President's Day weekend trip Part 1
We leave work Friday at shortly after 4pm and head through Harriaburg, York, Baltimore and down to Takoma Park MD. Takoma Park is about 8 miles north of the Capitol building in DC. We are staying at the Quality Inn using bonus points I earned traveling. We hadn't eaten and found a great seafood and soulfould place near the hotel which stuff us with seafood.
Saturday morning we head off to a flea market in Gaithersburg MD. We expected a rather large flea market but it was quite small. We decided to head to the new Air and Space Museum in Chantilly VA. Getting there we actually have a tailgate lunch. It was cold but warm enough for us to eat some sandwiches outdoors. The museum was incredible. We caught an IMAX movie then went to the "control tower" which was disappointing. After that we headed through the static displays of aircraft. There are too many to really look at in one day. There is everything from Langley's attempt to beat the Wright Broters, up to space stuff. It's hard to imagine a place this large but when you consider the is the Space Shuttle Enterprise, an Air France Concorde, the Enola Gay, some commercial airliners and a Blackbird, you can start to get the idea. We walked and walked and walked.
Returning to the hotel, we checked out the internation grocery stores int he area featuring African, Mexican, Caribbean and Salvadoran foods. We were amazed at the number of things we did not recognise. Of course we bought some items and now must learn to cook with them. We also found an excellent ginger beer and grabbed a case of that too. Dinner was at a nice Mexican restuarant where our waitress barely spoke English. We got by and had some great food.
Sunday we headed off to find a Metro station to ride the train into DC. After getting turned around a bit, we located it and head to the Smithsonian. We stopped first at the Sculpture Garden outside the Natural History Museum then headed inside for some exhibits. We had tickets to see the Butterfly exhibit which was really wonderful. An Owl Moth landed on my back and had to be removed. The it landed on my left hand as I was taking pictures. I handed Barb the camera to get a photo and it finally the attendant took the moth from me. (see photo) After that we had lunch and tried to see more of the museum but it was becoming overcrowded. Really, it was hard to get around and the exhibits were mobbed. We worked our way back to the metro ans ride back to the car. We found a few stores to shop at and headed to Silver Springs to search for supper.
In Silver Springs we located a restuarant named Crisfields, which boasted about seafood. After some $1 beers, oysters on a halfshell, crab cakes and shrimp stuffed with crab, we can say they were not boasting, they really are good.
On to part two
Photos from the trip are at: http://travel.webshots.com/album/562565084JDERSw
Saturday morning we head off to a flea market in Gaithersburg MD. We expected a rather large flea market but it was quite small. We decided to head to the new Air and Space Museum in Chantilly VA. Getting there we actually have a tailgate lunch. It was cold but warm enough for us to eat some sandwiches outdoors. The museum was incredible. We caught an IMAX movie then went to the "control tower" which was disappointing. After that we headed through the static displays of aircraft. There are too many to really look at in one day. There is everything from Langley's attempt to beat the Wright Broters, up to space stuff. It's hard to imagine a place this large but when you consider the is the Space Shuttle Enterprise, an Air France Concorde, the Enola Gay, some commercial airliners and a Blackbird, you can start to get the idea. We walked and walked and walked.
Returning to the hotel, we checked out the internation grocery stores int he area featuring African, Mexican, Caribbean and Salvadoran foods. We were amazed at the number of things we did not recognise. Of course we bought some items and now must learn to cook with them. We also found an excellent ginger beer and grabbed a case of that too. Dinner was at a nice Mexican restuarant where our waitress barely spoke English. We got by and had some great food.
Sunday we headed off to find a Metro station to ride the train into DC. After getting turned around a bit, we located it and head to the Smithsonian. We stopped first at the Sculpture Garden outside the Natural History Museum then headed inside for some exhibits. We had tickets to see the Butterfly exhibit which was really wonderful. An Owl Moth landed on my back and had to be removed. The it landed on my left hand as I was taking pictures. I handed Barb the camera to get a photo and it finally the attendant took the moth from me. (see photo) After that we had lunch and tried to see more of the museum but it was becoming overcrowded. Really, it was hard to get around and the exhibits were mobbed. We worked our way back to the metro ans ride back to the car. We found a few stores to shop at and headed to Silver Springs to search for supper.
In Silver Springs we located a restuarant named Crisfields, which boasted about seafood. After some $1 beers, oysters on a halfshell, crab cakes and shrimp stuffed with crab, we can say they were not boasting, they really are good.
On to part two
Photos from the trip are at: http://travel.webshots.com/album/562565084JDERSw
Added on February 21, 2008 by bvdrangs
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