St. George

We made a short trip to St. George over the weekend. I can't remember the last time that everyone in the family was together in the same place at the same time. We'd driven to Portland, flew to Las Vegas, and then rented a car for the two hour drive to St. George. Somehow we managed to restrain ourselves from renting the PT Cruiser that enterprise offered us.

We went out to breakfast once to the Bear Paw Cafe. It wasn't bad except that the eggs were slimy and the service slow. I don't think we'd go back, it's no Bobo's, but then, no where except Bobo's really is.

Misty and I went to Snow Canyon for a drive and hike on Sunday, just the two of us. We hiked the Hidden Pinyon trail and I think we found the hidden pinyon. We also had a lot of fun with my nieces and nephew at the St. George heritage square with all the water fountains, rocks, and streams.

We're back in Eugene for now, but who knows for how long.

Home but for a moment...

Well, we made it back. With the time change and daylight savings time our clocks are a bit off. We are back at work this week but will be headed out for a quick rendezvous with Alan's family in St. George, Utah. We leave Friday night.

News, pictures, and posts from Utah soon.

DC Day 8 - The Road Home

For our last day, we decided to pick out a few final places to visit. We started at the Holocaust Memorial Museum, a somber, crowded experience set up as "areas" chronologically arranged. In a fashion slightly similar to the International Spy Museum, you pick up a passport of a real life person who lived through the Holocaust. You're supposed to read each page as you enter each area. We were most impressed by the two level room of portraits from a single studio in Poland, I think. It's a room you go through twice, once on a walk way, and once below. There are probably hundreds of photos there, mostly of people from a single town who died in the Holocaust. They were arranged such that they stuck out from the wall on a separate railing, adding to the effect.

Right next the museum, we went to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, whose URL is http://www.moneyfactory.gov, oddly enough. This is where roughly half of all paper money is printed (the other half is done at the Texas office). The workers there have a good sense of humor. One of them held up a sign that said "Tour guide has free samples." Another sign said something like "How do you think I feel, I just printed my lifetime salary in a few minutes." It was a short, but fun tour. They were more strict about cameras here than anyplace I'd been. Signs everywhere saying no pictures or video and if you are caught, they will take your camera and not return it.

After lunch, we headed to another Smithsonian Museum, the Museum of African Art. This turned out to be one of our favorites. They museum is quiet, well spaced and all the glass protecting the artifacts and art pieces is entirely clean. I don't think too many kids come here. There were a few modern pieces, which were quite amazing. A man built of about 5000 match sticks, with a light behind him casting an eerie shadow on the wall, standing over a grave with a cross labeled "Congo 1875".

Close by, we stopped at the Freer Gallery of Art, which was also quiet, and very well layed out. Here we focused on the pieces from the Indian sub-continent, the Islamic pieces, and to a lesser degree, those from East Asia. From there, we picked up our luggage back at the hotel and headed to the airport for our 25th and 26th flight together.

Day 7 - National Parks/Secretaries Tour

The tour of a million names...

It started early and lasted most of the day. We started off by going to Arlington National Cemetery. We went there first to avoid all the traffic in D.C. because of the filming of a movie called 'Salt' with Angelina Jolie. We visited the Kennedy graves (JKF, Jaqueline, and the two children who died in infancy) and Bobby Kennedy's grave. We also visited the Tombs of the Unknowns. According to Wikipedia, "the Tomb of the Unknowns has been guarded continuously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, since July 2, 1937. Inclement weather does not cause the watch to cease."

After Arlington, we visited the WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, and the Korean War Memorial. Sad, but there is no memorial for WWI and there is not likely to be one because there is no one left living to fight for it. At least this is what our tour guide thinks. It was really windy and a little cold so we did not stay long. After the memorials, we made a quick stop at the Washington Monument. We rode up the elevator and the view was quite nice. We could even see the Pentagon!

We then were dropped off for an hour at a food court. It was pretty packed with school tours and business people. It was loud so we ate, got some ice cream, and went outside until the tour guide picked us up and took us to the Jefferson Memorial. This memorial has a lovely view of the river. I really liked this memorial the most.

After Jefferson, we stopped at the FDR Memorial. This one stretched for a while and was quiet. It had a story behind the two statues... the original was FDR covered by a blanket in a wheelchair. They added on a statue of just him in the chair after there were complaints...

After all of this, the tour guide dropped us off at Ford's Theater. The theater is still a working theater and they were actually tearing down a set from a recent show. They also had the box open where Lincoln was shot. It has been kept really nice and it is lovely, small theater. Across the street, you can see the house that they brought Lincoln to and even the small room where he died.

The last thing we wanted to do on day 7 was to go to the Library of Congress. This was the most impressive building by far. It is lovely. We went and registered as 'readers' so we could go to the main reading room. We were on a mission. We wanted to find the book that contained Alan's grandfather's thesis. As luck should have it, we were able to get the reader cards and the book because the main reading room stays open until 9:30 for individuals with reading cards. YAH! The book was a bit old and considered brittle. We carefully made a copy of the thesis and with the day's goals tackeled, we headed out to the Diner for dinner.

Brief glimpses of spring throughout the day signaled the coming of the cherry blossoms. To bad we are leaving tomorrow... but we miss Ubi and Ro!

DC - day 6 - Smithsonians, Spy Museum

Today we had our timed tickets for the International Spy Museum at noon. First, we headed to the Museum of American History. This museum houses all kinds of exhibits covering a variety of topics in U.S. history from transportation, to electricity, to presidents and first ladies. I decided to give a press conference while I was there to reassure the public during these troubling economic times.

Next up, we headed to the International Spy Museum, which is quite a treat. You go through a briefing, assume a new identity, learn all about the history of espionage, including the techniques, gadget, and people. Interactive consoles throughout the way test your knowledge of your spy identity. Misty assumed the name Greta Smith, born in Bornstedt, Germany. She was in London on business. She is astronomer. Having gotten into London, she was able to visit the Royal Astronomical Society and talk to Phoebe Ridley about the Lenton Grant... Alan, aka Gary Wozniak, was born in New Zealand but now teaches in Canada. He was on his way to Singapore to learn about setting up a foreign exchange program. Both Greta and Gary were on secret missions and were acquiring top secret information on microdots. Gary did arouse suspicion and is not allowed back in Singapore.

After the Spy Museum, we headed to the Museum of Natural History, which houses dinosaur bones, gemstones, stuffed mammals and everything in between. We had a lot of fun in the butterfly pavilion trying to track down and shoot (with a camera!) these beautiful creatures. I think we got several nice shots. It's worth the sweltering heat and humidity needed for the butterflies.

For dinner, we headed to a fun Ethiopian restaurant called Dukem where we got a platter with 3 spicy meat dishes, 5 veggie ones, and a home made feta-like cottage cheese. We asked for everything to be as mild as possible and for the most part, they were, only one was a bit too hot for us to handle, but mixing in the cheese helped a lot there.

After dinner, we took a special, romantic night walk down the National Mall with our cameras and a tri-pod, snapping long exposure night shots from the Washington Monument down to the Lincoln memorial. We did get a couple decent shots. Just a word of warning, you are not allowed to use a tripod on/in the memorials or monuments. You can use them in the surrounding grass.

Day 5 - This place is a zoo

With the weather incredibly improved, we headed to the National Zoo. I love that there is no admission fee to all these lovely places. It did mean that everyone and there brother was out but it was still nice. We picked up some popcorn, a pretzel, and lemonade while we walked around. The zoo is nicely laid out and has a pretty decent population of animals. Both Alan and I had animals that either stared us down or in Alan's case, came after. My creepy experience was when I was taking a photo of the cheetah. Everywhere I moved his gaze followed. I think he wanted to eat me. I had to leave.

Alan, in the bird house, was taking photos of a couple of Victoria Crowned Pigeon. In the bird house these birds, and several others, roam free. These pigeons really did not like Alan. They stared him down and one of them flew right to him at the banister. I have included a photo he took where they were staring him down.

Zoos always make me feel a little sad. We did see several animals pacing and the lion was crying in mini roars. The sloth bear was pacing and looked very agitated. It is hard to see animals that should be roaming free stuck in a space created by man. On the other hand, we did get to see a male peacock display and shake his plumage. We did get to see several animals that may go extinct in our lifetime if we are not careful about their habitat.

After the zoo, we ventured in search of food. I really wanted to try Ben's Chili Bowl and Alan was willing to try it too. It was a quick trip on the metro. There was a line but not more than 10-15 minute wait. You order, pay, and then get a seat. Alan ordered a chili burger and a side of fries. I ordered a smoked chili dog, a small chili, a piece of carrot cake, a large sweet tea, and a strawberry milkshake (we shared the drinks). This place was packed and very upbeat. The employees were singing and dancing and everyone seemed genuinely glad to be there. The food was great, the tea was a large so we had free refills. We plan on going back to Ben's before we leave.

Tomorrow, we are going to try and go to the National Museum of American History before we go to our tour at the Spy Museum. If there is enough time, we will try and go to the National Museum of Natural History too.

DC day 4 - Arboretum, Great Falls, Mt. Vernon

For the 2nd and last day with the car, we took on an ambitious agenda. We skipped going out for breakfast and quickly ate cereal with milk that we got from a Safeway on the way back from Gettysburg last night. This allowed us to get on the road early. Our first stop was the National Arboretum which is clearly better visited in late spring or summer. Nothing much was blooming, but we enjoyed the open area and the Capitol Columns.

Our next stop was a good 45 minutes drive to the west to the Virginia side of Great Falls National Park. The falls here may not look like much in the photographs compared to the great heights of other falls such as Multnomah, but the Potomac packs quite a punch here. We saw a lone kayaker (is that smart?) braving the rapids, and even getting out and hiking back up to try other more difficult routes.

For our final stop, we headed South to Mt. Vernon, George Washington's residence. Before heading out, we bought tickets online for a "National Treasure" tour which offered behind-the-scenes looks at areas used or inspiring scenes from the movie, National Treasure 2. This included the creepy basement area and vaults, the ice-house, and an otherwise closed extent of the waterfront walkway. After the tour, we wandered the estate, visiting Mr. and Mrs. Washington's tomb, the memorial marking the graves of some 316 slaves that worked the estate, and then toured the mansion itself. The mansion is adorned with original artifacts where possible and other period era items to fill in the gaps.

We headed back to drop off the rental car in the nick of time. After dropping off our stuff at the hotel, we headed out to dinner at Cafe Asia where we ate some sushi, tom ka soup, fried rice, and gyoza. The place was loud, loud as a high school cafeteria. We were glad to get out after less than an hour so we could hear ourselves think. One other very strange thing about this place, the men's and women's bathrooms are combined into one room where every other stall (completely enclosed) is girl/boy. The sink was a giant trough with strange faucets that blasted water out at the speed of gallons per second.

We walked back to the hotel via a loop around the white house, which is lit up very well and looks amazing at night. Tomorrow we plan to go to the zoo.

DC day 3 - Gettysburg

After some conferencing, we picked up a car and headed to Adams Morgan for some food. We had read online about a place called The Diner. I had French toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, English muffin, and grits. Tasty grits. Alan had something called the Croque and Dagger... 2 Eggs, toasted French loaf, bacon, and béchamel sauce topped with melted Gruyere. Served with Home Fries. Neither of us cared for the Croque and Dagger.

After breakfast, cupcakes. This time the destination was Hello Cupcake. Another four pack: you tart!, peppermint penny, chococo, and triple coconut. I only liked the triple coconut but liked it enough to want to go back for a couple more. I took some photos of the cupcakes in the box while there in the shop and a good thing I did. After we arrived at our next stop, Gettysburg, I knocked the box over in the car and all the frostings got mangled up together. Messy.

A note about Wednesday and Georgetown Cupcake... we ended up with the following flavors: carrot, lemon berry, peanut butter lava, and chocolate^2. The lemon berry looked nice but not my favorite. Carrot... bland. The peanut butter lava was great. I wanted Boston crème but it was not the right day.

Gettysburg was a little bit of a drive but it was through a nice area. It is surprising that just a little bit out of D.C. you have a quiet, country setting. We stopped at the visitor center and picked up an audio tour on cd. The recording includes historical information and stories, a nice balance. It was quiet on the tour and we went at our own pace, stopping for pictures for as long as we wanted or just driving on if we wanted. The grounds were stark as it is the end of winter. Memorials dot the landscape, both confederate and union. Just being able to stand there and look at the wheat field, writing about it now, brings tears to my eyes. The visitor center has a cyclorama that has a presentation recorded with it. It is eerie how real the painting looks.

It is hard to describe the experience. It was a lot of things to think about and a lot of instant emotion. I am not a history person so a lot of the specifics were fairly new information to me. Alan explained a good amount and the audio tour filled in a lot. I am really glad we went. Thanks to Brian and Shirley for the suggestion.

After the tour, we grabbed a bite to eat at a restaurant called Eddie’s. It used to be the Gingerbread Man, so recently in fact that they haven’t changed the outside sign yet. The potato skins were good, everything else just grub.

We drove back in the dark after a long, mentally draining day.

DC day 2

Misty headed to DrupalCon in the morning, and was asked no less than seven times if her company was hiring. Lots of folks looking for work. After she returned, we went to a late breakfast/early lunch at the Waffle Shop, a tiny little breakfast shack across from Ford's Theater, just a few units down from the house where Lincoln died.

After eating, we took the DC Circulator to Georgetown where we picked up some designer cupcakes at the famous Georgetown Cupcake. We ate one over at the Georgetown Park mall and then browsed a few shops on our way out.

Next we took a cab to the United States Botanical Garden, just next to the capital. It has an extensive collection of flowers, tropical plants, cacti, and everything in between. It's set up like a giant greenhouse and is quite warm and humid inside. This was a welcome retreat from the bitter, dry cold air outside. The strangest thing I saw was this Madagascan Octotillo.

After leaving the Botanical Garden, we stopped briefly at the reflecting pool just beyond the Capitol building. It's March here and the pool is completely frozen over. The seagulls landed andway and seemed confused that they weren't floating in water.

For a snack, we went to the cafe inside of the National Museum of the American Indian. It was supposedly native american food themed. I had an "Indian Taco", which was (very tasty) fry bread covered with buffalo chili, tomatos, onions, and cheese. Misty had a plate of chips with beef and a fry bread covered with honey and powdered sugar. We ate a couple more of the so so precious cupcakes and then wandered around the museum exhibits. This museum is quite new, and the exhibits are very well done, telling dozens of stories and display thousands of pieces.

The next Smithsonian Institute buliding down is the National Air and Space Museum, so we decided to see how much of it we could get to before the 5:30pm closing time. These museums are great and free, but they close so dang early! One thing we loved about the Louvre in Paris is that it's open until 9pm.

After returning to the hotel to rest for a bit, we took a cab to Pizzaria Paradiso, for some Italian style pizza. I brought my camera, but had left the memory card in the room, so, no picture for you!

DC Day 1 - DC has gone to the dogs

Wow. It is cold here.

We started off the cold, bristly day eating breakfast at our hotel. We haven't located a good breakfast spot yet so it was our best option. When we arrived downstairs, no one was in the restaurant. That makes me nervous. We stayed, ordered, and were pleasantly surprised by the food. Alan ordered the waffle, which came topped with a pile o' fresh strawberries and bacon. I went for the brioche cinnamon french toast and sausage. The french toast was amazing. It was very thick but super airy and just the right amount of cinnamon. Mmm. Tasty.

Next, we had scheduled a tour of the Capital Building but we wanted to go to the galleries of the House and Senate. We ventured to the Rayburn Building to visit DeFazio's office and the Dirksen Building to visit Wyden's office. DeFazio's office was bustling and we did catch him on the way out somewhere but alas, not quick enough for a photo. Instead, we snapped a shot of the friendly staff hanging out (dogs... hee, hee).

Gallery passes in hand, we headed from Dirksen to the Capital via the underground train. When we got on, we asked a young guy where the train went. He didn't know where the train was going. He was on his lunch break. Dude, the train is less than 4 minutes and has only 3-4 stops. How do you not know? We got off in an area and didn't know where to go but a friendly chap from North Dakota showed us right to the line for our tour. He wondered why we were not with a staff person from Oregon so I tried to tell him we arranged the tour online by ourselves. He didn't know about that but figured since Oregon had more people than North Dakota, they could do personal tours easier... uh, yeah. Folks from North Dakota, you can schedule the tours on your own too.

The Capital is really nice. Sculptures from all the states, the building itself made of materials from all over the U.S., and we even got the chance to see folks at work. Nancy Pelosi walked right through our tour group. I was slow enough to get a blurry photo as she shook the guy's hand from California. The galleries were ok, the Senate has Burris at the Chair, Patty Murray (WA), Chuck Schumer (NY), and Daniel Inouye (HI). Schumer went on and on about Russia and Iran, nuclear weapons and such... No one paid any attention and the pages looked bored. The House was in recess and those pages looked equally bored.

After the tour, we rode the Metro to the Convention Center doors and I checked in for DrupalCon. I am glad I went early because they had 2 colors in the t-shirt so I got green a decent size. I also got a block of wood and a DVD for Princess Cruises... uh, yeah.

Still not sure of food in our area (no one wants to walk in the windy cold), we found an Indian place close to us on the internet and walked over. The place was Mayur Kabob House. The menu online reminded me off Taste of India in the good old days (prior to 3 bouts of food poisoning). It is in a building that looks like a Bavarian house. They had 8 or so guys in the kitchen, a walk up and order counter, and a tv playing clips from music videos/movies (very Bollywood). It was supposed to be open until 3 am but they closed shortly after we got our food. The food, tasty but spicy. Alan ordered the Chicken Makhai and I ordered the Chicken Tikka Masala. I think in the end they were the same dish... Add a mango lassi, garlic naan, and veggie samosas and call it good. I had to add a ton of raita to be able to eat it but it was fun all the same.

Caramel drizzled carrot cake from the hotel and a couple of mint teas in our room and call it a night.