Spring Visitors: Vol. 3

We had another fun weekend with visitors -- this time our good friends Keith and Desiree from Kansas City. We've missed hanging out with them and were happy to show them our new city!

Friday's highlights were trips to the Spy Museum and Georgetown (and Dunkin' Donuts, if you ask Keith). This picture is on a foot bridge over the C&O Canal in Georgetown.

Saturday included walking around Union Station, the Capitol and the Mall - with quick trips into the Botanical Gardens and the National Gallery.

Later, the guys were in aviation heaven when we drove out to the gigantic Smithsonian Air and Space Museum - Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles. My favorite was seeing the space shuttle Enterprise orbiter. Other unique items were the Enola Gay and an SR-71 Blackbird.

Happy Birthday Rachel!

Today is Rachel's 7th birthday! She got a birthday card and tasty treat in the mail from Grandpa Roger yesterday, so we let her indulge a little early. Here's the sequence of events:

What did I get? What did I get?

It's a pup-sicle! My favorite!

Can't. . .quite. . .get it.

Better just get these last crumbs. Mom hates a mess. Wonder if I get more if I clean my plate? Thanks again Grandpa!!

Popemobile

I caught a quick glimpse of the Popemobile as it left the White House today! In a last minute decision, I walked over there in the few minutes that I had before a lunch meeting.

I was still 2 blocks from the "viewing" area that was recommended when I saw everyone else had their cameras out. I realized the procession had just started, grabbed my camera and turned to look.

You'll need to click on the picture to make it larger in order to see the back of the Pope inside the vehicle. It's obviously hard to see the Popemobile - much less the Pope - in this tiny version.

Istanbul, Turkey

Jason went to Istanbul, Turkey last week. I haven't heard many of the stories yet, but I have downloaded a few pictures of things that I knew from the tour book.

This must have made him feel like he was still in Washington! The Dikilitas was moved from Egypt in approximately 390 A.D. Part of the obelisk was lost in the transition, so it used to stand even taller.

The Blue Mosque gets its name from the blue ceiling tiles in the interior. This mosque is practically brand new - built merely 400 years ago between 1609 and 1616.

Hagia Sophia was built between 532-537 A.D. and served as a cathedral, then a mosque, and now a museum.

Trips to the Post Office

I don't have much else to blog about this week, so I'll share my musings on my recent trips (yes, plural) to the post office. I went over yesterday afternoon to mail two packages and was shocked by the line! Not sure why this tax accountant hadn't considered that everyone would be mailing their taxes this week. . . .

As it turned out, I actually had to leave and return to the office for a conference call before I could complete my transaction. But, standing in line was not a waste of time; it was nice to get out in the sunshine for the walk over, and you can do a lot of people watching to, from and at the post office! Best of all, however, was the Michael Jackson "Thriller" album playing not so softly from behind the desk. Gotta love those tunes.

So, I went back this morning and got my packages mailed (yeah!) and got to hear "Thriller" blasted again (yeah!).

As I was paying for my postage, a woman in a long black pleather coat, a backwards Oprah hat, and large, plastic, teardrop-shaped earrings appeared out of nowhere to quiz the postal clerks about their hours of operation. I'm sure it was posted on the door, but at least I got to see those earrings up close! They reminded me exactly of the glass crystals on the dining room chandelier that was hanging when we bought our house in Lenexa (except the earrings weren't shiny).

Luckily I don't have time to look for a picture of a man in his 30's wearing a red t-shirt and Guess overalls with one of the straps undone. I saw that today, too. . . .

Metrorail

Rachel wasn't disturbed by me taking video of her on Saturday, and she certainly wasn't disturbed by the Metrorail coming in and out all day. I think we've all gotten used to that. I did shoot a video of one of the trains leaving. This was taken from our balcony without zoom.

The cars zipping along the interstate behind the train are traveling on The Beltway. Seriously, there is that much traffic on a random Saturday afternoon. Although, you can tell it's a "slow" weekend travel day, because the traffic is moving instead of parked in gridlock.

Rachel's Lazy Saturday

We didn't do much this weekend. Saturday was windy and Sunday was rainy, so we stayed inside and caught up on our sleep and reading. We did have the windows and the balcony slider open enough on Saturday to let in some of the breeze. Rachel enjoyed lounging out on the balcony periodically throughout the day (enough so that I took six videos of her, but only decided to post one). You can see my presence didn't faze her much.

Cherry Blossoms

The National Cherry Blossom Festival officially kicked off on Saturday. I was able to snap a few photos of the blooms as we were on our trolley and Tourmobiles tours. The original cherry blossoms from Japan were planted in the Tidal Basin near where the Jefferson Memorial is now located. But, the trees are abundant throughout the city. This second picture was inside Arlington Cemetery.

Spring Visitors: Vol. 2

My VIP guests -- Mom and Dad -- had lovely (mostly sunny and cool) weather and many adventures this weekend on their first visit to the city! Besides being tourists, we also had time for a few rounds of Scrabble and lots of playing with Rachel.

Thursday's signature event was dinner at the Chart House along the Potomac waterfront in Old Town, Alexandria. We walked the 17 blocks from the King Street Metro station down to the waterfront (and back) in order to see all the shops and buildings along the way.

Friday's main activity was the Old Town Trolley Tour. We took the "orange loop" through the Mall and Monuments area. As our conductor said, "this city will monument you to death." We then took the "green loop" through residential and business areas in northwest Washington. I forgot to take a picture of the trolley, but where we loaded is just a block from my office, so maybe I'll walk over and take one some afternoon.

I did, however, remember to memorialize this picture while we awaited the trolley: the historic Ford's Theatre is now immediately next door to the Hard Rock Cafe and across the street from a variety of tacky souvenir stands. I've always found that so odd. We skipped Hard Rock and headed to the Capitol City Brewery for a tasty lunch. Later we took the Metro to Arlington Cemetery where rode the 40-minute Tourmobile loop through the cemetery.

Saturday's fun started at the Air & Space Museum, where we also saw the Treasures of the American History Museum (closed for the 2nd of a 3 year renovation). To kill the three hours until our dinner reservation, we walked through the Mall to see the Kite Festival, did a lap around the White House to see protestors, and did a photo op at McPherson Square!

(Side note on McPherson Square: we saw it on our green loop tour, and the conductor told us that General McPherson was so often having his last name mispronounced as "Mc-Fear-son" that he coined the response, "There's no fear in McPherson." We laughed out loud at that one, since we assumed someone in McPherson, Kansas, came up with that slogan! Every young bullpup learns it early in life!)

I almost forgot our other stop: The National Geographic Society Museum. They had a display called Frogs! that has been advertised on posters in the Metro cars and we were in the neighborhood, so we swung by. We were actually quite impressed with all of the different frogs in their habitats. Some were so exotic looking that we thought they were ceramic or glass at first!