Sunday, July 27, 2008

Nantasket Beach

Saturday we went to Nantasket Beach with Nik, Anna & Sofia. We had never been to this beach before so didn't know what to expect, but we were pleasantly surprised! Nantasket Beach is awesome! It's only 45mins from the city, has lots of sand instead of rocks and it's a really lonnnggg beach so nice for walks and so people can spread out. It has the low tide feature so you can walk way in before it gets to deep and has good waves.


Baha and Sofia show off their bathing suits.


We had a fun time playing in the sand and waves with Sofia, Nik & Anna. Can't wait to go again!

Monday, July 7, 2008

Alexandria VA/ 4th of July in Washington DC

Baha and I jumped a quick flight (seriously you barely get your drink and you are landing) to Baltimore MD where mom picked us up and took us to her new place in Alexandria VA. Alexandria is a very nice city. Every house is made of brick, lots of trees and HUGE condo communities.

There is a very nice section of town called Old Alexandria with lots of shops and restaurants off of King St. like Boston's Newbury St. We had a very nice dinner down by the harbor in Old Alexandria with mom & David one night, but we didn't really get much chance to do any exploring so it's on the list for next visit.


Staying at moms in Alexandria VA is very convenient to do alot of sight seeing in the DC area. DC is literally across the Potomac from Alexandria with the Pentagon in the middle. Our first full day in the area we went to Arlington Cemetery. It was only a short 10min drive from moms office.



JFK RIP


With respect and gratitude


The Metro is Awesome! You can actually plan trips based on the train schedule cause they keep one. They even have LCD screen in the stations to tell you the status of the trains arriving. The trains themselves are carpeted and no eating or drinking allowed. So it's CLEAN and QUIET. All the stations look like below, dome shaped with mood lighting.


Tuesday our first full day in DC, only a 20min Metro ride from King St station. Baha has never been to DC and the last time I was there was 8th grade so it was nice to revisit all the monuments.







The FDR Memorial was my favorite. I had never seen it before it is so relaxing with lots of water falls and quiet spots to sit and reflect. There are several amazing quotes from FDR on walls of stone, bummer more of folks up the road down come down and read them more often.



Jefferson Memorial...last memorial on the trek for the day, it's been 9 hours since we started, we are exhausted and ready to head back to VA.



Back to DC, this time to visit some of the MANY amazing museums, of course all the Smithsonian Museums, but there are many others too. One of the other museums we visited was the Spy Museum, totally cool!


Several of the museums aren't just square buildings with lots of cool stuff inside but, the buildings themselves are cool:
Hirshhorn Contemporary Art Museum


National Museum of the American Indian outside


National Museum of the American Indian inside


It took 3 trips to DC to see 5 museums, but we still didn't even make a dent in the list of museums in the area. There are still several I would like to see when I go back.


National Air & Space Museum


National Museum of Natural History


The last full day in the area was the 4th of July, what better place to celebrate the nations birthday other than it's capital (but I have to admit, I have seen better fireworks over the Charles Rive in Beantown!).



Thank mom for letting us come and invade your new place for a week! We enjoyed visiting with you, thanks for the yummy home cooked meals and Crepes for the Crepe King and the auction was a fun experience. Looking forward to my next visit!