Heeeellllllooooo D.C.!! October 26th, 2010

OK. Wow. We are in D.C.!!!  This is another one of those places I've been chomping at the bit to get to with the kids.  What a tremendous opportunity for practically everything!!! And it's FREE!!  (Well, in theory.  More on that in a bit).

Needless to say one can easily spend a month here and still not see it all, but boy were we going to try our darnedest!

Our first goal was to get somewhat oriented map wise.  I personally never did quite understand which end was up in the D.C. area, not that I've ever really tried to figure it out either.  I certainly do get it now though.  As do the kids, at least as it applies to the Washington Mall anyway.

Once we knew where we going it was fairly easy.  We just kept going to the same general area day after day after day after day. It's all right there after all!  But let me back up first.

Where on earth does one possibly park a huge RV overnight in the DC area??  Well, the answer to that question funnily enough came to us via that super friendly and helpful ranger up at Minute Man National Historic Park in MA only a week ago.  He told us about a green space designed practically just for this purpose a mere 12 miles out of the city, Greenbelt National Park!

So, late yesterday we pulled into our camping spot and prepared for what would be a huge day today.  Huge and 'lightweight'. Why lightweight?  Well, cause we were going to visit the White House and there is a list from here to Timbuktu of what one cannot bring in.  Among those are any kind of bag, stroller, CAMERA, food, drink, etc.  The only things you can carry in are your car keys, money in your pocket and a phone.  It can be a picture taking phone but of course no pictures are allowed to be taken once inside :-(.  Of course all these rules also meant we had no food to carry around with us which of course presented a whole different problem, but we managed.  Oh, and all this is also to say that unfortunately all pictures taken on this day were on the iphone since we couldn't even carry a decent camera with us.  Apologies for the poor quality.

Anyway, again I'm getting ahead of myself.

The other 'issue' in DC is TRAFFIC.  Apparently, DC is known for the worst traffic EVER.  Or so we were told by everyone we came in contact with about our trip.  Yes, DC is highly populated with cars going this way and that, and yes, you couldn't pay me enough money to attempt to drive in that city, but S?  Let's just say the man has not met his traffic match yet.  Especially since he began driving this big ol' truck of ours.  Everyone kinda gets out of the way.....But really, fighting traffic has never been an issue for him.  When I want to duck and cover, he's out there barreling through it all.  So yes, we ended up driving into the city on a daily basis.  On our first day we parked way over by Union Station -



In fact, several blocks north of it really.  The cost was very reasonable and availability was great.  We did however get there before 8:00.  Union station btw is beautiful.  By any standards.  Very impressive.  Our date to visit the White House was scheduled for 10:30 but since we had no idea how long it would take to drive in we left at 7 AM, planning for the worst.  Leaving by 7 also meant we were up at the crack of dawn.  We had a tremendously long and exhausting day ahead of us but we didn't want to risk missing our appointment.  All in the name of visiting the White House!  Anyway, we drove in, found a lot, walked to Union Station where we spent a lot of our extra time we now had exploring, eating and trying to figure out how to get from here to our main destination.

Before I go into that though, I need to explain one important thing:  Why we did not ride the beloved metro.  When people warned us against driving in this city they also informed us that the Metro in DC was excellent.  Well, it may be excellent but for the 5 of us it would not be cheap.  It would cost us more than $50 a day to ride in and out, not to mention the $15 plus we'd have to spend on parking at the Metro station.  That's why I mentioned above that DC was theoretically free.  You have to pay a pretty penny to get in first!

On our second day we parked in a parking garage much closer in to the central mall area, but given the size of our truck and the apparent difficulty S had finding a spot there, not to mention getting in and out of it, we didn't attempt it again.  The following days, S being S, managed to find parking RIGHT ON the Mall.  Yes, he had to occasionally run out and move the car (since it was limited time metered parking) but again, S being S, he always managed to find another spot in the vicinity!  I have no idea how he does it.....Oh, on our second to last day we also figured out that there is FREE parking available ON the mall between 10 and 4!  FREE parking DC?!?  Who'd ever heard of such a thing.  Apparently it's a well kept secret, unless you actually ask a local or a police officer.  So you see, the traffic coming in was not bad at all, by S's standards (took us no more than 30 minutes every day), and the parking was a breeze, again, by S's standards.  His standards were really all that counted here since I wasn't getting behind that wheel!

Back to our day though.

From Union Station we took a special bus, the name of which escapes me right now, as close as possible to the White House, for a buck each.  Pretty good.  We also got to see some of the city that way.

We finally made it to the White House with plenty of time to spare!  We could now take our time admiring.

The first spot we admired was the huge beautiful park in front of the White House with the good ol' Marquis de Lafayette on horseback!  The Marquis, as Washington used to call him, was a French hero of the Revolutionary War AND a great friend of General, and then President, Washington.  He's another one of our favorite revolution dudes.

BTW, did you that Washington never lived in the White House??  Yup.  He died before it was completed.  He's the only president not to have served in it.

Here we are closer up -

It was SOOOOO cool being there!  It also seems sooo small compared to the buildings around it!  I was really surprised.

Well, like I said, there are NO pictures from inside the White House :-(.   We did however have a terrifc time going through the east wing (nope, not the WEST wing).  The east wing is where the colorful rooms are, i.e. the Blue Room, the Red Room, the Yellow Room, etc.  These are where dignitaries are received, the formal dinners are had, performers perform, teas are had, etc. In one of the rooms, I think it was the Red Room, there were paintings of various nature scenes everywhere.  We of course were examining those when the guard asked Inventor if he'd ever been to the Rocky Mountains.  Ha!  Well, Inventor's response was "Of course! I've hiked them!" to which the guard replied, "well, have you ever seen this particular place?".  Well, no, not really.  It just kind of looks like the Rockies in general.  AH HA!  That's the point.  This painting was painted to represent the Rockies, to join, if you will, all the various sections of it together in order to make it a representative picture.  All the paintings in this room were painted in an attempt to convince the sitting president to declare these areas national parks.  We learned about this method of persuading presidents to do so from our experiences in Yellowstone.

To sum up, our tour was fairly short, about 45 minutes total, but it was very sweet indeed!  Here we are after we've exited the building, again, in the front.



While the kids stood posing S began chatting up a group of soldiers standing nearby who were also touring.  When they noticed I was taking a picture they ran in and joined the kids!  Do I have to even mentioned how awesome this little act of sweetness made the kids feel?!



We hung around a bit longer as S chatted up the security guards nearby, or secret service I should say.  At this point the kids enjoyed the 'little' weapons show and tell they were giving us.....

Finally leaving the White House, we now had to work our way down to the other end of Pennsylvania Ave. for our US Capitol tour scheduled for that afternoon.  Told you it'd be a busy day.

On our way we walked through, and had lunch in, the Ronald Reagan building.  An impressive place with lots of Reagan memorabilia including this -

A section of the Berlin Wall of course!  Since we had our first introduction to The Wall back in South Dakota, the kids knew exactly what it was.

OK, on to the Capitol, a mile away.  Hiking down Pennsylvania Ave. we ran right into it -

This tour did allow cameras (except for in the senate and congressional galleries) but of course we didn't have ours.  So again, here are some measly shots with the iphone.....

This is the fresco at the top of the capitol dome.  It's the Apotheosis of Washington, or, the elevation of Washington to the highest possible status, to be God-like.  Washington, interestingly enough, being the modest man he was, would have hated it....



The dome sits atop the rotunda of course with its many incredible paintings hung on the walls.  The kids were truly fascinated by them and did a nice job of recognizing many of the scenes depicted.



Here we have the old senate chamber still looking as it did back then.



The old House of Representatives was actually where the rotunda is now but this all important marker is there -



So of course, we stood where he sat.  Again, more coolness!

This is a replica of the statue that sits atop the Capital dome, the Statue of Freedom, or, Lady Freedom.  An additional subject of fascination.....



At her base are inscribed the words "E Pluribus Unum".  Out of many, one.  A phrase etched into our brain now.

While at the Capitol we looked up our congressman's office and decided to go check it out.



Empty halls were a great opportunity to run and burn some energy off after having to walk quietly throughout the Capitol building.....Empty halls?  Yes, everyone was back home gearing up for the upcoming elections so there was not a congressperson, or much staff, to be seen.

We did however find the Congressman's office and fortunately there was someone there, an intern of course.  She showed us around the very modest office.  An office our Congressman sleeps in, as several (or many?) actually do believe it or not.



She also took us on a brief tour of the interconnecting tunnels under the buildings.  She was from Puerto Rico and was very sweet.

Our last mission of the day was to wave hello to the Supreme Court.



We'd be back for a more serious look at a later date.

From the Supreme Court we marched our 8 blocks or so back to our truck.....we had done quite a bit of walking today, but that was only to prepare us for tomorrow, when we'd be walking the entire Mall.......

George Washington conquered! October 25th, 2010

The time had come to move on.  Again.  We were leaving NY state and heading towards Washington D.C.!!

But first, there was much packing to be done as we had brought a whole bunch of stuff into the house from the RV.  Toys, clothes, books, food, etc.  Everyone did their share, even if they themselves were practically the size of the backpack they were carrying....



There were also trees to be climbed one last time.  A good thing to do before getting in the car for a long drive.



After much deliberation the previous night, we settled on the route we'd take.  We dreadfully wanted to avoid going into Manhattan but really had few choices here given our size.  Our choice was to either head south on the east side with all the huge trucks and huge truck traffic, or, we could head south via Manhattan and then cross over the Hudson on the George Washington Bridge (GWB), a HUGE suspension bridge.  Neither one was appealing in the least but we choose the lesser of two evils, Manhattan, if you can believe it.

Into the northern edge of Manhattan we went, RV and all....YIKES!!






Thankfully, we didn't miss our exit to end up going down through the rest of Manhattan.  Yes, that was a very real and pressing fear we had.

No, this is not even the bridge traffic yet, it's just the traffic, uh, I mean the road, leading you to the bridge.....



Yup, that's where we're heading, with all them big ol' trucks on the upper deck!

This does not look like a happy man.....I can see the worry lines being carved into his face....

That's part of the Manhattan skyline in the distance.  Too bad it was a lousy cloudy day.

Here we go........

Imagine if you will, one of the Lion King's instrumental crescendos building as you look at these pictures.  That's exactly what we were listening to.  The music lined up so very perfectly with what we were experiencing, it was pretty funny.  Wish I could play it for you here.

Ahhh, a smile finally crosses his face!



Yes, we must be leaving the bridge and Manhattan behind, finally.

Now, all we had to get through was New Jersey.  But that was easy, all major highways without getting off once.

Correction.  We did get off the highway once.  We stopped at a rest area to meet up with one of S's old old friends who now lives in South Jersey.

O is an awesome guy.  We hadn't seen him in forever and a half but he was S's first friend when S first came to the US and he was also at our wedding way back when.  He drove to 'our' rest stop on the tollway for a very quick visit with us.  We couldn't hang for more than 30 minutes since we had another 3 hours of driving ahead of us and night was fast approaching.  Like I said, he's awesome.

The kids absolutely loved him,



The guys had a little time to chat,


And he made a great jungle gym!  Exactly what the boys needed on a long day of driving.



On the road again, we noticed something very interesting about NJ,



Before every bridge there is some kind of suicide prevention information!  Pretty interesting....That's all.

I believe it was no earlier than 8PM before we pulled into our campground in the Washington D.C area.  It was dark and late and we had a huge day ahead of us tomorrow, White House included!

Straight to bed for us all it was.

Some of us went to sleep with a baby in our tummies......I do believe J's very pregnant belly yesterday had something to do with this one :-).

Family, glorious family! October 24th, 2010

On our last day in the NY area we had a much needed restful and fun day hanging with the fam.  As I mentioned earlier, we were staying with uncle D and aunt P.  Well, let me introduce you to their beautiful daughters, J and L:



J, in case you can't tell from this picture, is 7.5 months pregnant.  I know!  How dare she look so awesome at 7.5 months?!?  I don't like people like that.....OK, I guess I can forgive her cause she is my dear dear cousin, but still, how come I never got that 'look great in your third trimester' gene?!

Anyway, the excitement over this baby, first grandchild here, was palpable.  Of course it was!  Clearly shouldn't be any other way.

The new gramma to be (aunt P) is so so very in love with her offspring's offspring.  It was just so sweet to watch.  No, she's not napping on her daughter's belly but getting as close as she possibly can without yanking the child out herself!  :-)

And I just love this gaze.  A gaze that expresses amazement, pride and love.  Or just, WOW, a 'how'd my baby end up havin' a baby?!' kind of look.  I think just being in awe covers it all.



On the other side of very preggy J, with that silly grin on his face :-), is her awesome hubby J.  Yes, they are J&J.



Here are the wonderful newlyweds L&M, the reason for our trip to the area back in May.  We celebrated M's birthday with a half melted cake, courtesy of me.  The melted part anyway.  P placed it in the laundry room (on the dryer) for safe keeping, unbeknownst to me.  Needless to say, I was doing laundry and managed to melt the frosting and part of the cake away.  Sorry, again, M!!

A game of chess (or a version of it) was enjoyed,

Had us a game of soccer, courtesy of uncle D's friend and his son who came by to get a close look at the RV.  They apparently live, breath and eat the sport and therefore go everywhere ready for a game, equipment and all.  Cousin M is also quite the player so we had us some major skills out on the field.



The funny thing about this shot is that Inventor played the game for only about 15 minutes and then decided he'd had enough.  He's not much of a sports man, though he looks pretty into it here.  Analyzer on the the other hand was *way* into it and was pretty good too for someone who almost never plays.



Whirlwind had absolutely no interest in the game but he did spend quite a bit of time trying to build a geyser with L's help (yes, we're still doing it), but this time with very little luck.  Here, he's explaining to his audience why the experiment didn't quite work.....



We watched the all important Bill's game.  Well, most of us did.  I'm not one to sit and watch anything sports related, even if it is THE Buffalo Bills.  Neither is S for that matter, though here he is watching!  Not being interested in the Bills is considered blasphemy in my family, so here I am, asking for your forgiveness good fam!  It's just not in me....maybe I need an intervention.



We had some great laughs and giggles,



I think 'someone' just stunk up the joint in this photo, give you one guess who it was...

And just had a grand ol' time hanging out with a whole bunch o' cousins and an awesome aunt and uncle 'set' thrown in for good measure!

Late at night, once most departed for their own homes, Analyzer got cousin L to write out a bunch of math problems for her. Don't ask me, I just snap the pictures 'round here.

Oh, regarding that baby cousin J was 'cooking up' for us.  He finally joined the world and blessed us with his glorious presence ON his due date, Dec. 16th!

And here he is:

Welcome to the world little fella!!  We're sooooooo happy to have you!!!!

Happy birthday!!

It's the circle of Liiiiiiiiiiife......! October 23rd, 2010

Ahhh, another day of running ragged in the city!  When there's so much to do and see, you kind of start out pretty hopeless since there's no way on this good earth you can do it all.  Certainly not in two days.....

Aside from things to actually do, just experiencing this city is an experience in itself of course.  Especially for us country bumpkins here.  Yes, compared to these city folks, even (or not even) we fall under that title (and are proud of it btw!).

Wow, the headache of it all, the mad rush here and there, the noise levels, the smell levels, the sheer number of people, cars and buildings.  Wow wow wow!  Now, I've been to NY city several times over the years and it has always terrified me.  Really. Freaked. Me. Out. This is the very first time though that I can proudly say that not only did I finally figure out my north/south, east/west here (ordinarily that's my strong side, this city always threw me for a loop though) but I mastered the subway system (the parts I needed to take anyway) and actually knew what I was talking about when I mentioned street names and intersections.  I have officially conquered my fear of it all!  I'm not saying I'd move here any time soon, or not so soon, but at almost 40, I think that's a pretty awesome accomplishment, for me anyway :-).

The kids, particularly Analyzer, were in shock when we wandered around midtown (I think it's midtown) and the Broadway area.  Uptown was WAY calmer and peaceful, for NY anyway.  Analyzer kept saying 'what am I doing here? What am I doing here??'  A fish out of water I tell you.....

The absolute highlight of our second day in the city with the in-laws was the Lion King on Broadway.  Yes, the real deal.  The absolute best.



It was U-N-B-E-L-I-E-V-A-B-L-E.  S-P-E-C-T-E-C-U-L-A-R.  OUT. OF. THIS. WORLD.  I am not exaggerating.



Of course no pictures could be taken during the musical, but after the show we got this one with the huge lion mask in the background.  The kids were absolutely enthralled during the entire show.  Even Whirlwind!  I was sure he'd end up either asleep at some point (especially given the level of fatigue we were all experiencing) or at the very least end up on the floor in a tantrum.  Nope. Non of the above.  He sat high on his booster seat and absorbed every minute.



After about half way through the show it occurred to me that the kids probably had no idea that what they were watching was the height of professional performance, the best of the best, cream of the crop.  They probably had no idea (beyond the sheer size) that this was way more significant than the small local productions we've seen in CO (and those were really very good btw, but this was Broadway after all).  They surely had no clue just how lucky they are to be experiencing such brilliance.

Well, I couldn't let that ignorance continue so at intermission I set them straight.  From that point onward, everyone they talked to got to hear about how they saw the Lion King performed by "the best people EVER!"  :-).  Funny as it was, it was and is *very* important to me that they truly appreciate the things they do and see.  They shouldn't go through this trip, or life, thinking everything is run-of-the-mill and take things for granted.  I think I got that point across, here and now anyway.

We could not pull ourselves away from the theater doors after it all ended.....Even when they booted us out of the building.



Oh, this btw was the hullabaloo that is the city from way above it all in the theater.  Quite impressive.  And tense.  For us anyway.


After finally pulling ourselves away from the theater we began walking south hoping to come across a decent place to eat.  We ended up walking about ten blocks, being very indecisive on the way. Finally, we came across a Friday's.  Of all places we could possibly choose to eat in NY!  Friday's is a nation wide chain in case you don't know, you can find one or more in every city in this country.  A ridiculous place to eat in NY if you ask me, but we were tired, hungry and had not come across anything better on our walk down, so, Friday's it was.  Fortunately, we were at least afforded the quintessential NY view along with our 'everywhere in America' dinner.  Thank goodness for small favors.

Friday's also happened to be overlooking Madison Square Garden and the cool Roman looking post office (on the right).  Again though, the hullabaloo down below drew the attention of the younger ones and actually kept them occupied until dinner arrived.



After dinner the time finally came to say our real good byes to the in-laws, they were flying out the next day.  We had an awesome, if not very intense, two days with them here in the city, as well as a couple days together up in Maine.  Saying good bye was tough, but having a mass of people constantly rush pass us did not allow it to be a very prolonged good bye.

Having parted ways our day was not over yet.  Now we had to head down to 14th street for a quick late evening visit with my cousin, her two daughters and her Mom.  It was the only time we could swing a visit and not visiting was certainly out of the question. So, at 7:30PM, after our already incredibly long day, we schlepped on yet another subway.

The little cousins get along so well every time they get together (which isn't that often) it's like they just saw each other yesterday.  The kids had a blast, the grown ups had a blast.  Wine and pie were involved, need I say more?  It was short, sweet and late (for a play date anyway), but at least we did it.





That's it.  NY city is done with for us, for this trip anyway.  In case you're thinking hey, there's so so so much more to see and do here, you'd be right of course.  We were lucky enough to be here for my cousin's wedding back in May of this year and took that opportunity to do some Manhattan sightseeing as well.  We did the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  Thank God!  Otherwise we would have had to pack those into this visit as well.....

The ride back 'home' began at 9:30PM or so and I think this iphone picture just says it all.....


Good bye for now Manhattan.......until we meet again.