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

[franandaj]

So Mom’s yard is an official bird sanctuary. Evidently it doesn’t take much other than you don’t spray poisonous things in your yard to kill things. You put out a certain amount of food and maybe you have to keep track of how many birds come into your yard. But she gets a lot more than birds! There are two feeding stations at Mom’s house, there is the one visible from the kitchen table and then there is one right outside our bathroom. Evidently the one outside our bathroom is much more hopping because the critters feel a little more sheltered than they do at the one in the back yard.

This is the feeding area in the backyard

And here are some of the critters who have shown up at the feeding station

Outside the bathroom window here is the view

It’s lots of fun to just sit and critter watch, when visiting mom’s house.

So our final night we planned to make Steak, but since our plans for Saturday fell through, we ate that for dinner the previous night. We decided to use up the Costco Chicken my mom bought by making Chicken Enchiladas Rancheras. We rolled the Enchiladas in the morning and made the Ranchera sauce, but waited until cooking time to put the two together.

Dinner was served with a green salad and chips with guacamole. We drank a Cakebread Chardonnay and Sanford Chardonnay with dinner.

Final update will be the Irises!

 

[PrincessInOz]

So I have some good news! Today we booked our night tour for Wednesday evening and city day tour for Thursday at 10AM. It's one of those tours with multiple stops and normal people can just purchase a ticket, and get on and off at the various stops. However since we need an accessible bus, it needs to be booked in advance. Because we're on the plane all day tomorrow, today was our last chance to book and we did!

The tour stops at all the major Mall stops, The Capitol, Union Station, a few Smithsonian Museums, the White House, the Vietnam, Lincoln, FDR and Jefferson Memorials, and the Holocaust Museum and Bureau of Engraving and Printing. This will definitely be a full day!

For a moment, I almost saw a hidden Mickey!

Your mom has a lovely backyard. I'm sure all those critters definitely think so too....

 

[franandaj]

I just left Fran & the scooters at the cub of the gate. Our bags are checked and I'm on the shuttle back to the terminal. Better yet there was no screaming, and only minimal panic when we hit some heavy traffic. We're on our way, will check back in when we're on the ground on the other coast!

 

[bangzoom6877]

Hi there!! Your mom's backyard looks awesome! Here in Brooklyn, NY, we have a small concrete backyard! I love it though!

The food looks great too...I'll take some chips and guac please!

I hope you have a wonderful trip this week!! DC is great, and all the things you are going to see are terrific. I went to the University of Maryland at College Park, so I spent quite a bit of time in DC in my college days. We revisit on the way home from Disney World each time we drive down. It's only about 4 hours from home, so it's a good last stop before heading home. I still have some old college friends who live in that area so it's great to visit them too! Hope you are having a great time!!!

 

[usnuzuloose]

Sound like everything is going well. The one squirrel looked like how dare you interupt me. The orange kitty looked the same way. I love animals. I understand about family issues. It is heart breaking. The plans sound good. I cant wait to see Julia. Have a great time.

 

[franandaj]

I hope you have a wonderful trip this week!! DC is great, and all the things you are going to see are terrific.

Sound like everything is going well.
I cant wait to see Julia. Have a great time.

Thanks! This is the first that I have hooked up the computer, though I've been keeping up on my Smartphone.

We've already adjusted to the local time, which helps. We're using the WDW strategy, get up early see stuff and then come back to the room for a power nap while every is getting tired and cranky. Then go out again later in the evening. It will also give me time to get started on a TR!

 

[franandaj]

So I really can't quite start on a DC TR without finishing up the main reason for going to my parents house. The point was to see my Mom's Irises in bloom. The weather was cold this year and they actually were not in full bloom, but there were enough plants that I think you will get the idea. I'm not going to give a lot of commentary. Not everything is Irises there is a daffodil, some Alstrumeria, a tulip and a weeping Chinese something or other tree. Plus a Chinese Maple or two. So you've seen some shots of the yard, but here are the ones that I've been purposely holding back.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Love the flower power!

Was your mom very pleased with this season's show?

 

[DisneyFirefly]

Very pretty flowers!

 

[franandaj]

So we arrived in DC about 20 minutes early, picked up our luggage and headed directly for the taxi stand. According to the website you just needed to show up, and they would call an accessible cab. Evidently their fleet is large enough to accommodate such requests. Well we did and they didn’t know how long it would take, so they called an oversize SUV (like we have at home) and next thing you know the SUV shows up and the dispatcher found an accessible cab that could be there in 6-7 minutes. Well it took 10-15, but shortly we were on our way. It took about 35-40 minutes to get to our hotel and about $65 + tip. No biggie, that’s what we expected. It was about 7PM, we were tired and knew we needed to go shopping before we could relax.

Here’s a few shots of the hotel

And here it is, the dumpster view

We headed up the street to Whole Foods/CVS. The CVS was a mess, there were boxes everywhere, our scooters barely made it down the aisles and they had almost no selection. We went next door to Whole Foods and it was a total ZOO! We got the bare necessities and got in the line from hell. It was about 100 yards long and if there were ANY other grocery store we would have gone there, but no where else to get fresh produce. The line moved fast as they had over 22 open cash registers. We ended up with the makings for grilled ham & cheese sandwiches, I had brought a package of Mac-n-cheese in the suitcase. I needed distilled water and CVS didn’t have any, because Whole Foods was such a zoo, I totally forgot to get any.

Turns out there is another CVS closer to our hotel and it was a dream, aisles were clear plenty of stock, they had my water and some frozen spinach. So here is the dinner I fixed in my comatose state

That’s it for now another long day, I’m going to bed!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Sounds like a packed day. Your room looks nice; pity about the view.

And dinner looks yummy too.

 

[usnuzuloose]

Hefty price for cab and tip. If I read that right. Room is nice.Love french doors. I hate it when stores are cluttered. MMM..grileed cheese eI eat alot of those. Trade Fran cameras. As for the view well I dont think you'll be seeing much of it. Have a great day.Not sure what makes your foot hurt, I have a fallen arch on my left and I just learned that it throws everything out hips, back. I usually find gel pieces to pile under my foot to stabalize it more. I over did my things yesturday and the sciatic nerve is kicking up. Looking forwards to the food and pics and JULIA. Have a great time.

 

[franandaj]

Sounds like a packed day. Your room looks nice; pity about the view.

And dinner looks yummy too.

Room is nice and I barely walk up to the window and down at the dumpsters. When I'm on the computer I just see a brick building with windows. What do you expect in a city, gardens? That's another reason we're moving to the burbs in a couple days. I knew this bustling city living would get to me. I am relishing the idea of our own car, free parking and coming and going without a mile of walking!

Dinner was fine for what it was, tired after all day on the plane comfort food. I'll be cooking at least once more, maybe two or three times, but if I do it will be a little more gourmet! But not a alot!

Hefty price for cab and tip. If I read that right. Room is nice.Love french doors. I hate it when stores are cluttered. MMM..grileed cheese eI eat alot of those. Trade Fran cameras. As for the view well I dont think you'll be seeing much of it. Have a great day.Not sure what makes your foot hurt, I have a fallen arch on my left and I just learned that it throws everything out hips, back. I usually find gel pieces to pile under my foot to stabalize it more. I over did my things yesturday and the sciatic nerve is kicking up. Looking forwards to the food and pics and JULIA. Have a great time.

Actually it was pretty reasonable for a 27 mile trip. Super shuttle wanted $39 for us to share with five other people. With our scooters and luggage they never would have fit and it would have cost $125 for the van all to ourselves. Private shuttle companies were quoting $79-$95, so I was happy with the $65 cab ride!

I broke my 5th metatarcel about 12 years ago, if it did heal properly, it has become further injured. Once that bone/muscle gets sore I start to walk funny and then I wear out my calves, my back and everything else.

We're heading out to dinner (if I can ever wake Fran up, the story of my life) and hopefully I'll be back early and have the update with Julia.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Looking forward to the Julia update.

 

[usnuzuloose]

 

[usnuzuloose]

Well I wasnt going to make a comment on another thread did you mean all you can eat or is it one of the brazillian resturants? You know where minds can go with that question. Hope your over your food coma. Arent those fun? Hope the indian museum is good. My DH is native american. Hope to hear how its going soon.

 

[franandaj]

Day 1 – First full day in town

Our hotel provides a full breakfast every morning, and Monday through Thursday nights they provide dinner with beer and wine. Previously it used to be a “Manager’s reception” with more like Happy Hour food, but I guess trying to lure in the family crowd they now serve a meat vegetable and side dish each weeknight (excluding weekends). Since we have better plans for dinner, the only thing that interests us is the breakfast which is served between 6-9AM. For those who have not stayed at a place like this, there is an art to securing breakfast in a zoo of small kids and apathetic parents.

Send your mate to scope out and hold down a table. The toasters are always slow, so get your piece of bagel, English muffin or whatever your bread of choice is toasting early. Put the butter in your pocket to get it softening up, they have to keep it rock solid for health law purposes but that only ruins your toast. Get your juice while the toast is going, it won’t get cold. Secure your coffee, meanwhile check on the toasted items. Set them on another cycle if you like them to have any sort of browned bits. Butter your toasted items as soon as they leave the toaster, don’t wait to get back to your table, remember that butter was frozen only moments ago. Leave toasted items with spouse, get in line for meat products, check eggs to see if they have become grossly overcooked in the warming tray, if so skip them! Grab bacon/sausage maybe potatoes and biscuits and head to table. Hopefully you can have warm toast with your bacon & eggs. If you’re still hungry go back for the oatmeal or cereal.

Well this is our plan of attack. This place is overrun with families with very little kids and the serving area is tiny. I’m hoping the next stop at Alexandria will be a little better. This is a downtown hotel with very little space and they do a great job for what they have, but I think every single guest in the hotel goes down in the three hour period for breakfast and most go between 7:30-9:00. Anyways here is our standard first plate to be followed by Honey nut Cheerios for me and Oatmeal for Fran (sorry no pictures of the latter)

This is it for the food porn of breakfast at this hotel, every day it has been basically the same. However I have a little higher hopes for the next one since I read in reviews of the hotel that they have a few extra offerings that this one didn’t have. Besides being out in the burbs, they might have a little extra room for a decent sized buffet room and eating area.

After breakfast we headed back up to the room to get ready for our first day in the big city. Our plan was to take the Metro to the Museum of American History. This was quite a challenge. Within the last 10 years LA has a Metro underground/above ground transit system, but we have never used it. Fran is afraid that it is not disabled accessible. I suggested that we take a trip to LA just to try out the system prior to this trip, but we didn’t. So here we were in an unfamiliar city trying to figure out an unfamiliar system.

Our first mistake happened when we mapped the metro stop to 15th and K (or something like that). We pulled up to the metro stop and found a sign saying, “accessible entrance on 14th & I streets”. OK that should be easy enough to find. Well, yes but it definitely took some map reading. Not only do streets run North/South, East/West, but then there are other ones that cut them off at funny diagonals. If you don’t pay attention you can end up on a completely different street than you intended. :

Eventually we found the elevator down to the Metro and by now we are experts at this particular station. However for a while the tickets baffled us. We ended up purchasing 2 $20 passes and hoped that would work for us. It was also a challenge to figure out the elevator system down to the train level. The elevators are very small, and on our first try we both couldn’t get into the elevator, so I went first and she followed in the next elevator.

Once down on the floor this was our metro view.

With Train

Without Train

And the overall view of each Metro Station

So we got to the Museum of American History with a great deal of confusion as to how to enter (geez I love WDW and their ease of access!) and finally found our way inside. Our first stop was the flag that flew over Fort McHenry when Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner. It is a HUGE flag, but it is so old that no pictures can be taken as the flashes will further ruin the damaged fibers. It’s pretty breathtaking to see such a large flag and imagine it flying. They have a really cool interactive display after the flag to find out about how it has been repaired.

So rather than head first to Julia we went to the top floor because most of the stuff we wanted to see was there. Our first stop was the instrument collection.

However on the way we encountered this treasure.

And here I have to share a story about bad parenting. Now I’m not a parent and perhaps I don’t know the background story but there was this kid who wanted to take a picture of Dumbo. She puts the camera up to take the shot and her mother swats the camera away from her. “Don’t you dare take a picture of something you can get at Walt Disney World here!” I’m thinking, what does the kid have a Kodak instamatic where you have to develop every picture? No! She has a digital camera! Why can’t she take a picture of what ever she wants? It doesn’t cost you anything! I felt bad for the poor kid

But since I don’t want to leave you with a bad scenario, here are the instruments that we saw.

This is an ancient clarinet, as this is Fran’s main instrument it’s cool to see a very early version

Me as a flute player thinks this flute with multiple body parts to change keys is pretty neat

As Wind Instrument players we tend to be OK with brass instruments even if they aren’t as cool as the woodwinds.

These string instruments (while not of great consequence to us) are made by Stradivarius so they are way cool!

Since we need to head out to dinner, I’ll stop this here, and next up we’ll continue with 1939, and the Treasures of American Culture, then the Price of Freedom: America at War

 

[usnuzuloose]

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.

 

[skiingfast]

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

 

[PrincessInOz]

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?