Peeks from the Week

Yay Friday!  Yay holiday weekend!  Yay warmer weather!  Yay start of Summer Fridays!

Today is a good day.  We've had really awesome weather the last two days and although I've enjoyed very little of it (since I'm chained to my desk and work deadlines all day long), I'm glad it's here.  Today is the first Summer Friday which means I get to leave work at 2 pm every Friday from now until Labor Day. I love this little perk.  Also, it's a 4 1/2 day weekend for me.  Monday is a holiday and I am taking a vacation day on Tuesday so it's a good break.

Wishing...we would get the keys to the new apartment TODAY

Hoping...we get the keys to the new apartment TODAY

Thinking...I'm going to be an even more unpleasant person if we don't get the keys to the new apartment TODAY

Praying...God provides us with the keys to the new apartment TODAY

Planning...all the things I'll do at the new apartment if I get the keys TODAY

Dreaming...about walking into the new apartment with the keys TODAY

So, clearly there is one thing on my brain today.  The keys to the new apartment.  We are in an awful limbo right now not knowing when we will get access to the new apartment.  Fortunately we don't have to move out of our current apartment until the end of June. However, the Broker doesn't know that so we are annoyed at him for beating around the bush and not giving us a firm answer as to when we can get the keys.  We have a nice long holiday weekend which would be perfect for starting to clean and paint the new place.  I don't want to waste it sitting in our current apartment surrounded by packed boxes.  Also our current place is a nightmare right now which is really hard for me to tolerate.

Sigh.  The last few months it's felt like a chaotic mess in a lot of areas of life.  In my mind I had Dan's Sabbatical as a goal to reach for emotional stability.  The new apartment is the goal for a fresh start for so many things.  Routine, attitude, productivity, comfort.  I just want to get there, settle, and restart.  Life is a waiting game.

This week was busy busy.  We only had one evening without obligations so Dan started and finished painting the entryway white.  We painted it a lovely tan back in the fall but had to paint it back before moving.

While he painted I worked on a chalkboard menu for a baby shower this weekend.  This was my first ever attempt at "chalkboard art."  I was super nervous but it was really fun.

This weekend we have dinner with friends, baby shower, Pampered chef party, soccer game at Yankee Stadium, and hopefully getting into the new apartment.

Also, the new X-Men movie was just released so I'm excited about that even though we haven't planned to see it yet. 

Destination DC: Favorites

Today I'm sharing our traditional trips favorites today.  Since it was a short trip and we had to carry our bags around a lot of the time, we agreed to dramatically limit souvenirs.  We each got a t-shirt at the Spy Museum and then I picked-up an ornament to add to our travels collection.

We also grabbed squished pennies wherever we could. Eventually I'll get around to sharing my full squished penny collection.  It's quite large and goes back over a decade!

On to the favorites!

1) Favorite thing you ate (this wasn't a big "foodie" trip.  I feel like we only ate two real meals)
2) Favorite thing you did
3) Favorite thing you got

Dan:
- Ate: fry bread
- Did: "walking around all the memorials with my lovely Squeetie Bird"
- Got: t-shirt from the spy museum

Steph:
- Ate: gelato (there is a big soft spot in my heart for frozen desserts)
- Did: people watching at all the different memorials
- Got: squished pennies

One of the other traditions we started on this trip, and a fun new activity, was collecting stamps in our National Parks Service Passport. 

My friend told us about these back when we went to the Teddy Roosevelt house on Long Island.  The book includes pages for each region of the country and when you stop at a National Parks site you get to stamp your book at the visitor center or gift shop.  The stamp includes the name of the park or site (like a monument), the location, and the date.  It's fun and a good way to check off your USA travels bucket list.  Every year they produce a new regional stamp featuring one location so you can collect those too (one sheet for the whole country is less than $10).  If you plan on going to DC or any National Park, I highly recommend getting a passport.  

This summer we plan to do an NYC day where we go to all the city sites and collect stamps.  It will be a real resident tourist day-venture since it includes the Statue of  Liberty, Ellis Island, and other smaller memorials around the city. 

Destination DC: Part II

I'm sharing about our second and last day in DC today. Read about the first day here: Destination DC: Part I 

On our second day in DC we woke-up to gray and rainy skies with a wet forecast all day long.  That was a big bummer since the day before was so blue-sky beautiful.  Also, since we were checking out of our hotel that day we had to lug our bags around in the rain as well.  Despite the weather, we decided to make the best of the day.  Our bus was leaving at 5:30 pm so we had to pick and choose our last places to see.

Dan ran around the corner from the hotel and grabbed tickets for us to see Ford's Theatre (where President Lincoln was assassinated).  It was confusing because the woman at the front desk said it took about 45 minutes to go through the museum but it actually took about twice as long.  We were escorted into an exhibit area in the lower part of the theater and told to walk around there for 45 minutes until they opened up the actual theater.  Well, okay.  So we read through the exhibit and then they escorted us into the actual theater.  I assumed since we waited so long that there would be some sort of program.  Like a reenactment!  Wrong, it was a National Parks Service ranger all alone on stage and he proceeded to spend 20 minutes telling the story of Lincoln's assassination in no particularly rousing way.  Basically we could have read the wikipedia page. It was boring.  So, if you decide to go to Ford's theater ask the ticket person for tickets to see either the exhibit or the theater, not both.  It ate an hour and a half of our time. Here's a picture for posterity.

One interesting thing is this theater was entirely remodeled and still used for performances. If I was in charge of that place I would make the theater the only attraction (no exhibit) and just put on reenactments of the event with actors. Is that weird?

After the theater we grabbed a quick breakfast and checked-out of the hotel.  Our next destination was the Old Post Office building but after wandering around and getting turned around we realized the building had been sold and was in the middle of construction to be converted into a Trump Hotel.  That was annoying.  So we walked-on for about 15 minutes to get to the Holocaust Museum.  I had been here way back in 1998 and I remembered finding it very interesting and Dan really wanted to see it.  When we got to the museum they had a sign that said all the tickets were gone for the rest of the day.  WHAT? It was only 11 am.  I was so mad that I didn't think we needed to reserve tickets.  Really it should have occurred to me, but I didn't.  So if you go, RESERVE TICKETS.  And also, you should definitely go.  It's a really well done museum and although the content is difficult to handle it's so important to learn about it and educate yourself. It's worth it.

But anyways, I was so disappointed since that was the primary thing we had planned for the day.  We still went inside and checked our bags at coat check and thought we might just go through the temporary exhibits.  I worked-up the nerve, with Dan's encouragement, to see if we could still get tickets.  Most museums are part of the American Alliance of Museums and they have a partnership for museum employees to get two free tickets if you show your work ID and your member card.  Since I work at the 9/11 Museum I thought I would see if they did the professional museum ticket deal.  The rules are nebulous so sometimes you get the two tickets, sometimes just one (that's what the Spy Museum did the day before), sometimes a discount, or sometimes nothing.  I asked and the girl gladly handed us two tickets for immediate entry!!!!  I was so unbelievably happy and glad I was brave enough to ask.

We spent three hours at the Holocaust Museum.  It was crowded and very long but the three hours just disappeared, we never realized the time when we were in there.  Much of it was the same as when I went back as a 6th grader but as an adult I appreciated so much more about it.

It was around two in the afternoon when we left the Holocaust Museum and we had about three hours before we needed to be back on the bus so we walked by the Castle but didn't go inside.  Please excuse my terrible hair.  It was raining.

Then we decided to go to the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian for late lunch.  My friend Stephanie told us to go for the food court because they had authentic dishes from various regions.  When we got there the line to get inside the museum was out the door and not moving so we turned around and went into the Air and Space museum instead.

Whether it was because it was Saturday, it was cold and rainy outside, every middle school from the country was on a trip, or what I'm not sure but the place was absolutely packed.  I mean ridiculously crowded.  Similar to the Museum of American History, there is too much to see and with the crowds and our bags we just poked around a few and left pretty quick. I'm sure Dan would have liked to see a lot more there but it was just too packed.

From there we walked back to the Museum of the American Indian and got in a shorter line.  Security was much more strict it seemed and Dan guessed it was because of the situation near the White House the day before.  Eventually we got inside and headed straight for the food court.  We shared an adobo chicken taco on fry bread and fry bread with honey and powdered sugar.  Both very yummy.

We poked around the gift shop and then we had to leave and head for the bus.  We wish we had time to look at the exhibits but we'll have to make that a priority on our next visit.

Overall we had a great time.  There is just so much to do in DC that we didn't even touch half of it.  The Newseum was on our list, as was the National Post Office Museum, the National Gallery, and more.  I knew we would miss a lot but the great part is that the trip was so easy and we can always go back.  Maybe in the dead of winter the crowds won't be so big? We'd love to see the Cherry Blossoms but I can imagine that would be even worse with the crowds. Plans to make for future dates!

Come back tomorrow and I'll share our trip favorites and souvenirs.

Destination DC: Part I

Dan and I returned from our mini trip to Washington DC late Saturday night.  We had a blast and while very little of the trip went according to plan, we made it work and thoroughly enjoyed our time.  I'll recap our first day in DC today and share about the second day tomorrow.

On Thursday I worked a half day and Dan met me in the city where we hopped on a Bolt Bus headed to Washington DC  It took forever to get out of the city thanks to traffic but overall the ride to the Capital was pleasant.  Although there are other more glamours modes of transposition, the bus is SO cheap and makes it easier to spend more money elsewhere on the trip.  Also our trip was short (a little over 48 hours) so the bus was best. 

We got into DC around 9 pm (delays) and walked about 20 minutes from Union Station to our hotel which was just off of the National Mall.  I LOVE walking around in a new city at night (assuming it's safe).  So much exciting energy and life.  When we checked-in at the hotel, they informed us that our room was flooded and they needed to move us to another hotel for that night.  Boo.  Since we had walked they gave us a cab to take us over to the other side of the Mall to the Holiday Inn.  It was NOT a very nice hotel and we were disappointed to be on the second floor with a view of nothing.  Worse, there were no restaurants in the area so we couldn't grab dinner.  But we headed out anyways and walked to the Washington Monument which looked really nice at night.

We had a bad night sleep on the rock hard bed and got up early.  We packed our bags and walked back across the Mall to our original hotel.  They had told us the night before that we would have a room there on Friday night and they would store our bags during the day.  So yay!  After we dropped our bags our first stop was the Spy Museum.

It was awesome.  I got a free ticket with my museum professions ID and the exhibit wasn't crowded at all.  We loved all the spy gadgets on display especially since we've been really into watching The Americans.  We picked-up a squished penny (my collecting tradition) and we both got t-shirts.

Next we walked over to the Mall where most of the Smithsonian museums are located and all the memorials.  I told Dan he was the director of the day and whatever he said goes.  He wanted me to have a picture in front of the National Archives since I'm an archivist. 

We headed into the Museum of American History next.  Holy school groups!  The place was packed.  The Smithsonian museums are free admission and all huge buildings so there is no way you can see everything unless you spend an entire day there.  We just poked around a few of the exhibit halls.

Now, I had been here once before waaay back the summer before 6th grade with my family.  That was roughly 1998.  The museum was the EXACT same.  And, I'd venture to guess 1998 was the last time they dusted the place.  I was rather shocked to see how dusty things were. 

After about an hour we left and Dan decided it was best that we explore all the memorials since the weather was nice.  We stopped at the Washington Monument first and got all of our National Parks Service Passport stamps.

We saw the World War II Memorial which was beautiful.

Each one of those stars represents 100 men who died.

We walked along the Reflecting Pool to the Lincoln Memorial.  I told Dan I wanted to run through it screaming "Forest! Forest! (you know, from Forest Gump)."  It's actually only a couple of inches deep. 

Rocky Pants was with us but I didn't remember to get his photo most of the time.

Then the Vietnam Memorial.

Look for Erwin R. Schmeling on the left side center of the photo below.  When I flipped in the directory to find the location of his name I turned right to the exact page.  It was pretty cool.

Then we went to the Korean War Memorial.

To the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial next. Very cool.

Then the FDR Memorial Park.  His was crazy big compared to all the others.

Then finally the Jefferson Memorial.

We saw people on paddle boats and decided to check that out since it was so nice outside.  $16 for two people for an hour!  Deal.  It got HOT so we didn't do a full hour but enjoyed the break from walking.

By this point we were super tired and hadn't really eaten anything so Dan said we would stop at the White House gift shop and then head to the hotel.  This was as close as we got to the White House.

The whole area around it was blocked off by police tape and secret service and police with assault rifles. You see that ambulance in the back left in the photo above?  It arrived while we were standing there to attend to the person the secret service had just shot.  Of all days.  We didn't see anything but it was a big deal.  You could see the sniper guys on the roof and as we were walking towards the gift shop (not actually by the White House) the motorcade drove by.  It wasn't the President but probably the VP.

President Dan!

Then we relaxed in the hotel room for a bit.  It was WAY nicer than the Holiday Inn and we were on the 10th floor!  We decided to have pizza for an early dinner right next to the hotel.

After dinner we got gelato and walked to the Capital building and back around part of the Mall.

We went to bed early since we were so tired for a day full of walking and Dan was feeling sick.  We woke up nearly 10 hours later healthy, refreshed, and ready for our last day in the city.  Come back tomorrow for a recap of Part II.