A Few Photos More

We've been busy preparing for the big move but have managed to take in some events and collect some snaps. For those of you that haven't seen it yet, here's the almost prettiest thing around, Little Red Hot. Our little citygetaroundmobile is a pretty popular model around DC. Gets pretty good gas mileage, too. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the REST of the 2 car garage (approximately 1 and 3/4 cars can still fit). Here's the prettiest thing around, my other little hottie. This was taken at Lori's birthday dinner at the restaurant, Vermilion, namesake of her birth place, Vermillion, South Dakota.

Then there's this cute little princessthat keeps hanging around. Both girls got these new fluffy beds (identical - so there's supposedly no fighting)and they absolutely love them. Nice we got an expensive ottoman so they can sleep on top of it. At least the beds keep the fur off the ottoman.


When we went to the play "Trying" at Ford's Theatre (here's the stage)we hopped up into the balcony for a look at where Mr Lincoln developed his terminal headache. This bust of Abe is at the back of the balcony.

And finally, here's a couple of pics of the world famous Dinosaur Land in White Post, Virginia - near where we weekended for Lori's birthday. I guess it's a tourist attraction...

The Park Ranger's Tale

During the visit to the Jefferson Memorial I did manage to retain a little of a thread of the story (I hope). The ranger started off talking about how Thomas Jefferson and George Washington met as young men. It seems they were both hired to travel into the highland wilderness of the Blue Mountains to look after George Mason's sheep for a summer. While on the mountain a love developed between the men that...no wait, that was Brokeback Mount Vernon...

Oh yeah, his tale started with George Mason finding out that Tom Jefferson was his illegitimate son while the old fellow was undergoing a sexual transformation and they traveled across together on a journey of self discovery across the western frontier...no wait, that was Trans Allegheny...

OK, Mr Ranger's tale began at the time of the conception of the US capital when Thomas Jefferson hired Pierre L'Enfant, a Frenchman who had served with George Washington in the War for Independence, to design the capital. Apparently, at that time the current location of the Lincoln and Jefferson Monuments was a swamp. The Tidal Basin was just a shallow water bend in the shore of the Potomac that was infested with mosquitos.

When they finished building the President's Mansion (the White House which wasn't white then) and the Capitol building then they decided to start on the Washington Monument. The chosen site was the center of the District of Columbia and on an axis between Mount Vernon and the President's Mansion. They originally intended the Monument to be an equestrian statue of Washington. Then someone came up with the idea to make it look like the Pantheon in Rome with the busts of all the future Presidents arranged around George's in the center (which I think would have been pretty cool - especially if they stopped the tradition sometime in the 60's). However, at some point they found that the site was too close to the river to allow such a large foundation to be built. Therefore they changed to the obilisk shape. The funding for the structure ran out and then it had to come from public donations. Donations were solicited from each US citizen but donations were limited by Congress to $1 maximum from each person.

Needless to say, that's not a very effective way to do fundraising - by setting a maximum on donations. So, the structure wasn't finished until after the Civil War. Then, it was decided to construct a memorial to Lincoln. The Potomac was being dredged to improve the navigability of the river and the material was piled up to form the Tidal Basin. The Tidal Basin is pretty cool, it's designed to flush out the water with the tide, thus removing the mosquito problem.

After the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial were completed then they felt they needed to have a third presidential monument to complete the set: Egyptian, Greek and Roman - recognition for the contribution of the classical civilizations upon which the American experiment was based. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the one that approved the choice of Jefferson, during WWII.

The Jefferson Memorial was originally built out of plaster because bronze was a bit scarce during the war. It was later cast in bronze. So, now you can all read the real story and get the real facts instead of this history as I remember hearing it.

No global warming here, mate

But something's definitely going on. Summer weather in March? It was absolutely balmy in DC this weekend. Everybody was out in shorts and short sleeves, having picnics and playing ball. We had planned to get out with dogboy this weekend and it was an absolutely perfect day for it.

We walked across the Arlington Memorial Bridge to the Lincoln Memorial so Lori could have a look. We then walked along the Tidal Basin past the cherry trees to the Jefferson Memorial. Lori had a look inside then I listened to the park ranger's overview of the city: the White House, the Washington Monument, the Capitol building, the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial. The Ranger's talk was definitely worth a listen, very enlightening.

The cherry tree shots will come in pretty handy for comparison with the photos we'll take during the cherry blossom festival - when the trees are in bloom. The buds are in place now, just a couple of weeks 'til the bloom.

Weekend Getaway

For Lori's birthday weekend we put Dogboy in the local kennel, packed in an ample supply of food for the girls and headed off to the Shenandoah Valley. The Shenandoah Valley is a quaintly named, historical place one hour drive from the Beltway. The name, of course, is derived from a native American term coined in the early 1700's: "Shenan", meaning "one hour's drive", and "Doah", meaning "from the Beltway".

We visited two wineries, Rappahannock Cellars and Oasis Winery and Bleu Rock Vineyards. We had to taste and buy a couple of bottles. Watch out, though, they charge like wounded bulls for tastings! I'm serious here, nobody charges more for alcohol than wounded bulls.

We stayed at a "faux" French provincial inn named L'Auberge Provincale. It's in the country and definitely not a place to go if you hate wine tasting and eating.

As you can see the menu is set at somewhere around 50 courses with occasional "palate cleansers" thrown in just to make sure nobody goes more than 5 seconds their mouth empty.

True to the French theme we even had a wine steward, or "Maitre D'gustation" (literally "mother of all gustations") who recommended the most expensive wine on the menu; just in case we had missed it. Needless to say, we didn't take his recommendation but still had a very nice wine. Lori had the roast peasant (oops, I'm sure I meant pheasant...'course this was French food) and I had the crusted Barramundi (Barramundi in Aussie). All three dishes were beautiful (for the slower amongst you: the fish, the pheasant and the Lori).

For dessert Lori had a trio of chocolate tart with pistachio ice cream and a whopping big bulb of hardened caramel (jawbreaker). Lori's desert came with a large banner across her plate that said "Happy Birthday" in some edible stuff that closely resembled marzipan (see Edgar Rice Burroughs - Mars + Tarzan). Actually don't picure that, that is pretty discgusting. Anyway, Lori also got a personalized menu that said "Happy Birthday, Lori" at the top that was made out of paper. At least it tasted like paper.

I had a modest schooner full of a triple treat: a miniature banana split, two chocolate eclairs and a Napoleon (millefuille in French; meaning 1000 heaves...perhaps that's leaves but the way we were feeling at that point...) Now, for those of you that haven't had a Napoleon before, you'll have to imaging a huge wafer encrusted confection that as soon as it hits the plate tries to take over all the remaining space on the plate and make the other desserts acknowledge its sovereignty. This is one overbearing pastry!

Anyway, we survived this onslaught of starter, soup, palate cleanser, main, dessert and coffee/tea. And then...they brought out another little schooner of truffles, wafers and cookies (biscuits). We had to sneak out quietly so they would stop bringing us more food. I got the impression that if we had remained at the table they would have just kept bringing eatables (edibles in English) until we burst (a la Monty Python - "Better get me a bucket..."). I have a suspicion that after we left they just kept bringing food to the table and piling it up just in case we decided to come back!

Anyway, on Sunday we went to the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, located in Winchester. It was a pleasant way to spend the day but we'll have to go back when the gardens are in bloom. I did get a picture of a nymph gamboling amongst the gardens. These are the gardens. We'll have to provide photos later of how it looks in summer.