Trying to play catch-up - Sunday in DC

Road trip - Maryland and Washington DC
Purpose - air show at Andrews Air Force Base and a quick run into DC

Here's what we did on Sunday morning in Washington DC. (I'll post about the air show later - lots of pictures and videos to sort through!)

Our first order of business was to find a metro stop with parking and take a 35 minute ride in. The first stop on our journey, the National Zoo!

Paul at the main gate


Now Julie with the grand lion!


The first animal we saw - the very serious looking fishing cat (Asia)


Us looking at the cat - the Zoo has a million cameras; some live and some still (can be seen online)


Super cute Asian otters


Otter video - he's "juggling rocks"


Pandas! The National Zoo has 3!
Looks like (s)he had a rough Saturday night






Adult panda playing inside


Watch the pandas live online!

In the bird house...
African bird (with a really cool tail)


Pygmy Falcons


Julie & Red Parrot


Orangutans! One of the best sights of the day!

(can we say buddies!?)


Mmmmm, paper


Check this out - the Orangutan Transport System, or O Line (we saw it in action!)

Here's our view:


2 more videos (listen carefully to the 3rd video) can be found here and here

Paul & and the scary t-rex skull (oddly next to the tiger exhibit)


Ring tailed lemurs



Video of the ring tailed lemurs


Sloth Bear (never knew of such an animal!!)


Elephant


Young elephant ("mmmm, that feels goooood!")


After the Zoo, we took a little walk down the road to the "Woodley Park" area of DC to find lunch. We weren't in the mood for the formal Sunday brunch (and the time and $ it would take), so we hit up Chipotle (mmm! tacos and guacamole!) and watched the Sunday crowd.

After lunch we took the Metro to the Smithsonian station and strolled across the Mall to the Museum of Natural History. It was impressively crowded - one of my least favorite things!

Smithsonian Castle - view near the Metro stop


Museum of Natural Sciences (large columns)


Scary t-rex inside!


Paul & the dinosaur room (too many people in here!)


The Tiffany Diamond (oooo, ahhh) 128.54 carats


The Hope diamond 45.53 carats

(The images are blurry b/c of low light, people pushing me and the exhibits were moving!)

Main entry room (view from the 2nd floor)


Washington Monument


US Capitol Building


Sculpture Garden fountain, National Archives Building


I think there's some important stuff in there... ;)


So true, so true


Sunset at Ikea, Woodbridge VA (after shopping for a few hours, then waiting a few more to pickup our new cabinets, I caught the sun setting)


The truck loaded, waiting for a few more boxes...




Stay tuned - upcoming entries include: the Joint Services Open House Air Show and a weekend in the NC Mountains (mostly the Parkway! and a train!)

It has been too long!

My goodness, it has been far too long between new posts this month! We've been all over, seeing awesome things and shopping at Ikea. Needless to say, I've got quite an update to write as well as pictures and video (!!!) to share.

We're currently on a little road trip to Western NC - for happy and sad reasons. Paul's paternal grandfather passed away this week and thus we had to begin our holiday weekend a few days early. Even though he was in ill health and had lived a full 93 years, the sting of death & loss is no less painful. His funeral was simple yet full of meaning. He served as a Marine in World War II, joining when he was nearly 30 years old. He was sent to the Pacific and saw some of the worst effects of the War. He spent time in the Solomon Islands and fought in the Guadalcanal Naval battles. After returning from his military service he worked in the auto industry in Michigan and in California with Boeing. He was the father of 3 children and 8 grandchildren. He was buried with military honors; the playing of Taps and the folding and presentation of the flag (3 Marines total). Memorial Day will never be the same for me (as in it's a lot more than the "first weekend of the summer" and a day off of work) and his passing so close to this holiday make it all the more poignant.

Weekend trip: VA Creeper Trail

Last weekend we decided to take a spontaneous road trip to mountain bike in Virgina. When we purchased our bikes last June I did a ton of online research looking for trails that we could do together. I came across the Virgina Creeper Trail early on and bookmarked it. I hadn't thought much about it since until Paul randomly "IMed" me last Tuesday asking if I wanted to go. I jumped at the idea and immediately located the nearest Hampton Inn (where we could use his points to stay free), the weather forecast, reviews of the trail and printed out a plethora of maps. A HUGE bonus in our travel to Abingdon, VA (where the trail ends and where we'd be staying) was its proximity to Becky-lu! We couldn't have asked for a more fun and adventurous weekend!

Some pictures of Abingdon (a cute town! established in the 1770s)


Martha Washington Inn


Hills and cows - hills and cows - quite the bucolic scene!




Quick rundown on the VA Creeper Trail:
-"VA's premier mountain biking experience"
-The former rail bed passes through the back country of Southwest Virginia
-The last Virginia Creeper train ran in 1977
-33.4 miles long from Whitetop to Abingdon, VA (another 1.1 miles run to the VA/NC boarder)
-There are 47 trestles on the trail (some really, really, really high and long)
-The first 10 miles are downhill and fast! The last 10 miles are brutal (uphill nonstop)! The middle 10 are nice and scenic.
-Nice maps of the Trail
-We "cheated," like most others do, and took a shuttle from Abingdon to the top. However, we did not get the shuttle ride back from Damascus like many do - we wanted to do the whole thing. Looking back, I could have lived without those last few miles... but it was beautiful!

To see Paul's cool Garmin GPS/Heart rate/cadence monitor thingie - go here. You can see the map of our trip, the elevation change and if you have "Internet Explorer and Adobe SVG Viewer" you can see a neat map in motion.

Here's our day in photos... the day started off cloudy, cool, windy and threatened rain!

At the top, starting our trip at 1:30pm
Whitetop Station (restored in 2000)


Trail head & menacing clouds


Paul along the trail with the river on the left


Me at the Damascus trestle (one of the last 'iron trestles')


Resting in Damascus (where most people get picked up) - the Appalachian Trail runs through town, a pretty interesting place.


Cows grazing at old homestead along the river


Me on the Trail (which runs parallel with Hwy 58)


Another bucolic scene (hills and cows... hills and cows)


Map of the Trail we'd completed thus far (with Paul's reflection)


Quick break and hot dogs at Grandma Mom's in Alavardo (Paul chillin' on the porch)


Trestle over South Houlston Lake


Detail of the old trestle


Almost back to Abingdon (starting to get really tired!), it didn't help we had a short downpour of fat rain


I survived 33.4 miles! Back in Abingdon at 5:45pm - we had dinner reservations at 6pm! ACK! (thanks for your patience Becky-lu!)


On our way out the next day we checked out the route again and took a few more pictures of the drive.
At the Abingdon trail head (where we ended our ride the day before)


Trail and the offical VA Creeper sign (off Hwy 58)


Land of 2 million Christmas trees






Group heading down from Whitetop Station on Sunday morning (cooler and windier than we had faced)


Historic sign


The trail