This was our last day in DC and I was pretty bummed that we had to go home already. It was a big day though, we had a tour of the White House!
On our way to our tour, we stopped by the Washington Monument and picked up tickets to go to the top again and then headed back to the White House. We got there early but decided to check in anyways. Good thing too, because everyone else had the same idea. I got checked in just fine and so did Rich, but Adam's name somehow got left off of their list so we had to wait a really long time before they would ever let him through. Overall the tour was pretty disappointing. They had all of the carpets rolled up and the furniture pushed out of the way so that people could walk through. You really couldn't get much of an idea of the house because everything was out of place. We were only allowed to see maybe five rooms, two of which we couldn't even go in to because they were roped off. One of those was the east room where they hold press conferences and they were setting up for one in a few hours. The second room was just roped off because...? We were able to walk through the state dining room and that was pretty neat. Really long and had a big table at it so lots of people can all eat there together. Then we were walked outside and the tour was over. For all of the hassle we went through to get tickets for the tour and then waiting and then Adam almost didn't even get to come inside...it wasn't worth it and probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone in the future. At least we can say that we have been in the White House.
We headed back to the Washington Monument and went back up to the top. We could see a lot better today than the last time. It was just fun to see the whole city (and then some) from way up high again. After some time there we came back down and headed over to see the Korean War Memorial in the day time. Then we walked over to the Vietnam War Memorial and we were glad to see people being a little more respectful this time. The first name on the wall was John H. Anderson Jr. (1959) and the last name on the wall was Jessie C. Alba (1975) and all of the names are listed in the order of their death.
It was time to head back to the Bed and Breakfast and pick up our bags and go to the airport and head home. Adam was able to get on an earlier flight to Chicago with hopes that he could get on the same flight as us from there to Seattle.
We were just flying in to Chicago when a lightning storm began. We landed and met back up with Adam and waited for our next flight. The storm started getting pretty bad and we almost didn't have a flight back home. Luckily we were able to board and Adam got the last seat on the plane! The storm really caused problems though and shut a lot of things down so we ended up taking off an hour and a half after schedule. We got back in to Seattle pretty late (really only 10:45, but that's like 1:45am back east) and actually took a taxi back to Adam's place. Funny that the whole time we were on the east coast where taxis are everywhere, we never took one until we got home.
5.19.2013
1.10.2013
DC Trip Day 9
This was one of our last days in Washington DC. We decided that today would be a good day to go to the Holocaust Museum. I'm glad that we dedicated a whole day to this museum and nothing else because it was just so overwhelming to be there and to see the things that we did.
You begin by getting an identification card when you come in to the museum. It is almost silent except for the exhibits that might have a video or sound clip. The identification card has the picture and name and some information about a person that experienced the holocaust. You get into an elevator and ride it up to the fourth floor and work your way down to the bottom.
The entire fourth floor is basically dedicated to Hitler and how he came into power. It also talks about how the Germans began to boycott Jewish businesses and eventually causing the Jewish people to seek refuge in other countries to survive. It was interesting to see how many countries would not allow them to come to their country for a variety of reasons. It continued on with a little more history before it worked its way down to the third floor.
On the third floor, there was a lot of information about the ghettos that the Jews were forced to live in and a little about some of the Jews that went in to hiding. From here on down to the first floor, everything just started blending together and all of the information just came so fast. Once you finish reading about the ghettos, you immediately learn about the concentration and death camps and how they were built. It was starting to get very real and then you are forced to walk through a train car. This train car is one that was actually used to transport Jewish people from their homes to these terrible camps. The car was very small and would have been completely dark if the doors were closed. You read that there were usually about 100 people crammed into this tiny car and I was completely taken over by my emotions. It was so horrible, I had to get out as fast as I could. Upon exiting the train car, you are immediately greeted with the sign from Auschwitz that lead the people to believe they could actually work for their freedom. There were bunks from Auschwitz II where too many people were packed on and had to sleep together, even when diseased and sick. There were models of the gas chambers and "experimental" photos of some things they would do to the people. There was a room called "Voices from Auschwitz" where survivors recounted their experiences. Next you walked into a hallway that was full of shoes. There were just piles and piles of leather shoes that were taken from the prisoners. Then there were ovens used for cremations and rails used for burning outside. Next were metal tables that were used for "harvesting" the gold and silver teeth from the dead.
Finally you get to the point where other countries begin to come in and liberate the camps. Oddly enough, after the liberations took place, all but one country still denied survivors to live among them.
As you can see, this was a very insightful experience and one that I will not soon forget. We did not really do anything for the rest of the day, but we didn't really feel up to doing anything else anyway.
You begin by getting an identification card when you come in to the museum. It is almost silent except for the exhibits that might have a video or sound clip. The identification card has the picture and name and some information about a person that experienced the holocaust. You get into an elevator and ride it up to the fourth floor and work your way down to the bottom.
The entire fourth floor is basically dedicated to Hitler and how he came into power. It also talks about how the Germans began to boycott Jewish businesses and eventually causing the Jewish people to seek refuge in other countries to survive. It was interesting to see how many countries would not allow them to come to their country for a variety of reasons. It continued on with a little more history before it worked its way down to the third floor.
On the third floor, there was a lot of information about the ghettos that the Jews were forced to live in and a little about some of the Jews that went in to hiding. From here on down to the first floor, everything just started blending together and all of the information just came so fast. Once you finish reading about the ghettos, you immediately learn about the concentration and death camps and how they were built. It was starting to get very real and then you are forced to walk through a train car. This train car is one that was actually used to transport Jewish people from their homes to these terrible camps. The car was very small and would have been completely dark if the doors were closed. You read that there were usually about 100 people crammed into this tiny car and I was completely taken over by my emotions. It was so horrible, I had to get out as fast as I could. Upon exiting the train car, you are immediately greeted with the sign from Auschwitz that lead the people to believe they could actually work for their freedom. There were bunks from Auschwitz II where too many people were packed on and had to sleep together, even when diseased and sick. There were models of the gas chambers and "experimental" photos of some things they would do to the people. There was a room called "Voices from Auschwitz" where survivors recounted their experiences. Next you walked into a hallway that was full of shoes. There were just piles and piles of leather shoes that were taken from the prisoners. Then there were ovens used for cremations and rails used for burning outside. Next were metal tables that were used for "harvesting" the gold and silver teeth from the dead.
Finally you get to the point where other countries begin to come in and liberate the camps. Oddly enough, after the liberations took place, all but one country still denied survivors to live among them.
As you can see, this was a very insightful experience and one that I will not soon forget. We did not really do anything for the rest of the day, but we didn't really feel up to doing anything else anyway.
10.19.2012
DC Trip Day 8
Today we went to the National Zoo! We got there fairly early in the morning but it was so packed! There were people everywhere and so many families and kids running around. We walked around for a while but it was mostly just the animals you would find in a typical zoo. We did get to see a sloth bear though. And not just any sloth bear...this was THE bear that the author of Jungle Book based the character Baloo off of! I have to say though that it was definitely lazy and relaxed. We walked around a bit more and some some birds and some elephants and pandas. Even some very playful otters.
After we had our fill of crowds and crowds of people, we went to the Washington National Cathedral. The cathedral turned out to be absolutely amazing! The architecture was beautiful and amazing to see. The whole cathedral is actually built in the Gothic style which is extremely rare for a cathedral. Apparently only a few cathedrals in the world are built entirely in one style. We were able to go up in one of the towers and you could see out across most of DC. It was really pretty.
After spending some time at the cathedral we ended up heading back to the room and eating some leftovers. Then a little while later we went down for some snacks and headed out to Georgetown for dinner. It is a beautiful little neighborhood. We walked around for a bit and then decided to have some dinner at Pizzaria Paradiso. It was really good and authentic Italian pizza (no sauce, big slices of mozzarella). It was a fun restaurant because the windows in the front all open up so it's basically like a whole outdoor seating restaurant. Another fun thing was that instead of serving bread or something like that as a snack before your entree arrives, they served us a bowl of olives. All different kinds and they had the pits still and everything. We filled our bellies then we headed back to the room for bed.
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| Panda Bear |
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| Some VERY curled up flamingos |
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| Curious otter |
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| National Cathedral |
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| Stained Glass |
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| More stained glass and flags |
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| ...and more stained glass and vaulted ceilings |
DC Trip Day 7
Today is the day that we went to Arlington. We spent quite a bit of time out there just walking around and taking it all in. We started out by looking at the Kennedy Graves. It was a very large slab with a single flame and four plaques. It was neat, mostly because it was a President of the United States. Then we headed down to the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. While we were there we were actually able to see the changing of the guard. That was really neat. It was so perfect and clean and precise.
After the changing of the guard, we walked around some more and saw a huge amphitheater where they hold various things like for the funerals of the unknown soldiers. Across from the amphitheater, was the mast from the USS Maine along with a small memorial there. Next to that were rows and rows of tombstones. They stretched in all directions as far as the eye could see. Some had names, some didn't, some just said "four unknown". It was crazy to see how many unknown headstones there were.
We kept walking around and came across Robert E. Lee's house. It was a beautiful plantation house and was quite large for its time. The house also had some great views, but it was sad to see that he and his family were "forced" out of their home during the civil war. On the property also lies a huge tomb of 2111 unknown soldiers that President Lincoln buried there in the middle of the night (which is actually how Arlington became a cemetery).
We continued to walk through the cemetery and came across the grave of the first person to ever be buried there. The date said that it was from the 1700s! Then we walked to the Iwo Jima statue. I was expecting it to be some smaller statue but it turned out to be huge!
After our visit through Arlington, we hopped back on the metro and went back into DC. We thought it would be fun to visit Chesapeake Bay so we headed that way. We came up to the huge fish market and we really wanted to get something, but then we quickly realized that we had no way to cook it back at the B&B so we decided against that.
We wondered for a little bit more and then went back to the B&B. We were just in time for another evening snack. Tonight it was taquitos and cookies! We were still hungry after our snack and we kept thinking about the delicious dinner at Lauriol's the night before so we went back there for dinner again.
After delicious dinner number two, we came back to our room and watched Back to the Future parts 2 and 3. I forgot all about those movies, but it was a fun night just hanging out in our room.
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| Changing of the Guard |
We kept walking around and came across Robert E. Lee's house. It was a beautiful plantation house and was quite large for its time. The house also had some great views, but it was sad to see that he and his family were "forced" out of their home during the civil war. On the property also lies a huge tomb of 2111 unknown soldiers that President Lincoln buried there in the middle of the night (which is actually how Arlington became a cemetery).
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| The tomb of the 2111 unknown |
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| Iwo Jima Statue |
We wondered for a little bit more and then went back to the B&B. We were just in time for another evening snack. Tonight it was taquitos and cookies! We were still hungry after our snack and we kept thinking about the delicious dinner at Lauriol's the night before so we went back there for dinner again.
After delicious dinner number two, we came back to our room and watched Back to the Future parts 2 and 3. I forgot all about those movies, but it was a fun night just hanging out in our room.
DC Trip Day 6
Today we planned on having a pretty easy going day. We got some breakfast and then headed down to the Washington Monument to see if we could get tickets to go up inside of it. I figured that all of the tickets would be gone but we were able to get some of the last ones for 4:00 that afternoon.
With tickets in hand, we headed to the National Gallery of Art West Building. This has all of your classic artwork and there were thousands of pieces. Room after room of different art pieces by all sorts of people I didn't recognize. It was pretty crazy. After hours in the gallery, everything just started getting jumbled together and they all looked the same after a while. We were able to see a few famous pieces though including one by Da Vinci. It is actually the only work by Da Vinci in the United States! His painting style was unlike any of the other painters. It was incredibly detailed and so well done. It was also painted on boards and the back of the piece was actually painted as well. Down on the bottom floor of the gallery was a sculpture gallery. That was neat to see and we got to look at things like Degas dancers and the Thinker by Rodin.
After we finished there, we still had some time before going up in the Washington Monument so we thought that we would see the aquarium. When we got to the building though and saw the price of the tickets, we figured we would just go to the one back home in Newport. This one looked like it was probably not worth the cost they were asking. Once we decided this, we headed over to the Vietnam War Memorial to check that out. It was so huge and there were so many names on there. It was crazy to think that most of those people were no older than I was. It was hard to watch people just run through there and appear to have no respect for what this wall represents.
Next we wondered back over to the Lincoln Memorial in the day time. It was just as full of people as it was the other night! This place never gets a break. Then we walked down along the reflecting pool and ended up sitting at the WWII memorial for a while.
Then the time came to go up in the Washington Monument. I was really iffy about going because everything I read said that it was over 800 stairs to the top. I don't really like going up and down stairs that much and even debated waiting at the bottom while Rich went up and back down. I eventually talked myself into it thinking that I would possibly not get this chance again and it would be pretty cool to be at the top of the Washington Monument. So our group got called and we walk in to the base of the building and I'm pleasantly surprised to see that there is an elevator and no stairs to be seen! I was so excited and Rich was pretty bummed. He was really looking forward to the stairs. We got to the top and you could see so far in all directions. There were two large windows on each side of the obelisk and of course all sorts of people crammed in there to see out. We waited our turn and it was great!
It was so fun to see all of DC (and then some) from 500 feet up in the air! It was a pretty quick elevator ride back down to the bottom but it made a few "stops" along the way. Really, it was just a slowing down part where the walls would become transparent and you could see the inside of the obelisk. Some of the stones that were used to make the monument were carved and decorated in some way. There were stones donated from all of the states and even some cities and foreign countries too!
We got back to the B&B just in time for some more chicken wings and apple pie. It was just as good as the day before! We hung out in our room for a bit and then headed out to find something for dinner. Tonight we decided to head up to the northwest instead of going to the southeast. It turns out we found a packed out restaurant and we waited for just over an hour for a table. There were over 350 people there and they said it was packed out like that every night. At that point, we knew we made a good choice. It was a TexMex restaurant called Lauriol Plaza and it was by far the best food we had in DC. The wait was all the way up to two hours or more by the time we were seated and people were plenty happy to wait that long. Mmmm....I can still remember how great it tastes! We eventually found our way back to the B&B and just went to sleep.
With tickets in hand, we headed to the National Gallery of Art West Building. This has all of your classic artwork and there were thousands of pieces. Room after room of different art pieces by all sorts of people I didn't recognize. It was pretty crazy. After hours in the gallery, everything just started getting jumbled together and they all looked the same after a while. We were able to see a few famous pieces though including one by Da Vinci. It is actually the only work by Da Vinci in the United States! His painting style was unlike any of the other painters. It was incredibly detailed and so well done. It was also painted on boards and the back of the piece was actually painted as well. Down on the bottom floor of the gallery was a sculpture gallery. That was neat to see and we got to look at things like Degas dancers and the Thinker by Rodin.
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| Statue of Mercury |
After we finished there, we still had some time before going up in the Washington Monument so we thought that we would see the aquarium. When we got to the building though and saw the price of the tickets, we figured we would just go to the one back home in Newport. This one looked like it was probably not worth the cost they were asking. Once we decided this, we headed over to the Vietnam War Memorial to check that out. It was so huge and there were so many names on there. It was crazy to think that most of those people were no older than I was. It was hard to watch people just run through there and appear to have no respect for what this wall represents.
Next we wondered back over to the Lincoln Memorial in the day time. It was just as full of people as it was the other night! This place never gets a break. Then we walked down along the reflecting pool and ended up sitting at the WWII memorial for a while.
Then the time came to go up in the Washington Monument. I was really iffy about going because everything I read said that it was over 800 stairs to the top. I don't really like going up and down stairs that much and even debated waiting at the bottom while Rich went up and back down. I eventually talked myself into it thinking that I would possibly not get this chance again and it would be pretty cool to be at the top of the Washington Monument. So our group got called and we walk in to the base of the building and I'm pleasantly surprised to see that there is an elevator and no stairs to be seen! I was so excited and Rich was pretty bummed. He was really looking forward to the stairs. We got to the top and you could see so far in all directions. There were two large windows on each side of the obelisk and of course all sorts of people crammed in there to see out. We waited our turn and it was great!
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| North - White House and lawns |
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| South - Jefferson Memorial and government buildings |
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| East - Capital Building and Mall |
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| West - Lincoln Memorial, Reflecting Pool, Pentagon, Arlington |
We got back to the B&B just in time for some more chicken wings and apple pie. It was just as good as the day before! We hung out in our room for a bit and then headed out to find something for dinner. Tonight we decided to head up to the northwest instead of going to the southeast. It turns out we found a packed out restaurant and we waited for just over an hour for a table. There were over 350 people there and they said it was packed out like that every night. At that point, we knew we made a good choice. It was a TexMex restaurant called Lauriol Plaza and it was by far the best food we had in DC. The wait was all the way up to two hours or more by the time we were seated and people were plenty happy to wait that long. Mmmm....I can still remember how great it tastes! We eventually found our way back to the B&B and just went to sleep.
10.18.2012
DC Trip Day 5
So on to day 5...
We headed back to the Museum of Natural History this morning and almost had the whole hall of dinosaurs to ourselves! It was great!
After the dinosaurs we went to a hall that was full of other animals of all kinds. There were lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) and giraffes and zebras and pretty much every other kind of animal you could think of. There was even a GIANT squid. It was kind of gross though.
I went to take a picture of this panther and the way it turned out looks like it might actually be stalking towards you and ready to attack!
We finished up at the Museum of Natural History and decided that we should head next door to the American History Museum. I didn't think that this one would be as fun as the natural history one, but to my pleasant surprise, it turned out to probably be my favorite museum of all!
The American History Museum has so much history in it. There was everything from trains to marble statues to instruments to Julia Child's Kitchen to Kermit the frog and everything in between! We were able to see Lincoln's top hat from the night that he was assassinated at the Ford's Theater. The hat looks pretty old and worn but it sure does seem to say "Lincoln" doesn't it?
This was the outfit that actually belonged to and was worn by President George Washington. This is supposed to be the outfit that he is said to have worn when he was "getting his picture taken." Look back at some paintings of George Washington and you will see him wearing this! It was neat to see it with everything so intact. There was another whole room dedicated to the First Lady's and it had quite a few of the dresses worn by various First Lady's.
This area of the museum was considered to be the pop culture part. It had things like Kermit the Frog and Dorothy's Ruby Red Slippers that she wore in the Wizard of Oz and there were also some costumes from the Broadway musical The Lion King. They were so well done and well made, it was really cool to see them so close. This is also where we saw Fonzie's jacket from Happy Days and Archie Bunker's chair from All In The Family. Down the hall a ways, we saw Julia Child's Kitchen. It was perfectly set up just like she had it set up complete with cookbooks and pans hanging on a peg board. We were also able to see ORIGINAL Star Spangled Banner. It was in a pretty dark room and no pictures were allowed. It was so old and worn out that they had to have it in a dark room to keep it from deteriorating much more. There were large chunks missing from it which we learned were because the people who used to have it would cut little pieces from it and give them away as souvenirs. The flag was originally 42 feet long and now it sits at 34 feet long.
After looking through the rest of the museum we headed back to the B&B to rest for a bit before getting some dinner. When we got back, the owner had put out some chicken wings and apple pie. It was SO delicious! After our quick snack, we headed up to our room and watched the Apprentice, mostly because it is filmed in NYC and we were just there days ago! It was fun to see some of the places we had walked around. We ended up just eating some leftovers for dinner and had a good evening staying in.
We headed back to the Museum of Natural History this morning and almost had the whole hall of dinosaurs to ourselves! It was great!
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| DC's very own Rexy |
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| Triceratops - also known a Sarah from Land Before Time :) |
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| Zebras, Giraffe, Hippo |
The American History Museum has so much history in it. There was everything from trains to marble statues to instruments to Julia Child's Kitchen to Kermit the frog and everything in between! We were able to see Lincoln's top hat from the night that he was assassinated at the Ford's Theater. The hat looks pretty old and worn but it sure does seem to say "Lincoln" doesn't it?
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| THE Top hat |
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| George Washington's Outfit |
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| Kermit the Frog here |
After looking through the rest of the museum we headed back to the B&B to rest for a bit before getting some dinner. When we got back, the owner had put out some chicken wings and apple pie. It was SO delicious! After our quick snack, we headed up to our room and watched the Apprentice, mostly because it is filmed in NYC and we were just there days ago! It was fun to see some of the places we had walked around. We ended up just eating some leftovers for dinner and had a good evening staying in.
DC Trip: Day 4
Well...
I see it has almost been yet another year since I last updated. We've been doing some really fun things recently but I will have to wait to blog about those. I still need to finish up our DC trip and last years vacation before I can post about this years!
Sorry for not keeping up to date on this lately, I guess things have gotten busier than I expected, but I will try really hard to get this going again. Sometimes I forget that not everyone that likes to see this blog isn't already on facebook looking at all the pictures all the time.
Back to DC...
On day 4 of our trip we were so worn out from our looooong day just hours before. We ate a good breakfast and then we were off to the Museum of Natural History. I was looking forward to this one because I kept thinking about Night at the Museum which also took place at the Museum of Natural history, only it was the one in NYC. There were so many things to look at here and we quickly realized that we would probably be spending more than one day here. After we figured that out we really just took our time walking around and looking at all sorts of things. We started in the Gem room. There were gems in all shapes and sizes and meteorites that looked really funny.
Next we went to the butterfly gardens. There were so many butterflies (about 300) and there were all different sizes and colors. One butterfly came and landed on my ponytail. I could actually feel it's little feet moving on my head and it felt really funny. Then another one kept floating around the corner of Rich's glasses. It really couldn't decided if it wanted to land or not, and then found some plant to land on instead.
After spending a lot of time there, we headed around to see some stuff on western culture. There were a lot of Greek pots and vases and some mosaics. there were also some ancient scrolls that had stories on them about farmers and oxen and such, but they were all written in Hebrew it looked like.
After we got through the top floor we decided to take a quick walk around the first floor and then come back the next morning for better pictures and when there were less people.
When we left the museum we headed up north to get some dinner. We wound up going to the Hard Rock Cafe and saw Michael Jackson's Beat It jacket. The funny thing is, it was so small, I think I could have worn it and it may have even been a bit tight on me! Pretty cool to see though.
After dinner we just headed back to our B&B and just relaxed for the rest of the evening. It was such a nice, restful day.
I see it has almost been yet another year since I last updated. We've been doing some really fun things recently but I will have to wait to blog about those. I still need to finish up our DC trip and last years vacation before I can post about this years!
Sorry for not keeping up to date on this lately, I guess things have gotten busier than I expected, but I will try really hard to get this going again. Sometimes I forget that not everyone that likes to see this blog isn't already on facebook looking at all the pictures all the time.
Back to DC...
On day 4 of our trip we were so worn out from our looooong day just hours before. We ate a good breakfast and then we were off to the Museum of Natural History. I was looking forward to this one because I kept thinking about Night at the Museum which also took place at the Museum of Natural history, only it was the one in NYC. There were so many things to look at here and we quickly realized that we would probably be spending more than one day here. After we figured that out we really just took our time walking around and looking at all sorts of things. We started in the Gem room. There were gems in all shapes and sizes and meteorites that looked really funny.
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| Moon Rock! |
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| We even got to see the Hope Diamond |
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| ...and some other pretty jewelery |
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| Ancient Greek Pot |
When we left the museum we headed up north to get some dinner. We wound up going to the Hard Rock Cafe and saw Michael Jackson's Beat It jacket. The funny thing is, it was so small, I think I could have worn it and it may have even been a bit tight on me! Pretty cool to see though.
After dinner we just headed back to our B&B and just relaxed for the rest of the evening. It was such a nice, restful day.
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