DC - Arboretum

Sunday in DC...
Well, we got up at the Hyatt Place at BWI. Here's me there, next to the nice flat panel.
After that we headed down to the US Arboretum in DC. Somehow I placed the Arboretum in the wrong location on the GPS in the Prius so we made a couple circles, but once I just went with the icon that the Prius already knew about, we got there no problem. (yet Alison and Daniel ran into more traffic. Sounds like North of the city is where to stay, as opposed to West of the city...)
Saw lots of pretty flowers and trees and Bonsai trees (the big one is like 400 years old) and the National Columns. Oh! And this awesome Koi pond! I didn't realize Koi got so big! They were literally coming out of the water. And there were a couple ducks that basically jumped in on top of them, pecked them a bit and what not. Cool! I'll have to put the vid here...


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After that it was about lunch time and we pretty much just broke up the rest of the day with yummy food as we drove.

Alison and Daniel went with us to a Red Robin I found near Columbia, MD. It was our first time for Sara and I. It does seem like quite a nice place. I had a Guacamole Burger and... Something like a Blueberry pomegranate limeaid. Which was cool in that it was bottomless(free refills) and also the steak fries. All of it was super yummy! (:
So after staying there for a while we went our separate ways.

Was a little tiring on the trip back up, but we did make a couple stops. We found a Hardees where sure enough they do still have their cinnamon raisin whatever biscuits. The guy wasn't sure at first (guess they don't get too many requests for them at around 4 in the afternoon) but he then said yes they could make them. This was a routine I remember from our trips to Virginia with Grandma and Charlie. Seems like they always used to stop there and get them and they are YUMMY! So we got a 6 pack and put them in the back (well OK, we Sara and I split one first) I believe the last of them were finished off as of last night. Hehe, we also mistakenly got a chocolate shake. Don't get me wrong, we meant to order it and it was yummy, but... Well, about 15 minutes down the road I noticed the Brusters (another first time for us) ice cream that I've passed a few times near York, PA and this time I figured it out before we were past the exit so I figured we better stop. I've never heard of it, but seems like a good place if they give you a free scoop if it's snowing or raining out! (: So I had a yummy twix blizzard. That actually lasted most of the rest of the trip. I basically let it melt, then drank it, then it melted some more, drank some more... (:

And after that we stopped by Mom and Dad's quick to pick up Shadow and that was about it!

DC at night

And I believe we left off with dinner.
We then headed to the Washington monument and pretty much just hung out there until around 9:30. Took some interesting photos as the Lincoln memorial and the capitol lit up.

Then it got a bit more worrisome... Though not too bad. The 4 of us headed down a few blocks. Interestingly there's not many people out at 9:30 on a Saturday night and the streets are half dark. Lots of Shadows. Made more fun when we left Alison and Daniel at the Metro station (which apparently closed about 5 minutes from when they got there).
So then Sara and I are on our own walking back which was a bit farther than I was thinking. Probably about 7 blocks. And of course we got back there and said "This doesn't seem like quite the right place" Luckily we figured it out quite quickly and just went around the corner and found the Lenfant hotel again and went down to the parking garage which was nicely lit (I was rather worried about heading to a dark garage). There looked to be a few employees and we headed to the Prius and started our way to the exit. One of the guys came over and said "You know you're late" I said "Sorry, didn't know" He said that they closed at 7pm. Oh Nice. I'm not used to parking garages that close at 7. I think it might have been on one little sign on the side of one of the shacks. It was NOT well printed up on a sign. I paid him and he repeated again that we were late and that they closed at 7. I said I was sorry again, I had no idea. He then raised the security gate and the bar so we could leave. That would have REALLY sucked if we were stuck there for the night...
After that we made it back to our hotel near BWI and apparently we were NOT already checked in and it almost sounded like they had missed the note that we were coming and almost gave away our room. Not sure, nothing was said directly to us, but the faces and a few words she said to the other guy almost sounded that way... Anyway, we got our room and I was able to sleep! (:

DC - Looking for Food

So then we left the Museum of Natural History.

First off we just started walking a bit and took some pictures in front of the Washington Memorial (I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to get these pics in order very easily so you may have to use your own judgement as to what description fits which).

After that...
We went looking for dinner...
That was considerably harder than it might sound...
Apparently there is not exactly a lot of restaurants in DC. Or at least where we were.
So, we found some restaurants.
Apparently most restaurants in DC don't stay open past like 5pm on Saturdays...
So we found a few more. We found a couple McDonald's. Hmm, doable, but come on, there has to be something a bit better than that in DC?
Found a couple more restaurants that were open. Oh, you don't want McDonald's? How about some place where you should probably be wearing a suit and better not mind spending $24 for a chicken sandwich... Gah!
So... In here there's a picture of Alison showing Sara some of the pics she had taken before we got there while I was trying to use my n800 (internet tablet) to find a restaurant. This was after only say maybe 5 or so blocks of walking around...
The better one is where it looks like Alison and Daniel have lost it on the bench. We found some restaurant but it was still a bit pricey and probably needed reservations but there were some benches a bit outside so we sat there while we tried to figure out what to do. Also of note was a nice "Tourist Info" sign out in the open area there. Nice in the fact that it also said that No, you could not in fact get tourist info past 5:30pm. Apparently once it hits about 5pm you are no longer supposed to be in DC. (This will come up again when we get to the parking garage at the end of the night)

So we all but gave up and decided to go to the Prius and drive out of DC to find some dinner, when we stumbled upon a Quiznos. Not exactly what we were looking for, but about the best option we had.

So, for future reference... Do not plan on eating in DC. Or if you do, plan on only doing it during certain hours and/or not minding eating at the top or bottom of the restaurant food chain and even then you probably will want to find it on a map first... (:

Saturday - DC - Natural History

So... Saturday we dropped Shadow off at Mom's a little after 7 and then headed down to DC.
Trip went quite well. Only one little place where I didn't pay attention to the GPS ahead of time and had to turn around to go the right direction for a minute. Got an excellent 50mpg out of the Prius while travelling at 69mph (there was a good bit of 62mph in there too) and the AC was on around the time we hit Maryland. It was up to about 78F when we were in DC.
So we found our hotel in Baltimore around 1PM, but they didn't have any rooms ready so we couldn't actually check in. We called our friends who we were meeting down there about how crazy we were to drive in to DC. Everyone more or less said to take public transportation and our Friends Alison and Daniel sent an encouraging text message Friday night that said something like "For the love of everything you hold dear do not drive into DC!"
So I talked to them and they said I was crazy cause I was gonna try driving just to see what it was like.
We ran around a bit after that looking for a place to eat. We were going to stop at Chick Fil-A but they were closed and then, well we ended up driving around a few places before we finally got to Panera bread and had a nice lunch there.

Then we headed down to DC. Umm... It really wasn't bad... We must have lucked out I guess. We ran into traffic similar to Rochester and the first parking garage we were looking for was closed, but then we went past another and no problem we were parked in the vicinity of where we were looking for. We did our best to take notes of where we had parked and made our way to the elevator. When we came out of the elevator we found out we were parked under L'enfant plaza hotel. Then we tried to make sure we knew where THAT was before we got too far away.
So from there we headed up to the Museum of Natural History and on the way got ahold of Alison and Daniel again and told them where we were. They had walked over to the tidal basin since they figured we'd end up parking there. So we looked around a bit (it was quite crowded at the Museum). And after a bit they found us. Err, technically Alison texted us that they were upstairs and then we found them. And I accidentally scared Alison almost off the bench when I asked if I knew them. (:
So these pictures are from the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. We looked around there for a while... And I think I'll continue to the next section with a new entry... (:

Marv

So I did finally snap a pic of that sly guy Marv before he left! Here he and Vicki are the last night they were around. (:

Few things...

Ok, first off, before I forget, If you want to see the insanity that is PETA, just go to milkgonewild.com

And I'm still trying to keep track of everything. I think I left off with my Mike's Birthday. Here's aunt Patti with Granny (this was at Mike's Birthday party)


And here's Shadow, Eric, Jake, Evan and Vivian.
I think this was... Dunno, sometime during the week a couple weeks ago...



Now, they left like a week and a half ago. The day before the Nonns came over.
Here's a pic from that Friday night at a nice place to eat in the middle of nowhere.
This particular night Karen had brought a batch of little Dora stickers. Vivi was running around the table, getting one and then placing it somewhere. You'll notice one on her head, and everyone in the room had at least a couple. Towards the end my cell phone recieved about the last 50 or so of them. (:



We celebrated Granny's 85th birthday this past Sunday (though her Birthday isn't until the 23rd). We had a big party at her church.
Here she is with Joe and Mary.


Birthday cake! (:


Look, I'm at the party! (:


And all the way on the left of this one are Joe and Mary's kids Karolyn and Valerie(If I'm anywere close on spelling). They seemed quite nice. I don't think I've ever met them before(I have such a hard time keeping track of the extended family). I was surprised and somewhat... happy I guess is the word... to see that they almost seemed as lost at the party as I. It seems every other one of these family or otherwise get-togethers that people don't know each other but are always out talking and mingling, when I tend to just hope to find a couple people I know to sit with. They seemed to be hiding out a bit and just hanging out with us. It seemed like a refreshing change to me. (: Valerie is from Baltimore-ish I believe and the other is from the Twin cities area. They left... Sunday night.
I just noticed that Marv is a sly one and has so far eluded the camera. Maybe tonight...


And here I am that night! And there's Mary just behind me. We never really got a good picture of her either I guess.



Since then? Umm, yesterday I did some work at work, then tried to get the lawn roller from a barn on the farm over to our house to fix a couple ruts someone left with a truck. Well... Dad loaded the roller into Mike's truck with a tractor. It seemed pretty secure by itself. Well, Mike's truck is... "interesting" shall we say... It's generally always heading uphill. It also generally wants to go off to the right unless you apply the brakes, in which case it aims for the left. Straight isn't all that much of an option. And I was being gentle, but at one little incline I apparently hit the gas just a hair too much and BANG, BANG I looked back and the roller had apparently busted through the tailgate and dropped on the road. Bummer. I got it and the truck out of the road and got one end of the roller on the truck. Wasn't so sure I was going to be able to get the rest of it up there. Luckily after a few minutes the neighbor came out and lent a hand and we got it in there sideways. Made it home, got it unloaded and was turning around to go back when it started sputtering. Didn't wanna run. I decided to dump a couple gallons in and it started running again. Apparently the gas gauge is a bit optimistic since it wasn't quite down to an 1/8th yet...
Then I had lunch with some of the family, came home and watched 3:10 to Yuma. That was actually a pretty good Western. (I watched the modern remake I guess). Then headed out and tried to roll the driveway and lawn. I *think* it's better than it was. I mostly got rid of the truck ruts,but the ground kinda changed consistency towards the end I think I made about 2 or 3 passes more than I should have. Not helped by the fact that the 4-wheeler tires are just a hair wider than the roller...
And then Sara came home and we headed over to Mom's for something of a picnic dinner(though inside) with everyone.

And I think that's about it for now... I think tonight is the final dinner with the Wisconsonians, and then Saturday we're off to DC for the weekend!

Another test

Just me again...

N800 test

This is a test of camera and e-mail from n800...

Mike's Bday

OK, I think I'm starting to fall behind again so I better get a move on.

Umm... Last Friday... Did we do anything? Hmm... Yes, we tried our local pizza and it is yummy!

Saturday... I scanned in some old pictures and we did some house cleaning.

Sunday... Finished some house cleaning, then headed over to the Smith-Perno's for lunch and to celebrate Mike's Birthday a day early. Another great time with lots of family. Here's a pic of him opening our present. He said he couldnt' think of anything he wanted at a reasonable price, so I had Sara pick up $1 coins and I taped them to the bottom of a box of styrofoam peanuts. I could have been worse and just left them loose in there. (:

Denise is in the background. She's getting a nice new Prius! YAY!! (:
So we hung out there till mid-late afternoon, then we took the Ruffinos and Mom over to our place for a tour.
Hung out there for a little bit, then went to Mom's for a bit and then back up to the Smith-Perno's for supper.

Umm... Then I bopped in to work for a bit Monday morning, then took the Prius over to my mechanic to see if he could clean the injectors to get it running a touch smoother when the engine starts. He wasn't able to do what we wanted, but he did a couple things and there'a *chance* it's better now... Hard to tell since it's intermittent...
Then I made a strawberry cake with vanilla frosting and enchilada's for dinner. Now, take that with a grain of salt... It was a box cake. I tried out our new Silicone Bundt pan (Sara says it's not, it's fluted or something...) and I quite liked it. And the frosting was out of a box... That was the toughest thing I think... Interesting stuff. I picked up a box of stuff from the company that Shaun works for. It's gluten free and what not, but I occasionally try stuff like that anyway just for kicks. Well... I looked and sure enough I'm adding about 2 and a half sticks of butter and a touch of milk... Yessiree, the ingredients in the frosting are Confectioner's sugar... And I think a touch of vanilla... I bet that's one of the most expensive boxes of confectioner's sugar I've seen...(No reflection on Shaun) (: And then yes, the Enchilada's were out of a box too, I just had to cook them up. We were going to have them Saturday or something, but I didn't realize they needed to be cooked for an hour and 15 minutes.

Tuesday we... Wait... Yes, OK that was Tuesday... We headed over to my parents for the last night with our cousins. Patti had been going through some of my Granny's stuff and had some memorabilia to go through. She thought maybe we were rich when she found some confederate money, including a $1000 bill. I looked it up on the internet and it was listed as the most common fake. Eric and Evan wanted to play an April Fool's joke on her and tell her it was worth a lot, but I don't like being mean, so I told her within a few seconds of her entering the room when they brought her in. We also looked through an interesting wedding book and some other pictures, letters and such from like back in the 40's and earlier. We didn't end up leaving till after 9. Might not sound late to a lot of you, but Sara takes a while to wind down and I try to go to sleep closer to 8.

Then last night I got some dishes and laundry done and Sara had some board meeting or what not and didn't get home till like 10.

Friday the Nonns should be here and I think we're going out for a fish fry with them.

Then I think we're doing a lunch with some amount of the family on Saturday at our place.

Then Sunday is Granny's Birthday party.

And who knows what we'll be doing this coming week with the Nonns. (Plans seem hard to make around here...) (:

And at this point it looks like we're heading to DC for the Cherry Blossom festival the weekend of the 12th. Kinda short notice but SOMEONE decided they were going to take a vacation and maybe be near there. And then I didn't realize the Cherry Blossom festival was still going on. Man, that's looking like a half-major pain... I guess we've driven next to or around DC, but trying to plan a few activities in DC looks a bit difficult. From everything I can tell, there is like one set of free parking and they're running free shuttles, but only like to the end of the free parking. Well, really the hardest part is figuring out just how much walking for how long we'll need to do... Like if I read it correctly, we should be able to park, grab a shuttle within 20 minutes, and then we have to walk halfway around the tidal basin to register for a walk that night, and then whatever, and then who knows how much of a walk from there to the marina for a boat ride... Just kinda hard to determine travel times and what not. I REALLY like our small towns where we can SIMPLY PARK WHERE WE'RE GOING! You know, where a long walk is like a minute and a half... Not that I mind walking, but it can make it difficult when I'm trying to figure out when I need to leave one location to get to somewhere at a specific time.Mass transit seems to be highly encouraged, but of course that looks scary besides the fact that it looks like you have to take like 2 round trip buses or trains to get from one place to another (at least the places I looked at)... I don't really want to figure out a mass transit system when I'm just visiting for a day or two...Oh we shall see. I was hoping to see the parade, but I don't see a realistic way to make it there in time. I think we'll try to take it a bit easier... (:

And then that Wed we come back I decided to RSVP for the Red Cross Volunteer Recognition luncheon. I went once before when they first sent the letter. It was kinda scary. Well, definitely scary since I was going alone and didn't know anyone. More so since it was at some unfamiliar church. And the food... Well, it was kinda cafeteria grade and limited. And about 90% of the people were like 70 years old or more. So I didn't go last year. This year it's at a nice new firehall so I figured I'd give it another shot.

And then the following week we're going to IL for an earth sheltered housing convention for Sara's Birthday. Though we haven't really discussed anything about that at all yet...

And I believe after that is about time for the SPCA Volunteer dinner. Haven't gone to that in numerous years, for pretty similar reasons to the Red Cross one. But this year it's at a country club that Sara and I recently went to and enjoyed so I was thinking maybe we would try it again.

Anyway, that's just WAAAY too much all packed in so I'm just a little frazzled as usual!! (:
Hope everyone is having a great day!! (: