Our Mini Vacation in Washington DC Two Weeks Ago

We wanted to take a short vacation, that did not require too much planning or many hours flying. So we decided to go to Washington DC—we have not seen our friends there for awhile and there is no shortage of things to do in the area.

Admittedly we still did some planning. For example, we tried to come up with some places we wanted to visit, and prioritize them. Two things came up to the top—Frederick Douglas’s house for Nick and Ford’s Theater for me. Needless to say, we managed to make it to neither one of those two locations. Luckily, we still had a lot of fun doing other things.

Friday was a hodgepodge of interesting places around the National Mall. Walking through the Lafayette Square, we went inside St. John’s Church. (In case it is hard to read the plaque in the photo below, it says that every U.S. President "since President James Madison has attended occasional services here.")

After a required nod to the White House, accompanied by many laments that we did not get a spot on a White House tour, we headed to the Museum of American History.

Far from trying to see the entire collection of this museum, we went for what we considered the highlights, and the Lincoln room was definitely one of them. We saw two original casts of Lincoln’s face, and the original cast of his hands. (Later in the American Art Museum, we saw copies, and were glad that we have seen the originals. The copies had a lot less details.) Other items of note in this exhibit included the top hat that Lincoln wore often, including the night of this murder, a cuff stained with Lincoln’s blood that belonged to an actress who ran up to give him water and held his head after the shots have been fired, a line up of Lincoln’s photographs, where one clearly sees an increase in aging that the presidency and the war have inflicted on him.

In the same museum, we carefully examined Julia Child’s kitchen and determined that she had way too many knives.

The next stop on our trip was the Natural History Museum. Here we spent most of our time looking at dinosaurs. On our way to see moonstones, we joined a large crowd of people to take a peek at the Hope Diamond.

Exhausted by all the history, we headed to what is supposed to be the best cafeteria in all the Smithsonian Museums for lunch—the café inside the American Indian Museum. We spent almost half an hour deciding what to eat, and can now confirm that the café was well worth the extra walk.

After an unsuccessful attempt to visit Ford’s Theater, where Lincoln was killed, we headed to the American Art Museum. My primary goal there was to see John LaFarge’s stained glass windows, commissioned by Frederick Ames for his fancy house that still stands on Dartmouth Street in Boston.

Other memorable items in this museum included several works by Daniel Chester French and August Saint-Gaudens, the last portrait of John Adams painted by Gilbert Stuart, several portraits by John Singleton Copley, and the original portrait of Benjamin Franklin that you see on one hundred dollar bills.

Nick ventured to the National Archives for a peek at the original copy of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution, while I got a head start socializing with friends.

After dinner we all headed to the Lincoln Memorial. Unfortunately it was far from deserted, but we still enjoyed the experience and the view.

Before retiring for the day, we also made a stop at the FDR Memorial, which Nick and I have not seen before.

Saturday began with an amazing breakfast cooked up by our hosts that included pancakes and home grown strawberries. (How much better can it really get!) Our next touristy activity turned out to be a visit to the Udvar-Hazy Center—the relatively new wing of the Air and Space Museum. As expected, my favorite part of the museum was the space section, where we got to see the Gemini VII command module and the boiler plate Apollo command module with floatation devices attached that came from the actual Apollo 11 command module.

Yet the funniest items in this exhibit were tubes of cosmonaut food.

Later in the day, Nick and I tried unsuccessfully to visit the National Art Gallery. After a quick, mandatory stop at the Air and Space Museum on the National Mall, where I spent some quality time staring into the actual Apollo 11 command module, we walked around the grounds around the US Capitol Building.

Here are some fun facts revealed to me by the AIA Guide--an impulse purchase I made early Friday.

• The Ulysses S. Grant statue in front of the Capitol is the tallest equestrian statue in the city, and only second tallest in the world—the first being the statue of Emmanuel in Rome.
• The reflecting pool in front of the Capitol lies on top of the tunnel that carries US Highway 395 underneath the mall. The pool was put because nothing could be planted there.
• The terracing and the layout of the Capitol grounds was designed by none other than Frederick Law Olmstead, whom we know and love in Boston for creating the landscaping of the Emerald Necklace, including the Back Bay Fens.

We tried but failed to see a Frederic Auguste Bartholdi fountain a block away from the Capitol—it was removed for restoration.

On Sunday we sadly bid goodbye to Julie and Andy, picked up a Zipcar at the Union Station and drove off to Virginia. (Nick and I never stop to marvel at how wonderful the Zipcar concept and service is. Here we were in a city we did not even live in, and here was a great car waiting for us at the perfect location.)

In preparation for our visit to Fredericksburg, we listened to Shelby Foote’s Civil War, which promptly put me to sleep—shameful but not disastrous, because Nick made an excellent tour guide once we were on location.

We climbed Marye’s Heights and looked down at the town of Fredericksburg below.

From this excellent position, the Confederate Army was able to completely overpower the Union soldiers as they tried very unsuccessfully to cross the Rappahannock River and take the hills. Our view of the river was very different as the hills have overgrown with trees, whereas back in the 19th century they were almost bare.

After a quick lunch, we visited Chatham, a beautiful Georgian-style house built in the second half of the 18th century overlooking the town of Fredericksburg and the Rappahannock River. Most notably, Chatham served as the headquarters for the Union army during the Civil War and doubled up as a hospital after Union’s disastrous defeat in the battle of Fredericksburg in November of 1862. Walt Whitman came here after seeing his brother’s name on the list of casualties. Both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln have visited the house at different times, while Robert E. Lee refused to order artillery fire onto it because it was here that he had courted his wife. Unexpectedly we got a tour of the upper floor of the house, and it turned out that the house is much smaller than it appears to be from outside.

From Fredericksburg, we drove straight to Monticello, but the gates to Jefferson’s plantation closed just before we got there, so we had to delay our visit till Monday morning. Instead, we walked around the University of Virginia campus, admiring the Rotunda and the Pavilions Jefferson designed.

Monday morning turned out to be relatively cold and rainy, but the weather did not deter us from touring Monticello. The house tour led us through most rooms on the main floor, including notably Jefferson’s bedroom and his library. After strolling around the gardens surrounding the house, we left the top of the “Little Mountain” to walk by Jefferson’s grave before heading back to the car.

We considered but decided against making another attempt to visit Ford’s Theater. Instead we stopped for lunch and had an uneventful, though extremely rainy drive back to the Union Station. We will have to come back again soon in order to

• prevent Chester (one of Julie’s cats) from sleeping his rightful bed (the one in the guest room)
• play with Loki (Gayle’s dog)
• visit Ford’s Theater and its museum
• visit Frederick Douglas’s house
• tour Monticello when it is not raining cats and dogs
• visit Appomattox
• explore more battlefields around Frederickson and Chancellorsville
• take a guided campus tour of the University of Virginia

The list goes on and on. We will just have to return.

Playing "Ketchup"

My previous post was about the Olympic Games—that was certainly a long while back, almost two month ago now. Let’s recap before I move on to the more current events.

I celebrated my birthday. And when I say “celebrated”, I really mean it. We actually threw a little party at our house, with food, and guests, and cake. Cake! The reviews for the cake were rather flattering, so I promise to proudly post the recipe.

The Back Bay Fens flooded,



then burned,

Originally uploaded by Ol' Mr Boston

then bloomed,

and is now freshly green. And then Eric and I saw two turtles in the Muddy River.

Nick has been talking about seeing turtles for several years now, but this is the first time I have seen any. Spring came to Boston early this year, and it has been beautiful.

The Boston Marathon has come and gone--the stress and excitement now replaced by a sense of pride and accomplishment, and exhaustion. (I invite you to read about all the details of my Boston Marathon run this year in my "Marathon Post".)

The weeks after the marathon left me so tired as I never was even while training, and as a result I have not even attempted to achieve anything (outside my job of course) since.

Nick and I spent a day at the Charlestown Navy Yard, touring the USS Constitution (world’s “oldest floating commissioned naval vessel”) and USS Cassin Young. However, the visit may warrant its own blog post.

Watching Figure Skating

Training for the marathon won't kill me, because watching Olympic figure skating will. It is almost 11:30pm, and the men's short program is still in full swing live from Vancouver. I will not and cannot stop watching, and this is my third evening straight watching figure skating--pairs competition was on Sunday and Monday nights. Thankfully, there will be a break tomorrow--the men's long program is not until Thursday night. And it will go late into the night. While the short program is only 2 minutes and 50 seconds long, men's long program is 4 and a half minutes long!

Here are the roots of my addiction to figure skating:

Ankle Stories

The following is a slight variation of the song by the Decemberists called Red Right Ankle (if you follow the link, click on the Preview button to hear the tune).

This is the story of my poor left ankle
And how it came to meet my leg
And how it twisted as my feet got tangled
On the stairs as I fell.

And how it screamed in misery
“Oh what have you done to me!
For whatever differences our lives have been
We together make a limb.”
This is the story of my poor left ankle.



That was 5 weeks ago, and things are definitely improving. For example, I have started running for 5 minutes a day last week. Of course, it will take me a bit longer than 5 minutes (more like 4+ hours) to run the Boston Marathon. With just over 2 months left before the race I am determined to do it, and my plan is fully supported by my team's coach, my physical therapist, and of course by my dear husband. So please--no worrying!

Yosemite National Park: Staying in Curry Village

While visiting the Yosemite National Park, we stayed in a heated tent cabin in Curry Village. We chose to stay in Curry Village because of its excellent location—right in the Yosemite Valley, with beautiful views and close to many trailheads.

A “heated tent cabin” is a tarp draped over a plywood room, built on an elevated wooden platform. Our cabin had electricity and came with two windows and an opening in the door, open to the outside but covered by a tarp. Being a “heated” tent cabin, the room also had a forced air heater.

Staying in this “heated tent cabin” in Curry Village felt similar to camping, but nicer. We had beds, pillows, sheets, blankets, and clean towels every day. Unfortunately, I am just not into camping all that much. So I found it somewhat difficult to climb from under my two blankets and a sleeping bag in the middle of the night, and then put on socks, pants, fleece, coat, hat, gloves and a head lamp—all for a trip to the communal bathroom.

Black bears live in Yosemite National Park. Their proximity and their excellent sense of smell require all tent cabin guests to store their food and toiletries in the “bear locker”, and one was stationed by every tent cabin. A “bear locker” is a metal box with a deeply set, covered latch that would be impossible for a bear to reach.

After spending the night inside the bear locker in the winter, some toiletries changed their consistency. Toothpaste, for example, became a bit difficult "to chew", and applying deodorant and lotion had a rather cooling effect on the body.

At first, we did not take the food storage rules all that seriously. While we locked up our peanut butter and jam, a granola bars and a bag of cookies remained in our packs overnight. Bad idea! Next day, we discovered that bear lockers do not only protect us from bears. A little mouse went through our backpacks and enjoyed a bit of granola and cookies. Certainly we never forgot to extract all edible items from our backpacks again.

Our Trip to Yosemite National Park

After watching Ken Burns’ new documentary on National Parks in the fall, Nick and I decided to ring in 2010 in Yosemite National Park in California. Many plans were made, and many plans were changed.

Only a few days before we got to the park, Nick and I decided not to follow the original plan and go to the Ostrander Hut. The trek sounded like it would be very hard. As uncertainties amounted, we worried that the adventure might be too stressful for us to enjoy.

Our friends, Ryan and Talia successfully made the journey to and from the Ostrander Hut on snowshoes despite all of our worries, and you can read about their adventure on Ryan's blog: Day 1 and Day 2.

Day 1: Tuesday, December 29, 2009

After skiing for a few yards—their first ever attempt at cross country skiing—Ryan and Talia decided to snowshoe to the hut instead. So Nick and I explored the Glacier Point Road by ourselves, as it winded through the tall snow covered evergreens.

We enjoyed the downhills and worked up a sweat going uphill. The road was well groomed, and the snow at Badger Pass was abundant. At one point, the Merced Peak appeared on the horizon before the road turned downhill again.

We stopped for lunch when we reached the Clark Range view point. Sitting on stones on the side of the road, we enjoyed sweeping mountain views, accompanied by yummy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.


Day 2: Wednesday, December 30, 2009

All in all, we skied over 11 miles at Badger Pass. Being still quite tired the next day, we were glad we did not have to ski the distance all over again. While Ryan and Talia made their way back from the Ostrander Hut, having gotten there well before dark the previous day, Nick and I took it easy. We slept in, checked out the park’s Visitors Center, spoke to some park rangers, and did not start hiking until after lunch.

Following park rangers' suggestions, we headed for the Upper Yosemite Falls trail. As we walked away from the road, the trail quickly became steep. We huffed and puffed and peeled away our clothing layers like onions, as we climbed up the endless switchbacks. After taunting us with glimpses of its magnificence, the Half Dome finally emerged from behind the trees in all its glory--we reached the point on the trail known as Columbia Rock. The valley lay at our feet, and the Half Dome seemed to be with an arm’s reach.



We decided not to continue up the trail, and descended back into the valley instead.


Twilight was coming over the valley, and fog was rising over the Merced River as we walked across a beautiful meadow. The setting sun made the snow covered mountains sparkle with shades of pink and orange.


Day 3: Thursday, December 31, 2009


On the day of New Years Eve all four of us decided to explore the Mariposa Grove, one of very few areas where giant sequoias grow. The road there took us to the park's Southern entrance, and from there the last two miles of the road were closed for the winter. Even though the snow was scarce and icy in places, we chose to ski to the grove. We were definitely in the minority. A few other people skied to the Mariposa Grove that day, and several people were snowshoeing, but the majority of the people sadly were walking.


After slogging uphill the entire two miles, we finally reached the first giant sequoias, and giant they were. We continued up along the road, skiing past the Fallen Monarch and stopping near the Bachelor and Three Graces. The giant sequoias’ trunks looked so enormous, that they could have easily fit many of the surrounding tree trunks inside. We just stood there with our heads tilted and our mouths hanging open.

The next giant sequoia we saw, the Grizzly Giant, is the biggest giant sequoia in the Mariposa Grove, and it was amazing. Aptly named, this enormous tree looked a bit like a monster rising against the sky. Far above the ground its massive branches curved up towards the clouds—each branch thicker than any ordinary tree trunk.

Nearby stood the California Tunnel Tree, so named because in 1895 a tunnel was carved through the bottom of the tree, and cars used to drive right through it. It is amazing how this tree managed to survive, but there it still stands, still working hard on trying to heal itself.


There were more giant sequoias to see in the Upper Grove, but by then we only had about an hour of daylight left, so we decided to turn back. Our friends did not want to attempt the icy road downhill on their first day of cross country skiing, so they walked, while Nick and I tested the effectiveness of the steel edges that our “backcountry” skis had as we slid back towards the parking lot.
Since it was the New Years Eve, we stopped at the Wawona Hotel for a celebratory dinner. On our way back to Curry Village where we stayed, we stopped at the Tunnel View Point and enjoyed an amazing view of the El Capitan and the Half Dome lit up by the full moon.

Day 4: Friday, January 1, 2010

On our last full day in the park, we walked up to the Mirror Lake, and continued up the Snow Creek trail. It was very grey and cloudy, and the sheer granite wall of the Half Dome loomed ominously above us. Despite the enthusiasm of some amongst us, we turned around before reached the point on the trail from where we could see the creek.




As we hiked back down, the most amazing thing happened. Within minutes, the clouds melted away and the sun came out. The scenery transformed, and the granite and snow shined against the clear blue sky.



Day 5: Saturday, January 2, 2010

Before leaving the park on Saturday morning, we explored the Ahwahnee, the magnificent hotel built in 1927 to attract the “affluent and influential” visitors to the park. We also had just enough time to take a stroll to the bottom of Yosemite falls.