I love to travel, and I love to write about my travels.
In September, I started feeling a little landlocked, so I booked several local trips: (this one to Outer Banks) and also two nights in a cabin in the Shenandoah Valley for the weekend after Thanksgiving. I figured a couple of nights of peace and Continue reading “Cuban Burgers, Craft Beers, and a Cabin: A weekend in Shenandoah Valley”
As we are currently living near DC, we try to take a day whenever friends visit and check out a part of DC we haven’t been to yet. This month, we applied for a tour of the White House and when the date was confirmed, we decided to take the whole day and cross a few things off our “DC Bucket List”.
It’s pretty easy, actually. You just visit this page and fill in your zip code, which will lead you to your Congressperson’s page. From there, look for a link that says “Request a Tour of the White House”. Since we live nearby, we didn’t need to specify a certain time period we’d be traveling to the capital, so we pretty much just let the system choose for us. A couple of days later, we got an email listing three dates in November that we might be granted a tour. And then a couple of weeks after that, we received an email letting us know exactly which date and time, as well as a map showing us where to check in, and what items to bring and what we could not.
We arrived a bit early, so before we got in line for the White House tour, we stopped in at the Renwick Gallery. Downstairs they had a fascinating exhibit featuring 19 dioramas made by Harvard, which were case studies of death scenes. You had to read a synopsis of the police report and study each diorama and determine accident, suicide, or murder. Fun!
Upstairs in the Renwick my two favorite installations were “Volume”, a 32,000 LED light pattern powered by an algorithm, and a set of bronze doors by Albert Gates. But really all the art work up there was amazing, a blend of modern, unique, and a twist on the traditional. The Renwick is free and I’d definitely recommend stopping in. You could spend anywhere from 45 minutes to 3 hours here if you wanted to see it all. The gallery is open daily 10-5.
After breezing through the Renwick, we headed to the White House Tour office, which is on the east side of the building. If you are in DC and you didn’t sign up for a tour, try going to the White House Visitors Center, just one block away- they have many artifacts and photographs from inside the White House.
After we went through security, we found ourselves at the residence portico. The tour is self-guided, and you can take up to 45 minutes to explore the 3rd and 4th floors of the residence (the 1st and 2nd are basement storage, and the 5th and 6th are where the President and First Lady actually live). Downstairs you can see rooms such as the Library, the Screening Room, the East Garden Room, and the China Room, where several sets of china service from past presidents are stored. Heading upstairs, you pass through the Green Room, Blue Room, and Red Room (the valets were setting up the table and china service for a luncheon in the Blue Room as we passed through), and then on to the State Dining Room, and out the cross hall- where John Travolta and Princess Diana shared a dance in 1985.
We’re subscribers and big fans of both National Geographic Magazine and NatGeo Traveler, so I’ve always wanted to look inside the National Geographic Museum. Part of the museum building is free, and you can see famous covers and short bios on several of their most well-known stories. They have two paid exhibits, and tickets are $15 ($12 for military). On the day we went, they were just finishing installing their newest exhibit: Tomb of Christ- The Church of the Holy Sepulchre Experience, so they gave us a free return ticket to use anytime for the rest of this year to come back and see it. The “Wild: Michael Nichols” exhibit was open, and it is fantastic. If you walk through this exhibit you will see some of the most famous nature photographs ever taken and watch a short video of Michael Nichols detailing his work over the years with NatGeo. Just walking past the amazing photos made me feel like such an amateur explorer!
There was one more site in DC we’ve always been curious about. There’s an island in the Potomac River and I’d never ventured on to it, so today was the day to fix that. You can access it by the northbound lanes on the George Washington Parkway, just after the Roosevelt Bridge. There’s a parking lot on the Virginia side, and a short bridge takes you onto the island, which is car-free. On the island you’ll find three trails (the longest is a 1.3 mile loop)- the Woodlands trail, the Uplands trail, and the Marsh trail. At the center of the island is a statue and memorial to Theodore Roosevelt. From the island you will see nice views of Key Bridge, Roosevelt Bridge, National Cathedral, the Kennedy Center, and Georgetown Waterfront. There are deer on the island, so if you’re quiet you may be able to spot one.
There is no way that you could ever see DC in a day, but it sure is nice to be able to take a day every now and then and explore a new corner of it (well, new to me). What hidden secrets have you found in DC? Tell me about them in the comment section so I know what to look for on my next DC day.
With an extra day off work for the Veteran’s Day holiday, Chris and I were anxious to get out of town and see some nearby sites. Since I am not originally from Virginia, I have actually never been to the “Historic Triangle” of the Jamestown settlement, Colonial Williamsburg, and Revolutionary Yorktown, and I’ve also never Continue reading “Jamestown and Williamsburg, Virginia, and the Outer Banks, North Carolina”
This weekend I had a conference in Nashville, so Chris and I got there a day early and stayed a day late to see the sights of “Music City”. Downtown was super crowded- there was an Ed Sheeran concert, a huge Vanderbilt-Georgia football game, Oktoberfest, and it was Art Weekend, just to name a few events. There are at least two big mega-hotels being built in downtown right now, so hopefully Continue reading “Music City: Nashville!”
We came to New York City to ride the 40 Mile 5 Boros Ride, but first we had two days of sightseeing. We started off on Friday afternoon, arriving in the city around 4 pm. We decided to tackle mid-town, heading north. Times Square first, then over to St Patrick’s Cathedral, with a stop at Rockefeller Plaza along the way. I love the small botanic garden right there. Up 5th Avenue looking at the amazing stores there and their very stylish displays- all things I could never afford! (Or maybe I could, if I didn’t spend all my money on travel!). Past Trump Tower, with the NYPD police blocking off the entrance and the two cross streets next to it, and then we found ourselves in Central Park. It was nice to get out of the traffic and walk through the park to see the “Imagine” memorial to John Lennon, and then we crossed back over the park to arrive at the Met, open late on Friday nights. They stayed open till 9 so we were able to take in a few exhibits there. Wow, that’s a lot of art! After the Met, we meandered slowly back to Times Square to see it at night, full of people and bright advertisements (it costs between $1 million and $4 million to advertise there!). Tired, thirsty, and hungry, we visited Authority Beer for a late dinner and drink, and then took the bus from Port Authority to our hotel in Union City, NJ.
The next day we decided to take the PATH train in. We arrived at the World Financial Center, ready to explore lower Manhattan. We arrived in the middle of the crazy white mall/PATH station called The Oculus, which opened last year to a tune of $4 billion dollars. Yep, that was with a “b”. It supposedly represents a dove in flight. Hmm. Anyway, as we exited, we were at the 9/11 Memorial Center and the three existing World Trade Center buildings (a 4th will be built soon). At the 9/11 Memorial Center, two large pools of water continually drain and refill, surrounded by granite ledges with the names of the victims carved in. White roses populate the ledges in places where birthdays of the victims are commemorated each day.
From the WFC, we headed south to Wall Street to check out the “Charging Bull” statue and the “Fearless Girl”- both very popular statues. From there we continued south to the bike expo, to pick up our packets containing the bibs, bike plates, and helmet covers for our ride. Passing through the Bowery, we stopped and grabbed a bagel with lox. Heading north, we encountered The Strand Bookstore, the Flatiron Building, and finally the New York Public Library. I visited the Rose Reading Room- absolutely beautiful- and also the children’s section, where they have an exhibit featuring A.A. Milne and the actual, real stuffed animals that inspired Winnie the Pooh.
After the library, we had one more stop to make, just before dusk- the Empire State Building. We took the elevator up 86 floors and took in the aerial view of New York. Stunning.
On Sunday we took the ferry from Paulus Hook over to Manhattan and at 8:15 we were starting our 40 mile ride! It was surreal to ride our bikes through the completely empty 6th Avenue, past all the sites we had seen yesterday. Up past Times Square, through Central Park, into Harlem. Then over to the Bronx, back into Manhattan down FDR Drive, and then into Queens, then Brooklyn. Riding up the steady incline of the BQE to approach the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was the absolute worst part and I kept thinking I would have to dismount any minute and walk it up. But I actually made it to the top, where we stopped to take in the view and shake out our arms and legs. Then we coasted down the last mile onto Staten Island and arrived at the finish. All in all about four hours for us. Afterwards we took the ferry from Staten Island, passing the Statue of Liberty, and then ferried from Manhattan back to Paulus Hook, and drove home, where we warmed up (the cold front came in just as we finished the ride) and ordered a large pizza.
On Sunday we started the drive back home, stopping in Pennsylvania at the Valley Forge Historic Park. They have miles of trails and a car drive, connecting nine points of a tour you can access with your cell phone. Washington’s headquarters, a memorial chapel, examples of the barracks the soldiers created to house themselves for the winter made this encampment the 4th largest city in the colonies in 1777. If you’re into Revolutionary War history, this is a great place to visit.
Next up: a guest update from Chris as he hikes the Camino Santiago in Spain from mid-May to mid-June!
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