This will be a short 3-part series about this fantastic cathedral. Might not be the grandest (it is the fourth largest Christian church in the world though), might not be the most important, might not be finished (it’s nicknamed St. John the unfinished), but it’s certainly grand, beautiful, interesting, controversial and definitely worth the time to visit.

You can read details and history on Wikipedia so I won’t bore you. But do see my pictures and try to make sense of the symbolistic of the columns outside. And I’d love to hear your interpretation.

Next Friday – Oct. 26th, it will host another Halloween Extravaganza like the one I wrote about in my first post on this blog.
Tickets are available on the Cathedral website.*

*I have absolutely no affiliation with the Cathedral; I just want you to have a bit of (different kind of) fun

Imagine a beautiful democratic country where English is a primary language that is modern and has a sumptuous history. Also, imagine visiting a country whose history goes back to the start of civilization, with beaches, and a very modern feel. If you ask this author what one country is a must visit for anyone who wants to travel internationally, my response is Israel.

Before going further, Israel to this author does not include Gaza or the West Bank, due to the risk to safety. However, other parts of Israel this author feels safer than visiting any other part of the world. When visiting major Israeli cities like Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, or Eliat the security that exists is remarkable and it allows me to feel secure. This does not mean there is no crime and it does not mean Israeli cities are free of terrorist attacks; instead it means the security that is in place can create a wonderful feeling. With that said, something also has to be said about the warmth of the Israeli citizens and their hospitality that goes a long way in creating such a feeling.

At this point, you may be asking yourself about all of the protest and boycotts against the country, how does it influence the experience? In reality it does not and from this author’s experience they have very little impact.

It is this author’s opinion there is a vast gap between what is shown in the media (especially some American networks, British media, and European) and what is occurring in Israel. Some outlets will claim there is apartheid in Israel especially those with political agendas that tend to be associated with progressive (left-wing) causes. In reality Israel is a democratic country that is a member of the UN and subscribes to UN treaties.  Having visited Israel on several occasions this author is confident there is no apartheid in Israel.

For those traveling to Israel who converts their money to Shekels from Dollars, Pounds, Euro, or Yen will find a generous exchange rate. The generous exchange rate along with the warmth of the Israeli people makes you quickly forget about the misguided views of those in Diaspora.  From experience this author has seen conversion rates as high as 8 Shekels to the pound and over 4 Shekels to the dollar.  This means a 100 Shekel pound pair of jeans costs £12.25. However current rates, at the time of writing this blog, are just above 6 Shekels to the Pound and just under 4 Shekels to the Dollar.

Weather in Israel varies greatly depending on the time of year and location. Northern Israel during the winter can be cool. However summers in northern Israel are warm.  While southern Israel remains warm all year with temperatures well above 100 degrees in the summer. Since the country is in a desert rainfall is limited, which means most of the time it is sunny.

For those interested in traveling to Israel there are several great locations to visit and all a very short drive from each other. Israel does offer limited train service but its transportation infrastructure is primarily bus. However if you rent a car, the traffic in Israel is very manageable and the country from the northern most point to the southern most point can be driven in less than 8 hours.

Tel Aviv is the largest city and offers many amenities that a large city offers.  It is a great place to visit but Israel has a lot more to offer. Jerusalem, Israel‘s capital is a crossroad between modern life and ties to ancient civilization. It offers open air markets, the Western Wall, great restaurants, culture, and an opportunity to learn about politics. In this author’s opinion no trip to Israel is complete without a trip to Jerusalem.

Other gems that many people do not know, includes Eilat. Eilat situated in southern Israel on the Red Sea by the Egyptian and Jordanian boarders.  It has great beaches, tours to the Sinai, tours to Petra, and a great night life. It is a thriving town that is a must visit for anyone visiting Israel.

Another location that gets overlooked is Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee, a great place to spend sometime relaxing and soak up the scenery. The Dead Sea offers spas, an opportunity to unwind, and makes a great place to visit for a day trip. Ashdod offers great beaches on the Mediterranean Sea and great shopping experience.

For those who are willing to take a bit of a risk, due to occasional rocket attacks from Gaza, Sderot and Ashkelon offer the opportunity to see another side of Israel that much of the media misses. Ashkelon offers a lot of history and provides a very temperate climate on the Mediterranean Sea; while Sderot among other things offers a glimpse into an Israel that much of the world media ignores. Both cities are a must visit for anyone who wants to see the side of Israel that gets missed.

Getting to Israel is very accessible from the United States and Europe. Israel has one major air carrier, El Al and two regional carrier Israir and Arkia. From the United States most of the major airlines offer flights from cities such as Chicago, Los Angles, New York, and Atlanta. United Kingdom has direct flights to Israel from London, on several different carriers and Manchester. With most major European cities such as Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam, Prague, and Geneva offering flights to Israel. Even if a direct flight is not offered a connecting flight through a major hub makes Israel quite accessible.

So, if you are looking for a country that has a great exchange rate, that is easily accessible, and offers more than a hotel with a pool then Israel is your location. If there is one must visit country then Israel is the country to visit.

5 Pointz in Long Island City, the international graffiti Mecca, is rumored to cease its present state sometime next year. I figured it’s time to upload the few pictures I have about the place, with the promise to myself that I’ll make time to document some more of this fantastic art until its end.

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Here are 8 highlights (non-work-related) from our recent trip:

8. The only perfect-summer-weather for 6 consecutive days this year. Fantastic for walking the Highline or taking photos on the final day of the year to take pics between the buildings.

Sunset view in NYC

7. Friendly, sometimes unusual people sparking up conversations in taxis, hotels, shops, the park, coffee shops.

6. Eating a different ethnic food daily–Greek, Thai, Italian, Mexican. Some our own finds, some recommendations from friends.

5. Friends sharing our hotel for a night, with a day walking from Central Park to Rockefeller Plaza and beyond, sharing appetizers and drink at the lively Eataly before dinner.

Yummy fresh cheese, meats, fruits and wine at Eataly.

4. A day of sight seeing at Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, and WTC Memorial.  A ferry ride, lots of walking, a bit of learning, no teenage complaints.

3. Shopping, shopping, shopping at familiar stores, one-of-a-kind places, in So-Ho, Chelsea, Times Square, Fifth Ave and everywhere in between.

2. Seeing the fantastic Tony-award winning play “Once” on Broadway , then watching the girls’ faces as we exited the theatre, walking into Times Square the first time nearing midnight.  The masses, the lights, the chaos.  Then seeing Steve Kazee, the “Once” lead several days later by the theater, chatting and taking photos with him.

1. Spending unhurried, explorative days with my two daughters in such a phenomenal city as New York.  It’s a trip we will always remember taking together.  one day off work felt a week to me.  C

After 26 llllooonnngggg weeks, we finally made it through all 26 letters of the alphabet! We’ve been faithfully sticking them up on our cupboard and here you see it- all 26 letters, upper and lower case alphabets!

Its our first education milestone since we started the Growing Tree Project. And while Q’s been able to sing his ABCs for a while already, I think this take-your-time method has really helped us enjoy learning, learning the alphabets and its place in our lives more. Sometimes when I feel like maybe he’s not “quite getting it”, he’d surprise me by correctly identifying the alphabet in random words we come across: street signs, words in books, names of his friends… Interestingly enough, he seem to like some letters more than others!

We’ve been working on writing some of the alphabets and we started with the letters of his name. We’ve gotten through all the different letters of Q-U-E-N-T-I-N (not so steady on the E and N just yet) but we’ll get there soon enough I think. He writes the letter Q very well ( a circle and a line) and I look forward to hitting this new learning milestone!

So, to make up for it, we pretended to build our own zoo! We pretty much have all the animals in our animal menagerie and our lego set has “gates” so we spent a happy afternoon building ourselves a zoo. In our zoo, of course, the crocodiles would live harmoniously with the Pandas and the goldfish next to the lions. Its a very peaceful, friendly zoo.

Methinks a trip to the zoo might still be in order next week.

While the building is not a copy of a specific medieval structure, there’s a definitive flow in the arrangement. Be it inside or outside, you’ll be enthralled by the works of art; every few steps you’ll feel the urge to stop and contemplate. It’s definitely one of the most interesting museums in NYC.

Some of my favorite artifacts: the oldest (and supposedly the first) set of cards, the unicorn tapestries (all 7 of them), St. Michael’s statue, the German busts (they were used to hold the cranium of the deceased person depicted) and the stained glass windows. One of the gardens offers beautiful views of the surrounding area; there’s a cafe where you can have a snack and rest your feet in a, well, monastic atmosphere.
Impossible not to take a lot of pictures – bring an extra memory card.

In an area that 15 years ago had almost no commercial appeal, almost no pedestrian traffic, was pretty desolate and left to the Hudson River winds, it was bought and reinvented by a visionary businessman in the 1990′s.
While the upper floors have been rented for company offices, the ground floor has been remodeled in such way that the original character of the building not only has been preserved as much as possible, but also enhanced by showcasing it’s character. The result is a an enchanting space that opened in 1997 as a gathering of specialty stores mostly food related, and although it evolved over the years it hasn’t changed much. The wholesale flower shop left and made way for an Anthropology store, a couple of other stores replaced by the others, some fantastic restaurants opened… all in all, evolving is not a bad thing.

There are bakeries where you’ll find bread or cookies, there’s a wine store, there’s a fish market and an Italian market, and much, much more. Wander around and be enchanted – by either the industrialist art so beautifully blended with the original building, or by the little pleasures you’ll find in any of the stores. There is a Jacques Torres counter, there’s a L’arte del Gelato counter, there are Fat Witch brownies or Eleni’s exquisite cookies.

The pictures were taken quite a while ago, but I hope they still show why I love Chelsea Market.

We are nearing the tail end of our letter of the week series and cos Q had learnt about W ages ago when he had a big I-like-whale phase. Actually, he had a big underwater thing going for the longest time thanks to his discovering Finding Nemo. He went through a period of time when he wore this shirt he had with Whale prints on them.

Anyway, we were particularly excited about heading to week W where we were going to learn that W is for Walrus and Whale.

So, other than make our letter crafts, we spent a happy (hot) afternoon also playing with (W is for) water.

And as a happy coincidence, we headed to the Harry Potter Exhibition at the art science museum where he also learnt that W is for Wand!

Break Of Dawn: I suddenly awoke from a really weird dream tonight Diary. I would fumble around to check out the time on the clock but I don’t want to forget it. I was at war yet I do not know who I was at war with. Alone  I was in charge of shooting off the cannon whenever the enemy got to close to our tree fort. Who told me I must man the cannons I do not know. Nor do I know who we were fighting. What I do know is that the sky was dark & overcast in a sort of smog haz. I knew that I must keep my post at the cannon or we would fall. Strangely enough the cannon only shot cooked chickens. Why they were cooked chickens I do not know. Cooked chickens are extremely freaky to me Diary because I’m a vegetarian.

Chickens Away!

Why would I shoot meat out of a cannon? 

6:30am – My dreams were all sorts of weird so it made it hard to go back to sleep. I decided to make my way to the local coffee shop for a quick cup. There is nothing better than a tiny cup of coffee with a bit of waffle syrup to get a tiny in a goofy ready to charge into the world kinda mood.

Breakfast Of Tiny Champions!

It was really quiet at the coffee-house. It’s not as much fun to enjoy a cup of coffee all alone. Oh well! Off to explore Dear Diary!

9AM: I procrastinated a bit this morning Diary. I skipped. I stopped to smell the roses. I found a place that served really awesome waffles.

Mmmm Waffles…

I’m easily distracted by…ooo look! I see something super shiny!

I..I see a giant musical instrument that I must jig to.

Dance Tiny Dance!

I was easily distracted by the giant tuba. Who wouldn’t be? This tuba, yeah I’m blaming a musical instrument, was the main reason I was late to the office today. Then I realized that I work for myself, I’m young & I happen to be a tiny bulldog in a steam punk hat. I’m taking the day off.

Instead of heading off to work today I have decided to wander down to the docks for a bit of fun. Don’t you judge me Diary! Everyone needs to take a day off every so often.

Noon: By the time I actually stopped dancing around the park & made it to the docks I realized that I was starving.. Tiny jigging to the beat of a giant tuba builds up a doggone appetite (Dog..Doggone…get it…).

I found a small bar alone the boardwalk that catered my size so I sided up to the bar, ordered myself an oatmeal waffle stout & a waffle on a stick for lunch.

I’ll Take Everything You’ve Got Bartender!

Stout & food on a stick is part of a perfect avatar lunch.

6pm: I’ve wandered around the boardwalk for a couple of hours Diary. Took a small boat out into the ocean. Wrestled a whale with my bare paws. I swear I would have taken pictures of the whole excursion but have you ever tried to take a picture while holding on to a whale? How about when wrestling one? I just thought I would be kinda rude to ask if we could stop so I could pull my camera out.

I’ve ended my day on the boardwalk with a puppet show. It was some story where the one puppet kept hitting the other puppet with a stick. I didn’t exactly see the humor in it.  This is so boring. The whale & I really should have went a couple of more rounds.

Creepy Puppet Show Is Creepy.

Maybe I’ll give him a call tomorrow.

8pm: Time to hit up  the ool party. They have a bar there that makes the most awesome margaritas. Once, no matter if you’re a tiny or a biggie, can not pass up the awesome power of a margarita.

I know you’re probably wondering why there is no “P” in “OOL”. You’ll just have to come to the ool yourself to figure it out. Just beware of the Baby Ruth.

Chillin’ By The OOL.

This has been a pretty awesome day Diary. The best day to end it with a ool party & a margarita. Let’s just hope there are no more weird cannon chicken dreams tonight.

“Tipsy” Cerulean

Thought we would get a little creative with the tiny today.  A nice creative way to give you all a few places to check out around the grid. Also it gave me an excuse to screw around with pictures.

You can also check out Dear Diary: Biggie Edition if you missed it.

All pictures were edited today using Pixlr.

Dream cannon photo taken at: The Raglan Shire Wharf & Coastal Fort (G)

Morning coffee photo taken at: Huggy’s Coffee House (M)

Dancing in the park taken at: Steampunk Park In New Babbage (M)

Lunch at the bar & puppet show taken at:  Hastinys-On-Sea – Tiny Based Olde English Seafront (M) 

Sitting by the OOL taken at:  Raglan Shire (G) The “Summer Of Woot 2012” is currently going on so be sure to check out their website for information.

]]> http://slalcoholics.wordpress.com/2012/06/08/biggie-life/ Fri, 08 Jun 2012 13:00:59 +0000 Tipsy Cerulean http://slalcoholics.wordpress.com/2012/06/08/biggie-life/ June 2012

Dear Virtual Diary,

6 am: It takes me a few minutes to get up in the morning. The sun is barely peeking out from behind the prim clouds so early in the morning. My eyes don’t want to focus. I’m not blaming it on the tequila I drank last night. I just need to sit here for a moment before I get dressed.

Must…Wake…Up…

7am: OK. I’m finally dressed. I have no weird headaches this morning so I was completely victorious over last nights tequila bender. What I need is a good breakfast before heading out to the office.

Wait! Did I just say breakfast?

I’m more of a cereal bar on the go kinda gal. Maybe the tequila did something to me. Or maybe I’ve just turned into a weird sitcom parody.

Crazy Cow Cereal! Breakfast Of Champions!

8am: It’s such a beautiful day out Diary. Strangely enough it’s almost always a beautiful day. It’s always sunny. It’s always bright. For some strange reason I feel that someone is pulling my strings. Forcing me to walk through the sunny forest. Suddenly changing the sky to make it look pink or purple.

Must have taken a a wrong turn at Albuquerque.

Weird!

I think I’m going to take the long way to work today. To, you know, soak in some of the never-ending good weather we seem to always get.

9:30am: OK. So maybe I took the super long way to the office. I should probably feel guilty about this but I don’t. Virtually working for no one but yourself does have its perks. One of which is not having to deal with idiots. I have no time for them. Wait…now I’m just wasting time bitching.

Time to get to work Diary. I have so much to write today.

3pm: I’ve been writing all day. I completely skipped lunch but I’m just too damn tired to bother. I think I will sit on the office couch for a while & watch a bit of Second Life television. Then I’ll finish up my work

Chillin’ At My Office.

5pm: Fuck. I fell asleep on the couch. I need to quickly finish up the rest of my writing & get some dinner. Tonight I plan on behaving myself Diary. A nice quiet dinner then home to read a good book in bed. No alcohol. Just a nice glass of ice water & a well-behaved time at home.

7pm: FINALLY I get to go have some dinner. There is this new sushi restaurant that I have been meaning to check out.

A Quiet Prim Dinner.

It’s in a “shady” part of the grid that is strangely marked “Adult”. Suddenly it feels strange to me that we mark areas of land A, M, & G. I need to shake this weird puppet string feeling & eat something before I starve.

10pm: Hello wonderful Diary. Do you remember how I said I was going to behave myself, drink water, & just go home for the evening? Well…I didn’t. I’m sorry Diary.

I finished my dinner & kinda started wandering around this “Adult” area of town. There were quite a few “scary” looking bars with shady characters. I tried to pick the least scary looking one & blend into the wall next to the jukebox.

Hiding By The Jukebox.

I am thinking, oh kind Diary, that one drink won’t do any damage. One drink then I swear I will take the next teleport home. I’ll still read my book. Still drink a glass of something non-alcoholic. Go to bed at a decent hour.

2:30am: Diary…don’t yell at me. I swear I don’t know how I got to this point. Hell…I don’t remember the hours between Midnight & now. One minute I am chatting with a few nice avatars named “Buzz Saw” & “Barfing Betty” then the next minute I wake up with my head on a table. A really large hairy bartender screaming “LAST CALL” over my head.

The Night Is A Tad Bit Fuzzy.

I am heading home right now dearest Diary. Taking the next public teleport to my nice warm bed. Tomorrow is a new day Diary. I’ll start to behave then.

“Tipsy” Cerulean

I wanted to try out something a little different. All of the photos were edited for creativity using Pixlr Grabber. The various locations for the photos were:

 The wake up & breakfast photos were taken at my own home.

My morning walk was taken at Sparrow Song (M)

 The office photo was actually taken at my own in-world office.

The sushi dinner photo was taken at Miau’s Sushi Bar/Restaurant (A)

The last two bar photos were taken at the Missing Mile (M)

Check out the Dear Diary: Tiny Edition.

]]> http://slalcoholics.wordpress.com/2012/05/22/virtual-shopping-makes-you-dumb/ Tue, 22 May 2012 12:30:18 +0000 Tipsy Cerulean http://slalcoholics.wordpress.com/2012/05/22/virtual-shopping-makes-you-dumb/ I bet I probably pissed a few people off just with the title of this post.

I do what I can.

Before you stop reading this isn’t some sort of mean slam towards those that enjoy SL fashions, write about fashions, read about fashion, or bleed fashion. I enjoy reading many SL fashion blogs done by people who I actually don’t want to throw prims at. This is about..well…just keep reading..

How would one bleed fashion? Would a sweater kinda plop out of the wound?

I ooze designer socks!

Wait..off subject. 

Now that I have your attention I will amend the title to tell you what I really mean. Virtual shopping doesn’t make you dumb. It just makes you forgetful & stray away from the purpose that Second Life had in the first place.

Virtual Shopping Makes You Forgetful.

Better?

Before some sort of strange lynch mob of avatars armed with prim axes start screaming “Off with her head” I shall explain. Second Life has drifted away from a lot of its creative content & exploring to people spending money on virtual clothing. We all do it. We all go out to the various shops to buy the latest in prim fashions. If you’ve spent a lot of time wandering from store to store then you are guilty. If you have put money into L$ just to purchase an outfit then you are guilty.

I feel that people have taken the whole idea of being “virtually fashionable” a bit too far & have forgotten that having fun in Second Life is not all shopping. People have completely forgotten this & have evolved into shopping zombies.

Muuusssttt have new shoooesss & braiiiinnnnnssss…

There is more to Second Life then just buying crap.

To prove that there is more to Second Life then just shopping here are three places to visit. They might actually teach you that you actually don’t have to spend L$ to have a bit of fun.

Oh. And I’m just telling you where & what they are with a wee little picture. I’m not going to spell it out for you. If you’re going to get off your ass & out of the stores you’re going to have to learn how to teleport away from them to discover it yourselves.

1. Big Splash Water Park & Surf Central (M)

Eeeek! Giant Prim Wave!!! Ahhh!!

2. Buddhist Center (G)

Beautiful & Peaceful Place.

3. International Spaceflight Museum (G)

So Who Wants To Drive?

I hope this gives everyone a little kick in their virtual pants to actually go out & find shit to do that doesn’t involve spending L$ to match your virtual pet with your prim shoes & handbag.

I also hope that it gets people to get away from opening a new shopping mall & actually opening something that is unique to everyone else.

“Tipsy” Cerulean

Its been a while since we last caught a for kids theatre performance and I was particularly excited when the ACE festival rolled along with a slew of shows for kids. We were fortunate to catch the opening show at the new Goodman Arts Center .

From the synopsis:
 Have you ever wondered how and why the camel got his hump? How did the leopard get his spots? How did the elephant get his trunk? How did the Rhinoceros get his skin? How exactly did the Armadillo happen? Rudyard Kipling’s lively, hilarious stories, collected from all over the world are intertwined with pearls of wisdom about the pitfalls of arrogance and pride and the importance of curiosity, imagination, and inventiveness.

It was clearly a popular show seeing as the entire place (with free seating) was packed crammed full of (relatively badly behaved) kids from a primary school.

The poor fellow audience behavior notwithstanding, the show was pretty good- the actors were engaging, the plot was simple but funny and the localized music more than made up for being slightly squashed. The musical boasted a series of stories on how the animals came to be and they had designed the program to appeal to even the toddlers and Q had a whale of a time.

He spent the rest of the evening telling daddy the stories he had heard about how the greedy rhino got folds in his skin and how the curious elephant ended up with a long nose.

Two thumbs up!

Of the 26 letter of the alphabets, we are clearly most familiar with our letter of the week- Q. Because- duh!- Q is for Quentin. Also, we call Quentin “Q” most of the time. Well, sometimes, Q-ball too. So, Q is mighty familiar with the letter Q.

And well, Q is really the first letter of the alphabet he ever learnt. Small wonder huh?

Because of his familiarity with the letter I had to think of something a little special to initiate this letter of the week and we decided to head to Qian Hu Fish Farm cos, well, the place began with Q. I know, stretching it a little but, we can only try right?

It seemed to work well enough cos he was duly excited to see the big (fake) fishes and so we stopped to chat about where we were and we got him to count the number of “Qs” in the sign and then got, duly, distracted by all the pretty fish in the place.

I didn’t have high hopes for the place but it turned out to be a real gem of a day. In particular, we had fun dipping our hand into the fish spa pool- I’m sure we weren’t really allowed to do that but, well, we only did a short spot of that. And spent a happy half hour trying to catch long hang fish; we were dismal in that only catching four tiny things in that time. I blame the net for being too small (its the size of 2/3 of an iPhone).

After our day at Q is for Qian Hu Fish Farm, we embarked on our letter of the week craft, making a Q is for Quail and q is for queen.

I’m thinking of making a big letter Q with Quentin’s face on it… hmmm… we’ll see.

If you haven’t already figured it out, we love the zoo. WE LUURRVVEEE the zoo and whenever possible, I start letter of the week at the zoo and since its been a while (read: two weeks) since we last went, I packed the troops and toddled off to see the P is for penguin and P is for Parrot.

We always “review” our alphabets at the zoo; you know L is for Lion, C is for cheetah, F is for fish… you get the drift. So that always makes for a fun learning day at the zoo.

Anyway, we opted to take a little more time to look at the penguins and parrots. In particular, we chatted about the time we went and fed the parrots at the Farmart a few weeks back. Q has asked to go back to feed the “faraway parrot” (cos, well, the parrot was standing faraway from his perch, funny how kid’s mind work) several times so maybe we’d do that some time.

I picked making a penguin and a parrot, complete with an array of colorful faux feathers for our letter crafts and towards the end of our crafting, Q declared: P is for Peeing!

Ah… maybe we are getting somewhere with our toilet training.

United States Botanic Garden

Aside from all the different types of plants and flowers this place has I was impressed to see the Children’s Garden. There are watering cans, gardening items and a little house for chiildren. Gringomex (3 yrs old) loved it. While he was watering the flowers I sat on the bench. A family friendly place that encourages exploration. 

National Museum of American History

Does your child love trains? Then you must take them inside this museum. There is The Spark!Lab, the "Invention at Play" and "America on the Move" exhibitions. While your there pick up a free family guide to hunt for faces of American history. Look for hands-on carts, see the new Star-Spangled Banner exhibition and its interactive table, and don’t miss Kermit the frog or Dorothy’s ruby slippers!

We actually went into this museum twice because my son wanted to see the train again. You can even go inside a real train..really cool!

National Museum of Natural History

What can I say? The picture says it all. Dinosaurs everywhere, hear me roar! We were tired by the time we visited this museum. There is a Discovery Room for children but was closed when we got there. We didn’t get a chance to see the butterfly exhibits because the kids started getting cranky.

Missed part one: Places to visit in Washington D.C.

Have a great day!

Jeanette

Washington D.C is one the places you must visit. The Smithsonian Museums are free! There are a lot of things to see and explore. I strongly recommend walking The National Mall. It is in the two mile stretch of land between the U.S. Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial. Be prepare to have your walking shoes, energy and stroller if you have an infant. There are refreshment stands along the way!

The White House.

This is as close as you can get unless you have a ticket to do the tour. Hopefully one day we will get a chance to see how it looks inside.

The National Museum of the American Indian.

This is one of the most amazing places to explore. There is a section for children called imagiNATIONS Activity Center. There are rooms for children to make weaving baskets, draw, and even get inside a teepee. Perfect for infants and toddlers!

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

Another favorite place of mine. My son had so much fun exploring this museum. Very kid friendly and the best part of it all is that there is a McDonalds at the end of the tunnel!. You can go inside some of the airplanes and children are welcome to touch and play with some of the exhibits. Doors open at 10 am. We got there around 9;45 and there was a line of people ready to go inside. A must see!!!

To be continue!!!

Jeanette

I am still recuperating from our first family vacation. It wasn’t what I expected. There was lots of walking and sightseeing to do. We went to Washington D.C. and one of the places you must see are the Cherry Blossoms along Tidal Basin. This year it was their 100th anniversary. They bloomed early this year and we were fortunate to find a couple of trees.

History of the Cherry Blossoms

In 1912, an incredible gift of 3,000 cherry blossom trees was bestowed on Washington, DC by Tokyo, Japan. Rooted strongly and surviving outside elements, the trees have withstood the test of time – and nearly a century later, the National Cherry Blossom Festival is preparing for an unprecedented and once-in-a-lifetime celebration.

For more information: National Cherry Blossom Festival

Washington’s D.C. Cherry Blossom Information.

Festival Information

The epic 5-week spectacular, from March 20 – April 27, 2012, will unify and electrify the city, the nation, and the world. Washington, DC and the region will be abuzz with excitement. Creativity and innovation will permeate signature Festival events elevating them to new heights, and ground-breaking Centennial exhibitions and programming will amaze and delight. Timeless traditions. Rich culture. Renowned artists. World-class performers. The community at its best!

Read the 2012 Official Festival Guide published by Washington Examiner.

Enjoy!

Jeanette

And that was how we initiated our letter H week because H is for horse! And well, for house, honey and Henry the Octopus too. We didn’t dwell too long on lil Henry cos I didn’t want Q to get confused between H for Henry and O for Octopus and got him to sing a made up song- “H for Henry and O for Octopus”. Heh!