All of the stories that come from being on holiday can be found here!
After wandering round the back of the Smithsonian HQ Castle, I realised that I hadn't brought something to drink and I was starting to feel it so I found a convenient little cafe on the Mall to fix that problem. As I was closer to Hirshhorn having come from the east-facing side of the Castle, I figured I'd visit there next and then make my way back to Freer which is not too far from…
After working out the extra night in Washington DC so that Katie and the kids can have an extra day at the beach (and they've really needed it because the weather has not been all terribly kind to them so far...some years at the coast are like that!), I'm finally off to the Mall for a decidedly easier day of museum hopping than the five museums I was planning for today! Today's goal is to…
When we started this journey to the north, Julia and the kids were already at the coast in Nags Head and the original idea was that I'd come round sometime in the afternoon on Saturday (13 Aug 2022) to collect the kids, Mistletoe and whatever cargo is being offloaded and return to Raleigh so that Julia could have a week at the coast in peace. What that plan didn't exactly count on was a blue-eyed…
After wandering round most of the National Archives building, I managed to find the entrance which was kind of tucked away out of easy view. Normally finding the queue to get in is pretty easy but as it turned out, there really was no queue to be found and I was able to walk right to the security screening checkpoint. Given the immense value of the main exhibits at the Archives, I understand the need…
As I was leaving the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, I was confronted with a decision as to where to head next. My original thought was to head toward the Smithsonian's Freer Museum of Art as it was relatively close by and after three of hours of being a witness to some of the worst atrocities ever committed against human beings, I figured seeing something beautiful was just what I would need. Well, that was the…
Years ago, I remember my brother Ben describing the US Holocaust Memorial Museum as a place so haunting that you cannot possibly visit it and come away from the experience unchanged and unmoved. It turns out that Ben was apparently into grand understatement that day. The outside of the building is deliberately functional and eschews any pretense of the fancy styles common on the buildings lining the Mall. It honestly looks like something that would…
After a bit of sleep best described as blissful oblivion after the previous day's travels and adventures, it was time to get off my duff and get moving to catch the train into the heart of Washington DC. First thing was to actually find the Weihle-Reston East station which is the current terminus of the Metro's Silver Line. The plans are for Metro to finally make it all the way to Dulles and a couple…
It's time for Walkabout 2022 to go visit Dad and do a fair bit of museum hopping on the National Mall whilst the kids are off on holiday at Nags Head in the Outer Banks. This morning, I'm heading north to just south and east of Washington Dulles International airport to visit the Stephen F. Udvar-Házy National Air and Space Museum annex. Steven Ferencz Udvar–Házy was one of the founders of the International Lease Finance…
Today is a quick trip to Ocean Isle Beach to retrieve Katie and Alex who start their new school year at Enloe High School tomorrow morning. It was certainly a stormy day from the end of I-140 near Winnabow and a couple of downpours in Shallotte and on Ocean Isle Beach itself. At least returning home was relatively calm in VFR conditions! :)
The final day of going Walkabout was yet another beautiful day in a string of them. Honestly, the only day the weather was lousy was the trip to Chattanooga and even then the worst of it was one downpour that happened to catch me handing over some tax papers to my client! All in all, no complaints at all! The final visit was the one I don't think anyone had any doubt would happen when…
On the way to Metro Center station, I spied some lovely carving tucked into the wall of the National Press Building that I just had to capture. Once at the station, the Smartrip card on the phone where the three-day pass was clearly visible still stubbornly refused to open the turnstile gates after being tapped. Yet another station manager (at least much nicer this time) spent a couple of minutes trying to diagnose the problem…
After a gourmet lunch of a polish sausage and some pop in front of the Federal Reserve building, I continued on my somewhat diagonal journey that would lead me eventually to the Metro Center station. The Ellipse is directly south of the White House and stands between it and the Washington Monument. A fair heap of it has been turned into an overflow car park for workers at the White House and Executive Office Building…
Not too far east of the Lincoln Memorial is a monument that I have never visited in all of the times I've gone wandering round the District. It wasn't so much lack of desire to do so but rather a feeling that whilst it was certainly an exceptionally important one and worthy of spending some time to visit, there seemed to be a crucial element missing for me. This is of course the Vietnam Veterans…
The last time I was in DC, I didn't have enough time to spend some quality time at arguably one of my favourite memorials in the city...the Lincoln Memorial at the Potomac side of the National Mall. Getting to the memorial proved to be one hell of an adventure, though...and it had nothing to do with making several laps around it which is what I did a couple of times when Alex was in hospital…
After a lovely visit atop Mt Washington, it was time to head out for the next leg of the journey to Springfield VA just outside of Washington DC. When staying in the DC area, Springfield tends to be my favourite thanks to the Franconia-Springfield Metro station that is close by. I hadn't been on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in ages but it's nice to see they've embraced the all-electronic toll collection revolution which is why I…
This hotel had introduced the third different variation on breakfast...grab and go bags full of nothing of interest and I was still rather full from the Cracker Barrel the night before so it didn't take long to get the cargo loaded and be off on my way. Thanks to a wonderful idea from Suzette to check out one of the most scenic locations in her hometown, I found myself making my way from the airport…
After lunch, it was time to head out again on the journey but the first stop was to visit a camera store in the western end of downtown Columbus. He had a lovely Nikon F4 available but sadly would not budge on the price which was a bit more than I wished to spend and so that was pretty much that for shooting film on this trip which was one of the things I was…
Having blown off the breakfast bingo worksheet at the hotel, I was more than ready to enjoy some fine Polish fare at Pierogi Mountain in downtown Columbus with the entire crew from Galena. Of course, I had to get a few dash cam shots of the downtown area where the skyline is dominated by one of the area's biggest employers who not so coincidentally sponsored the name of the nearby hockey arena that is home…
After finishing up a couple of hours having fun with Miss Mairin and my camera, it was time to head round the corner to a local camera store to see if I could replace the buggered F5. As I'm getting ready to leave, a Lamborghini Aventador turns up and parks right behind me. Well, of course we need a few shots of this rather rare beast. What I didn't plan on was getting a few…
Today's adventure starts at a beautiful park literally just down the street from the hotel...Highbanks Metro Park in north Columbus to meet up with Patrick and Suzette and the girls. A couple of weeks prior, I was watching the live stream of Mairin and Keelia's dance competition whilst working on five sets of tax returns in tax preparation hell. As I'm texting back and forth with Suzette, she says at one point that she wished…
As it was getting to be early evening, it was time to make a speed run along I-70 to the next waypoint north of Columbus OH. Along the way was a quick trip through downtown Indianapolis and then a conversation with Mom and Meghann about Hutsonville that allowed the Ohio state line to sneak up on me! After checking into the hotel, I was greeted with a completely different way of handling the breakfast. This…
Terre Haute IN gained a bit of notoriety in the news toward the end of Mr Trump's term when there was a rush on executing Federal prisoners on the only death row in the system who are housed in the US Penitentiary on highway 63 just before you get to the I-70 motorway. As you can imagine, it's not a particularly inviting place and the signs and vehicles surrounding it don't exactly suggest you ought…
I'm always joking with my Illinois cousins that I'm probably the most hopeless member of my father's side of the family when it comes to Illinois cred. After all, I wasn't born here and truth be told...I think I've maybe spent a month of my life in total in this Land of Lincoln. Apparently my Illinois credit ranking did go up a bit last year when I was forced to pay Illinois income tax on…
Owing to the late check-in, I wasn't particularly interested in the breakfast buffet at the hotel. So as I'm loading the Traverse at 1000 to start heading east, I noticed that breakfast wasn't going to be a problem. Across the car park was a place called "Lion's Choice". I remember Hannah mentioning on Facebook things she missed about St Louis whilst she was at Emerson College in Boston and this one ranked pretty high on…
Heading a bit more west and dipping quickly into Georgia and back into Tennessee which also was the crossing-point into the Central Time Zone, the mileage sign showed I was far closer to Nashville than I had imagined. That could mean only one thing...let's see if we can do the tour of the cousins and visit Grandma and Grandpa in southern Illinois and possibly make it all the way to St Louis where more cousins…
