I Would Tell You What I Did Today, But I'd Have to Kill You. (Exploring DC Day 4 Post)

Just Kidding! But we did do some classified stuff today.  Yes, we visited the International Spy Museum today. 

But, I doubt it would be a day without some sort of silly Karen antic, and today was no different.  Mom gave us money to buy a treat while waiting for the bus and Karen then declared herself "Queen of the Nummy Yummy Gummy Worms"

The exterior of the Spy Museum.

As our activities in Khandar  are classified, I am unable to share many details or pictures of our missions (I can say our mission was a success), especially as we, spies, are not fond of having our pictures taken.  

However, there was a photo booth of sorts inside.  

I really enjoyed the Spy museum, and all of the gadgets and information within.  I think it was my favorite of the few museums we saw.

Saving the world made us all hungry and so we decided to stop in to the π pizzeria (as it is almost a consensus of π being our favorite number.) I am glad we did!  The pizza was deep-dish Chicago style and really good.  But our appetizer, chicken wings were especially good, and slightly spicy (although they were not buffalo wings)!    

After we ate, we walked around the city for a bit, in an attempt to see the American History Museum, but we had misread the closing time and it had actually closed at 5 instead of 7.

The old Postal Service building, looks like a Castle, with a clock tower and everything.  

A back walkway behind the EPA building.  

The EPA building.  

Colossal Head No. 4, (Olmec Culture)
What happened to heads 1-3?

Dad remembered from a past trip to DC going to ride the escalator in the Metro Station in Wheaton, and so before going home to Harvey, we wanted to ride the escalator that is the longest in the entire Western Hemisphere.  This is a pretty big deal for hardcore escalator riders like Karen and me (we regularly ride escalators purely for fun) so we were naturally ecstatic.

This 230 ft escalator travels at a rate of 90 feet per minute and takes  2 minutes and 45 seconds to travel.   

Going Down. 

 Dad knew I wouldn't go the whole week without posting a picture of the inside of the subway terminal, and he was right.  Initially, I wasn't fond of the mode of transportation, but with my book and music it was almost, as one could say, enjoyable.

Tomorrow we are going home, as Karen and I have school on Monday.  We walked a total of 46,309 steps this past week, which is roughly 20.5 miles.  

This trip has opened my eyes to how much I really missed RVing.  Maybe we can take a weekend trip to the Beach House (hint hint Dad and Grandma!)

Until Next Time, 

Amy

Flowers, the Capitol and Space! Oh My! (Exploring DC Day 3)

 We had a big rainstorm last night, and as a result the wifi wouldn't cooperate with me to update my blog.  So here is what we did yesterday.

We decided to check out the National Botanical Gardens before we headed into the museum as we had planned.  It was a pretty cool place, with flowers from all over, many of them rare.

The sign says, "There is just one Cabbage on a stick left in the wild!  A native of Hawaii this plant grows nowhere else in the world.  Grazing animals, invasive species, and the loss of its pollinator have all contributed to this plant's extinction in the wild."

Mom thought these looked like a row of ballet dancers

Through the vines

This flower is called the mountain rose; it is native to Columbia. 

Bromeliad

Down the main atrium of the garden.

We then visited the Capitol which was just across the street.

 From our tour:  

The rotunda

The band of paintings near the top illustrate American history up until Kitty Hawk and are done in the style of fresco.  

When we had finally reached the Air and Space Museum,

A display of the Apollo 11 mission 

Our family Christmas Card picture, taken from a monitor displaying a thermal camera image.  

Amy

ZOO! (Day 2 of my Exploring DC Posts)

Today, we decided to take advantage of one of the lesser rainy days left in the week and go on our major outdoor excursion, the zoo!  Despite a drizzly morning, it was an absolutely gorgeous noon with a bright blue sky.  

 For quite some time, we saw no animals, only birds and homo sapiens,

But then...

We saw the elephants!

Elephas maxima

A trip into the panda house... 

Ailuropoda melanoleuca

 I loved these little guys! They were so expressive and fun to watch.  Here they were cleaning each other.

Golden Lion Tamerins:  Leontopithecus rosalia

Red Ruffled Lemur:  Varecia varigata

 The gorillas had this very humanesque way of acting, almost as if they were mirroring the people watching them.

Orangutan:  Pongo pymeaus

 After we left the zoo, we had to walk through this tunnel to get to the Metro station.  Considering the sidewalk was about half the size of a normal sidewalk and cars zipped by, I will say that this was a relatively unpleasant and slightly frightening experience.

Step total:  About 9000 steps for the zoo and related transportation, but when we returned to Harvey, I went out with Timber and so my total for the day was about 11,711 steps.

I think the Air and Space Museum is on the agenda for tomorrow!

Good Night,
Amy

D.C. City Exploration Day 1 Post

This morning, before we headed off to the city, I went exploring for a bit in the campground.  The birds were out, and it became a game to see how close the birds would let me take a picture from before flying off.  

I found my cardinal!

Many pretty flowers were in bloom as well.  (I can't name them all, but I certainly enjoyed them!)

Back at the campsite.

Canis laeta (The latin binomial nomenclature for happy dog, otherwise known as Timber)

In the Metro-subway system, I discovered I do not like riding under the ground, I need to be able to see the sun.  I felt claustrophobic and motion sick.  Two things I generally do not have...

But I did take this interesting picture of Dad (Pater in latin) with the reflection of both him and Karen.

Back into the open air, one of the first things that greeted us was this statue of General Winfield Scott Hancock.  He was a General in the Civil War and helped the Union win key battles such as the battle of Antietam and Gettysburg.

The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

The welcoming elephant in the main atrium.  

A rock that gives evidence to oxygen levels upon the earth for long periods of history.  The reddish orange is the time with good oxygen levels while the grey indicates insufficient oxygen.  

I have always thought the flying dinosaurs are the best!

Dad with his buddy in the skeletons and mummies exhibit.  

 Rumored to be cursed, the Hope Diamond has a long an illustrious history.  It was discovered in India and was about 112 and 3/16 carats.  It was brought to France and was cut down to 67 carats.  It became known as the "Blue Diamond of the Crown" or the "French Blue." Stolen in 1792 and then lost for 20 years, it was found in England, but was later sold after the death King George IV to pay off his debts.  It found its way into the hands of the collector, Henry Philip Hope and later his nephew.  In 1910, Evalyn Walsh Maclean bought the diamond and had it reset into what is seen today.  After her death in 1949, Henry Winston INC. bought the diamond and eventually donated it to the Smithsonian.  The diamond is about 45.52 carats and is colored blue due to traces of Boron.

The Hope Diamond

Dom Pedro Aquamarine, largest known Aquamarine gem.

These are Cat's eyes, but as you can tell with all my pictures, I was having a hard time with the lighting and such in the museum.  With the glass, my flash would't work.  So I ended up with pictures where there are trails of light such as here.   

What do you see in my Crystal Ball?  This is the world's largest, flawless quartz sphere.  

Sulfer is much nicer in this yellow form rather than its characteristic rotten egg smell at Yellowstone.  

I finally got to see my Kaibab squirrel (from the Grand Canyon North Rim)

This jumping Tiger was just begging for a funny photo.  

This my dear readers is a buffalo.  He is native to Africa.   What we saw on our trip West were bison no matter what Karen tries to convince you otherwise.  

An Okapi:  a rare relative of the long necked giraffe unknown until the early 1900s.  

Jungle Jazz has gotten larger.  (This is a jaguar)

The Smithsonian Castle

James Smithson, founder and benefactor of the Smithsonian Institute.  

The Washington Monument.  

We were a tad late for Cherry blossom season, but the area around the Tidal Basin was still beautiful.

Shh! Mom and Dad don't know I took this!  

The Jefferson Memorial over the Tidal Basin. 

Mini Washington Monuments in front of the real McCoy.  

Jefferson Monument.  

I think that Roosevelt got the coolest monument with the fountains and quotes and sculptures and open layout!

Martin Luther King Jr, National Memorial

Korean War Memorial

Washington Monument and reflecting pools.  

Lincoln Memorial

On the top, are the names of the 48 states in the Union at the time the Monument was built.  The 36 columns represent the states in the Union at the time of Lincoln.  

Vietnam War Memorial

The first view of the White House off into the distance.  

Today we walked 7 miles and 15,844 steps according to my iPod pedometer!  We are going back to the city tomorrow to do this again so I need to go to bed.

Good Night All!

Amy