Washington, D.C.

The Washington Monument and Tidal Basin

I went to Washington, D.C. in June 2009 with two of my best friends from high school. We were all about 16 at the time and very excited to be taking this trip across the country on our own! We managed to navigate the Chicago O'Hare airport by ourselves and arrive in D.C., where we were met by the Close Up Program Coordinators. The Close Up Program was an opportunity for students from around the country to come to our nation's capital and see it "closer up" than the average tourist. We met our senators and representative, went to a play at the Kennedy Center, had different discussions and debates at different monuments and memorials, and learned so much about history and the government while we were there!

Jefferson Monument

The Jefferson Monument is situated in a very pretty location. It's located along the tidal basin, and near some cherry blossom trees (we were there a week or so after the cherry blossom week, so, sadly, we really only got to see them on the ground). I really liked this memorial--the architecture is beautiful and there are inspirational quotes of some of Thomas Jefferson's writings on the wall around his statue, which is in the middle of the monument. My favorite part, however, was that his statue is looking out over the tidal basin to the White House, a sentry from the past ensuring that our president never takes too much power for himself.

Waterfalls at the FDR Memorial

The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial is a very pretty one, and rather than being constructed as a building to him, it's a very pretty park full of sculptures, red rock (quarried from South Dakota, we were proud to hear!), and flowing water. It's a very nice and peaceful place to spend an afternoon, and a nice change after some of the other presidential memorials, because it was a bit more outdoors-y. It also provides a lot of history of the era, with statues of people lining up for unemployment, a statue of a man sitting next to his radio and listening to one of Roosevelt's "fireside chats," etc.

The Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial has to be one of the most-recognized and most-visited in Washington, D.C. It's in the National Mall, with the Korean War Memorial on the left and the Vietnam War Memorial to the right, and it faces the reflecting pool, the World War II Memorial, and the Washington Monument. The place is swarmed with tourists, but if you wait your turn you can stand at the same spot where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his I Have a Dream speech--there is a marker at the spot engraved in the stone--and look over the National Mall as he did. That was probably my favorite part of this memorial.

World War II Memorial

The World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War Memorials surround the Lincoln Memorial in the National Mall, as described above. One of the things the Close Up Program asked us to consider as we visited them, was whether each memorial focused more on the loss or the triumph of the war. The World War II Memorial definitely focused on the triumph. It's made up of Pacific battles on one half and Atlantic battles on the other, and there are quotes and bronze plaques along the walls emphasizing the bravery and courage of the soldiers and the triumph of the United States. On the other hand, the Vietnam War Memorial with its list of casualties and the Korean War Memorial with its wall full of faces and statues depicting difficulties of the soldiers, definitely focused on the lost. It was interesting because they corresponded with what the attitude of the general public towards the war was at the time.

The Capitol

The Capitol building is undeniably impressive. It's very large and the architecture is beautiful. At the top of the dome is a statue of Freedom--she faces east because the sun never sets on liberty. We met one of our senators and our representative, and listened in on the House of Representatives. This part was actually incredibly boring--very few representatives were actually there, and it's basically just one person reading their prepared speech to the C-SPAN camera. Our guide told us that usually they've already made up their mind how they'll vote on something so they don't need to be there, but I still thought this was a rather disappointing view of what our Congressmen actually do. More interesting was listening to a meeting where Congressmen were asking big car companies like GM, etc., what those companies will do for the American people if they bail them out, which was of course something very prevalent in the news at the time.

The Library of Congress

One of my favorite destinations was the Library of Congress. The architecture was the most beautiful I'd seen in all of Washington, D.C. and we got to view such marvels as a Gutenberg Bible and some of Thomas Jefferson's personal library. To go into the library and read books yourself, you must get a library card, which was a process that didn't take too much time and was definitely worth it. The statues of philosophers through the years lining the dome of the Library and the splendid architecture shouldn't be missed!

Ruby Slippers at the Smithsonian Museum of American History

We had one free day while in Washington, D.C., where those who attended the Close Up Program with a teacher did activities planned by that teacher; since we were basically on our own, we decided we should take advantage of the Smithsonians--some of our nation's best museums with, best of all, free admission!

The Air and Space Museum was very interesting, and we stopped by to take a bunch of pictures of the different aircraft to show our dads when we got home. The museum also taught a lot about the history of the wars. We stopped by the Smithsonian Art Museum (the one with older art, not modern) but were made a little uncomfortable by the lack of clothing in nearly all the paintings, so we decided to go to the National History museum. We spent hours there, seeing the Hope Diamond, plenty of dinosaur bones, a whole exhibit on sea life, totem poles, and many other treasures.

However, our favorite museum, and the one I definitely most recommend visiting while in Washington, D.C., was the American History Museum. It's full of assorted wonders--Abraham Lincoln's famous hat, Dorothy's ruby slippers, Elvis's guitars, an original Barbie and GI Joe, a collection of the First Ladies' inaugural gowns, the original star-spangled banner, even the puffy shirt from the Seinfeld episode named for it. It was definitely one of the most fascinating things we saw in Washington, D.C., and a must-see, because there's something that everyone can appreciate there.

xoxo, xenophile

Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo - A Photostory

African animals

Tropical fish at the Suzanne and Walter Scott Aquarium

Big Cat Complex

Assorted birds

Gibbon Island

Penguins and Arctic Puffins

Hubbard Gorilla Valley

Garden of the Senses

Hubbard Orangutan Forest

Sun bear and Polar bear

Lied Jungle - my favorite part of the zoo

 
xoxo, xenophile

Arizona

Arizona desert and blue skies

In the winter of 2008 I went on one of my first trips outside the Midwest. My sister, my dad, and I flew into Mesa, Arizona to visit my grandparents, who spend their winters there. I absolutely loved the desert and blue skies of Arizona. We did a lot of driving around through the desert and mountains, and took plenty of pictures. I definitely recommend just taking a drive through the desert there. The trip was the first time I'd ever seen a palm tree or cactus, the first time I'd seen signs written in Spanish (which I'd just started in school, so I enjoyed trying to decipher what they said), and I think it was a large part of instilling the travel bug in me for future trips.

While there, did enjoy visiting some tourist-y places. We went to Goldfield Ghost Town, an Old West mining town converted into the best tourist trap on the Apache Trail. There we met an entertaining fiddling prospector named 'Garbanzo' with a wife named 'Chickpea,' panned for gold, visited Arizona's largest live display of venomous reptiles and invertebrates, and purchased some handmade pottery as souvenirs for our loved ones back home. There was also Tortilla Flat, an "authentic old stagecoach stop," where we tried prickly pear ice cream, explored the gift shop with typically Southwestern souvenirs--scorpions in crystal,  pottery, turquoise jewelry, etc., and decorated a dollar bill to add to the hundreds from other tourists lining the walls of the restaurant there.

A unique place we visited was Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa. My sister and I were hesitant to go, as it was a favorite of the retirees who winter in Mesa, but it was actually very entertaining. The pizza was excellent and the pipe organ more impressive than expected. The organ player knew dozens of songs, and took requests. My personal favorite was when he played Under the Sea and they had bubbles as well as music filling the room!

The Mesa Southwest Museum was a very nice natural history museum, filled with Native American pottery, dinosaur bones, Old West artifacts like a replica jail, a stagecoach, and a place for panning for gold, and other unique artifacts like a suit of conquistador armor. We also visited the Roosevelt Dam, which, at the time it was completed in 1911, was the world's tallest masonry dam. There is also a rather interesting bridge just behind the dam and across the lake.

I loved the desert and scenery of Arizona, and my absolute favorite place that we visited was Tonto National Monument. The Salado Native Americans lived in the area between about 1150 A.D. and 1450 A.D., and they left some really fascinating cliff dwellings behind them. We visited the lower cliff dwellings, and the hike up to them (and view from them) were absolutely beautiful. We met a very nice park ranger, and she went with us to the top and gave us a little more information about the place. Combining beautiful views of the desert, hiking in excellent weather, history, and culture, this was definitely the culmination of everything I enjoyed about my time in Arizona.

Cliff dwelling at Tonto National Monument

View from the cliff dwellings at Tonto

A view of the cliff dwellings on the hike up to them Tonto National Monument

Palm trees at sunset

A tourist-y area of Mesa, Arizona

My sister and I affectionately dubbed this "Meatloaf Mountain"

Beautiful golden rolling hills in the Arizona Desert

Roosevelt Dam

Gorgeous scenery in the desert

Cactus

We drove by Phoenix. There was a thick cloud of smog hanging over the
city that really discouraged me from wanting to visit there.

Mountains in the Arizona desert

xoxo, xenophile

Glensheen Mansion

Glensheen Mansion

If you're ever in the Duluth, Minnesota area and you enjoy learning about early 20th century history (or even if you just enjoy seeing fancy houses), I highly recommend visiting the Glensheen Historic Estate. It's a mansion of 39 rooms as well as some beautiful gardens and a wonderful pebble beach along the shore of Lake Superior. They don't allow pictures inside of Glensheen (otherwise there would be dozens more in this post), but the inside is absolutely beautiful. 

My favorite part was the breakfast room, which was full of plants, had running fountains, and a green color scheme that made one feel as if they were in a very elegant sort of jungle. I also enjoyed the outside--the gardens are beautifully kept and there is an intricate hand-carved marble fountain lined up with the beautiful balcony in front of the mansion. I could definitely see why someone was having their wedding there the day I visited! 

The tour guides are very friendly and helpful, and provide fascinating details about the history of the early 1900s. For example, one of the guest bedrooms had two twin beds and they explained that, because transportation took so much longer in those days, people generally stayed for longer times and many times young ladies (for their amusement as well as safety) brought friends as traveling companions, so it was standard to have two beds in a guest bedroom of that sort. The guides also know interesting details about the house as well--I remember our guide pointing to a elaborate monster of a silver chandelier which was called "The Servant's Nightmare" since it took seven days to polish all of its nooks and crannies. 

I very much enjoyed seeing the lavish furnishings of this U.S. National Register Historic Place, as well as the peaceful atmosphere of the grounds outside, which you can explore without a guide. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a beautiful historic attraction to visit in Duluth!

One of the Congdon carriages

Serene view of Lake Superior

There are many trees in front of the house. The tour guide said that the family
didn't want anyone gawking at their large home.

Another view of Lake Superior

The boathouse

The mansion

A creek running through the area. The table
and chairs are from a wedding that day.

Flowers and the fountain in front of the house

The gardener's house

Another view of the mansion

xoxo, xenophile