Miami Trip part I

When we left Frederick the weather was miserable...raining, cloudy and cold. We packed up the car (and I mean literally packed the car so much that I was scared for Rob who was going to drive!) and left Frederick around mid-day. We didn't manage to go too far and stopped in Williamsburg for lunch. It is a lovely town, mainly with old English buildings and very much in the holiday spirit. We went to the cheese shop where I could not believe my eyes, there they were, all stacked up and waiting for me. Dutch cheese!!!! So I got some Emental (Swiss) for Rob and Old Amsterdam for me!!! We ordered some sandwiches and drinks and sat outside to eat. The weather was good in Williamsburg (its about 3 hours from Frederick) not as cold as the weather back home. We left and did another 3 hour drive and stopped at a truckers stop for dinner and then stopped in a Motel by the road to sleep and have an early start the next day. The motel was not bad at all, simple and clean. The next morning we had an early start, we left the motel at 7:00 am we traveled as much as we could without stopping, we had only a long stop when we reached Florida for dinner. We traveled a total of 14 hours in one day, we were knackered, to put it mildly. We arrived in Miami at 12:30 am and the apartment we are renting is just perfect. Simon (Rob's brother) came to greet us and stayed a couple of hours. He left at 2:00 am and Rob and I went for a quick beer. We went to sleep at 3:30 am, tired but happy we managed to arrive! Miami is great, the weather has been kind, some showers but nothing that wont stop you from walking around. Rob and I managed to go the the beach for a couple of hours but the water was cold and it was not so hot to go in. Hopefully tomorrow we can go to the beach and enjoy the weather. Today I went with Jakie (Simon's wife) to Yoga, it was just great, I haven't done any Yoga since I arrived in the US so it was just great to loosen all my muscles. Jackie is in her spare time a Pilate's teacher so she took me to the fitness center were she works. Very nice place, the Yoga teacher was awesome! I was very very stiff so many of the moves I was not able to accomplish, but it made me realise how much I missed Yoga. I might start it again in Frederick. Well, will upload some more pictures of Christmas when I am back home. We are staying here till the 26th of Dec but I hope we can get home on the 27th. Well I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas! Have a happy holiday's !!!! Enjoy the slide show:

Engagement Dinner & Morning After

I organised our engagement dinner at the "Tasting Room". Its a really nice restaurant down town and the food is something to die for. Its a small restaurant but we were only 9 people so I booked the small private room for us. We arrived and I asked for my cosmopolitan and Rob ordered a bottle of Champagne. Peter (Rob's dad) gave the toast. We all talked about how many times everyone in New Skies (Rob's job) had made bets on when Rob would pop the question and also everyone agreed that we took our time! Everyone was very happy for us and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. The food was great, I ordered a beef tartar as a starter and a file Mignon steak for the main. I had a chocolate martini for dessert. We stayed at the restaurant till 12:00 and than we went for drinks at the local pub (Firestone) next to the restaurant. Rob and I had a great time but we missed everyone who was not here with us; we wished everyone could have been here with us. The next morning Rob woke me up and everything was white, it snowed! It was really beautiful, everything was covered with 5 inches of snow. I made blueberry pancakes and than I went for a walk to take some pictures. Well everyone hope you enjoy both slide shows. I miss everyone!

Harper's Ferry Trip II

I have been in Harper's Ferry in Summer but in Autumn is beautiful with all the warm colours. We went down only to have lunch and see some parts that Rob and I hadn't seen yet. There is a big rock on the cliff with loads of engravings and some date back to the time of the civil war! I was also attacked by loads of lady bugs hahah on my way up the hill to the rock, they were everywhere on my hair, coat, camera, etc... We had a nice lunch in one of the restaurants and kept exploring the village. We saw a house with two little kittens sitting and playing on the porch it was so cute. It was a very nice afternoon outing. I also bought a recipe book from the civil war which I already tried a recipe for pie crust which was very nice. Well everyone, hope you enjoy the pictures, I need to go cause I have my engagement dinner tonight. Will take pictures of course and put it on the blog for all of you to see. Miss all of you!

I Have a Dream

Another beautiful day in Maryland. Although its cold and crisp the sun is shinning! The weather was so nice that we decided to go down to Washington DC and do some sight seeing. We arrived at 12:00pm, we had some well deserved Starbucks to start before heading to our very long walk. Our first stop was the National Archives were you can see the original documents of the Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights, The Constitution, The Amendment to abolish slavery and all the letters and other info from all the other documents. All this is located at the main chamber called Rotunda -Charters of Freedom, its a big room with very little light so the old documents don't get damaged (you can take pictures but no flash). The documents are all on display in a round fashion, hence the name Rotunda. It was great to see, specially when you can see all the drafts of the Constitution before the final one was signed. I saw Benjamin's Franklin's signature he had a beautiful penmanship, it was really cool. We left after that because we still wanted to go see the Washington Monument, World War II memorial and the Lincoln Memorial.

We headed to the Washington Monument and on the way passed through a nice botanical sculpture garden and walked all the way to the monument. The thing is so big that you can see it from miles and you think," Its right there after that street..." few blocks later and you're still not there yet. We finally got there and the big spear (or big phallus) is very impressive, it is huge. You cant stop thinking if the person who thought of this had something to compensate (hahaha). After taking some more pictures we decided not to go up because we needed to get tickets half a mile away where we walked before, so we thought we just carry on to the World War II memorial. Oh by the way all the museums and monuments are all free, even going up to the Washington monument or entering the archives is free of charge, I thought this was the coolest!

The World War II memorial is relatively new it was opened in 2004. It's name says it all , it honors all the people who served and died on the war. I was really impressed by the copper sculptures of different war images (sculptor Ray Kaskey). There were several with the women who were working in the factories during the war. I thought that was great to see. Also there was a quote about women and the war, I think it's great that we are finally being recognised and printed in stone to show our contribution in history! The monument has several pillars in a oval circle which represent all the states in the US. A big fountain in the middle and two pavilions in opposites sides of each other, one saying Pacific and the other Atlantic. Its really beautifully made, and there are quotes and significant dates set in stones. But the best was yet to come and you could already see him sitting there, looking from a far; almost like he is watching your every move. Like Big Brother.

We walked through this beautiful passage way with trees set one after each other. The wild geese where having their feeding break before heading again south for the winter and they were everywhere, I think at least a hundred of them eating grass. But finally we arrived at the Lincoln Memorial. Its a big white building with pillars. Its beautiful, the marmor from the steps and pillars are stunning. When you get to the top there is a huge stone sculpture of Lincoln sitting on a chair. Just to think that at the bottom of the steps in August 28, 1963, under a nearly cloudless sky, more than 250,000 people, a fifth of them white, gathered to demonstrate for "jobs and freedom." Martin Luther King gave his famous speech "I have a dream" that day. That place truly has so much history that you can almost feel it in the air.

After all this we cached a cab to go back to the parking garage so we could park the car on the street and go for dinner. By the time we got to the car it was 17:15pm, and we were really dead from all the walking, I think we walked 3 miles in total. So we parked and went to the brewery were they had very nice food and the place had great jazzy music. We ate and had some drinks and headed back home to Fredrick. I snoozed all the way home dreaming of the 1963 and how cool it would have been if I could have been there in the crowd, listening to the words of wisdom of Mr Luther! Well hope you all enjoy the slide show, all the pics are in the order of the post. If you have any questions or just something nice to say just leave a comment. Have a good one!