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

[PrincessInOz]

In 1999 I was in Melbourne visiting one of the Aboriginal parks I remember thinking at the time how similar their treatment was to our own North American Indians. So sad. When had some wonderful guides that told their story well.

Happy Birthday Alison!!! I should know better then to come catch up on your trip report before dinner the food pics are looking soooo goooood. Awesome birthday breakfast too.

If you ever come again, let me know!

I just learned something new. I would love to try it. I know you enjoyed it. Go to sleep so you will revive from your food coma.

Now there's a thought!

 

[ACDSNY]

If you ever come again, let me know!

Someday I hope DH and I can visit Australia/New Zealand for a nice long vacation since there is so much to see. Maybe once we retire.

 

[franandaj]

Day 4, Part 1

Today was our day to check out of the downtown hotel and head out to the suburbs. Fran was really tired, we went down to breakfast, but she climbed back into bed afterwards and dozed while I pasted another update to the TR. Then I packed up the suitcases and got everything ready to load into the car. Checkout time was 12 noon and we used every moment available to us. By the time the car was loaded it was 12:30PM.

We decided to visit Manasass. This is the Confederate name for this Battlefield, the North called it Bull Run. It was the site of the first Major Battle of the Civil War. Both the North and South thought it would be a quick fight and be over and done. It was this first battle where there was no clear victor that everyone had a rude awakening that it would be a long and bloody fight.

On our way out of town we took the GW Memorial Parkway which travels alongside the Potomac River. We stopped at a few scenic road stops.

As we headed out into the rural countryside, we saw a sign for a Visitor’s Center in Fairfax County so we took the exit and went to check out the center/museum. It worked good for a potty stop and the small museum was nice. However, Fran commented that she had a better Civil War collection than they did! The sad part is she was right…remember the clean out for “the door project”?

I was feeling a twinge of hunger and she pointed out something called the Coyote Grill across the street. I really wasn’t interested in Mexican Food in Virginia. No offense, but I’m sure it’s much better in California. However, in the same shopping center I noticed a place called Noodles & Co. I just googled them and Usnuz and ACDSNY I am so jealous! You each have one of these places in your home towns! The closest one to here is in the San Diego area.

It was so yummy! I would actually go there for dinner if we had one close. I got the Wisconsin Mac-n-Cheese and I added Meatballs (I figured I needed some protein ) Fran convinced me to get the large bowl as she would help me eat it, but I should have stuck with the small one. She only had like one bite!

We drove on while I ate my Mac-n-cheese

Once we arrived at the Battlefield it was pretty late, but the Sun wasn’t setting until late so we bought the CD audio tour and decided to take the driving tour, I shot a few photos at the Visitor’s center before we left.

These canons are here for display purposes. It is on top of this hill that the first battle came to a head, I believe that the placement is random and not for the battles.

The settler in this house was an 85 year old invalid widow who was shot in the foot by random gunfire, she bled out from the injury and died during the battle. The fight culminated atop this ridge. The Confederates were entrenched atop the ridge and the Union forces came up over the ridge to try and overtake them.

It was 150 years ago that Confederates were hunkered down on that ridge

This is a view from the other side of the hill where the union soldiers approached the confederates.

Continued in Next Post

 

[franandaj]

Day 4, Part 2

We bought the CD for the driving tour of the battlefield and set off to check out the various locations. But not before admiring the statue of Stonewall Jackson outside the Visitor’s Center.

One of the stops along the way was a Confederate grave site.

They were buried in mass graves by state where they came from

Some artsy pictures of the fences

Here are a couple memorials to the NY Zouaves. Their units suffered very heavy casualties in battles fought on this soil, so many men were killed that it destroyed the regiment.

Next we moved on to a stop that was not covered on the audio CD. The Old Stone House. This structure was occupied by the Union Troops during both battles. Mostly it was used for a place to treat the wounded. As you can see it did take some fire.

There were a few more stops, but over the 150 years, most are now overgrown fields or ridges. One can imagine soldiers coming over the crest of the hill when you are sitting in your car listening to a CD, but photo-op-wise, they weren’t so interesting. As the sun was going down, we headed on to our next hotel for check-in, grocery shopping and dinner.

Our new hotel was located in Alexandria, Virginia. It was probably only about 15-20 minutes outside of the city proper (without traffic), but it was a very different area. First of all parking was FREE not $35 a night like our downtown hotel. There was a choice of grocery stores in the neighborhood, and there were parking lots! I’m glad I knew enough to have us switch to the “burbs” for the last half of the trip. I’m just not a Downtown city girl.

Here is the hotel

And the breakfast area (this is at night not while serving breakfast). This was about five times as large as the downtown hotel. I was already starting to like this place better! :

The breakfast area in the other hotel was about twice the length of the last picture, and the eating tables were about four feet from the counter, so pretty much you were on top of the people eating while trying to serve yourself. I should have taken pictures of the eating area, but it was very spacious! Also unlike the last place (breakfast 6AM – 9AM), weekends it was served from 6:30AM to 10:00AM and weekdays 6:00AM – 9:30AM!

Continued in Next Post

 

[ACDSNY]

Keep the pics coming, loving the trip report.

Oh you'll really be jealous when I tell you Noodles & Co is close by my office and I grab lunch there sometimes, I usually have the Thai one.

 

[franandaj]

Day 4, Part 3

Once we got checked in I took pictures of the room before we trashed it! (this time I remembered to snap a picture of the kitchen area.

Fran crawled into bed and immediately I began working on dinner for that night and the following night. I figured that when we got home from the Museum on Easter Sunday we would just want dinner as opposed to sitting around waiting for the spaghetti sauce to cook. Plus this way it had a day to sit in the refrigerator and let the spices co-mingle even more for better flavor.

Here’s the spaghetti sauce.

And these tasty morsel are what we call “Cloppities”, they are something that Fran remembers from childhood. Now don’t get any weird ideas about the name. The best we can figure out is that Fran called them that when her mother made them because when you form the patties, it makes a “clop, clop, clop” sound, kind of like the hooves of a horse (or two ‘alves of coconuts bangin ‘em together )

I like to make a pan gravy for the cloppities and use mushrooms if I have them. Here are our dinner plates incorporating our leftovers from the week for our side dishes.

Continued in Next Post

 

[franandaj]

Keep the pics coming, loving the trip report.

Oh you'll really be jealous when I tell you Noodles & Co is close by my office and I grab lunch there sometimes, I usually have the Thai one.

Yes! I am jealous! When I saw the place I thought it was going to be an Asian noodle type house and I was all set for Asian noodles, but I brought the menu out to Fran while she waited in the car and she assumed that I wanted Mac-N-Cheese and said "if I got the large Mac-n-cheese she would 'eat some' ".

I was thinking more along the lines of shrimp and something like rice noodles, veggies, etc. I hope that they bring some of these to LA county, I'll be there in a heartbeat! I love noodles! There's a whole lot of dishes there I would be happy to try and the one we visited served beer and wine, so I would be happy to have dinner there with my glass of vino in hand! Fran would be thrilled for us to have a totally casual restaurant that I wnated to go to for dinner!

 

[usnuzuloose]

You know sometimes I like home cooking when were away from home. I get tired of eating out. It looks good. Nice room. I hope when we go back to vegas I would love to cook but that wont happen with to go to dinner with everyone else. It is interesting to see the area where they fought. Thanks for the pics. Keep it coming.

 

[franandaj]

Day 5, Part 1

The next morning we woke up and headed down to breakfast for a pleasant surprise…THE ROOM WAS ALMOST EMPTY! This place took a whole new strategy. Basically get Fran’s food, and make sure she is all situated. Then I have 2 ½ minutes to get everything for me because they have……













Make it yourself WAFFLES!

Breakfast at this hotel was such a pleasure! The waffles were awesome, no one to fight for the juice or the toaster. I was definitely lovin’ this place

Today was Easter Sunday and we had decided that a return trip to the American Indian Museum was in order. We were afraid that everyone else would be going to the Smithsonian and since the AIHM was one of the less traveled museums we figured it would be a good choice. We drove into town hoping that parking would not be an issue. We were able to find a spot just a few blocks from the museum. The handicapped plaque helped because it gave us double the time of the regular parking.

When we visited the museum Friday it was raining and we were trying to get inside a quickly as possible, however today was a beautiful day so I snapped a few pictures of the outside of the museum. BTW it was designed by a native American architect.

When we entered the lobby it was just the right time that light was streaming through the prisms in the lobby windows, so we took advantage of the photo ops along with the other tourists.

The lobby had an exhibit of the various watercraft that different tribes throughout world used. Here are some of the

A few more of the artifacts in the exhibit.

We actually spent quite a bit of time in the exhibits, but there was not a lot which was photo warranted. We went to the cafeteria before 3PM when the limited menu took effect. We got the Indian Taco which was the bison chili on a piece of Indian Fry Bread with lettuce, cheese and tomatoes. Here was our lunch today.

There was a really cool exhibit outside the cafeteria about all the foods that were found in America.

Continued in Next Post

 

[PrincessInOz]

I love hotels that provide make your own Waffles...and you look like this new hotel gives you the holy grail....not only make your own waffles; but no crowds either.


And aside from the Bison chili and Fry Bread, is that chocolate cupcake of some description that I see?


I love the pictures of you and Fran with the rainbow! Beautiful!

 

[franandaj]

Day 5, Part 2

We browsed around a few more galleries. The last one we were in when they started to close the museum down was about Indians today. This exhibit talked about the challenges facing Native American People living in a modern world, but trying to hold on to the values that they hold dear from the past. I thought it was cute that one tribe in the far northern regions talked about how they still fished in the winter, but it was a lot faster to get home with a snowmobile than being pulled by a pack of dogs!

This is an example of keeping the traditions of Indian Beading but applying it in this new century.

When 5:30 rolled around we headed back to the car and drove back to our little suburban heaven, but we stopped at the redbox at the grocery store and got a copy of Cats & Dogs 2 to watch in our room that night.

We enjoyed our spaghetti and meat sauce with grilled parmesan toast and green beans while we watched the movie.

While we were safe and warm in our room, thunder and lightning stormed outside with torrential rain. We were very pleased with our decision to stay in for Easter Sunday dinner.

Day 6, Part 1

Monday morning we woke up to find sunny skies (however the humidity was through the roof!). We decided to go down to historic Alexandria and scope out the parking situation for our dinner restaurant and consider riding the metro into town. In the long run, Fran decided that she would rather drive into town and take a chance on parking. I thought she was nuts! I envisioned us driving around and around, eventually paying $25 to park the car miles away from our destination, the Museum of America History (to finish the exhibits that we missed the first time around).

We arrived at the Mall and began to look for a parking space. Here is what we found. For those of you who don’t know, that building behind us…the Museum of American History.

We visited the exhibit with historical money samples, but they didn’t photograph well. We moved on to the exhibit American on the Move, which had many historical vehicles, however outside the entrance was a Tucker Sedan. This was an innovative vehicle produced following WWII when Americans hungered for new automotives. Only 51 cars were manufactured before the company went bankrupt. The most recognizable feature of the Tucker '48, a directional third headlight, known as the "Cyclops Eye", would turn on at steering angles of greater than 10 degrees to light the car's path around corners. However there were all kinds of other safety innovations incorporated into the manufacturer’s design.

What is so neat about the Smithsonian is that these items on display are not replicas, they are all the real deal. This is “Jupiter” a steam-powered locomotive built in 1876 for the Santa Cruz Railroad.

This is a cart that the elite would use to travel around DC around the turn of the 20th century. Most people traveled by foot or street car. Horse drawn carriages were on the decline as the 20th century dawned. Within 20 years they had almost disappeared. They had a great film compiled by the History Channel of a street scene from around 1908 in Downtown Washington DC, which was fascinating.

This car is a 1903 Winton which was the first vehicle to drive from Coast to Coast. Jackson, a physician from Burlington, Vermont, was on vacation in San Francisco and made a bet at a gentlemen's club that a car could endure the grueling trip through the rugged West, where there were virtually no roads, and across the East in less than 90 days. He purchased a slightly used Winton touring car, hired mechanic Sewall Crocker to accompany him, stocked up on supplies, and took off for New York City. The trip took 64 days, including breakdowns, delays while waiting for parts to arrive, and hoisting the Winton up and over rocky terrain and mudholes. Jackson and Crocker were hailed as heroes and inspired a generation of automobile enthusiasts. Their much-publicized journey caused people to think about the possibilities of long-distance auto travel, and think of cars as an alternative to railroads. Their dog Bud accompanied them on the trip.

This is a 1926 Ford Model T Roadster, they were discontinued one year later.

Other items that were on display were a 260-ton "1401" locomotive, which pulled President Franklin Roosevelt's funeral train on part of its journey to Washington, D.C. Also a 1942 Harley-Davidson motorcycle, Chicago Transit Authority "L" mass transit car built in 1959, and a piece of U.S. Route 66, the "People's Highway," that connects Chicago to Los Angeles. We spent quite a bit of time in this exhibit, and they also had a film (also by the History Channel) which took snippets of movies that used vehicles of some sort, it was very well done and entertaining. I watched it twice.

By this time we were hungry and decided to visit the cafeteria. I had the BBQ chicken and a side of Mac-n-cheese, what am I up to four different types?

Fran had a pulled pork sandwich

We split the chocolate bread pudding.

Fully fed and ready for more, we headed off to our next destination, the First Ladies.

This was Martha Washington’s Silk Gown.

This was a gown belonging to Calvin Coolidge’s wife.

The earlier gowns were not always inaugural dresses, but most of the modern ones were. This gown was Mamie Eisenhower’s dress

Jackie Kennedy

These are dresses belonging to Lady Bird Johnson and Pat Nixon (as Lyndon B Johnson didn’t actually have an inaugural this was a dress she wore to state dinners)

These are the dresses of Betty Ford and Roslyn Carter (same situation for Betty Ford as Lady Bird Johnson, as Gerald Ford never had an inauguration)

These are the dresses of Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush.

I couldn’t get a decent picture of Hilary Clinton and Laura Bush’s dresses, there was just too much glare in that part of the room, but they were both really pretty.

And finally our current First Lady, Michelle Obama’s Dress

And the jewels that she wore

We perused another exhibit about a house built in Massachusetts in the late 1700s and it’s fascinating story of going from the home of an affluent gentleman who fought in the Revolutionary war, in the middle 1800’s an abolitionist family lived there, and by the early 20th century, the house had been divided into “apartments” and rented to factory workers who worked at the plant established nearby. Had it not been for WWII the local economy suffered so bad during the depression that the town almost became deserted. In the 1960s when the house was scheduled for demolition, it was moved to the Smithsonian and the stories of five families who lived there over it’s 200 year lifetime are now told to visitors.

By this time we were pretty “museumed out”, especially since we had been to museums four out of six days. Besides we had a dinner reservation in the 18th century, so we headed back to the hotel for Fran to take a nap, and I could get ready.

Continued in next post

 

[franandaj]

Day 6, Part 2

Our dinner was going to be at Gadsby’s Tavern. This building was a Tavern back in the days of the Revolutionary War. George Washington, James Monroe and other statesmen dined here when it was a boarding house and tavern. While today it is operated by a modern restaurateur, it still has the charm of a period restaurant.

We started off with some Smithfield Ham biscuits with Berry Compote

And Martha’s Puff Pastry which was a turnover stuffed with crab, smoked salmon and Smithfield ham.

Fran had Washington’s Favorite, a duck breast

I had the Gentleman’s Pye which is a lamb and beef shepherd’s Pie

We ended our meal with the Berry Trifle

 

[PrincessInOz]

WOW! Museum cars, dresses and food.....all the things to keep me happily reading away.

The dresses look great and Michelle Obama's dress looks very intricate with loads of detail.
Must have been cool to have been to see it yourself.

 

[franandaj]

WOW! Museum cars, dresses and food.....all the things to keep me happily reading away.

The dresses look great and Michelle Obama's dress looks very intricate with loads of detail.
Must have been cool to have been to see it yourself.

As I looked at each of them I was thinking about how sad it was that these dresses only got to be worn once and they had to know that there would be someone practically waiting to take the dress as soon as they stepped out of it.

We complain about only wearing bridesmaid's dresses once!

 

[franandaj]

Day 7, Part 1

We are winding down. Today is the last full day of our trip. Our plan was to be up and on the road by 8AM

Nope we were on the road at about 9:00AM and we decided to give up on the hotel breakfast and just drive through McDonald’s. Our plan had been to get there at the crack of dawn and get tickets for the Bureau of Printing and Engraving and the Holocaust Museum. I had packed sandwiches, chips, water and Mtn Dew for lunch. Finding a parking space was proving to be challenging. Parking at the Mall wasn’t available until 10:00AM and all the other parking spaces were restricted until 9:30AM. However, I remembered from college how we used to all drive around BEHIND the parking enforcement people, they would clear all the people who were lurking on the street and a whole new batch of cars would pull in and park. We got a spot on the street with no time limits other than it had to be moved by 4PM when the evening rush hour began.

We went to the Bureau first and got tickets for 1:30PM admittance. Then we headed over to the Museum of the Holocaust and got in line. We got tickets for 10:15AM entrance to the main exhibit. It was before 10:00 and there was a whole hassle with the fact that Fran had opened her Mtn Dew and taken a sip. I had to take it back to the car, and besides she left her cell phone in the car so I got that as well.

By the time I got back and through the rigorous security check we were still ahead of our entrance time. We went through the “children’s” exhibit which was called Daniels’ story. It chronicled the life of a young Jewish boy, and how his life changed from a happy middle class child to a subject of racial discrimination and eventually lost his mother and sister in the concentration camp. It was well done and told from the child’s perspective.

By this time it was 10:45AM and they suggested you allow at least two hours to see the exhibit properly. This exhibit was much more grown up. It was well done and hardly gruesome. A large part of the exhibit painted the climate of how the Nazis were able to lull the Germans into a state of apathy. Essentially they didn’t need to hate the Jews, only feel indifferent towards their treatment, enough that no one questioned what was going on. While in the exhibit, the time for our tickets at the Bureau of Printing and Engraving came and went, but Fran wanted to take in the whole thing without rushing.

There was no photography allowed in the museum which is why I have no pictures. We looked at one more exhibit which was how the Nazis used Propaganda to further their goals. It was amazing how they stretched the truth, and even as their regime was crumbling, they were still propagating ruling the world and how evil the Jews were. By this time even with the sour tastes in our stomachs for the material we had been absorbing, we were really hungry. We headed back to the car which was parked just off the mall and ate our sandwiches and chips before loading up the car. It was time to move because in a little over an hour they would begin ticketing and towing vehicles.

We decided to hit the museum of Natural History since Fran really wanted to see the Hope Diamond, especially in it’s new setting for it’s anniversary. We drove over to the museum and again the parking goddess was on our side.

Our first stop was the Hope Diamond

We continued around the galleries. I was amazed to see the beautiful valuable jewels that people had donated to the museum. They must really have not liked their families or something! I’ll just let the jewels speak for themselves.

These were in the Natural minerals section, and both of these were HUGE!

I snapped this photo of the main lobby before we moved on to the next exhibit

We headed over to an exhibit where Forensic Anthropologists were excavating the original Jamestown settlement which was discovered about 15 years ago, after hundreds of years believing that it was lost. Unfortunately just as we completed the “how forensic anthropologists do their jobs” section and were moving on to the real exhibit where they applied the science to the unearthed bodies, a security guard came through to tell us that the museum was closing.

Continued in next post

 

[franandaj]

Day 7, Part 2

Fran wanted to go to another museum, but between the Holocaust Museum and the other five days we had spent in museum settings, the only thing I wanted to do was sit by the waterfront with a drink in hand and enjoy the rest of the evening. Thanks to GPS in our phones, we took the scenic route to the waterfront in Historic Alexandria. The only place with a waterfront view we could find was the Chart House, so here was our last night in town.

Fran’s trio of soups, Clam Chowder, Gazpacho, Crab Bisque

Oysters for me, big surprise!

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

As the sun went down we headed back to the hotel. I had some of the leftovers from the past two nights, but Fran was too full from her soups to eat anything else.

Day 8

Our final day in town we were still going hit the ground running. We enjoyed a nice big breakfast in the hotel and finished packing up all our stuff. I had the car loaded by 10AM and we headed back up to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. Amazingly enough they had tickets left for the 1:45PM tour. We were supposed to be there 15 minutes early and decided to finish up the exhibit that we were thrown out of the night before.

It was really interesting and we were glad that we came back. By this time it was 12:30 so we stopped in the museum café for some ice cream.

Then we scooted on over to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. No photos were allowed once we got past the lobby, but here’s a few.

It was an interesting tour and fun to see that much money all at once! The funniest part of the tour was when the guys in the printing area held up a sign, “Tour Guide has free samples!”

After the tour, we packed up the car and headed off to the airport.

We were only 10 minutes behind our original plan, and made the plane with plenty of time. Especially since our take off was delayed by an hour and a half. We landed 2 hours late and didn’t get home until after midnight. By the time we said “hello” to all the kitties and made sure everything was still as it should be, we had been awake almost 24 hours by the time our heads hit the pillows.

Thanks for reading, and now back to the Pre-Trip Report!

Conclusion of DC side trip

 

[DisneyFirefly]

It looks like you guys had a good last couple of days The Holocaust museum sounds very interesting! I'll have to go there if I ever go to DC.

 

[franandaj]

So I started a separate TR for my upcoming WDW trip for Destination-D, the two will no longer be joined so if you want to come along here is a link!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=41050119#post41050119

 

[usnuzuloose]

WOW! all those pics were awesome. The gowns are so amazing. The hope diamond is really beautiful. Is there a price for it? Or just priceless? Sounds like you guys had a great time. Thanks for sharing everything. I have the link for your next up already.

 

[PrincessInOz]

But where is our cut of the Hope Diamond and our share of the Ten Dollar notes, making up the One Million $$?

Love the food porn...particularly the ice cream. Thanks for sharing!