Ok, so. I am going away for 8 days starting this coming Sunday. I'll be going to Washington DC and other parts east. My family and I are visiting my uncle who works for the State Department, and seeing the sights in DC to boot. (And no, I am not shooting RPGs at the White House Nuke, so don't even ask) I will then be visiting Williamsburg, Gettysburg, my other Aunt and Uncle in Jersey, and New York City. Definitely will go take a gander at Ground Zero. We are going because the uncle who lives in DC will soon be moving to Uraguay(sp?) with his family. So it's our last chance to see them for awhile.
See you all when I get back. I'll be putting my accounts on vaca on Sat.
Volkov's Trip
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Gen. Volkov
- I'm blue, if I was green I would die.
- Posts: 2342
- Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 11:47 pm
- Location: Boringtown, Indiana
haR!
you will be close to the Kraken!
you should turn southwest for an hour and there i may be!
you will be close to the Kraken!
you should turn southwest for an hour and there i may be!
all about FAVRE, come on...you know you want to click it
The Kraken, which is found primarily in Scandinavian myth, was a huge sea creature. It was said to lie at the bottom of the sea for a long time and then it would rest at the surface....Like the Midgard serpent in the Norse myths, the Kraken was supposed to rise to the surface at the end of the world.
~Beatles..."I'm sorry, but I really can't see anything redeeming in your philosophy other than that dinosaurs are cute."
The Kraken, which is found primarily in Scandinavian myth, was a huge sea creature. It was said to lie at the bottom of the sea for a long time and then it would rest at the surface....Like the Midgard serpent in the Norse myths, the Kraken was supposed to rise to the surface at the end of the world.
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Gen. Volkov
- I'm blue, if I was green I would die.
- Posts: 2342
- Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 11:47 pm
- Location: Boringtown, Indiana
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Gen. Volkov
- I'm blue, if I was green I would die.
- Posts: 2342
- Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 11:47 pm
- Location: Boringtown, Indiana
yes, i live in Tennessee.Gen. Volkov wrote: You live in Tennesee right?
you know, we should get together and make great lil conservative babies!
all about FAVRE, come on...you know you want to click it
The Kraken, which is found primarily in Scandinavian myth, was a huge sea creature. It was said to lie at the bottom of the sea for a long time and then it would rest at the surface....Like the Midgard serpent in the Norse myths, the Kraken was supposed to rise to the surface at the end of the world.
~Beatles..."I'm sorry, but I really can't see anything redeeming in your philosophy other than that dinosaurs are cute."
The Kraken, which is found primarily in Scandinavian myth, was a huge sea creature. It was said to lie at the bottom of the sea for a long time and then it would rest at the surface....Like the Midgard serpent in the Norse myths, the Kraken was supposed to rise to the surface at the end of the world.
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Peace Alliance
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Gen. Volkov
- I'm blue, if I was green I would die.
- Posts: 2342
- Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 11:47 pm
- Location: Boringtown, Indiana
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Gen. Volkov
- I'm blue, if I was green I would die.
- Posts: 2342
- Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 11:47 pm
- Location: Boringtown, Indiana
Ok, completely different subject, what I did on my trip. Started off with a 10 hour drive to Washington D.C. Saw my Aunt and Uncle and two cousins who returned from Uruguay a bit ago. They will soon be leaving for Niger in Africa. My Uncle works for the State Department, so he gets to go too all sorts of interesting places. We stayed in their house which is just outside DC. Seeing my relatives for the first time in many years was very fun. Even more fun was seeing DC itself. The first day we went to various museums that are part of the Smithsonian Institute system. Natural History, Air and Space among them. Those two were very cool, I really like Air and Space, but we didn't spend alot of time there, as my brother had seen it before, and my sister is not into that sort of stuff. (Riding the Metro to get there was interesting too.) My brother has been to DC several times, and has seen basically all there is to be seen there.
The next day, my brother and sister stayed at the house, while my Aunt, my dad, and I went to the Air and Space annex. We spent a long time there, it was very interesting. I have multitudes of pictures from there. The Enola Gay was on display there, which I found extremely interesting. (For those of you who don't know, the Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb every detonated in anger, on Hiroshima)
The final day we saw basically all the National monuments, as well as the Capitol Building and the White House. (We didn't manage to get tours of those) Just about the only one we didn't see was the Vietnam Memorial, as we had all seen it before. But we did see the WW2 memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Korean War Memorial and the WW1 Memorial to name a few. The WW1 memorial was sadly mostly forgotten. It was a small one off to the side of the reflecting pool. We got back, with sunburns and sore feet, rested a bit, then went out to dinner and went to see the Jefferson Memorial at night. It was quite impressive. On our way back from DC, after our day there, but before we went to dinner and the Jefferson Memorial, we went to Arlington National Cemetery. It was an impressive and sobering sight to see. The rows upon rows of heroes and patriots is just amazing to see in person. I went on the tour, and saw the Kennedy grave site with it's eternal flame, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Apparently the Slovak or Czech prime minister died, because as we got there, several VIPs were putting a red white and blue wreath in front of the tomb with the name and title of the dude, but I didn't get a clear look at it, we were kind of held back due to the presence of the VIPs. The changing of the guard was a bit late, but still rather cool to see.
The next day we left for New Jersey, where my other aunt and uncle live, who I also have not seen in many years. On the way there, we stopped at Gettysburg National Battleground Memorial. It was sadly a lot dingier than what we had seen in DC, but it was still quite cool. We didn't spend a lot of time there, we were all tired of walking at that point, but we did see the museum and take a short driving tour through the battleground, which was just absolutely gigantic. The whole thing, with no stops, takes an hour and a half to get around at 20 MPH. We got to Jersey, had dessert with my aunt, uncle, and their 2 daughters, and went to bed. The next morning we went to New York City. At that point, we were so tired that all we did was see Times Square and the Empire State Building. Didn't even see the top, it would have cost $100 and involved a 2 hour wait. The taxi ride to get to Ground Zero from where we were would have taken an hour, and I was the only one who really wanted to go. The Fleet was in port, but that would have taken an hour to get too as well, and once again, only I really wanted to go. So we just went back to Jersey, met our relatives for dinner and crashed at out hotel. (We stayed in a hotel in Jersey, it was nice) The final day in Jersey, we just relaxed. In the afternoon, we went and hung out with our relatives, had dinner, played board games, etc. A nice final day after 6 of being totally busy.
Today we drove home, that was even longer than the trip out, because Jersey is further away from my home town than DC. 11 hour drive. All in all, it was fun. I'll post pictures later.
The next day, my brother and sister stayed at the house, while my Aunt, my dad, and I went to the Air and Space annex. We spent a long time there, it was very interesting. I have multitudes of pictures from there. The Enola Gay was on display there, which I found extremely interesting. (For those of you who don't know, the Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb every detonated in anger, on Hiroshima)
The final day we saw basically all the National monuments, as well as the Capitol Building and the White House. (We didn't manage to get tours of those) Just about the only one we didn't see was the Vietnam Memorial, as we had all seen it before. But we did see the WW2 memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Korean War Memorial and the WW1 Memorial to name a few. The WW1 memorial was sadly mostly forgotten. It was a small one off to the side of the reflecting pool. We got back, with sunburns and sore feet, rested a bit, then went out to dinner and went to see the Jefferson Memorial at night. It was quite impressive. On our way back from DC, after our day there, but before we went to dinner and the Jefferson Memorial, we went to Arlington National Cemetery. It was an impressive and sobering sight to see. The rows upon rows of heroes and patriots is just amazing to see in person. I went on the tour, and saw the Kennedy grave site with it's eternal flame, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Apparently the Slovak or Czech prime minister died, because as we got there, several VIPs were putting a red white and blue wreath in front of the tomb with the name and title of the dude, but I didn't get a clear look at it, we were kind of held back due to the presence of the VIPs. The changing of the guard was a bit late, but still rather cool to see.
The next day we left for New Jersey, where my other aunt and uncle live, who I also have not seen in many years. On the way there, we stopped at Gettysburg National Battleground Memorial. It was sadly a lot dingier than what we had seen in DC, but it was still quite cool. We didn't spend a lot of time there, we were all tired of walking at that point, but we did see the museum and take a short driving tour through the battleground, which was just absolutely gigantic. The whole thing, with no stops, takes an hour and a half to get around at 20 MPH. We got to Jersey, had dessert with my aunt, uncle, and their 2 daughters, and went to bed. The next morning we went to New York City. At that point, we were so tired that all we did was see Times Square and the Empire State Building. Didn't even see the top, it would have cost $100 and involved a 2 hour wait. The taxi ride to get to Ground Zero from where we were would have taken an hour, and I was the only one who really wanted to go. The Fleet was in port, but that would have taken an hour to get too as well, and once again, only I really wanted to go. So we just went back to Jersey, met our relatives for dinner and crashed at out hotel. (We stayed in a hotel in Jersey, it was nice) The final day in Jersey, we just relaxed. In the afternoon, we went and hung out with our relatives, had dinner, played board games, etc. A nice final day after 6 of being totally busy.
Today we drove home, that was even longer than the trip out, because Jersey is further away from my home town than DC. 11 hour drive. All in all, it was fun. I'll post pictures later.
It is said that when Rincewind dies, the occult ability of the human race will go UP by a fraction. -Terry Pratchett
Now i'm disappointed although you have had a very interesting trip visiting various millitary sites of historical interest. i'm surprised you havent cataloged any sexual conquest you had or is freen the only sexual predator around here :*laughs*: :*laughs*:
plz gives us some juicey details of any precision strikes made on the opposite sex it makes the trips all the more worthwhile
plz gives us some juicey details of any precision strikes made on the opposite sex it makes the trips all the more worthwhile
I'm not mad just the rest of the world is MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
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The Beatles
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(Maddog: I'm almost convinced you're American or Canadian. You consistently use American spelling.)
Volky, sounds like you had a fun trip. My mother and I visited DC in 2001, very shortly after my father's death, and just a month before 9/11. Needless to say the atmosphere would have been insanely different if we'd gone a bit later, so we were lucky.
We visited basically the same sights, but we spent a bit more time there so we also got to see the NIH in Bethesda, and a bit of Maryland (and the side of the Pentagon). We were equally impressed by the Metro system, the 1337 efficiency of the police (someone called them out for some vandalism, and they were on the car at the next station), and the various memorials, etc. We also walked a lot around in the city, and found out it's nearly devoid of the middle class. Apparently all the politicians and civil servants live in the suburbs, while the inner city is essentially a low-population poverty district.
We contemplated a tour of the White House, but we would have had to get up at 5am and spend 3-4 hours in line. We were unimpressed, so we slept in.
We also saw Arlington (crossing the Potomac to get there) and Kennedy's grave and the flame (which tied in with a Kennedy museum we had seen in Dallas in the book-depot Oswald shot from). There, though, our experience differs. We were very surprised to see the rows upon rows of neatly-stacked identical compact-sized graves in the middle of a ridiculously perfect rolling green meadow. That rather jarred us actually. We found out since that most cemeteries in America are built like that, so this isn't a criticism, just a culture shock thing. In Europe, cemeteries are far more haphazard and chaotic; each grave is quite individual from plants, size, style, decorations, benches nearby, even gardening implements here and there. Plus, graves are full-size, so at no point do you stand over ground the person was buried in. Graves in Europe are like a used-car salesmanship to America's clean showroom. This is a population density thing and a cultural thing too. Those people that do go to cemeteries tend to spend a lot of time there when they go on weekends, sit around, garden, do improvements, or just think. The norm is a few hours. Partly perhaps because they don't always have a garden of their own; partly just due to tradition. So anyways when we saw the rows upon rows of identical white gravestones without any place to sit down and "standing" directly over the buried persons (for space-efficiency), it rather jarred, seemed inappropriate if you will, and that took away from our sense of awe.
Anyway overall we were very impressed with DC. (Oh yes, we saw Martha's Vineyard too.) The emptiness of inner-city DC was practically the only thing that didn't tally with our expectations.
Volky, sounds like you had a fun trip. My mother and I visited DC in 2001, very shortly after my father's death, and just a month before 9/11. Needless to say the atmosphere would have been insanely different if we'd gone a bit later, so we were lucky.
We visited basically the same sights, but we spent a bit more time there so we also got to see the NIH in Bethesda, and a bit of Maryland (and the side of the Pentagon). We were equally impressed by the Metro system, the 1337 efficiency of the police (someone called them out for some vandalism, and they were on the car at the next station), and the various memorials, etc. We also walked a lot around in the city, and found out it's nearly devoid of the middle class. Apparently all the politicians and civil servants live in the suburbs, while the inner city is essentially a low-population poverty district.
We contemplated a tour of the White House, but we would have had to get up at 5am and spend 3-4 hours in line. We were unimpressed, so we slept in.
We also saw Arlington (crossing the Potomac to get there) and Kennedy's grave and the flame (which tied in with a Kennedy museum we had seen in Dallas in the book-depot Oswald shot from). There, though, our experience differs. We were very surprised to see the rows upon rows of neatly-stacked identical compact-sized graves in the middle of a ridiculously perfect rolling green meadow. That rather jarred us actually. We found out since that most cemeteries in America are built like that, so this isn't a criticism, just a culture shock thing. In Europe, cemeteries are far more haphazard and chaotic; each grave is quite individual from plants, size, style, decorations, benches nearby, even gardening implements here and there. Plus, graves are full-size, so at no point do you stand over ground the person was buried in. Graves in Europe are like a used-car salesmanship to America's clean showroom. This is a population density thing and a cultural thing too. Those people that do go to cemeteries tend to spend a lot of time there when they go on weekends, sit around, garden, do improvements, or just think. The norm is a few hours. Partly perhaps because they don't always have a garden of their own; partly just due to tradition. So anyways when we saw the rows upon rows of identical white gravestones without any place to sit down and "standing" directly over the buried persons (for space-efficiency), it rather jarred, seemed inappropriate if you will, and that took away from our sense of awe.
Anyway overall we were very impressed with DC. (Oh yes, we saw Martha's Vineyard too.) The emptiness of inner-city DC was practically the only thing that didn't tally with our expectations.
:wq
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Gen. Volkov
- I'm blue, if I was green I would die.
- Posts: 2342
- Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 11:47 pm
- Location: Boringtown, Indiana
Oh yeah, we saw the Pentagon too, we got lost on our way out of DC and ended up in the Pentagon parking lot. *laughs*.
The police there are amazingly efficient. As my uncle said, politics stops at the front door, left or right, it doesn't matter, them rich politicians want to be safe in their homes. As a result, the suburbs have the highest ratio of police per square mile of any in the nation.
Yeah, it was jarring to find out that the area right around Jefferson Memorial was a dangerous place to be after about 10 PM. Especially if you are white.
I think the other thing about Arlington is, the rows of headstones are not meant to be really visited, many of them are graves of unknown soldiers, they are just meant to be seen from afar, and recognized as someones grave. In other parts of the country, the cemeteries can be quite different. But I can understand how it jarred you. It didn't jar me all that much, but I somewhat knew what it was like before I went there.
And maddog, I was with my family the whole trip, there was no chance for sexual shenanigans. I did get hit on a couple times, but I had no chance to pursue.
The police there are amazingly efficient. As my uncle said, politics stops at the front door, left or right, it doesn't matter, them rich politicians want to be safe in their homes. As a result, the suburbs have the highest ratio of police per square mile of any in the nation.
Yeah, it was jarring to find out that the area right around Jefferson Memorial was a dangerous place to be after about 10 PM. Especially if you are white.
I think the other thing about Arlington is, the rows of headstones are not meant to be really visited, many of them are graves of unknown soldiers, they are just meant to be seen from afar, and recognized as someones grave. In other parts of the country, the cemeteries can be quite different. But I can understand how it jarred you. It didn't jar me all that much, but I somewhat knew what it was like before I went there.
And maddog, I was with my family the whole trip, there was no chance for sexual shenanigans. I did get hit on a couple times, but I had no chance to pursue.
It is said that when Rincewind dies, the occult ability of the human race will go UP by a fraction. -Terry Pratchett
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The Beatles
- Fear me for I am root
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Cool, we had fairly similar experiences then.
I've seen some cemeteries in Seattle and they are built on much the same plan, except headstones are expensive so often it's just a stone slab /in the ground/. Still, customs. I've seen some in the South that were similar to the ones I see in Europe, so it does change from place to place.
I've seen some cemeteries in Seattle and they are built on much the same plan, except headstones are expensive so often it's just a stone slab /in the ground/. Still, customs. I've seen some in the South that were similar to the ones I see in Europe, so it does change from place to place.
:wq
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