PTR-Cheating on Mickey w/Harry!...OMG! Only a month to go!

[franandaj]

Okay you got of to a little wayward start. But I look at it as an adventure. It gives you something to write about. Geez why do parents do that? I feel bad as well. Poor kid is probably wondering why do I have a camera and will I be able to take a pic. Anywho so why is dumbo in there? I love your explaing how to get your food. Very Cute! I like the instruments. I would love to learn how to play the piano. Your off to a great start. Cant wait to hear more. Sometimes plans change have a great dinner.

As you see the eclectic mix of items in this museum, Dumbo won't seem so odd.

Maybe the kid was ging to WDW soon, and should appreciate that.

Let's hope...

Awww. Poor kid..

Breakfast looks like a good deal.

I love all the musical instruments, especially the Strads....but where are the guitars and pianos?

More importantly...where is Julia?

Patience grasshopper.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Patience grasshopper.

"The secret of patience is doing something else in the meantime!"

 

[franandaj]

Day 1 Continued - Part 1

After the leaving the Musical instruments room we reentered the mobs of children which are Spring Break in DC (had we known our plans would have been different, but without kids, how would we know when Spring Break was? DOH!). We were on the third floor and that was where the majority of exhibits we wanted to see were located so we decided to continue with our top picks. Already we had crossed off Dumbo and the Musical Instruments. The next three were “Treasures of American Pop Culture”, “1939” and “The Gun Boat Philadelphia”.

So here he is that wonderful master of all things ridiculous Kermit the Frog. They had some other prototypes for Fozzie the Bear and Gonzo but they didn’t resemble them enough to warrant a picture.

There were other things here, Edith and Archie Bunker’s chairs, Fonzie’s Jacket, Something Michael Jackson wore, and a mask from the Lion King (my picture just didn’t come out right), and a few other things, but they were not that interesting to me as I am not addicted to television.

From 1939 we have Judy Garland’s Ruby Slippers

Sheet Music from some of the hits

Arturo Toscanini’s Batons

This was a small exhibit, so we moved on quickly.

The Gunboat Philadelphia was part of a fleet of 15 small crafts, many hastily built in the Revolutionary War. Under the command of Benedict Arnold the fleet fought off 29 British vessels off Valcour Island in Lake Champlain. Philadelphia sank early in the battle, however the cold water preserved her nicely until she was found in 1935. After being on display at various institutions, she came to the Smithsonian in 1961. Notice the cannonball in the side which delivered the final blow.

This is a replica of what the boat would have looked like before it sank

The next gallery we visited was an exhibit called America at War: The Price of Freedom.

This was a very moving exhibit which started with the battles fought with the Indians upon the colonists arrival, but quickly moved into the Revolutionary war. Evidently George Washington applied to become an officer in the British Army, but they wouldn’t have him as they did not want colonists in leadership positions! What a HUGE mistake! Here is the uniform that we wore when he accepted his commission to lead the Continental Army in 1775.

This was his camp “mess kit” for meals while in camp. Normally he dined in the homes of local farmers and other homes.

Drums led the troops in various maneuvers. This was in the revolutionary war exhibit, however it is dated 1790, well after the Revolutionary war.

The war of 1812 was the next major war, and then there was the relocation of the Indians, but no good photo ops for that, so the Civil war was the next big conflict. I didn’t want to show most of the slides and a lot of the display was the weapons, but these interested me.

The exhibit continued all the way through World Wars 1 & 2. The most fascinating thing to me was the propaganda that our government produced to inspire the war effort. There was a TV monitor showing the cartoons from Disney, Warner Bros and other broadcast companies to turn the public into patriots. However, my favorite was a poster of a driver in the car with a ghost figure in the passenger seat and the caption, “When you ride alone, you ride with Hitler!” Can you see the same one today with BinLaden in the car?

There was also exhibits on the Korean War, Vietnam and a gallery for Iraq and Afghanistan. I didn’t stay long through these 1) because I was getting hungry, and 2) being a little kid when the Vietnam war was going on a lot of the TV footage and other exhibits were too disturbing for me to relive.

Continued in Part 2

 

[franandaj]

Day 1 Continued - Part 2
So we headed on down to the cafeteria. As we had not heard great things about the cafeteria, we brought our own turkey sandwiches and chips from home. However I couldn’t resist this exhibit and went through the cafeteria line just to see it.

There were many more, but the 1800’s lunch boxes just weren’t that interesting, and the other pics of the Star Wars and a couple others had glare in them so these were the best pics and the most kitchy lunchboxes.

OK, drum roll……The moment you’ve all been waiting for!

This is her actual kitchen in Cambridge Massachusetts where she lived with her husband, Paul. He custom designed the kitchen when they moved there in 1961, and it was used for at least two seasons of one of her famous TV cooking shows. I believe after he passed away she moved to a condo in Santa Barbara, because I seem to remember Emeril going to visit her and doing a TV special of cooking with Julia in her home. This kitchen was incredibly organized. She did not follow the Alton Brown rule of “no unitaskers”. She had EVERY gadget you could conceive of, and was meticulous for organization. Everything was on the walls on pegboard, neatly arranged in drawers. A place for everything and everything in it’s place.

This picture of her actual kitchen shows the wall which is missing (so that you can look in through glass) on the other side of the room. It is recreated on the wall behind the glass, every single pan you might possibly need is on this wall.

I couldn’t believe she had this on her wall. I love this little song, if you are not familiar this is how it goes:
Love to eat them Mouseies
Mousies what I love to eat
Bite they little heads off
Nibble on they tiny feet.

So that’s it for now on the Museum of American History. We only saw about half the exhibits we really wanted to, so hopefully we’ll be back next week!

Next up, night tour of DC and unexpected food porn!

 

[DisneyFirefly]

Oh man, I love that kitchen

 

[usnuzuloose]

Thank that was cool. Did you see her mortar and pestel? Your right see had anything and everything. I could imagine her cooking in there. Judy's slippers look so different than they did on her feet. Is fonzies jacket still good shape? When I was a teenager I wrote him and he wrote me a personal letter back. Love looking at all the history stuff about GW. Hope you get settled soon. Take it easy it is vacation and no need to wear yourself thin. Cant wait for the food. I need my cup of joe. I guess I missed when you went I was still sleeping.

 

[PrincessInOz]

I want an organised kitchen like that!.....

And I loved the kitschy lunchboxes. I am so going to have to make a trip out to DC one of these days.

 

[Hawleys]

Great TR. Can't wait to hear more.

 

[skiingfast]

Wow, that is a lot of copper pots.

 

[franandaj]

Oh man, I love that kitchen

Thank that was cool. Did you see her mortar and pestel? Your right see had anything and everything. I could imagine her cooking in there. Judy's slippers look so different than they did on her feet. Is fonzies jacket still good shape? When I was a teenager I wrote him and he wrote me a personal letter back. Love looking at all the history stuff about GW. Hope you get settled soon. Take it easy it is vacation and no need to wear yourself thin. Cant wait for the food. I need my cup of joe. I guess I missed when you went I was still sleeping.

I did see the mortar and pestle, just didn't get a pic. They were playing video of her (later in life) throughout the display. I would have also liked to see some of the vintage clips too! But it was cool. They had all sorts of kitchey stuff there, we went back today and saw a few more exhibits, but those will have to wait!

I want an organised kitchen like that!.....

And I loved the kitschy lunchboxes. I am so going to have to make a trip out to DC one of these days.

I could never keep my kitchen that organized, but for ME it is. I know where everything is! If you come here, you'll need a LOT of time, we're not getting done HALF of what we wanted, but you wake up better in the mornings too!

Great TR. Can't wait to hear more.

Plenty more to come!

Wow, that is a lot of copper pots.

She had a lot of everything!

 

[franandaj]

Day One Continued Part 3

After Julia’s kitchen we realized that it was already 3PM, we had to meet our evening tour at Union Station at 6:30PM. Since the bus can only accommodate one scooter, we had to drop mine off at the hotel. As usual Fran wanted to catch a few Zzzz’s in the room. We needed to catch a different train line for Union Station and since getting the scooters on and off the train was the most difficult part, we decided to go a little farther to catch the red line instead of transferring from the Blue/Orange line that we used to get to the Mall and home this morning.

I charged up Fran’s scooter and got out the computer to start the TR while she napped. Our plan was to catch lunch at the Food Court at Union Station before heading off on our Nighttime City Tour. However, also as usual it took me twice as long to wake Fran up and we didn’t get started until the time that we wanted to be on the train. I unplugged her scooter and since we were in a hurry and this WAS a bus tour, didn’t pack up the charging cord. We scooted/walked briskly to the metro station, only to find that the accessible entrance was several blocks away (this has been the case every time we find a new Metro station, there are usually two entrances and we find the one without an elevator first!) So we enter the station, get on our train and find ourselves in Union Station. It’s quite a large place and finding the Tourmobile booth took a little bit of time, but we were still early. Phew! The lady at the counter told us to have a seat and they would find us when they were ready. We asked if there was time for me to run down to the food court and get dinner, and she said, “sure” so off I ran!

Before our trip I had checked out the restaurants at Union Station so I had a pretty good idea of what there was in the food court and what Fran would eat. As I headed down the escalator I immediately spied the Greek restaurant and knew that a Gyro Sandwich would be a winner, that and a piece of Spanakopita and BAM! I was back upstairs with dinner in hand!

So as a disabled traveler, they offer an “on demand” service where you get a shuttle that will take you where you want to go for as long as you like within the parameters of the tour. Here is Fran outside our private tour bus.

Then everything changed. A Turkish tour group had 10 people and the other bus was too full to accommodate them, so cancel that private tour bus, now we’re sharing with a bunch of loud people who don’t care to speak English or listen to the tour guide. Now I have no problem sharing with people, but as we rode to our first destination I could tell things were not going to work out well. We made the best of it, but would have really preferred if it had just been us and tour guide and driver.

So as we left Union Station the fountain honoring Christopher Columbus

Now sue me if I’m wrong but there were lots of trees in bloom. The story our guide told us is this. The Cherry trees were given to DC as a gift, but a certain percentage of them were diseased and needed to be burned before planting so it took two weeks for the replacement batch to arrive, therefore most of them bloom during the festival, but there are a certain sect that bloom two weeks later. Again I can not guarantee that the trees that I am showing are Cherry blossoms, some may be Crepe Myrtle trees (told to me by the VA tourist center and I only remembered because Moaning Myrtle likes to eat Crepes), but here are some pretty pictures of trees and the US Capitol.

Our first stop was the Jefferson Memorial

The sun was just barely setting

Our next stop was FDR’s Memorial, unfortunately this was supposed to be a 25 minute stop, but the tour group either didn’t understand English or didn’t know how to tell time because they were 15 minutes late getting back from the first monument. This caused our tour guide to stress the importance of being back on time at the next stop. FDR’s Memorial was huge and evidently against his wishes as he did not want something large and grandiose, but it was very beautiful at night. His family thought it was nicely done despite the fact that it probably takes up more land than other memorials.

There were lots of fountains and it was broken into four areas for each of his four terms. My pictures of some of the other sections did not come out so good, there was an area devoted to the depression which had a line of men signifying a bread line. There was also a statue listening to the radio for one of his fireside chats.

I was able to snap this picture from the FDR Memorial just before the sun actually set.

Continued in next post

 

[franandaj]

Day One Continued Part 4

Luckily the tourists showed up on time for the FDR stop so we were on our way promptly. I had no idea there was going to be this much walking, and my back was killing me. Luckily I had a pain patch in my purse and we applied that to my back, however the other by product of all that walking was that I was really starting to get hungry. I asked the tour guide if any of the restaurants in Union Station were open late and sadly there were none. However, thanks to Smartphones and Google, I found a restaurant (google late night dining DC) that was open until 1AM in our neighborhood, while the bus was on it’s way to the Lincoln Memorial.

The Lincoln and Korean War Memorials share a stop, but we decided to forgo the KWM for tonight as the guide mentioned it was better viewed during the daytime. Lincoln was quite impressive by night.

Across the Mall one could see the Capital past the Washington Monument, and try as I might, I just could not hold the camera still enough without a tripod so here is my view from the Lincoln Memorial and I promise I’m not drunk or on psychedelic drugs!

We got back on the bus before the Turkish tourists (of course) and waited about 5-10 minutes for them to find the rest of their party. All but two of them finally showed up and the bus driver said that he couldn’t wait any longer. They had hired and American tour guide, and somehow he tracked down the cell phone numbers of the two missing girls and they had gone back to their hotel room!

The tour would have normally included three more stops. We drove to the gates of Arlington Cemetery and they offered us to get out and take a picture of the Eternal Flame if we could see it from the gates. I knew my camera wasn’t going to get a decent picture no matter how hard I tried, we were kicking ourselves for not bringing the telephoto lens! We were given the option of whether or not we wanted to see the Vietnam memorial and I said “no”. I’ve seen it and it is not that spectacular. I wish I would have known that the WWII Memorial is so beautiful otherwise I would not have given it a pass, but by the time we were there it was too late. I did get this picture of the capital since they stopped for us to get pictures.

So we finished up the tour at Union Station and Fran and I headed back to the Metro to get second dinner. I knew exactly which stop and basically where to go from there to get to the restaurant. We did great transferring trains and took the elevator up to the turnstile, put our fare cards through and just as the turnstile opened for Fran her scooter stopped and started beeping (this is what it does when there is some sort of a malfunction).

We got it going again and got back up to street level. I started pushing her since the street was going uphill and it stopped again, beeping. We couldn’t figure out what was wrong until we looked at the charge. It was very low. I put her into neutral and pushed her to the end of the block. The restaurant was on 15th and the Metro stop was on 14th. We got to 15th St and it was downhill, so I pushed her along to the restaurant. We decided we would charge the scooter in the restaurant while we had dinner and going home would be fine. So we got to the restaurant and the Maitre ‘D showed us a parking spot in front of a plug when it dawned on me. I left the charging cord in the room! Doh! At this point all we could do was laugh. So they seated us and we decided we would just take a cab home. So onto the food porn!

I was thrilled to find that this was the perfect restaurant, they had everything from Rib Eye Steak, Lobster, Raw Bar to burgers and sandwiches. Of course I could not resist the Oysters on the half shell. These were Kushi Oysters from Vancouver BC and they were excellent. I like the small and briny ones and these fit the bill perfectly!

Fran got a cup of the New England Clam Chowder which she shared, it was very tasty!

Of course after our scooter ordeal we both needed a drink!

Belvedere Gibson Up, my standard with oysters

Margarita on the Rocks (they forgot the salt)

We split a Reuben Sandwich with Cole Slaw

For Dessert we had a Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding. This was just insanely good, it was ooey gooey chocolately and sweet, but not overly so. We almost licked the plate.

Dinner was incredibly reasonable for what we paid and what we got. Afterwards we had the valet flag us a taxi, but it took several cabs because no one wanted to take the scooter. I put it in the trunk they didn’t have to do any work, lazy bums! I was very appreciative of the guy who finally took us home. I think Fran gave him a good tip. We arrived at home (so to speak) at 12:30AM tired but satisfied and pretty much dozed right off to sleep.

Tomorrow, back on the tour bus, but not without some fun with Law Enforcement!

 

[bangzoom6877]

I love all your pics!!!

My favorite thing to do in DC is visit the Smithsonian! I was 11 years old the first time I went there (on a family vacation), and I remember staring at the ruby slippers in amazement...and some disappointment. In the movie, you can't tell that it's just sequins on those shoes! As an 11-year-old kid, I was shocked at that! But, I thought it was cool at the same time, that sequins could look so different on camera.

When you mentioned about how George Washington stayed at different places, it reminded me of this old house, about 5 minutes away from my house, where George Washington slept one night. A caretaker lives there now, and it is still so beautiful!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Love your pics!

The sunset one and the one where you are tipsy are particularly memorable......and the food porn.....and the cherry blossoms......and the daytime DC shots.....and the nightime shots......(did I cover it all??)



Pity about your co-tourists. Still, seems like you enjoyed the tour.

 

[usnuzuloose]

You thanks to you two I have something to look at so if I never go at least I have seen something. I dont care what camera you have I get to see. Those pics are amazing. I love the lincoln Memorial all lit up. Like I said if something doesnt go wrong you would not have anything more to write. That dessert was huge. Hoperully you will get rest from the pushing. Sorry about the tour issue. How many more days are you there for? Keep it coming your doing much better at this than I am.

 

[franandaj]

Day 2 Part 1, Our friends in Law Enforcement

So Day two was to begin with the other part of our city tour, a day tour. We could hit all the monuments from last night, plus a whole lot of other places. The idea was again the tour bus would be ours, and we could decide where to go and how long that we want to stay. We were to pick up the bus at the White House Visitor’s Center which was walking distance from our hotel (for healthy people). I had to walk because again they could only take one scooter. As we approached our stop we realized there was going to be a problem. The street was blocked off with Law Enforcement vehicles and as we tried to cross the street, the police told us to go back and head to the other end of the street.

I called the tour company and they told us to walk down to the mall and go to the Washington Monument station. That was like at least as far as I had already walked from the hotel and by this point I felt like I was about to die! I had walked at least a mile, and that is the threshold where my foot starts to give out on me. Finally we reached the WA Monument stop and I sat down to do some serious stretching, that was the only way I would make it through the day. Fran was regretting her decision not to bring her jacket and I wished that I had my gloves. Things were looking pretty bleak so far, traffic was backed up in all directions. I was afraid that our bus was never going to make it through all the traffic, but eventually they arrived and even before 11AM.

We decided that we would like to go back to the Lincoln Memorial and also see the Korean War Memorial since we passed on that one last night. The Lincoln Memorial looked quite different, but equally impressive during the day.

Washington Memorial from the Lincoln Memorial

On to the Korean Memorial, I thought this was actually pretty well done.

I particularly liked this statue outside the Memorial Bridge

Our next stop was the Capital building, but in the interest of packing up and getting home, I’ll finish that once I’m back in California!

See you later!

 

[DisneyFirefly]

Yes, I did see, I just forgot to comment

The memorials there are so pretty!

 

[PrincessInOz]

My 15000th post is to wish Alison an early Happy Birthday!

 

[ACDSNY]

I've had to do some catch up tonight on several pages, I was way behind. Your Mom flowers are beautiful and I'm really enjoying your DC pics!

 

[franandaj]

I love all your pics!!!

My favorite thing to do in DC is visit the Smithsonian! I was 11 years old the first time I went there (on a family vacation), and I remember staring at the ruby slippers in amazement...and some disappointment. In the movie, you can't tell that it's just sequins on those shoes! As an 11-year-old kid, I was shocked at that! But, I thought it was cool at the same time, that sequins could look so different on camera.

When you mentioned about how George Washington stayed at different places, it reminded me of this old house, about 5 minutes away from my house, where George Washington slept one night. A caretaker lives there now, and it is still so beautiful!

That's so funny about the Ruby slippers. I can see where it would be traumatic to find out the hard way that Hollywood magic is only that and not real rubies!

Love your pics!

The sunset one and the one where you are tipsy are particularly memorable......and the food porn.....and the cherry blossoms......and the daytime DC shots.....and the nightime shots......(did I cover it all??)



Pity about your co-tourists. Still, seems like you enjoyed the tour.

It was a fun tour, despite the other tourists, we got pretty much one on one attention from the guide since they didn't speak much english.

You thanks to you two I have something to look at so if I never go at least I have seen something. I dont care what camera you have I get to see. Those pics are amazing. I love the lincoln Memorial all lit up. Like I said if something doesnt go wrong you would not have anything more to write. That dessert was huge. Hoperully you will get rest from the pushing. Sorry about the tour issue. How many more days are you there for? Keep it coming your doing much better at this than I am.

I still have another six or so days to go, so fasten your seatbelts!

Yes, I did see, I just forgot to comment

The memorials there are so pretty!

My 15000th post is to wish Alison an early Happy Birthday!

Thanks for honoring me with your monumental post (pun intended)!

I've had to do some catch up tonight on several pages, I was way behind. Your Mom flowers are beautiful and I'm really enjoying your DC pics!

Thanks! Moms flowers are probably at the height of they bloom, so we were about a week or two early, but at least I got to see some of them.

We did a lot of museums, so I have quite a variety of odd pics!