Cherry Blossom Festival :)

Hi again, everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates!!! But, I have been busy (and lazy...*cough*) I leave early tomorrow morning for Maine, where I will remain until Friday. Hopefully I will have some updates for you then ;) Until I get back, enjoy!!! :)

So, yesterday we went into D.C. for the annual cherry blossom festival, which occurs the week the cherry blossoms (a gift from Japan) bloom :) I wasn't expecting to be able to go yesterday, as earlier that morning we had a huge, Brunei-like thunderstorm!!! But, even though it was a bit overcast, it was still a beautiful sight to see :)

The Cherry-Blossomed, Flooded Potomac River

Walking under the trees :)

Cherry Blossoms!!!

I thought this shot looked kinda Japanesey :-P

Kiss the Water

Preeetttyyy Flowers!! :)

The Crowded Jefferson Memorial

Jump!!!

Deja vu...O.O

The Washington Monument!!!

Family Photo :)

Jefferson Memorial!!!

Roosevelt Memorial!
This one was really great, because it was something you could walk around in, and touch, and read, and feel the air...I just liked this memorial :)

Fountain :)

Roosevelt and his lucky finger :-P

Roosevelt (and me) in a nutshell

I don't think he even realized I was taking this ;)

Things are really starting to look bad here in the USA...(as captioned by my dad)

Finally! The sun came out!! :)

At one point the petals started falling on them...it was beautiful (the music and the moment) :)

The Washington Monument again :)

I just thought this light was cool ;-P

Untitled

After Thanksgiving Break, my grandpa had a conference in DC, so we drove him and my grandma up.

On the way, we stopped to see a special exhibition of South American artists. Why see it, you ask? Well, my aunt's boyfriend, Chalo, had the above piece in it, so we went to see that, and my whole family are art lovers anyways ;) This piece is a rider on his horse.

Afterwards, we went to some train station...really big...blanking out on the name....
Anyways, the outside had huge, gorgeous wreaths up, but it was raining so I didn't get a pic. Inside, we saw statues of Roman soldiers. Apparently, some of them we carved naked, so shields were installed to preserve the virginity of the eyes of our little children.

We ate at the station, and unfortunately I can't remember what the restaurant was called! I know it was Mexican food...
Also, I'm blanking out on what the above dish was! Whatever the food, however, it was really tasty! (sweetened torilla with honey and ice cream..yum!)

I was trying to capture the scale of this building, but unfortunately failed. Seriously, though, this place was enormous!

And I have no idea why the room appears green....but I was too lazy to edit it! O:)

Mount Vernon

One of the coolest places we're close to is Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington himself! :)

Shaking hands with the president
Classic shot

Walkway connecting the house to the kitchen, I believe

^ Deposit Gum Here ^

View of the Potomac River

The side of the mansion

Moi avec le masion (me with the house)

Rooster!

Roof of the grainery

Model of the house made of gingerbread

Beautiful sunset

Lily modeling her souvenir tri-corn hat

Sorry I don't have much to say about this. I've been here a million times as a kid so it all seems so familiar ;)

Woodlawn and the Pope Leighey House

Ok, people, I'm back and I'm desperately trying to catch up with the times! So, here we are, back in November during the Thanksgiving break.

The great thing about the area we're in is that we're so close to so many historical places. So, a day trip to a battlefield or old building is perfectly doable.

On this day, we went to visit Woodlawn (built between 1800 and 1805), the estate of George Washington's nephew, Major Lawrence Lewis, and his wife, Nelly Custis.

A short walk from the estate was the Pope-Leighey House, designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1939. Originally, the house wasn't in this location, but it was moved to save it from flooding. This house we visited, too.

Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures inside, but here's the outside of Woodlawn :)

The cool thing about this house is that it was designed to be perfectly symetrical on the outside.

The Pope Leighey House, on the other hand, is not designed to be symetrical. Infact, every picture I took of the building was completely different! Above is one of the windows. All the windows in the house followed this design, but boards were just rotated to give the appearance that different designs were used. (and that's only one of the cool features of this building! but for your sake, I won't go into details)

Yay, it's Lily!

AHA! So he CAN smile! :)

Side view of the house

And now we're back at Woodlawn, waiting for Mom and Grandma to finish up in the gift shop ;)

I just thought this was a neat picture ;)

History and DC

It was Thanksgiving Weekend, and my family from California had come out to stay with us for the holiday. On Thanksgiving Day, to give my mom and grandma room to cook our very large dinner, we decided to take a trip to Washington DC.

The Jefferson Memorial! As seen from the car...
I went with my aunt and grandpa to the Museum of American History, while everyone else went to the Air and Space Museum. What you see in this pic is what was across the street from the museum (I have no idea what it is, but I thought it looked interesting!)

At 3, we all met up at the Washington Monument. Unfortunately, we didn't go inside: we were too hungry ;-P

The Capital Building across the street! This is where all the decisions are made =D

Father and Son :)

It took us forever to get a good one of these! But at least we got it in the end ;)