A place everyone should visit.....

This isn't going to be about birds or butterflies....it is about my trip to Washington DC.  I had always wanted to visit and my sister and I just took off and spent two days walking everywhere....I got the blisters to prove it!

 Our hotel was close walking distance to the Metro.  We went everywhere using it.  Sometimes the escalator didn't work and that was a bummer, but I tried to tell myself this was good for me...might lose some weight!!!!!  Ha Ha...

Our first stop was the Capitol building.  Was very interesting, I was a little disappointed that we couldn't see the House of Representatives and the Senate as they were in session working hard to take their August vacation!

 Very impressive and beautiful and big.  Unless you are there you can't get the feel of how big the building is.

Inside we took the tour, was very good. Beautiful tile and chandeliers and columns.

 The ceiling was beautiful.....

 This is just a creative picture of the windows that circle the dome, looking outside.

The Library of Congress was breathtaking when you walk inside and see the room.

This is the stair case.

These pictures just don't show the beauty and the colors.

This is Martin Luther King Memorial.  It was very impressive.

We then walked over to FDR's Memorial.  There are four rooms, one for each of his terms.

I added this picture with me in it to show you the scale of the monument. It was one of my favorite.

                                                          Washington Monument

                                                              Vietnam Monument

 The Korean Monument.
As we were walking to it, it was such a weird feeling to see through the trees the soldiers, like we had gone through a time tunnel.





The picture below was like a wall of ghosts.
I liked this picture I took because it shows the soldiers and us and the faces of the ghosts. Very moving.

                                              World War II Monument, Pacific side.

This was another one of my favorites.  This was the war my Dad fought in and I donated to help it get built and was so pleased to finally get to see it.

You can see the Lincoln Monument and from the other way the Washington Monument.

We had some rain and we took the rickshaw thingy!!!!!  He had a huge umbrella that we huddled under as he cycled through the traffic to the Lincoln Memorial.  This was quite exciting...cars whizzing by and rain pouring.....our thrill for the day!!!!  HAHA....

                                       
                                                        Lincoln Memorial

When the rain quit and the sun came out we left. Lucky for us that was the only rain we had while there..although it was very hot....
                     The Hope Diamond at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

                                                           Marie Lousie Diadem

 This was beautiful, my favorite. All the jewelry was amazing.

 The Rotunda with the Elephant was impressive and the tiger below was so realist...

                                                    Bones of birds

                                               Can you see the leaf insect? He was alive and
                                               really neat to see along with other unusual bugs.
                                               I guess I was wrong in the beginning...Here is a bug.

                                          There was a live Butterfly exhibit going on too.

We just didn't have enough time to really see everything and there is so much to see.
We then went to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.....

                                                                Michele Obama's dress
It was very pretty and the exhibit had other first lady's dress they wore for the inaugural balls.
There is so much here to...somethings you can't take pictures and some of the pictures I took weren't that good because of the low lighting.  We even saw Dorothy's ruby shoes from the Wizard of Oz.

                                          Apolo Ohno's speed skates from 2002

                                        This sculpture was outside the Smithsonian American History.

                     Don't know what this was for but it was so pretty I just took it picture and  kept walking.                              

We only had two days and the last day we went to the White House......this is the front.  We walked around to the back.

I think the back is prettier than the front.

This is the garden and the bee hive.

And then I saw this on the gate!!!!

I pushed it and guess what!!!!!!!

In my dreams!!!!!!  LOL.......

                              We had a wonderful visit to Washington DC and recommend everyone should visit.
We then got in our car and drove to Virginia Beach for recovery.....

Promise my next post will be about Birds, Bugs, and Butterflies!!!!!!

July 2012

Wow, it has been a very busy past few week.  I haven't had time to update my blog and I do apologize.  Hopefully things are starting to come down as the end of summer is just around the corner.

Back in July, we went to the Hoover Reservoir.  This was a new place for us.  Trying to get out of the rut of Deer Creek and Canal Rd. (our favorite places).  We took a walk at the Mud Hen Marsh and found lots of interesting things.

These mating Cabbage Whites.  There have been allot of these butterflies this year.

Then while I was taking pictures of the wildflowers.....

 Swamp Milkweed


                                                 Blue Vervain

Ironweed (I think)

At first I thought it was a leaf stuck to this stem, but the more I looked at it, I thought it might be a Butterfly.  I took a picture and when I looked at it on the computer, it is a butterfly or moth of some kind.  I haven't been able to ID it yet.  

 We saw allot of Blue Herons.  They are so beautiful and was able to get some good pictures of them.  We feel that our day isn't complete unless we see at least one.

 We scared this off and was able to get him in flight.

This was a Swan and Heron.

This  Turkey Vulture was sunning himself.

 The water level was very low as you can see in these two pictures.

 A Pearl  Crescent and a Northern Crescent

 I think this little guy is a Zabulon Skipper.  If I am wrong please let me know.

 One of my favorites, the Common Buckeye.  Have seen allot of these out in the countryside too.

This Field Thistle has allot of action going on. Bumble Bee, a Skipper, and other flying bugs.  They all seemed to love the Thistle.  

 This beautiful Indigo Bunting was singing to us as we walked down the trail.  We don't know if he was warning the other birds or just happy to see us!

 Taking a rest stop! Notice the woods behind her...we walked around to them and as we were going by I heard a noise.  Looked in and a family of wild Turkeys were making a quick getaway!!!!!

If you look closely you can see one of them.

There were dragonflies flying around and this one posed for me.....Eastern Amberwing.

This rabbit nearly scared us hopping our of the bushes.

 Then as we were getting ready to drive home, this Red-headed Woodpecker flew out of no where and landed on the pole....He let me take several pictures of him before he flew off.  They are so amazing...that red head and the black and white...





Giving me a profile......

That was our adventure to Hoover Reservoir....on the way home we stopped at Gahanna Woods and Charlies Pond and Canal Rd.  but that I will save for the next blog adventure....Hope you enjoyed the trip!!!!!