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May. 28th, 2013 10:25 amSooo tired! Busy weekends are fun though!
On Sunday, Jess and Tara and I went into DC. First we had the fun adventure of navigating the shuttles because metro was doing track maintenance on a big chunk of the line. The shuttle was supposed to take us to ballston, which has tons of ticket machines, but instead they took us to the stop after (virginia square, i think?) which had 3 ticket machines for the entire busload of people. Not cool. And then figuring out how much a ticket actually costs is always fun too!
But eventually we got on a train. We had a fun conductor who was warning people not to make him blind with their flash cameras and to not stick their crutches in front of the train.
Our first stop was the Botanic Garden. I had never seen it so full! I'm used to a fairly intimate experience because the place is normally so empty. But we were still able to enjoy it and see all the pretty flowers. I liked the super tiny flowers and the one that smelled like cinnamon chewing gum. Jess took over 100 pictures! Sooooo many flowers!
After that, we had lunch at the native american museum because fry bread. All the fry bread.
When lunch was over, we stopped at one of the hands-on exhibit tables to make hawaiian ti leaf bracelets. The lady at the table taught us how to twist the leaves into a cute little spiral. The leaves gushed water everywhere as you twisted them and made everything super sticky! But once the stickiness dried, the bracelet had a smooth, shiny hard coat to it. I think mine looks really nice. I'm going to wear it for as long as it lasts. Then it goes in the compost because the lady made us promise we would return it back to the earth once we were done with it.
From there we went to the natural history museum which was super packed. We bought tickets to the butterfly exhibit, but it wasn't as nice as it usually was. They didn't have any staff inside, so people were manhandling the poor butterflies. Poking them, picking them up, just generally abusing them. Finally a guy came in to bring people in line. The place cleared out pretty quickly after that, as tourists were annoyed they couldn't abuse the poor butterflies anymore. They really need to keep that room fully staffed on busy holidays. For the sake of the animals!
But other than that, the museum was good. We only looked at a few exhibits, but it was free so we can't complain. We saw rocks, mummies, dinosaurs, and human origins. It looks like they have started removing things from the dinosaur exhibit in preparation for the upcoming renovation. I look forward to that. The exhibit is really showing its age.
We were eventually kicked out of the museum for closing time, so we headed home. All went well until we had to catch the shuttle again. Despite waiting on the express line, a local bus pulled up to our stop. It was a looooong ride.
We picked up ben and had dinner at silver diner. Of course we managed to get the worst service the one night we have guests!
The next day, everyone slept late and then we had lunch at ghengis grill. They changed the set up so people can't pig out on all the meat now. They now have 3 bowl sizes and no unlimited option. Plus they have someone that handles the meat and sauces. I do like that the sauce person can keep people from double dipping their tasting spoons. I don't know how I feel about the other changes yet.
After that, jess and tara got on the road for their long drive home. I'm glad they were able to visit. It was a lot of fun. :)
On Sunday, Jess and Tara and I went into DC. First we had the fun adventure of navigating the shuttles because metro was doing track maintenance on a big chunk of the line. The shuttle was supposed to take us to ballston, which has tons of ticket machines, but instead they took us to the stop after (virginia square, i think?) which had 3 ticket machines for the entire busload of people. Not cool. And then figuring out how much a ticket actually costs is always fun too!
But eventually we got on a train. We had a fun conductor who was warning people not to make him blind with their flash cameras and to not stick their crutches in front of the train.
Our first stop was the Botanic Garden. I had never seen it so full! I'm used to a fairly intimate experience because the place is normally so empty. But we were still able to enjoy it and see all the pretty flowers. I liked the super tiny flowers and the one that smelled like cinnamon chewing gum. Jess took over 100 pictures! Sooooo many flowers!
After that, we had lunch at the native american museum because fry bread. All the fry bread.
When lunch was over, we stopped at one of the hands-on exhibit tables to make hawaiian ti leaf bracelets. The lady at the table taught us how to twist the leaves into a cute little spiral. The leaves gushed water everywhere as you twisted them and made everything super sticky! But once the stickiness dried, the bracelet had a smooth, shiny hard coat to it. I think mine looks really nice. I'm going to wear it for as long as it lasts. Then it goes in the compost because the lady made us promise we would return it back to the earth once we were done with it.
From there we went to the natural history museum which was super packed. We bought tickets to the butterfly exhibit, but it wasn't as nice as it usually was. They didn't have any staff inside, so people were manhandling the poor butterflies. Poking them, picking them up, just generally abusing them. Finally a guy came in to bring people in line. The place cleared out pretty quickly after that, as tourists were annoyed they couldn't abuse the poor butterflies anymore. They really need to keep that room fully staffed on busy holidays. For the sake of the animals!
But other than that, the museum was good. We only looked at a few exhibits, but it was free so we can't complain. We saw rocks, mummies, dinosaurs, and human origins. It looks like they have started removing things from the dinosaur exhibit in preparation for the upcoming renovation. I look forward to that. The exhibit is really showing its age.
We were eventually kicked out of the museum for closing time, so we headed home. All went well until we had to catch the shuttle again. Despite waiting on the express line, a local bus pulled up to our stop. It was a looooong ride.
We picked up ben and had dinner at silver diner. Of course we managed to get the worst service the one night we have guests!
The next day, everyone slept late and then we had lunch at ghengis grill. They changed the set up so people can't pig out on all the meat now. They now have 3 bowl sizes and no unlimited option. Plus they have someone that handles the meat and sauces. I do like that the sauce person can keep people from double dipping their tasting spoons. I don't know how I feel about the other changes yet.
After that, jess and tara got on the road for their long drive home. I'm glad they were able to visit. It was a lot of fun. :)
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