Our Trip To Maryland and Virginia
Feb. 23rd, 2007 08:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brassangelThis is overdue. Incredibly overdue. I was overwhelmed by all the photographs I had to go through ,and therefore, put off doing a recap of any kind. Memory fades. I was not as good at keeping a travelogue as I wanted to be. I did write up a few bullet points on the flight home, so I will include them here, as well as links to the nearly 400 pictures I have spent the last two weeks uploading. Don't worry, not individual links, I have organized them all into sets, and will post the link to the appropriate sets for each day. I may add some memories to the bullet points, as I go along.
10/20/06
Traveling
Baltimore
The following is a link to a few airplane pictures, and the pictures I took at BaltimoreHarbor.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brassangel/sets/72157594527458025/detail/
10/20/06
Traveling
We stayed up all night getting packed and getting the apartment cleaned up. Jims Father picked us up @ 5 A.M. and took us to John Wayne Int'l. The security line was hell. People doubled back in three lines in an area only truly big enough for two lines. Jim's feet were killing him by the time we got through the security check points so he went to the counter and asked them to have a wheelchair waiting for him when we got to Atlanta. Let me tell you, this is the WAY to travel. You get through security so much faster, and there's no line standing. We're doing this from now on, in order to save Jim's feet, and a lot of aggravation. I won't bore you with the running monologue about our trip east, which fills six pages in the travel book I bought for the trip. I was bored on the trip, most of which Jim slept through, loudly, and could not settle into reading, so I wrote a lot.
At BWI we were met by Charles, who wheeled Jim through the airports back hallways to baggage claim. At one point we passed a wall with two holes in it, and someone had made it into a smiley face. I'm sure Charles was a little confused by my giggles. Charles got Curly(I think he's called a red-cap?) to handle our bags and get us on the shuttle to the car rental building. We got the car, a grey Chevy Impala, and a GPS system and headed out.
I blame being in a strange car, not to mention a strange city. I took a wrong turn. I don't mean the getting lost kind of wrong turn. I mean I turned into on-coming traffic. Luckily, I figured it out fairly quickly, and the cars coming the other direction were far enough down the road that they were able to come to a stop while I backed up, onto the correct lane, and got going in the correct direction. We got to the hotel, The Renaissance Harbor Place on Pratt Street without further incident, got our bags into the room, and went out.
Ok, so that's the recap of our travel, condensed, a lot.
At BWI we were met by Charles, who wheeled Jim through the airports back hallways to baggage claim. At one point we passed a wall with two holes in it, and someone had made it into a smiley face. I'm sure Charles was a little confused by my giggles. Charles got Curly(I think he's called a red-cap?) to handle our bags and get us on the shuttle to the car rental building. We got the car, a grey Chevy Impala, and a GPS system and headed out.
I blame being in a strange car, not to mention a strange city. I took a wrong turn. I don't mean the getting lost kind of wrong turn. I mean I turned into on-coming traffic. Luckily, I figured it out fairly quickly, and the cars coming the other direction were far enough down the road that they were able to come to a stop while I backed up, onto the correct lane, and got going in the correct direction. We got to the hotel, The Renaissance Harbor Place on Pratt Street without further incident, got our bags into the room, and went out.
Ok, so that's the recap of our travel, condensed, a lot.
Baltimore
Despite his ouchie legs we walked a block north and went to Legal Seafood for a late dinner. He got some clam chowder while I had Crab Cakes and a salad and then we shared an "Illegal Dozen", a 13 oyster sampler of various types. That was terrific, and so was Jim's Bananas Foster. We got hit up by a guy claiming he needed bus fare. You know, if your begging for money, and someone gives you a ten, you should say thank you and move on, not continue to bug them for more. We headed across the street to the harbor and checked out the Heritage Walk area, including the Constellation. As we were to be at MDRF during the day, this was really our only chance to see the Harbor, even though it was in the dark. It was very cold. We don't have that kind of weather in CA. At least not usually.
The following is a link to a few airplane pictures, and the pictures I took at BaltimoreHarbor.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brassangel/sets/72157594527458025/detail/
MDRF 10/21-22/06
Most of you have already read what little I wrote about faire, but in case you haven't here's the link to my LJ entry from the Monday after faire:
http://brassangel.livejournal.com/2006/10/23/
A few notes:
O-Shucks’ for breakfast was nummy.
Theresa "hugged" me, handing me a little pillow hug that had to be passed on to someone wearing a guild pin. I gave it to, Mischa, I think, who passed it on to Jim Grant, who gave it to my husband. I had to hand it off to a random wench in the street when Jim suddenly turned shy on me.
The look on Patrick's face when I saw him in the crowd, chased him down and grabbed his sleeve was priceless. He whirled around, did a double take and said something to the effect of "You're not from HERE!" I got a nice hug from him then had to rush back to where Jim was shopping before losing him.
Dinner with various faire folk was loads of fun. Webquatch and his girlfriend (why didn't I write her name down somewhere?), Scaleslea, whom I had met that afternoon as he participated in the rogue-ing. Cyd and Joe. I don't know the man's name as we were at seperate tables and never introduced, but once again, my gratitude to the gentleman who picked up our tab as well as paying for everyone at both tables.
Here's the link to my pictures from both days: O-Shucks’ for breakfast was nummy.
Theresa "hugged" me, handing me a little pillow hug that had to be passed on to someone wearing a guild pin. I gave it to, Mischa, I think, who passed it on to Jim Grant, who gave it to my husband. I had to hand it off to a random wench in the street when Jim suddenly turned shy on me.
The look on Patrick's face when I saw him in the crowd, chased him down and grabbed his sleeve was priceless. He whirled around, did a double take and said something to the effect of "You're not from HERE!" I got a nice hug from him then had to rush back to where Jim was shopping before losing him.
Dinner with various faire folk was loads of fun. Webquatch and his girlfriend (why didn't I write her name down somewhere?), Scaleslea, whom I had met that afternoon as he participated in the rogue-ing. Cyd and Joe. I don't know the man's name as we were at seperate tables and never introduced, but once again, my gratitude to the gentleman who picked up our tab as well as paying for everyone at both tables.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brassangel/sets/72157594527063936/detail/
We left faire a bit early on Sunday as we had to drive to Williamsburg, Virginia that night and didn't wish to get stuck in traffic exiting the faire-site. We got to Marriott's Williamsburg Plantation around 11 PM, got checked in and unpacked and just about passed out.
Monday 10/23/06
· Colonial Williamsburg (basically, a living history museum)
· Made reservations for shows throughout the week
· Rented wheelchair (6.00 a day, ,keep it all week, take it anywhere)
· Took the shuttle to the actual town
· Took the orientation tour
· Wandered through houses, shops and stores
· Saw a vignette of life after the war
· Had lunch at Shield’s Tavern
· Went back to the Plantation for a wine tasting (was not impressed)
· Back to Colonial Williamsburg for Ghost Tour (they take you around to three different locations in the town and tell you ghost stories)
· Grabbed some burgers from Wendy’s on the way back to the time-share
Tuesday 10/24/06
- Crappy sales pitch (went to the time-shares sales office to get free tickets to Busch Gardens Europe. It took three awful hours to get them to take no for an answer)
- Having wasted half the day, decided to hold on D.C. until Wednesday
- Went to Colonial Williamsburg, ,this time to Merchant’s Square for shoppies
- Found a Scottish Store (Danger!)
- Had lunch at the Cheese and Wine shop. (Sandwiches and Cheese)
- Went to Steeps Tearoom (burned my tongue)
- Piracy Trial in the Capitol
- Went to Ruby Tuesdays for Dinner (We get adds for Ruby Tuesdays in California, but as far as I know, we don’t have one. I wanted the prime burger I kept seeing advertised. It was nothing special. At least now I know, right?)
Wednesday 10/25/06
- The commute took far longer than we expected (we were supposed to get into the Washington Monument at 10:00, but didn’t make it.)
- Got on the Metro at the Springfield Park N Ride AKA "Kiss and Ride"
- Cheerful lady with chocolate-y fingers (It took me a long while to figure out what this bullet was about. It was about the Girl in the Metro ticket booth who was waay to happy for me since I hadn’t had coffee yet. She had just had a piece of cake or something and her fingers had chocolate on them so she was trying to get them clean at the same time she helped us. She made me smile.)
- Went to the Smithsonian just long enough to get directions
- Wound up with tickets for the Washington monument at 1:00 Pm
- Got hot chocolate and hot dogs across the street while we waited
- Bought Day passes for the Tour-mobile, which we took through Arlington.
- Lincoln memorial
- Vietnam War Memorial
- Took a taxi back to the Metro
- Took the Metro to Rosslyn
- Had dinner at Tivoli’s with Jims school friend Monica
- Metro back to Springfield
- Car back to Plantation
- Collapsed into bed
Thursday 10/26/06
· Got an earlier start
· Metro from Springfield to Woodley Park
· Pushed Jim in the wheelchair uphill (really liked the neighborhood)
· Got coffee at the Starbuck’s across from the Zoo
· Was astounded you can just walk into the Nat’l Zoo without buying a ticket
· Saw and took lots of pictures of Pandas, Red Pandas, Sloth bears, Zebras, Salamanders, Clouded Leopards, Fishing Cats, Asian Small-clawed Otters, and Cheetahs
· Went to the Aberdeen Barn for Dinner
Here’s the link to my pics from the Nat’l Zoo:
Friday 10/27/06
- James Town (we did this very quickly, saw the Powhattan Village, the Ships and the Fort, ,where they were making mincemeat)
- Williamsburg Winery Tour and Tasting (they had a yummy blackberry merlot)
- Busch Gardens Europe (saw an irish singing group called Dublin over. Bought their CD)
- Howl-O-Scream (much like Knott’s Scary Farm, ,how did I wind up doing this sort of thing twice in one year?)
Here’s the link to my pictures of Williamsburg Winery:
and here’s the link to my pictures of Busch gardens Europe:
Saturday 10/28/06
· Yorktown Victory Center
· Yorktown battlefield
· Yorktown
· Berkeley plantation (Home of Benjamin Harrison III, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and two Presidents, William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison)
· Shirley Planatation (Oldest Plantation, family business run by the family that has lived there for 11 generations, and Robert E lee spent time there as a boy)
· Colonial Williamsburgh for “Pappa Said” kind of a Uncle Remus style story-telling session
· Hooters for Dinner
Here’s the link to my pictures of Yorktown:
And here’s the link to my pictures of Berkeley Plantation and Shirley Plantation:
Sunday 10/29/06
- Our trip home (I didnt write anything at all about this, folks)
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