DC June 2009!
Jun. 11th, 2009 11:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ruOkay! I think it's time to do some trip discussion! And show PICTURES! They're pretty much all from Saturday, as that was my free day, but still. Pictures! And other stuff!
I'm quickly becoming train-savvy, with all this train riding I've been doing. One thing I can recommend for anyone considering taking the train after this last trip--if it's practical, book a ride on a train that has an overnight route. We took the Silver Star route (overnight) on the way up, and the Carolinian route (not overnight) on the way back, and I gotta tell you, the Silver Star route was MUCH nicer, for several reasons. They ran on time (apparently the Carolinian is chronically late--we got home an hour later than we should have this time around), you get more space in your seat (and the seats can lay back like a lounge chair, if that's how you like to ride. The space you getb on the Carolinian is comparable to an airplane), and they were MUCH more organized. On the Carolinian they basically said, "Yeah, find a seat wherever," the result being that I had to sit in the seat in front of Eien-chan, making for a rather lonesome trip. On the Silver Star they arranged people by the number of folks traveling together and where they were going, and assigned seats, so there wasn't a fight to try and get two seats next to each other. As I said, it's not always practical (the reason why we didn't take the Silver Star back was because we wouldn't get home until 9PM and would have to bum around the station for 3 hours waiting for it to pick us up), but when it is, overnight routes are the way to go, I think. And since the price seems to be dictated by how far you travel (at least when comparing overnight to day-routes, as I imagine taking one of the trains that allows you to take your car with you would be more expensive), the price for one over the other is about the same. This has been your train information tip of the day. <3
Getting about in DC was a neat trick, weather-wise. I had kenaz with me when I was at the herbarium, and of course it decided to rain just about all week while we were there, so getting him safely there and back again was a neat trick. As much as I hate wearing ponchos, I found the ones the Smithsonian sold were pretty adequate at keeping the backpack I was carting kenaz in dry, although I looked absolutely ridiculous with it on. I was dubbed the Fearsome Turtle Warrior.
There really isn't much to tell for the majority of the trip, at least on my end. I spent most of my time in the herbarium at the Museum of Natural History, in my own little corner of the grass herbarium, measuring my heart out. As AWESOME as it is to say that I worked at the Smithsonian, and that I went into the BACK ROOMS, it's pretty monotonous work most of the time. I did have more fun than I really should going to the cafeteria to get lunch, though (they had JELLY BELLIES. I love Jelly Bellies). And in the evening, when I finished at about, oh, 7:30 or so, Eien-chan would pick me up and we'd go find dinner at someplace awesome.
One night we went to a Scandanavian place called 'Domku', and that was quite a culinary adventure. I can now say that I've had pickled herring and gravlax, both of which I actually kinda liked. I totally want to incorporate them into the Eighth Kingdom, too. I can see Anika waxing poetic about how she misses buried raw fish. XD I also tried rose petal aquavit, which grew on me after a while. <3
Another night we went to a Malaysian place that was REALLY tasty. I had pearl noodles, which are kinda like thick noodles cut up really small. Difficult to eat with chopsticks, but oh so good. And the last night we were there we went to an AWESOME place in Chinatown that had the most delicious stir-fried seafood, served up in potatoes arranged to look like a bird's next. Totally delicious!
On the subject of the last day, that's when I was able to do some exploring of DC with Eien-chan. And that's where most of the pictures come in too! We ended up going to the National Aquarium, to the Botanic Garden near the Capitol, to Chinatown, and also to Union Station (which, apparently, has an Obama store, devoted entirely to all things presidential, including life-size cardboard cutouts). The National Aquarium was neat, if small compared to, say, the Baltimore Aquarium. Each of the exhibits had specimens from a different national preserve, which I think was a neat way to arrange things.
THEN, we went to the Botanic Garden. <3 <3 <3
The garden is tucked away in a small part of DC, right near the capitol, so they don't have a lot of space. But man do they use it. That big, sorta Victorian-looking glass building is the conservatory, which is where I spent most of my time squeeing.
That's not to say the outside wasn't lovely either, though. I love the color scheme they used with these flowers. <3
And they had a lot of fun with finding different ways to display plants. I LOVE this arch. And they had a checkerboard raised bed that I'm now dying to try in our backyard.
The conservatory was divided up into different gardens--a medicinal plants garden, a desert garden, an endangered species garden, etc. This was in the children's garden, an awesome little plot with kid-friendly plants, a nice playhouse, and gardening tools so the kids could dig in the dirt to their heart's content. I loved this tunnel they made. I think Eien-chan's right--if we had lived in DC when I was little, my parents could have dropped me off here and I would have been happy as a clam. <3 They were also giving away free plants, but you should all be proud of me. I valiantly resisted, as I knew taking them on the train would be difficult, if not impossible.
The biggest garden was the jungle garden, which had two stories, the second story being a canopy walk so you could go perusing through the trees, which, again, is AWESOME. I went a little shutterbug happy here.
Something about the jungle room made me think of the chocolate room in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the Gene Wilder version). Maybe it was the way the light filtered through the glass. Or maybe it was because I was acting like a kid in a candy store the whole time.
In addition to the regular conservatory, apparently they were also holding an exhibit on plant-inspired art. This one was entitled "Volvox". Volvox happens to also be a spherical colonial algae. I can see the resemblance.
The shoes highly amused me. The ones in the corner there are made of sage, and were, conveniently, entitled "Blue Sage Shoes". XD
A picture of the capitol from the garden. Because we were close, and because we were tourists, and taking pictures of famous buildings is the thing to do when you're a tourist.
Oh, I forgot to mention lunch that day! We went to the National Gallery Cafe, on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aneles's suggestion. It was DELISH. It was also in the middle of a sculpture garden, so we wandered through that on the way to the cafe. I feel like there should be a tiny sacrifice going on at the top.
I took this picture mainly foraneles, who has mentioned an interest in Lichtenstein. It's a perfectly normal house!
OR IS IT? Bwahaha, he's in your head, messing with your perspective!
This picture unfortunately didn't come out as well as I had hoped. The black thing in the middle there is a rather out-of-place Egyptian obelisk right next to the American Indian Museum. When I saw this, I thought about the Egyptian plot with Danel and Ona, and decided this needed commemoration. <3
The yellow things in the middle here are the important bit. We saw these on our way to get a drink. Eien-chan commented that they're the closest he thinks he's going to see to Tron-style light cycles. I think he's right.
I wonder how hot those things get in the summer. >_>
As I mentioned, we also went to Chinatown. It's fairly small, basically consisting of a street. This was the big landmark for it, a giant gate. I think it's called the Friendship Gate. Obviously it's right next to the Metro.
And finally the last picture I'm posting, also from Chinatown. Fun with languages. XD
I'm looking forward to going back in the fall, when I go to see my cousin get hitched. <3
I'm quickly becoming train-savvy, with all this train riding I've been doing. One thing I can recommend for anyone considering taking the train after this last trip--if it's practical, book a ride on a train that has an overnight route. We took the Silver Star route (overnight) on the way up, and the Carolinian route (not overnight) on the way back, and I gotta tell you, the Silver Star route was MUCH nicer, for several reasons. They ran on time (apparently the Carolinian is chronically late--we got home an hour later than we should have this time around), you get more space in your seat (and the seats can lay back like a lounge chair, if that's how you like to ride. The space you getb on the Carolinian is comparable to an airplane), and they were MUCH more organized. On the Carolinian they basically said, "Yeah, find a seat wherever," the result being that I had to sit in the seat in front of Eien-chan, making for a rather lonesome trip. On the Silver Star they arranged people by the number of folks traveling together and where they were going, and assigned seats, so there wasn't a fight to try and get two seats next to each other. As I said, it's not always practical (the reason why we didn't take the Silver Star back was because we wouldn't get home until 9PM and would have to bum around the station for 3 hours waiting for it to pick us up), but when it is, overnight routes are the way to go, I think. And since the price seems to be dictated by how far you travel (at least when comparing overnight to day-routes, as I imagine taking one of the trains that allows you to take your car with you would be more expensive), the price for one over the other is about the same. This has been your train information tip of the day. <3
Getting about in DC was a neat trick, weather-wise. I had kenaz with me when I was at the herbarium, and of course it decided to rain just about all week while we were there, so getting him safely there and back again was a neat trick. As much as I hate wearing ponchos, I found the ones the Smithsonian sold were pretty adequate at keeping the backpack I was carting kenaz in dry, although I looked absolutely ridiculous with it on. I was dubbed the Fearsome Turtle Warrior.
There really isn't much to tell for the majority of the trip, at least on my end. I spent most of my time in the herbarium at the Museum of Natural History, in my own little corner of the grass herbarium, measuring my heart out. As AWESOME as it is to say that I worked at the Smithsonian, and that I went into the BACK ROOMS, it's pretty monotonous work most of the time. I did have more fun than I really should going to the cafeteria to get lunch, though (they had JELLY BELLIES. I love Jelly Bellies). And in the evening, when I finished at about, oh, 7:30 or so, Eien-chan would pick me up and we'd go find dinner at someplace awesome.
One night we went to a Scandanavian place called 'Domku', and that was quite a culinary adventure. I can now say that I've had pickled herring and gravlax, both of which I actually kinda liked. I totally want to incorporate them into the Eighth Kingdom, too. I can see Anika waxing poetic about how she misses buried raw fish. XD I also tried rose petal aquavit, which grew on me after a while. <3
Another night we went to a Malaysian place that was REALLY tasty. I had pearl noodles, which are kinda like thick noodles cut up really small. Difficult to eat with chopsticks, but oh so good. And the last night we were there we went to an AWESOME place in Chinatown that had the most delicious stir-fried seafood, served up in potatoes arranged to look like a bird's next. Totally delicious!
On the subject of the last day, that's when I was able to do some exploring of DC with Eien-chan. And that's where most of the pictures come in too! We ended up going to the National Aquarium, to the Botanic Garden near the Capitol, to Chinatown, and also to Union Station (which, apparently, has an Obama store, devoted entirely to all things presidential, including life-size cardboard cutouts). The National Aquarium was neat, if small compared to, say, the Baltimore Aquarium. Each of the exhibits had specimens from a different national preserve, which I think was a neat way to arrange things.
THEN, we went to the Botanic Garden. <3 <3 <3
The garden is tucked away in a small part of DC, right near the capitol, so they don't have a lot of space. But man do they use it. That big, sorta Victorian-looking glass building is the conservatory, which is where I spent most of my time squeeing.
That's not to say the outside wasn't lovely either, though. I love the color scheme they used with these flowers. <3
And they had a lot of fun with finding different ways to display plants. I LOVE this arch. And they had a checkerboard raised bed that I'm now dying to try in our backyard.
The conservatory was divided up into different gardens--a medicinal plants garden, a desert garden, an endangered species garden, etc. This was in the children's garden, an awesome little plot with kid-friendly plants, a nice playhouse, and gardening tools so the kids could dig in the dirt to their heart's content. I loved this tunnel they made. I think Eien-chan's right--if we had lived in DC when I was little, my parents could have dropped me off here and I would have been happy as a clam. <3 They were also giving away free plants, but you should all be proud of me. I valiantly resisted, as I knew taking them on the train would be difficult, if not impossible.
The biggest garden was the jungle garden, which had two stories, the second story being a canopy walk so you could go perusing through the trees, which, again, is AWESOME. I went a little shutterbug happy here.
Something about the jungle room made me think of the chocolate room in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the Gene Wilder version). Maybe it was the way the light filtered through the glass. Or maybe it was because I was acting like a kid in a candy store the whole time.
In addition to the regular conservatory, apparently they were also holding an exhibit on plant-inspired art. This one was entitled "Volvox". Volvox happens to also be a spherical colonial algae. I can see the resemblance.
The shoes highly amused me. The ones in the corner there are made of sage, and were, conveniently, entitled "Blue Sage Shoes". XD
A picture of the capitol from the garden. Because we were close, and because we were tourists, and taking pictures of famous buildings is the thing to do when you're a tourist.
Oh, I forgot to mention lunch that day! We went to the National Gallery Cafe, on
aneles's suggestion. It was DELISH. It was also in the middle of a sculpture garden, so we wandered through that on the way to the cafe. I feel like there should be a tiny sacrifice going on at the top.I took this picture mainly for
aneles, who has mentioned an interest in Lichtenstein. It's a perfectly normal house!OR IS IT? Bwahaha, he's in your head, messing with your perspective!
This picture unfortunately didn't come out as well as I had hoped. The black thing in the middle there is a rather out-of-place Egyptian obelisk right next to the American Indian Museum. When I saw this, I thought about the Egyptian plot with Danel and Ona, and decided this needed commemoration. <3
The yellow things in the middle here are the important bit. We saw these on our way to get a drink. Eien-chan commented that they're the closest he thinks he's going to see to Tron-style light cycles. I think he's right.
I wonder how hot those things get in the summer. >_>
As I mentioned, we also went to Chinatown. It's fairly small, basically consisting of a street. This was the big landmark for it, a giant gate. I think it's called the Friendship Gate. Obviously it's right next to the Metro.
And finally the last picture I'm posting, also from Chinatown. Fun with languages. XD
I'm looking forward to going back in the fall, when I go to see my cousin get hitched. <3