Saturday, May 22, 2010

Last Day in DC

Okay, I know I've been home for almost three weeks, but I just can't seem to get out of my own way to get some things done! :) Anyway, here are some shots from our last 24 hours in DC:

Here's a shot of our hotel - three old brownstones that have about 40 rooms. See the dormer windows at the top left? That was our penthouse suite!

The girls on the front steps:


This was the view out our bathroom window at the back of the hotel - overlooking the outdoor patio/bar/restaurant. And just across the way from this was the back side of several embassies - Chile, Trinidad.


Our giant room. We also had a small kitchen area.

The view across the street:
This was the very skinny winding staircase that we had to climb several times each day to the 4th floor:

We started the morning at the zoo! We met up with my good friend HD and her boys there. They had a flight home that afternoon, but we did get to spend a little time with them again!

The baby gorilla was so cute. A few minutes after I took this photo, mama grabbed him and went inside, because the HUMANS couldn't follow the rules "No tapping on glass". Well, honestly, the rude humans weren't tapping...they were pounding!
Sophie comparing hersellf to how fast the bamboo grows. She had to take her panda with her to the zoo! We did see one panda...the other was under "panda watch" - they thought she was pregnant again a few days earlier (she wasn't), but she was still under observation.
K left the zoo a little early to do a Segway tour. So, the girls and I hit up the panda gift shop (of course!) and then took the Metro to the Sculpture Garden. Sophie crashed before we were even out of the zoo. EJ and I enjoyed a little ice cream treat while walking around. When Sophie woke up, the girls just had to dip their toes in the fountain at the garden, and I had a chance to play with the camera a bit:
EJ liked this sculpture of a pyramid of cubes. The light made it look interesting.
When the sculpture garden closed, we popped into the Natural History museum for a quick break until K called us that he was done. Here's one of the Easter Island statues:

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Washington DC - Day Four

Our fourth day in DC also started out early, as our congressman had arranged an 8:45 AM tour at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, so we had to be on the move by about 7:45 to walk to the Metro Station, make a few transfers, walk a few blocks, find the wrong entrance, and get in and through security. This was a fascinating tour about how our paper money is printed, but no photos were allowed! Here's a shot from the gift shop, where EJ and Sophie were trying to see how much money they were worth!



About halfway through the tour, the emergency alarm sounded and was telling us all to evacuate the building immediately. We quickly found out this was just a test, but it had us all wondering for a while! EJ bought herself about $500 worth of shredded money for $5, and we bought Sophie some lucky money for the year of the dog (when she was born). It's a dollar bill from the year 2006 that the serial number begins with 888 (considered lucky in Chinese!). We tried to get some for EJ but the year of the rabbit was sold out...it will be out again next year though!

Notice how blue and sunny the sky is in the next photo. Well, since this day was the first one that didn't threaten rain, the girls and I wore shorts. Big mistake. It was probably only in the mid-40s in the morning and then it might have climbed to 50. We were freezing and the wind was blowing terribly hard. Nonetheless, we had wanted to do a bunch of outdoor walking among the monuments, so perhaps we just walked a little faster than usual. Our first leg of the walk took us around the tidal basin to see the Jefferson Memorial. All of the cherry blossoms were gone - darn!



As we worked our way around the tidal basin, we came across the FDR monument, which I had never seen. It was really very nice.


You can see that at some point after the Jefferson memorial, I realized I had a change of clothes in the backpack for Sophie, so I slid some leggings on under her skirt, and she put her extra socks on as mittens!


Here are EJ and Sophie in the bread line:

A short walk further brought us to the Korean Monument. I had never seen it before, and it was amazing too. I noticed that each of the soldiers had a small spotlight on it, and I imagine that it is quite eerie to see at night.
There is a marble wall to the left of the above photograph. It has engraved faces of Korean War soldiers on it, and it is meant to reflect the statues of the soldiers.
This gentleman is a Korean War veteran. He was happy to share some of his experiences with the school groups that were visiting, and all the kids shook his hand when he was done speaking:
We finally made it to the Lincoln Memorial:


EJ always finds the horses:



Yup, there's that "tall pointy building" again (as Sophie called it):



I think Sophie half expected old Abe to stand up, as in the Night at the Museum 2 movie:



Next was the Vietnam Wall...a very powerful memorial:


After this long hike, we were starved, but kinda sorta on the wrong end of town for most restaurants. We wandered around a few blocks, and someone suggested walking north toward George Washington University. Still nothing. Finally, K went into a CVS and asked for a suggestion. They said the Red Cross headquarters was just a block east and it had a cafeteria, so that's where we went! After lunch, back down to the mall to see the World War 2 monument.



I figure we walked close to six miles this day. After getting back to our Metro stop, we went to Pizzeria Paradiso in Dupont Circle, voted the best pizza in DC, to grab a slice. Not bad! I think we all fell asleep pretty quickly this night.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Washington DC - Day 3

Day three of the trip, Tuesday, started very early for me! I wanted to get tickets to go to the top of the Washington Monument. I tried to reserve them online, but they were sold out, and the only other way was to get same day tickets starting at 8:30 AM. But the tour guide said that the line forms as early as 7 AM during tourist season, so I left the hotel room at 6:45 for a brisk mile and a half walk to the monument. I arrived a little after 7 and there were about 8 people in front of me. And then I had 90 minutes to kill just standing in line talking to other tourists. But it was a beautiful morning and I didn't care. I got tickets for an 11 AM tour, so I had time to get back to the hotel and rally the troops.

Yep, all the way to the top to look out those itty bitty windows.
The view to the west, the Lincoln Memorial, the reflecting pool, and the World War 2 memorial in the foreground.
The view to the east, to the Capitol and all the museums:
The view to the north to the White House.
The southern view of the Jefferson Memorial. The Pentagon is just across the river and to the right. From this vantage, it was quite scary to see how close the plane was to everything else on Sept 11, 2001.
At the top of the momument:
Chillin' outside the monument after the tour.

We went to the Reagan Commerce Building's food court for lunch. Crazy is an understatement. Afterward, we headed across the National Mall to get to the Smithsonian Castle.

We saw some other folks taking funny photos like this, so EJ and I just had to try it:

There's a beautiful old carousel in front of the Smithsonian Castle. Sophie had to ride the shiny blue dragon.

The next stop was the Air and Space Museum, but on the way, EJ went inside the Hirschorn's building to check out the fountain.

At the Air and Space Museum, we saw the Wright Brothers plane...

And Amelia Earhart's plane...

and the cockpit of a jetliner:

EJ competed in a paper airplane contest against much older kids and finished in 2nd or 3rd place!

Sophie? She won't remember anything after the carousel, because she crashed hard!!!