Entries Tagged 'Travel' ↓

we had one full day to see as much of the national mall as we could, so we tried to get going as early as possible. our first order of business was moving to a hotel that we could afford in order to stay in dc for another night. but it was in a good place to start — embassy row near dupont circle.

jason and i took turns taking photos with my camera. so settle in, because i have plenty to share. (we walked for approximately 6 hours and estimate that we covered about 10 miles.)

we took a “wrong” turn down new hampshire and happened across this manhole cover dedicated to sonny bono. it was placed in front of a tiny patch of dirt that had one small bench. so random. but interesting and worth a photo anyway.

does he have two tickets to that thing that i love?

squirrel in the foreground was trying to find somewhere to bury his food.

again: sorta random.

not cherry blossoms — just really pretty.

our “wrong” turn down new hampshire brought us right past albert einstein, so we stopped to say hello.

i was most excited to finally see the lincoln memorial. i remember very little of my trip to dc in 2004, but i know i didn’t get to see the sights — lincoln, reflecting pool, and so on. i only recall walking past the white house and seeing the washington monument from a distance. and the capitol building.

we took a detour around the backside of the memorial, while we entertained the idea of walking across the potomac to see arlington national cemetery. (which we did not do.)

it was the saddest moment of the day when we discovered that the reflecting pool was under construction! and it has been since 2010. lame. how many other tourists’ photos have been ruined, i wonder?

but at least i got to see abe.

i love the scale of this photo. jason is 6’1″.

then we wandered to go see some war memorials. first: vietnam.

there were two books to help locate the names of lost loved ones on the walls of the memorial.

it was awesome to see all of the proud vets that were touring the memorials — of all ages. next we saw the korean war memorial.

thank you, veterans.

on to see martin luther king, jr.

across the water was another destination point: the jefferson memorial.

we ran into the franklin delano roosevelt memorial first. it’s quite the memorial — a whole timeline of his time in office!

jason thought i didn’t look poor enough to fit in with these guys. but i was starting to get a little hungry around this time…

clearly, jason was taking all of the photos in this memorial. (otherwise i’m never in the photos i have to share at the end of a trip.)

i’m still not sure what this is — it was on the columns lining a bridge we crossed to get to the jefferson memorial.

my feet were absolutely killing me by the time we got here so i was very happy to find an open bench for a moment. (this was about our halfway point.)

cherries!

despite my aching feet, we trudged on. i mean, what other choice did i have, really? we got back to the national mall and happened upon the washington monument. it’s amazingly large! and actually made me feel quite dizzy, looking up at the top of it with all of the puffy, white clouds passing by.

this is as close as we got to the capitol building. next time we visit dc, we are planning to see the eastern end of the national mall. and more museums! though this wasn’t the end of our day, i’m going to pause here for now (similar to how i wanted to just lay down and fall asleep on the grass of the mall)… more soon!

early last week, jason and i hopped on a flight to dc.

the first sight we saw was fort washington national park. kinda. (as pointed out by the dude in the seat behind us.) right on the potomac. then i think we saw georgetown, but i have no idea, really.

the first evening we were there, though, wasn’t for sightseeing. we were picked up at the airport by a private driver with a private car that had little, complementary bottles of water, fresh newspapers, and tons of extra leg room. we were promptly delivered to the ritz carlton, where the art utilizes very fancy apples (seemingly switched daily). the first thing we did in our super-duper fancy hotel room? we each took a nap.

after recharging our internal batteries, we geared up for a very fancy, formal night with jason’s employer, cigna, and his coworkers. we were attending his company’s annual employee appreciation/recognition event. after putting on our finest attire (jason bought a new suit for the occasion), we went downstairs and located the rest of jason’s team. we were served appetizers and were welcomed to an open bar while all of the invited employees gathered. around 7, the doors for the ceremony were opened and we found our assigned seats… and served a really delicious three-course dinner! so much food, but so so so yummy.

it was an excellent event — every team of employees from across the country had a special story of why they were “champions” of the company. it was inspiring. and i may have forced one woman to give me a hug. (her story? she helped a customer get out of the hospital and spend his/her final days at home, surrounded by family. it really struck a chord with me, considering the subject of my last post.)

after the event, we stayed in our fancy clothes and went out on the town with jason’s coworkers. tons of fun! to be perfectly honest, we had so much fun that the next morning, i woke up a little bit hungover — but so ready to do some sightseeing! after a somewhat low-energy breakfast (or was that just me?) with jason’s team, we set about the business of being tourists.

stay tuned…

this year, vani was my date for rock the garden. she is an awesome date, by the way! you are jealous.

it was actually sorta fun to hang out in the rain and drizzle all afternoon. we fortified ourselves with summit beer and fabulous food from the chef shack (bison burger and bacon beer brats, drool).

i borrowed jason’s barenaked ladies poncho for the occasion and felt like a pretty terrible girlfriend when the neckline ripped pretty early on. does anyone know where i can buy a replacement? or maybe i can get him something awesome when we’re in san francisco in four and a half days eeeeeeee!!

i was trying to find vani and myself in the time-lapse video, but there are just too many people and we all look like ants!

social media in the rain is tough. i was typing from under my poncho.

kristi and jared shared our sitting area. somehow they walked right by us, which is amazing. seriously, there were so many people.

that’s neko case. she sounded positively delightful. also, the zoom on my camera sorta sucks. i think it’s almost time for a new point and shoot… any recommendations?

okay, so i also enjoyed the heck out of a gyro. it seemed like everyone around me was enjoying them, so i had to have my own later in the evening.

my cute date and me.

my charming landlords.

in this photo, kristi is waiting for jared to return from the barrio food truck with “like, a million tacos.” (he came back with one of each!)

i’m always makin’ friends with nature. as long as the nature isn’t in my house, you know?

barry and stacia joined our excellent spot for a better view of my morning jacket.

that’s mark wheat in the fuzzy distance.

this guy started a beach ball that bounced around to the front of the audience during the first few songs of my morning jackets’ setlist. way to go, beach ball guy! he was really proud of himself.

oh, we also ate the hell out of some fries.

i danced. everything was so wet and muddy! it was pretty fun.

see that beach ball?! yeah.

meanwhile, sunset.

i love you, rock the garden! see you next year!

the word of the day was…

this past valentine’s day, my sweet boyfriend snuck into my house and left a big bouquet of flowers along with a couple groupons that i would like — one was for a visit to chateau st. croix winery & vineyard, which included a tour, a cheese plate, wine tastings, and two souvenir glasses to take home. the winery was across the river in wisconsin, so we decided to make a whole, fun day trip out of it.

we paused in st. croix falls at a scenic overlook since we were a little ahead of “schedule.”

i think this photo is hilarious because it was my idea to look DIRECTLY INTO THE SUN so of course i’m making a stupid face and ruining an otherwise pretty darn cute photo.

i’m now not sure if those (off to the left of the photo) are taylor’s falls or st. croix’s falls.

king of the world! … or at least of this rock.

look at all that lichen.

zooooom!

jason risked his life for this photo. i almost had to leave him behind. (but he had the keys to the car…)

james knox polk: thank you for making wisconsin and for providing a name for a great street to live on (twice).

chateau. lions everywhere. i loved it.

now entering narnia!

our first tastings: 2006 atelier alexander valley zinfandel (the zin) and jaune d’or port (“like drinking a sugar cookie”). both very delicious. i liked most of what we tasted, and i went home with a bottle of the 2009 wild river rose.

oh, now we’re on the tour.

it would be fun to volunteer on bottling day/weekend in september. who wants to join me?

jason got on the floor for this photo, reviewed it, then proclaimed he was a genius. yes, you are, sweetie.

the cheese plate for two. you mean i have to share this?!

jason was even gonna eat the whole plate, too!

super cute bottle. i would’ve bought a bottle if i had a “wine fund” set aside.

knights like us, baby we were born to runnn… to the winery… to drink wine…

this photo was an “accident” but it’s evidence of the face that i make at jason most of the time. it’s my i’m-falling-more-in-love-with-you-right-now face.

dead wine barrel converted into a charcoal grill = totally awesome! can also be used as a smoker.

it was a special festival weekend at the winery, showcasing some of the local artisans and businesses. the sun came out just for us to wander around the booths and take it all in.

at this booth i informed jason of my plan to some day have my own sheep and my own wool-spinning machine. heck yes, i’m gonna make my own yarn. maybe i’ll get a llama, too (that is the yarn used for the hats in the foreground).

i liked the chardonnay and roasted garlic marinade.

meow!

i wanted to steal this puppy.

this is his (her?) “good side.”

see? more lions!

hello, wisconsin.

this is in the bathroom. sort of rude, but sort of funny, too.

vineyard birds.

sign says: “open wine”
i say: “okay, i will!”

then we stopped at this goofy little sculpture park on our way to stillwater.

this is the work area. there was some art in production as we walked around.

jason told me i live here. it doesn’t even have a floor.

there wasn’t any gold leaf left for us.

hey, then we got to stillwater! the river here was really high — the muddy area is where it had been in the last couple weeks.

strawberry/banana malts at leo’s.

obligatory photos of the stillwater lift bridge.

see the water? those steps are supposedly leading down to a lower pedestrian pathway. i will have to imagine…

this photo is mostly to show the streetlamp in the water.

this is the one place on gowalla that i didn’t check in. dang!

all in all, it was a pretty perfect day with my sweetheart — good weather, good scenery, good wine…

thanks so much for the gift, jason. i love you.

i could tell you that this is my favorite flower, but i’m not sure it’s the truth. i proclaim every flower i see to be my favorite. so i’ll just tell you this is one of my favorites, for sure. and it’s growing on my front steps!

these are survivors i picked out of the mess that was my flower garden attempt last summer. i decided i didn’t have enough time or energy to devote to another flower garden project, so i was sort of cleaning up the area and discovered these guys, growing strong during a chilly minnesotan spring.

bleeding heart, periwinkle, lamb’s ear, and day lillies.

wikipedia just told me that periwinkle is also a kind of sea snail. the more you know!

this is me tonight: i drank a nordeast grain belt and watched the season finale of glee online. i laid on the floor. the kitties wrestled around me. didn’t turn the television on at all. it’s just quiet, except for the tick of the clock and the gurgle of the kitties’ water fountain.

in one month, i’m going to san francisco again! i’m bringing my special dude and we’re going to hang out in golden gate park, i want to see that japanese tea garden. oh! and this time i will make sure to see the full house house from alamo square. i’m also be attending voices that matter: web design. i’m excited! this lady needs an airplane ride.