Squirl's Nest

Last installment of vacation postings

Well, it's taken me long enough, but this is the last post about my vacation. We went to the Air and
Space Museum. It was pretty cool. Here's the whole set.

The first thing we saw was the Moon Rock.

I think the sign is more impressive-looking than the rock. If you can't see then check it on Flickr, I've put a note on it.

Then there were lots of cool things, from hot air balloons to space stuff.

The previous shot was a bad angle. This one lets you see the color better.

This is from the Wright Brothers exhibit. This is not a really a Wright. It's just a dummy.

Then there was the National Gallery of Art. Here's what I posted of that set. I thought I put more out here, but, I think we were museumed out and I don't think I got a good variety. But here are a few.

The room was really dark, so this photo is a bit grainy. It's also a bit off-center. But I really liked the Mercury statue, so I posted it anyway.

I seemed to like Rodin.

Then, for our next to last night, we had the wonderful privilege of dining with Here Today Gone Tomorrow. We met in Alexandria and she treated us to a great Puerto Rican vegetarian meal and MOJITOS! Is was a really fun evening.

On our last night I finally met my sister, Susie Fairchild. She and Jif treated us to crabs. Yes, that's right crabs. As the batteries died in my camera early on that night this is the only photographic evidence I have of the evening.

Thank you to all of you who've hung in with me while I finally got my act together and got all of this posted.

Labels: HTGT, museum, Susie, vacation, Washington DC

The Capitol and the Sculpture Garden

We wanted to tour the Capitol so we headed out fairly early in the morning. There was already quite a line when we got to the ticket booth. Our tour was about an hour later so we killed a little time walking around. Here's the set.

I still have a thing for metal grates in the ground.

I like the rainbow effect in this one.

Then we ducked back into the Botanical Garden.

Then we went on our tour. Here is our guide.

That was about for the Capitol for us. Then we walked over to the Sculpture Garden. We saw this on the way. So many pretty water features in DC.

We thought this building was cool.

There were a lot of interesting things in the Sculpture Garden.

This one cracked me up. There will be a lot of younger folks who won't know what this is.

These cubes were all spinning.

This is by Alexander Caulder. We have one of his sculptures in downtown Grand Rapids.

I think this is some kind of aluminum, like the one with the spinning cubes. I'm glad the sun was shining when we saw them.

Not sure if this is supposed to be a political statement. :-)

Labels: Capitol, Sculpture Garden, vacation, Washington DC

High spirits!

Ichabod and I both enjoyed going over to Old Town Alexandria, VA. The first time we went we checked out the sites by the river.

If you click on this and choose All Sizes you can read about Alexandria.

While we were there we noticed an ad for Historic Ghost Tours. It sounded like fun so we waited for dark. Then we met up with our tour guide, Rose. She does other tours besides this one and really knows the local history.

This inn had a story about a mysterious young couple that lodged there. The woman was very ill and died within a few days. Her husband disappeared without paying the bill. I'm sure there were more details but this is what happens when I wait over three months to finish posting about my vacation. :-)

This is a tavern that George Washington liked.

This is the Carlyle house. You can read some of its history here. There were plenty of deaths and juicy tidbits here for it to be a main feature of the ghost tour. In this photo, and some of the others, you'll see orbs. Are they dust specks, reflections of light, or some kind of spirit energy? I don't know and I don't care; they're fun to find in pictures.