4.18.2012

A Woz Adventure to Washington D.C.

I've wanted to visit Washington D.C. since I was 12 years old.  My brother got to visit and I was fascinated with things he came back with and the stories he told.  I didn't understand it all, but I knew it was important and I wanted to experience it all.  Years went by and I never went, even when I lived in New York City as a single with money and time...I still didn't go!

So this is a trip 20 years in the making!

We visited April 6-10, 2012.  Henry was on school break, it was Easter and Joe's birthday was on the 10th!  We had a lot to celebrate!

Since we try to travel as frugally as possible, charter bus transportation won out.  4 hours on a bus with a 4-year old.  Could we do it?  Of course we could!  Henry is a great traveler.  It was a breeze.

boarding the bus in NYC

We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Crystal City.  We had a King Sized, 1 bedroom suite.  It was a great hotel, we really enjoyed our room and space.  Henry's favorite feature aside from the bathtub?

of course!

Our first night in DC we just relaxed.  Even after doing nothing for four hours on a bus, we were wiped.  We found a mall nearby and had Potbelly's sandwiches for lunch and just wandered around a bit.  We came back to the hotel, went swimming and then ordered in pizza and just vegged.  It was great.

The next morning we woke up and went to the Embassy Suites breakfast that is included in your rate.  I really loved this - I'm a BIG breakfast fan and a buffet never disappoints!  

Henry was quite excited to eat Fruit Loops for breakfast since I never buy them!

We all ate well and were soon on our way into the city!

waiting for the Metro.

walking toward the Capital - we had a tour scheduled for that morning


After going through security, a queue and a bit of wait time, we were soon on our tour.  First up was the Rotunda.

absolutely beautiful!

The rotunda is 96 feet in diameter and 180 feet in height. It connects the House and Senate sides of the building.

there are 8 giant paintings - four are of revolutionary period scenes and the other four are early exploration scenes

these paintings stretch around the rotunda and are painted in a way to give an illusion of actual sculptures. The scenes take you through America's history

the fresco on the ceiling, "The Apotheosis of Washington"

Next up was the Hall of Statues.


Each state gives two statues - they must be marble or bronze and they can choose whomever they would like, any dead historic figure. They are placed throughout the entire Capital building.

The House of Representatives used to meet in this room, but it quickly became too small.


Liberty



And the final stop on our tour was the Crypt.

those columns support this massive building!

this is the center of Washington D.C. - all roads stem from this point

Overall this tour was nice, but we were really hoping to get to see the Old Supreme Court Chamber and more.  It was quite short, maybe about 30 minutes.  Worth doing, but the prep to actually go inside the building - the security line, waiting in queue, etc. actually took longer than the tour itself!

The Capital is connected to the Library of Congress via an underground tunnel, so that is where we headed next.

it was AMAZING!




the actual library, which we viewed through glass.  Only researchers are allowed in.


Back outside we decided we'd go see a few of the monuments around the Mall.

a glance back to the Capital

part of the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial

Washington Monument.  Waaaaaay over there...

I'll stop here for now - our first day was a BIG one.  We took it much easier the following days!

4.16.2012

And the award goes to....

ME!  Brook Wozniak!  The World's Worst Blogger!

Give me Facebook, give me Twitter, give me message boards or a cell phone for texting and you can get a play by play...blogging....why do you always fall off my radar?

Well, I've been thinking.  I truly want this blog to be a snapshot of our lives.  In NYC, during our travels, our beliefs, our kid, our thoughts, etc!  US.  The Woz Blog.  However, that does take TIME.  And I want to share all our wonderful adventures with you, and that too takes TIME.  Sooo...I'm going to be doing some revamping of the blog over the next who-knows-how-long.  Eventually I would like a section for our vacation adventures along with a gallery of pictures.  I also want to include some stuff on our awesome neighborhood of Astoria, and tips on moving to NYC since I know that is a question that thousands of people Google on a regular basis!!  I would love to be a resource of some sort for that.

With all that said, the latest that I want to share with you is about our trip to Washington D.C. over Easter.  I'll do it in a quicker style than my Disney trips, in 1-3 blog posts.  (That's a challenge!) Then I won't feel burdened by it, or that it's dragging on for well over a year. Ha!  I'll try to do our Disney trips like that too...though, they might be more 3-5 posts...

And speaking of Disney trips, we'll be on our first ever CRUISE in June!  It's departing from NYC, so it's incredibly convenient.  I.cannot.wait.  2 sea days, Nassau, Castaway Cay (Disney's private island), Port Canaveral where we get a 1-day Park Hopper ticket to Walt Disney World, and then 2 sea days back.  I'll be spending my 33rd birthday on the beach in the Bahamas.

Seriously.  That is amazing!  I can almost feel the sand in my toes, the turquoise waters in front of me, a drink in my hand...

So anyway, back to reality, tomorrow I'll be back to post an update about D.C.  I am purposely going to carve time into my schedule and not allow the blog to disappear from my life again. :)

12.21.2011

Hi-ja!

See all updates to our Feb/March trip to Walt Disney World HERE

We left off in Pizza Planet, with Henry "playing" video game after video game. I eventually peeled the boys out of there and we moved onward.

We didn't really have an agenda for the night, we just figured we'd do whatever caught our eye.

And what caught our little man's eye but a shiny red car and a rusty tow truck?





This is a very cute meet, Henry loves to touch and hug his buddies!

After saying good-bye to our buddies McQueen and Mater we were craving some Chinese food


Dedicated to my Disney friend Jordan! Henry and I both gave our best moves and had a bit of fun.

We wandered the Streets of America for just a bit.







And then thought we'd head in to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground for Henry to blow off some energy....but it was closed! I didn't realized it closed early. A bit of a bummer, but it makes sense, since it would soon be dark.

Across the street from the playground is the dump shop for the Backlot Tour, and Henry had been asking, pretty much non-stop, for the little monorail guys. So in we went and out we came


Success! And believe it or not, we still have ALL of them.

We wandered through Pixar Place, which we usually avoid unless we are going to ride



Just think of the crowds here should they expand with more rides. Yikes!



And eventually we found ourselves here



The show was about to start, and we hadn't ever done it and have always wanted to - so in we went!




The theater is amazing! Wow!

I really had no idea what to expect, I couldn't remember any detailed information about the show from things I have read. We enjoyed every minute! What a very cool and fun show!!! Henry still talks about it! (though, he is frightened of Ursala. I don't blame him!)










The effect where she turned into a human had me in awe! I'm sure it's something simple, but man, it looked COOL!

After the show we decided to go check out the wait time for RnRC, on the way I noticed something on the hat


The stars sparkled! I had NEVER noticed that before! You can see the little glimmer here on the lower star.

Pit-stop!

I don't even know what shop this was...it's right on the corner by Starring Rolls.





It was a cool evening, so I got me some



and we all shared a cookie that was as large as Henry's head!



Unfortunately, Rock 'n Roller Coaster had a 30 minute single-rider line, we so vetoed it and headed back to the Great Movie Ride.

On the way









Eventually we arrived



There are two different story lines to this ride.  You either get a Mobster or a Cowboy that takes over your car.  I have never seen the Cowboy so I chanted "Cowboy" over and over again on our way in...




Reflection



But we got...


Sigh.

Someday I will get the cowboy!! I just might ask next time, but I like the element of surprise.









Henry was asking a question approximately every 9 seconds during this ride. I tried to distract him during the Alien scene, which made him just want to look even more. Which also scared him. He was scared of the gun shots, wondered what happened to our guide, why there was a skeleton and who the Wicked Witch was. It was tiring!

After our ride through the movies we ventured back over to Rock 'n Roller Coaster - the line was short! So I hopped into the line first. The boys hung out in the gift shop because it was a windy and cool night, I rocked my way through and soon Joe was riding. Henry was d-o-n-e with that gift shop, so we ventured outside and played air guitar



Soon Joe was done too. Henry was more than done (if you catch my drift!) and it was time to go.





At 8:50 we left the park to some very dramatic music just as a boat was pulling up. It was a fun moment, walking, with flair, to the music - Joe and I decided it was the perfect soundtrack of not having to wait for a boat on a cold and windy night! Ha!

Soon we were back at the Boardwalk, we stopped for some awesome Disney popcorn



Said hello to George...

WARNING CREEPY CLOWN ALERT!






























Is it just me or is it even more weird that his eyes glow even under refurb? Even though I love George, the black tarp over his "mouth" just makes it all bizarre!

And finally we were back in the room.

Which is what Henry had been asking for since the minute we purchased his little monorail guys.

All he wanted to do was


PLAY!

This is the one night of our vacation that I went to the gym. I had high hopes of going more often, but well...

However, I had an AWESOME workout! I did a 5k! I had never run one before and was very proud of my accomplishment.

When I got back to the room Henry and Joe were watching Off to Neverland that they had borrowed out from Community Hall. They were snuggled into bed and half asleep.

After the movie, and just before we turned off the light Henry wanted to look out the window...he was looking for Peter Pan. <3