We had a fun, exhausting weekend in the DC area.  We flew out to DC Thursday afternoon. Eric’s cousin, Elizabeth, picked us up at the airport.  First stop was the Burger Joint for some delicious burgers.  We didn’t really do anything the rest of the evening except get friendly with the various critters at the house.  

Friday morning Tropical Storm Andrea decided to pay us a visit (what is it with me and hurricanes on vacation?). We knew it was coming so some of us came prepared.  I had a little umbrella which was a life saver.  I was still got wet but I wasn’t soaked to the bone like Eric and my camera was saved from the torrential down pours. Elizabeth kept saying the heavy stuff is still coming. LOL!  Elizabeth, Amanda, her daughter, Eric and I ventured down to Mount Vernon, George Washington’s plantation. I had visited the place in 1995 with my mom and dad.  I remember some parts of it but some of the exhibit places were new. We checked out the plantation and the museums. After lunch at the Mount Vernon Inn, we went to Old Town Alexandria. We didn’t get out, just drove around the streets that George Washington traveled.  We also drove up to the Masonic Memorial to Washington.

Soaked at Mount Vernon

Mount Vernon

Saturday turned out to be a great day.  Eric and I took the Metro into downtown DC and rented some bikes and biked around the monuments.  It was so nice to not have to walk the whole distance. We biked over 8 miles so I couldn’t imagine walking all of that.  We started at the Capitol and made our way down the National Mall, over the Tidal Basin to Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and the slow making our way to the Lincoln Memorial with stops at the George Mason, FDR, MLK and Korea Memorials. MLK is a new one. On our way to WWII Memorial we stopped by Vietnam. So we saw all the monuments and even a few new ones that I haven’t seen before. It was a great day. My arms and face got sunburned. I bought sunscreen, just forgot to put it in my camera bag before we left Elizabeth’s house. Oops!

Eric at the Capitol

Lincoln Memorial

Kim on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with Washington Monument in back.

After we finished with our biking tour we took the Metro back to Springfield and we went out for dinner with Elizabeth and Amanda at a really good steakhouse and then she took us around downtown DC so I could take pictures of the monuments at night. It was such a beautiful night.  I got some good pictures.

WWII Memorial at night

Thomas Jefferson Memorial Memorial at night

Lincoln Memorial at night

Sunday we started the day at Ford’s Theatre, the place Lincoln was shot and across the street at the house that he died. It was an interesting presentation; I learned a lot more about his assassination. 

The Box where Lincoln was shot - Ford's Theatre

After that we went down to National’s Ballpark to see the Twins play the Nationals. The park was nice, nothing to special.  It didn’t really have a view of anything.  You can see part of the capitol dome in one part of the stadium but that was about it. I got a picture of me and President Taft. The highlight of the day was the Presidential Race.  Teddy Roosevelt was winning but he was tackled by a giant cicada bug (cicadas are large insects, about an inch and a half long, with black bodies, red eyes and delicate wings, they only surface every 17 years, and now is the time). George Washington won.  Poor Teddy never wins. 

Me and President Taft

Presidential Race...Teddy is winning!

Teddy was tackled by a cicada bug (check out the red eyes)!

Nationals Ballpark

So that is our DC trip in a nutshell.  It was fun!

More pictures can be found:
Mount Vernon and Old Town Alexandria, VA

Biking DC & Monuments at Night

Ford's Theatre & Nationals Park

Wow, my legs are tired today. We had a very busy weekend. Michael and Cassidy came up Thursday evening.  Friday morning, after we took Swirl to the vet, we started our first day of touring. We started out at the Sculpture Garden at the Walker art museum so they could see the famous Spoon and Cherry.  You have probably seen it; the NFL always show it whenever the Vikings are playing on national TV. 

After that we went downtown and had lunch and walked around Nicollet Mall. I took them to the downtown Target to show them the cart escalator. It is a crazy thing but I think it is cool and so did they. We buzzed by the Metrodome so Michael could see the Vikings home.  Next stop was the Guthrie Theater and the Stone Arch bridge followed by the Minnehaha Waterfall. We hiked down to the bottom of the falls and even put our feet in the water.  It was a little cold.  Then the rain came. We ran under a tree but it wasn’t letting up so we darted up the stairs to the car.

We hit the Mall of America and Nickelodeon Universe. We did a lot of shopping, probably the most I have ever done at the MOA.  It was fun though. We also went on two rides.  It was a fun! After the Mall we headed across the street to IKEA so Michael could get his meatballs.  When they lived in Virginia, they would go to IKEA often and Michael devoured the meatballs.  We bought him some frozen one to take home with him.  (number of steps: 15,545)

Saturday I did a 15 mile bike ride in the morning. We went back downtown, first to the Gophers’ new stadium and shop and then Target Field for a Twins game.

The game was fine but the wind started to really blow and then the rain came. Twins won so that was good! We got a picture of them in the glove.  I love this sculpture!

In the evening, DJ, Abbie and Beth stopped by for dinner.  Abbie had a soccer tournament in Maple Grove.  (Her team was undefeated in pool play but lost the championship game on Sunday with 50 seconds left in overtime.) After they left, we made another trip to the Mall of America.  Man, Michael likes to shop!  (number of steps: 23,471)

Yesterday I went for almost a 4 mile run. My GPS watch stopped working and was stuck at 2.73 miles for a few minutes.  When it reconnected with the GPS I was at over 3 miles.  It was pretty amazing I went from 2.73 to like 3.14 in less than 5 seconds!  My fastest pace ever!  The only bad thing is it didn’t get all of my miles logged so it was off by 2 tenths of a mile. After that, we went to Valleyfair and rode a ton rides.  My face got sunburned, I'm so red! And it hurts.  I'm stupid, I didn't think about sun screen. It was cloudy and 60 degrees. Oh well, I'll probably be tan here soon.  After that we just chilled at home. (Number of steps: 18,167)

So what’s the deal with the “Number of steps?” Well we are doing the Get Out and Get Fit Program at work. We are supposed to get 10,000 steps a day. Well my average for the last 3 days was over 19,000. :)  As you can tell, my legs are tired.

We had a good weekend.  First of all, the weather has finally started to cooperate.  It got over 70 degrees the last three days!  Shorts weather finally!

Friday I went for a pedicure with Celeste.  My toes needed it and with this warmer weather I can now show them off with sandals.  Granted this warm weather is short lived as snow is in the forecast for Thursday. :(

Saturday we broke out the bikes. It was a beautiful, sunny day.  We went on a short ride, about 6 miles.  I know I have a long way to go to get to 14 miles but I'll get there.  Of course my ass hurts.  Why are bike seats so uncomfortable?

After the bike ride and shower we went to the Twins game.  This is my first game of the season. The first game we couldn't go because it was a day game, the second game was rained out and the third game (also rained out) was when mom had surgery.  Eric went to that game, it was Tuesday night.  He froze and ended up leaving after the 5th inning. Anyways, the game was perfect.  The sun was shining, the the temperature was perfect and the Twins won! All around good day. It was also WE Fest Cowboy Hat give away.  Here we are modeling off our new hats...the are made of 100% paper...that is so weird!

After the game we drove to Wisconsin to surprise mom. The whole family was at the nursing home for lunch today.  It was delicious. Mom seemed to be doing good.  She even got in the cowboy hat mood.

Look at the beautiful view from our seats...not a cloud in the sky!

...on the road near Pine City, MN

The Edmund Fitzgerald sunk near hear

Well we are almost home, only 90 minutes to go! Woo Hoo! We hadn't plan on driving home tonight but we got to Thunder Bay at 7pm ET and decided what the heck, lets just go home. So here we are. I know I'm exhausted and looking forward to my bed a day early. Today was another day of driving, driving, driving. But today was the most scenic by far and just makes my case even strong that Lake Superior is by far the most superior of the great Lakes....ha, ha, ha I crack myself up. But seriously the beauty around Lake Superior is amazing, the high cliffs, the waterfalls, the rivers and trees make it just idyllic. So we started out heading north on Hwy 17 out of Sault Ste. Marie, ON. Our first stop was near Pancake Bay. This is significant as it is close to the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. I'm sure you all know about the Fitzgerald wreck, I mean Gordon Lightfoot wrote a 8 minute ballad about the wreck. I am fascinated by it.

Next we drove through Lake Superior Provincial Park. We stopped by Old Woman Bay beach. The water was of course freezing. What do expect from a lake that is 1,250 feet deep in Northern Ontario? Our next stop was to check out the gigantic Canadian Goose monument in Wawa, ON. Then we stopped for lunch in White River, ON. I was so excited to see an A&W!! Root Beer...yum! They also have a large Winnie-the-Pooh monument. The bear that was the inspiration for the Winnie-the-Pooh series was from White River, ON. It is a really cute story. A soldier on layover in White River bought this orphaned bear cub and took it with him everywhere. He named it Winnie after his hometown of Winnipeg. He eventually loaned it to the London Zoo while he was off fight some war (ok Eric says WWI) and when he came back he found out that his bear was beloved and decided to let the London Zoo keep her permanently. Awe! The rest of the trip was around the northern end of Lake Superior and down toward Thunder Bay, ON. Along the way we stopped at Ouimet Canyon. It was quite quite amazing . Gitcha Gummee! (It is what the Natives called Lake Superior)


Ouimet Canyon



Sault Ste. Marie, ON -

Today was a busy day of driving. We left Toronto and headed north on the 400 towards Sudbury. We happen to find a Costco along the way so we stopped for a box of Coffee Crisp and Maltesers, my favorite Canadian/British candy. Eric even had to take a picture of me kissing my boxes. We stopped at Killbear Provincial State Park for a hike around Georgian Bay (of Lake Huron) and to wade in the waters. It wasn’t too bad. We decided we would stop at Sudbury to fill up and get some lunch. Well that didn’t quite happen…the funny thing about the highways up here is there is no such thing as a gas station just off the road. We went around for circles and eventually found a gas station in Lively, ON. It wasn’t very Lively. They had a Subway though! Along the way we saw a porcupine on the road. I wanted Eric to go back so I could take a pictures but he said NO because it is rabid! I’ve never see a porcupine in the wild before. You could see his quills and all. It was pretty cool. Eric is no fun!

We stopped a couple more times along the way for some views of Lake Huron. It isn’t as nice as the North Shore of MN where you see the Lake the entire way. Here you are lucky if you see it every 100 km. We got to Sault Ste. Marie at about 7pm. An early night! Eric wanted to cross over into Michigan so he can say we visited all the Great Lake States. I thought it would be more interesting to say we visited all the Great Lakes without setting foot in Michigan plus I didn’t want to cross the border again and pay the toll to cross the bridge twice. Well we drove across the bridge and went through US border control. She asked us a million questions and finally searched our trunk. Eric’s lucky, if she would have confiscated my Canadian candy I would have been very PO’d. She said somebody really like their Canadian candy and we were on our way. We went down to the Soo Locks in downtown Sault Ste. Marie. They are pretty cool. St. Mary’s River separates Lake Superior and Lake Huron and the Soo Locks are like the locks on Mississippi. We got to see the Paul R. Tregurtha which is currently the longest freighter on the Great Lakes. After that excitement we filled up at $2.59 a gallon and went back across the border. Gas in Ontario is $1.04 a liter….about $3.79 a gallon…Ouch! Well we checked into a hotel and hopped across the street to Swiss Chalet. I really wish they were in the US. It was really good. Well I’m off to bed.

Toronto

Well the Twins disappointed us. We lost 6-3…so sad. It was a very routy game with all the colleges and university students in attendance. They spent the entire evening chanting at each other. The ones we could understand were “UT Sucks” (University of Toronto) and “Past you bedtime” and “whitey.” Not sure about that one. It was very interesting…thankfully they were there to entertain us because the Twins didn’t! Our tickets were great we were in the third row behind first base and the Twins dugout. We got up close and personal with Morneau and the Blue Jay’s mascot. The seats behind us were empty (big surprise at a Jays game) and all of sudden I saw this gigantic shoe on my shoulder. It was the Blue Jays mascot sitting behind us putting his feet on us. I got a nice picture of him with Eric. Mauer had the night off but he pinched hit in the 9th. Unfortunately he could do anything. Earlier in the day we went up the CN Tower. It was cool, but the smog was too thick to see far. After that we jumped on the bus and did a tour of the town. It was worth it because we learned about the history of Toronto and got to see sites we didn’t even know about. After that we took a quick dip in our hotel’s really nice pool and walked across the street to Rogers Centre for the game. All in all it was a good day, not great because the Twins lost. Oh well, tomorrow we start our long road trip home through Sault Ste. Marie, touching Lake Huron along the way.

Cobourg, ON

Just hanging out at the hotel in Cobourg, ON. Nice place, I'm glad we stayed at a hotel instead of camping...added benefit...I'm going for a swim as soon as I'm done here. We are just over an hour outside of Toronto. Go Twins! Eric is watching to ESPN Canada (go figure) and they are talking about the CFL and the announcer seriously just said aboot! How Canadian LOL! Going for a swim and then off to Tim Hortons for some donuts...Caio!

401 near Trenton, ON

just been passed by 3 big rig fire trucks along with a half dozen cops and rescue as we sit on the 401....Canada's version of the I-90. Needless to say we have been sitting for quite a while...so I decided to update the pictures from today's events. Now we had anticipated we would be at the hotel by now. We were going to camp but decided it just isn't fun to drive all day and then put a tent. How long would it really take to drive 150 kilometers when the speed limit is 100 k/hr? Well when you chug along at 10 k/hr. this could be a while. It must be one nasty accident. Anyways, back to the task at hand. Today we left Buffalo, NY for Syracuse, NY. We walked around Syracuse University's campus...oh to be back in school again. They campus has some really cool buildings and of course we stopped at the book store...sorry Dylan I had to by a Syracuse T-Shirt.

After that we drove up to I-81 to the Canadian Border. Before we hit the border we stopped in Alexandria Bay, NY. It is located in the 1000 Islands Area. Every heard of 1000 island dressing? Well you guessed it apparently came from this area. So we hoped a shuttle ferry to Boldt Castle on Heart Island. It is a beautiful castle now. It has a tragic story. It was started in 1900 by the owner of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. He was building it for his wife, but when she died in 1904, the construction stopped and he let go into disrepair. The restoration is still in process so some of the upper floors are still under renovation. The grounds were beautiful and well kept. After a short ferry ride back we headed to Canada Aye! The border crossing was very slow...again holiday weekend what was I thinking? But it was less that 45 minutes to get across. Funny thing the border agent asked us how long we have been out of Canada. "Um. Well actually we were in Canada yesterday so I guess 1 day." Then came the right questions. Oh well. Hey it is 9:07 pm and we are moving again. Nice 4 car pile up....I don't think all the big rig fire trucks were necessary. Well we are less than 10 kilometers from the Hotel...Good Night!

NY Turnpike

As we are driving down the NY Turnpike on our way to Syracuse University (and I hear Eric's ecstatic...I just saw Delaware!!!), I'm updating my pictures from yesterday (9/6). This is what we did ...In the morning we did a quick trip around Downtown Cleveland. We checked out Brown's Stadium and some how ended up on a frontage road by the airport...big mistake...it was the annual air show. Cars everywhere! It also explains the crazy flying we saw over the Twins/Cleveland game the day before. It was cool to watch but very LOUD! So we said good by to Cleveland and hello PA...for only 47 miles. But we stopped in Erie at Presque Isle State Park. It is a peninsula on Lake Erie. It was very busy (I know big surprise its Labor Day weekend). I hadn't planned on swimming but sitting in the car in traffic trying to get to it made us very hot so we throw on the suits and went for a dip in Lake Erie. It was great! The water was warm considering it is a Great Lake.

Next we ventured to Niagara Falls....again...what was I thinking its a holiday weekend in the US and Canada! Duh! And a million other tourist from all over the world...I can't seem to get away from the Japanese tourist that move in a group like a 6 year old soccer game with all the players hovered around the ball....with their clicking cameras. I thought I was bad. And then of course there are the people from India who stop as people are walking in a queue and we end up tripping over them. Have they every heard of moving over to the side? Oh well. We walked around the state park and viewed the falls from the top. We then went on the Maid of the Mist tour. Surprisingly, we go right on in less than 15 minutes. We don our blue rain poncho with pride as we ventured to the bottom of the falls in a boat. It was cool...we got drenched...thank God for the blue poncho! After that we crossed the Rainbow Bridge to the Canadian side for some food and souvenirs...marking our first border crossing of the trip. The view from the Canadian side is much better, everybody is right! I loved our trip back with the falls lit up in multiple colors and of course I love the US border agents asking what we brought back..."4 candy bars and a magnet."

Today we ventured first to the West Beach of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. It was interesting. The water temperature was 66o. I walked a bit into Lake Michigan and of course we snapped some pictures. Then we had to speed off to Cleveland. I wasn't all that happy with the $13 in turnpike tolls...you would think that that would mean clean bathrooms and perfect roads...um not at all! It is crazy in Indiana though. Interesting thing...a definite case of price gauging on the Indiana turnpike...the turnpike plaza by South Bend had gas at $2.49. That is about right, however 40 miles down the road it was $2.99. Isn't it amazing that the price of gas jumped 21% in just over 40 miles? Fortunately, we didn't have fill up and the gas prices in Ohio are about the same as MN. We made it to the hotel/Progressive field in plenty of time. Our hotel is basically across the street. Sweet! Our seats were great and the Twins won. Even more amazing...Nathan didn't blow the save. Way to go Joe! Time to live in up in Cleveland...is there such a thing?