After nearly a 2 month absence I have returned to posting on this blog. I'm not going to attempt to explain why I haven't been blogging or recap has happened to me since the last post. Most of you who know me know the important stuff anyway.
This first return post, and probably the next couple as well, will be a recap of the days Paula and I spent on vacation (June 13-20). This week long getaway included 2 1/2 days of driving, a day in our nation's capitol city, and all or part of 5 days in the area of Pennsylvania where the northern branch of my family lives.
Sunday, June 13
Our journey to Washington DC began about 8:30 AM on Sunday June 13. For the first time we were following the directions of our new Tom-Tom GPS unit. According to my son & daughter in-law (who also have a Tom-Tom) you have to name your GPS. We named ours "Nova."
The reason for this came when we were "off route" in the Washington DC area late Sunday night. While making a "U" turn to get back to where we should be the GPS announced that we should get back on the highway heading toward "Northern 'Va". It actually said "Va" as a word not as an abbreviation. Paula & I thought it was so funny we agreed right then and there that the Tom-Tom's name had to be something that commemorated that moment. So we came up with "Nova" as its name.
Our drive to Washington DC was a day's journey. We passed some of the time by listening to a Patricia Cornwell audio book (Body Farm). We stopped quite a few times to fill up the car and "empty" ourselves. We stopped for lunch at a place in Olive Hill, Kentucky called "Smokey Valley Truck Stop". It was featured on the Food Network in 2007. The food was okay but not great and the service was rather slow. But the novelty of going on to "You Tube" and seeing the segment from the show "Drive-Ins, Diners, & Dives". Will make for a lasting memory of our visit. I told my brother-in-law about it because it's just the type of place he will be interested in stopping on his next trip to visit us.
The only other thing that's noteworthy about our trip was that it was long. It took us about 13 hours to get to our hotel in Alexandria, VA. But once we checked in we went to bed so we could get an early start to our long anticipated visit to the National Mall and the Smithsonian Museums the next day.
Monday June 14
We got up early in order to beat the crowds to the National Mall. We left the hotel about 8:30 and made the half mile walk to the Metro station and aboard Washington DC's public transit train system. We each bought a Farecard for $6 to cover our round trip cost. Once we determined which train we needed to take (thanks to my wife) we got on and road for about 25 minutes.
Once we came up from the underground station we were in the heart of our nation's capitol. We walked about 2 blocks to "The Castle" the welcome center for the Smithsonian. The streets were full of people walking to work as well as tourists just like us. The Washington Monument was to our left and towered over the area. It could be seen from just about anywhere.
We scoped out the Smithsonian museums we wanted to see on the map inside "The Castle". We watched a short orientation film starring Ben Stiller, then walked out the door onto the National Mall. It was about as wide as two football fields. To our left was the Washington Monument about 11/2 miles away and just as far to our right was the US Capitol building. Being there was the first "big moment" of our day. We stood there snapping pictures for about a minute or two.
At 11AM we entered the Smithsonian American History Museum. Visiting here was the reason I'd wanted to come to DC for vacation. I understood this to be a place where lots of pop culture artifacts were on exhibit. Things from TV like the "All in the Family" living room and original set of "The Swamp" from MASH, my all time favorite show.
I guess I misunderstood what the place was because it turned out to be more of history museum than a pop culture history museum. Only about 10% or less of the exhibits were pop culture. There really was only 1 room of that kind of stuff. I know it's a museum but I thought I was going to be entertained not educated. That was not the case and it was rather disappointing.
There were 3 pop culture things on display that really made my day though: An original Kermit the frog puppet donated by Jim Henson, a car from the flying Dumbo ride at Disneyland, and one of the pair of ruby slipper used in the filming of the Wizard of Oz.
We walked around for about an hour. Looking at the 3 floors of exhibits. Soon we knew it was time to sit down and rest. We decided to have lunch in the basement cafeteria. That was a mistake because it was very expensive and caused both of us to have an upset stomach. Still we got 30 or 40 minutes of rest we needed. Soon we were feeling better and headed over to the Smithsonian museum of Natural History.
We walked through that museum looking at the exhibits including one about gemstones and minerals found in the ground. It was labyrinth of displays that seemed to never end. We saw enough quartz, precious metals, gemstones and varieties of rocks & stones to last us a lifetime. We also saw skeletons of modern animals who live all over the world. There was also a room with lots of impressive animals stuffed and set up in their natural habitats. It was like a taxidermy zoo.
Finally we went to the area I was most interested in, the dinosaur room. It was there that we saw several dinosaur skeletons. It's the first time I've actually seen them in person. The T-Rex was the best but the brontosaurus and stegosaurus were cool too.
By the time we finished in the Natural History museum we were once again exhausted. We left and went outside in the heat. The day had warmed up considerably. We got something to drink and sat on a bench in the shade to relax for a few minutes.
We talked about doing a walking tour of the "big 3" (Washington Monument, White House and Lincoln Memorial. But from where we were sitting it was at least a mile walk to the Washington Monument in the hot sun. The idea of more walking in the heat didn't appeal to us at all. We decided that we would try to come back the next day to do the "monument tour".
We walked back toward our Metro station. On the way was the Smithsonian Air & Space museum. I wanted to go there so we decided that since it was inside we would look around before calling it a day.
I was glad we did. Although it was more walking we got to see the Wright Brothers' plane, Charles Lindbergh's The Spirit of St. Louis and other cool air craft. There was also a large exhibit devoted to the Apollo space program. I got to see a very large model of a Saturn 5 rocket.
We took in a film in the museum's planetarium. It wasn't a real planetarium just a movie theater with a large domed roof that served as a movie screen.
After we saw all the space stuff we decided to head back to our hotel. We got on the Metro and rode back to Alexandria. We stopped at strip mall near the Eisenhower Metro station and had dinner. It was at one of our favorite restaurants, Ted's Montana Grill.
We were exhausted and just wanted to eat and walk back to the hotel. While we were eating a thunderstorm with torrential rain hit the area. We had to wait an extra 15 minutes for it to stop. Once it did we walked the rainbow shaped bridge that led back to our hotel.
Paula spent the rest of the night in the hotel room. I rested for a while and then went to a local Walmart to look for a Washington Nationals baseball shirt. I also picked up some groceries we needed.
We planned on going to back to see the monuments the next day but before we went to sleep just decided to check out and head toward the National Zoo and then onto Pennsylvania.
Our first day in Washington DC had been fun but all the walking and standing around really wiped us out. We both slept very soundly after our first full day of vacation.
This first return post, and probably the next couple as well, will be a recap of the days Paula and I spent on vacation (June 13-20). This week long getaway included 2 1/2 days of driving, a day in our nation's capitol city, and all or part of 5 days in the area of Pennsylvania where the northern branch of my family lives.
Sunday, June 13
Our journey to Washington DC began about 8:30 AM on Sunday June 13. For the first time we were following the directions of our new Tom-Tom GPS unit. According to my son & daughter in-law (who also have a Tom-Tom) you have to name your GPS. We named ours "Nova."
The reason for this came when we were "off route" in the Washington DC area late Sunday night. While making a "U" turn to get back to where we should be the GPS announced that we should get back on the highway heading toward "Northern 'Va". It actually said "Va" as a word not as an abbreviation. Paula & I thought it was so funny we agreed right then and there that the Tom-Tom's name had to be something that commemorated that moment. So we came up with "Nova" as its name.
Our drive to Washington DC was a day's journey. We passed some of the time by listening to a Patricia Cornwell audio book (Body Farm). We stopped quite a few times to fill up the car and "empty" ourselves. We stopped for lunch at a place in Olive Hill, Kentucky called "Smokey Valley Truck Stop". It was featured on the Food Network in 2007. The food was okay but not great and the service was rather slow. But the novelty of going on to "You Tube" and seeing the segment from the show "Drive-Ins, Diners, & Dives". Will make for a lasting memory of our visit. I told my brother-in-law about it because it's just the type of place he will be interested in stopping on his next trip to visit us.
The only other thing that's noteworthy about our trip was that it was long. It took us about 13 hours to get to our hotel in Alexandria, VA. But once we checked in we went to bed so we could get an early start to our long anticipated visit to the National Mall and the Smithsonian Museums the next day.
Monday June 14
We got up early in order to beat the crowds to the National Mall. We left the hotel about 8:30 and made the half mile walk to the Metro station and aboard Washington DC's public transit train system. We each bought a Farecard for $6 to cover our round trip cost. Once we determined which train we needed to take (thanks to my wife) we got on and road for about 25 minutes.
Once we came up from the underground station we were in the heart of our nation's capitol. We walked about 2 blocks to "The Castle" the welcome center for the Smithsonian. The streets were full of people walking to work as well as tourists just like us. The Washington Monument was to our left and towered over the area. It could be seen from just about anywhere.
We scoped out the Smithsonian museums we wanted to see on the map inside "The Castle". We watched a short orientation film starring Ben Stiller, then walked out the door onto the National Mall. It was about as wide as two football fields. To our left was the Washington Monument about 11/2 miles away and just as far to our right was the US Capitol building. Being there was the first "big moment" of our day. We stood there snapping pictures for about a minute or two.
At 11AM we entered the Smithsonian American History Museum. Visiting here was the reason I'd wanted to come to DC for vacation. I understood this to be a place where lots of pop culture artifacts were on exhibit. Things from TV like the "All in the Family" living room and original set of "The Swamp" from MASH, my all time favorite show.
I guess I misunderstood what the place was because it turned out to be more of history museum than a pop culture history museum. Only about 10% or less of the exhibits were pop culture. There really was only 1 room of that kind of stuff. I know it's a museum but I thought I was going to be entertained not educated. That was not the case and it was rather disappointing.
There were 3 pop culture things on display that really made my day though: An original Kermit the frog puppet donated by Jim Henson, a car from the flying Dumbo ride at Disneyland, and one of the pair of ruby slipper used in the filming of the Wizard of Oz.
We walked around for about an hour. Looking at the 3 floors of exhibits. Soon we knew it was time to sit down and rest. We decided to have lunch in the basement cafeteria. That was a mistake because it was very expensive and caused both of us to have an upset stomach. Still we got 30 or 40 minutes of rest we needed. Soon we were feeling better and headed over to the Smithsonian museum of Natural History.
We walked through that museum looking at the exhibits including one about gemstones and minerals found in the ground. It was labyrinth of displays that seemed to never end. We saw enough quartz, precious metals, gemstones and varieties of rocks & stones to last us a lifetime. We also saw skeletons of modern animals who live all over the world. There was also a room with lots of impressive animals stuffed and set up in their natural habitats. It was like a taxidermy zoo.
Finally we went to the area I was most interested in, the dinosaur room. It was there that we saw several dinosaur skeletons. It's the first time I've actually seen them in person. The T-Rex was the best but the brontosaurus and stegosaurus were cool too.
By the time we finished in the Natural History museum we were once again exhausted. We left and went outside in the heat. The day had warmed up considerably. We got something to drink and sat on a bench in the shade to relax for a few minutes.
We talked about doing a walking tour of the "big 3" (Washington Monument, White House and Lincoln Memorial. But from where we were sitting it was at least a mile walk to the Washington Monument in the hot sun. The idea of more walking in the heat didn't appeal to us at all. We decided that we would try to come back the next day to do the "monument tour".
We walked back toward our Metro station. On the way was the Smithsonian Air & Space museum. I wanted to go there so we decided that since it was inside we would look around before calling it a day.
I was glad we did. Although it was more walking we got to see the Wright Brothers' plane, Charles Lindbergh's The Spirit of St. Louis and other cool air craft. There was also a large exhibit devoted to the Apollo space program. I got to see a very large model of a Saturn 5 rocket.
We took in a film in the museum's planetarium. It wasn't a real planetarium just a movie theater with a large domed roof that served as a movie screen.
After we saw all the space stuff we decided to head back to our hotel. We got on the Metro and rode back to Alexandria. We stopped at strip mall near the Eisenhower Metro station and had dinner. It was at one of our favorite restaurants, Ted's Montana Grill.
We were exhausted and just wanted to eat and walk back to the hotel. While we were eating a thunderstorm with torrential rain hit the area. We had to wait an extra 15 minutes for it to stop. Once it did we walked the rainbow shaped bridge that led back to our hotel.
Paula spent the rest of the night in the hotel room. I rested for a while and then went to a local Walmart to look for a Washington Nationals baseball shirt. I also picked up some groceries we needed.
We planned on going to back to see the monuments the next day but before we went to sleep just decided to check out and head toward the National Zoo and then onto Pennsylvania.
Our first day in Washington DC had been fun but all the walking and standing around really wiped us out. We both slept very soundly after our first full day of vacation.
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