Subject: To there and back again
What a great last three weeks. First, we went and saw the statute of liberty, then we went to DC, followed by a relaxing weekend of doing nothing. The entire three weeks was filled with awesome, which cumulated in me making the most awesome angel food cake ever. I told Silas it tasted so good because I had added real angel wings into it. He was confused.
On Monday, Memorial Day, we went to see the Statute of Liberty. I told the kids we were going to see the giant robot zombie lady to get them excited. Unfortunately, this worked and set them up for disappointment when she neither moved nor ate brains. It’s probably for the best that neither of those things occurred.
We got up early and drove into Jersey City . Traffic was light so we made good time. I parked at the Liberty Science Center and we walked to where you can take the ferry out to the island. Unfortunately, the Liberty Science Center turned out to be no-where near the statute of liberty. We ended up trekking (without strollers) for a good mile before we got the ferry. The kids were pretty much done by that point of the trip. We also found out they have parking right next to the ferry so it was a complete waste of time. Yay for me not planning things.
After our invigorating walk, which was at least 5 miles uphill, we stood in line to get tickets to the island. The lines there are VERY long. All the time. We eventually got onboard the ferry and went to Ellis Island , which houses a large immigration museum. We walked through that, dragging our children behind us, awed by the process the immigrants had to go through to get onboard. We didn’t get to see or read as much as we would have liked thanks to our children finding the museum to be a dull building, but it was still worth the trip just for the museum.
After eating an over-priced lunch, we boarded the ferry to the actual monument. The monument was cool. We got some pictures, ate some ice cream, and vowed never to return. The crowds were simply too much to make us want to try again in the near future.
The next weekend, we were supposed to go to DC for work. However, the documents I needed to bring to DC were not complete in time and we ended up postponing the trip by a week. This was a good thing as the side of our house had fallen off and needed to be repaired.
I exaggerate, of course. The side of our house hadn’t fallen off. Really, the stucco on the side of the house had peeled away exposing very crumbly and disintegrated cinder blocks. I perhaps already mentioned that Amber had out these weak links and replaced them with new ones, but we still had to cover the exposed foundation with stucco to prevent water for quickly eroding the rest of the blocks. We spent Saturday putting up a sheet of wire and applying stucco to the wall. The previous owners had the same problem with the wall and had pasted on a quick-fix job a year before. We wanted to do it right. Hopefully, this will last 10+ years.
I didn’t wear gloves, which turns out to be less than intelligent. In fact, people might say it was down-right stupid. My hands had cement burns all over them and hurt for days. However, the finished product is amazing and looks good. In fact, it looks so good that the neighbors all told Amber (who did all the finishing work), that when theirs fell off, they wanted to user hers as an example to the repair people of what they want. The basement foundation falling apart is pretty common around here.
That week, Amber bought a whole bunch of dirt to slope the land away from the house and is planning on adding a bunch of flowers. We’ll put pictures up on Facebook once it’s complete.
On Thursday of that week, we left for DC. The drive was gorgeous and we all had a good time in the car playing I Spy. The total trip was about 4 hours. When we got to our hotel, they had our reservation down for F-Sun so we didn’t have a hotel the first night. I was mad because I had set the reservation up via phone and I knew that this was going to happen. I had even asked the person while making the reservation to confirm a couple of times that it was Th-Su. Unfortunately, I did not have a confirmation number. I suppose that is why they give you those. The hotel we had a reservation for found us another hotel in a less convenient location that cost $100 more a night. We decided to stay there one night and move back to the planned hotel afterward.
The next day, I rose early and went to the State Department and Chinese documentation authentication services. In between, I went back to the hotel and checked out with Amber and the kids. I then dragged them back to the Chinese place. We ate some lunch and then I picked up the documents.
With work out of the way, we decided to go and have some fun. First, we went and checked into our hotel. That was fun because we had a cheap place to sleep. We then walked over to the Museum of American History , which is a great museum. Silas missed almost the entire thing because he fell asleep, but Milo loved seeing all of the inventions. All of the exhibits are very kid-friendly and there is a ton to do. Having everything free is an additional bonus.
Once the Museum closed, we took a walk down to the Washington Monument and then over to the white house. Amber commented how run down everything immediately outside of DC is. Sadly, it’s true. You go about a block away and you appear to be in mugging-ville. Only the national mall area is maintained.
For dinner, we ate at this great South African place called Nanjo Peri-Peri. There, you do not choose what you want for dinner. You get chicken. You do choose how hot and spicy you want it. The restaurant is right near China town so we got to see part of that as well.
After dinner, we went back to the hotel to let the kids jump on the bed and not sleep in order to make sure they were tired for the next day of site-seeing.
The next morning, we ate our cold cereal (the room had a fridge in it so we bought some bowls and cereal to keep the cost down), and got an early start on site-seeing. We first walked over to the Capitol building, then down by the Supreme Court, followed by lunch at the Union Train Station. After lunch, we went to the National Post Office museum. This museum was awesome and is definitely worth visiting. First, there weren’t any crowds. Second, there are tons of kid-friendly activities. Besides that, the information in the museum is very interesting and includes details on how they catch mail fraud and the history of the post service. This was probably my favorite museum.
After the National Post Office Museum, we went to the botanical gardens were we got free vegetable plants. The botanical gardens were very interesting to see and smell. The kids didn’t like it that much, but Amber and I had a great time looking at all of the different plants and what they do.
The botanical garden was followed by a trip to the Museum of the Native American. This museum had potential, but wasn’t that interesting to me. I didn’t really give it a fair chance though as I was tired and grumpy.
We left that Museum and went to the Air and Space Museum . The museum was very crowded, and we left after seeing the first floor, much to Milo ’s great disappointment. Amber and I wanted to head back to the Museum of American History because we had missed the Abraham Lincoln exhibit and Oscar the Grouch. To be fair, Amber wanted to see the Abraham Lincoln exhibit, and I wanted to see Oscar the Grouch. First, we saw Oscar the Grouch, Dorothy’s shoes, and a lot of other culture memorabilia. Unfortunately, this left very little time for the Abraham Lincoln exhibit, and we ended up being rushed through the exhibit by security guards who were trying to herd everyone out the doors so they could close for the evening.
After the American History museum, we went to see Lincoln . Milo’s teacher had told him to say “Hi” to Lincoln for her and he was determined to do so. The entire trip he asked when we were going to see Lincoln . The walk there is quite long and you end up going past the past the reflecting pool, past the Washington monument, through the World War II memorial (which is impressive) and up the steps. There we got a quick picture of Milo standing next to Lincoln with about a hundred other people. Apparently, Lincoln is the happening place once the museums close. The steps were crowded and people were everywhere.
We then went to the Korean War and Vietnam War monuments, paid our respects, and went to dinner at this nice Sushi place. We spent way to much there but the food was worth it. We got the chef’s special where the chef makes up dishes that he thinks you will like. They were soooo good. Everything was good. The evening was perfect.
The next day we were going home, but we wanted to see a couple more things before we left. First, we went to the natural history museum to see the dinosaurs, mammals, and other exhibits. Then, we went to the Holocaust museum/memorial. The Holocaust memorial was very interesting and very long. It scared Milo and he spent the entire time asking to leave. I highly recommend this museum.
The drive home was uneventful, as was the following week. Basically, I worked on LebWinks every night while Amber toiled away at the yard. It was a nice way to spend the week. Bye-Ni.
Jeremy