickets, so I knew it was legit.

we left last Sunday. everyone went to church except me. well, I take that back. I did go to sacrament meeting, but I went to a different ward. my friend Matthew was giving his missionary farewell talk, and I really wanted to go, so I did. he gave an amazing talk, and I know he will bless the people of Taichung, Taiwan! they are lucky to have him, and he is a great person. I mean, he's my best friend's cousin and my British tennis coach's doubles partner! after his wonderful talk, I drove home, changed, grabbed a plate of Star Wars cookies that my mom made, and went to his celebration brunch. I saw my best friends and several tennis players, including my old tennis coach! he really loved my cookies and said, "i'm going to hoard these all for myself and hide them away from the rest of these people at this party because these are too great."

OK I hope you all remember that I do have ADD, and I tend to forget what I'm even talking about, so I obviously got distracted. back to New York. after I came back from the celebration brunch, we packed up and drove to the SLC Airport. Dang, it's been a long 3 months since I've been there! It's also my first time flying nonstop since....I was 3. so, I've decided that even though international flights are probably the longest, most painful things in the world, they have much better service than domestic flights because they provide movies, more food, and much better service. so, our flight to the JFK Airport in New York was about 4 1/2 hours, and if I flew it twice, it is about the equivalent to flying to England from Seattle once. but there were no movies and it was definitely not as exciting. but as soon as I saw the lights of the city below, I got so excited. we landed at about 11:30, took a shuttle to the Hampton Inn in Queens, and enjoyed a great night and ate a great breakfast. but even on the train from the airport, I loved watching all the interesting people. it was so exciting for me.

we took a shuttle back to the airport, rented a car, and drove into Manhattan! it was spectacular in real life. we started out our day by visiting the Empire State Building! we got tickets to go to the top of the observatory, and I was able to see how....huge the city was.

 I took the picture. yay booty. 

 we really do love New York. we just weren't ready for the picture.

we grabbed some bagels for lunch, and I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be. my bagel was plain, with no cream cheese. in London, we would often stop at convenience stores to grab some British sandwiches, and I would always get a bagel with smoked salmon. it became a favorite of mine, and I expected New York bagels to be like that. but....I guess I'm not in London. I'm in New York. but oh well. Next, we took a walk on one of the coolest bridges ever, Brooklyn Bridge!

 some other cool bridge in the background 

 I do not actually have 2 piercings in my ear. I only have one. this pair of earrings just makes it look like it, because there's 2 pearls. 

next, we went to the 9-11 museum! it opened in May, so 2 months later, we are able to see it! I loved it. we were able to learn a lot more about 9-11 and the effects it had on the city. on 9-11, I was 3 years old and living in Irvine, California. I vaguely remember it. we were going to go to Disneyland that day, but I saw my mom on the phone with someone, and she started to cry. I was a silly little 3 year old, and didn't know that adults cried, so it kind of scared me. then, she hung up and turned on the TV, and I remember seeing it on the news and I asked, "what happened in New York? Why are we crying? is that President Bush?" and Mom said, "we can't go to Disneyland today." and then I started crying, of course. that's my 9-11 experience.
but here, at this museum, it was a lot different. it was kind of really depressing, actually. I had no idea how big the Twin Towers were. but it was pretty devastating. but I love how they made a museum to show respect to the city and pay tribute to those who lost loved ones. (and Justin got yelled at by a security guard at least twice. silly J.)

 a quilt made to honor those who died in 9-11

 wes loves his water. 

 I don't remember which tower stood here. but it was either the North or the South. gosh I feel so bad. whoever died in this tower, I respect them.

In typical Justin fashion, he started complaining after this picture and wanted to leave. so, we drove our rental car to New Jersey to stay with the Boyces, our friends from San Diego. we hadn't seen them in over.....13 years at least. I barely remember them from San Diego, but they babysat me a lot, and Chris Boyce worked with my dad, and they are still really nice and I probably grew a bit since I saw them! (even though they expected me to be much taller.) they made us pizza and other really good food. so nice of them! the next day, we woke up early to go on a church history trip!

stay tuned for part 2, coming in at least a week. I will be at Girls Camp for a week. so relaxing. I am home for one day and gone the next, pretty much.