A trip to Washington D.C! part 2

My bus ride to Washington D.C. was delayed with 2 hours!
I was supposed to arrive at around 9 in the evening, and we got there even later than 11 pm, I think.... !

I got a lot of things done though.. even though it was difficult to study with only the light from my mini computer!
Here in the picture to the right, I am beginning to starve a little... crackers and juice didn't last as long as I thought...

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The Turner family lives in Oakton, which is in fact in Virginia, - a whole other state than Marylon (the state where Washington D.C. is).

I did not know you could just pass through states like that. I have always imagined that every new state is like a new country... which is true in many ways - if you compare it with the climate and culture.
For instance there's a big difference between Alabama and New York and California and Michigan.
But there's not necessarily such an abrupt difference from one state to the other, around the border.

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The night I arrived Willy, wanted to show me the monuments in D.C. This is one of the first thing a tourist, or just any person, goes to see (should go), when they come to the city.

There are tons of old historical monuments and memorials from the numerous wars the US has been through.
One of them was the Lincoln memorial, - very massive and fascinating.
By night all the memorial places are lid up. The area is quite deserted, but somehow I find that it emphasizes the message of the memorials. - There's a more peaceful and graceful atmosphere to a naked building standing alone.. or a sad and fearful atmosphere. Either it draws focus.

There was a Korean memorial (sculptures of soldiers walking through the battlefield), Vietnam memorial (a massive black wall with all the names that were lost in this war, built in such a way that it's going downhill).
We also very clearly saw the Washington monument. This is a tall tower that was built to commemorate George Washington, America's first President.

Washington monument

The Lincoln Memorial

The massive statue of President Lincoln,

 the inside of the house, from the previous picture.

Korean memorial place.

Soldiers walking through the battle field.

Actually really creepy to be by, at night...

- or any time of day, I suppose!

Einstein!

When I woke up the next morning, I had a run in the neighborhood. The sight was beautiful!!

Their house seen from the road:)

Their garden

(there was still spider web on the bushes from Halloween!)

Their house seen from further away!

Just outside their house. Isn't it incredible?

One of top 3 favorite trees in their neighborhood!

Saturday afternoon we went to Washington national Zoo.
Yay! I've been wanting to go to a zoo in a long time, so this proposal was absolutely perfect.

The zoo was very big and more 'park-like' than other zoos I've been to in big cities. It wasn't crowded and the place had lots of nature and big areas for just walking. It was beautiful to walk among all the colored trees, so we had a great autumn afternoon.

The 'we' would be me, Willy Turner and the 3 youngest of his kids (they have 5: John Paul, Joseph, Grace, James and Mary).

I also got a chance to meet up with Sarah Wittenberg, the second oldest in the family. She moved to Washington D.C. for her full time job. I hadn't seen her since the very beginning of my adventure here in the States, so it was good to meet up with her and see family, since I hadn't been able to see Phil and Susan for a couple of weeks.

One of the biggest leafs we had ever seen!

Me and Grace by the Gorillas

Tarzan's dad!

Grace and Nemo's home

("anemone, menomene, manone")

Mary wanted me to take pictures of her

on every statue of the animals!

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When we got back to the house guests had already arrived. For dinner, all the siblings from the dad's side of the family had been invited. I saw Charles, Elizabeth and her daughter and son, Patricia with her husband and their twin daughters, Ed, and their mother Tia Rossario.

I had met Tia Rossario once before, when she went to Copenhagen on a cruise with her husband. I remember she gave me a ballerina doll from New York. I was about 4, I think.
The night at the dinner, she asked into where I lived in the city, while repeatedly saying: "New York is the place to be. Just take me to New York and I'm happy."!

Other than her, I had never met the rest of them before... And the last time they saw my dad, was when he was my age!

Julie, Willy's wife had made an enormous dinner and I helped make the applie pie. I also tasted an American tradition that's made for Thanksgiving, pumpkin pie. It was all delicious!

Adorable second cousins eating dinner!

The apple pie and the one behind is the pumpkin pie

mhh!!

The family!

It was wonderful seeing this part of the family. It's wonderful to have bonded with new members of my family and being looked up to by a ton of little second cousins!
We had great fun. We played Jenga many times (klodsmajor).
They were sad to see me leave, and some of the cousins from the other families already begged their parents to invite me to their house!

Jenga time!

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Washington is a nice place to visit, because everything is free! All the museums - even the zoo - are free. And Sarah said there's always tons of free concerts, exhibitions and things to do and see. Perfect place to live as a student :)

However, Washington was not the place I spent too much time in, since the family doesn't live in the city. Their suburban house in Oakton is adorable! They have lived there for the past 20 years, and gradually extended the size of the house! There is a cute garden out front with a hammock in the corner, a front porch with big comfy chairs (like the ones everyone of the housewives has in Desperate Housewives, to people watch.. and spread gossip!) and an even bigger garden in the back, where the kids race around on their bikes and the dog plays around.

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I am sitting in the car on the way to our hike.
Willy is telling me that we just passed the city Manassas, where the first battle of the civil war in 1861 (-1865) took place, and he pointed out the window, showing me the battle field. 620.000 soldiers lost their lives in the civil war!
This is apparently also the town the famous American band Crosby's is from (I didn't know them - but the Turners told me they were very known in my parents generation!).

Right after the end of the civil war, President Lincoln was assassinated. He was shot in a theater, while watching a play! So obviously the memorial of him that I saw the first night was built in memory of that horrible event.

Looking ahead, out of the window in the car now, we can see the Blue Ridge mountains. The sight is extraordinary, - mountains covered with forests in autumn colors. This is where we'll be hiking!

I have not yet had the chance to walk past The White House!... which is something I have to do.. but I will just have to come back another time for that. Willy says that if I come in the spring, there's a building that has it's balcony open for the season, where you have a great view overlooking The White House and the park around it.

We went hiking up Mary's rock (named after the family's youngest, we joked about). The view was amazing and we saw the phenominal colors of autumn as far as the eye stretched from the forests running up and down the numerous mountains.
Here are some pictures!

Amazing colors right??! 

This is the autumn in Shendoah

that everybody would kill to get a chance to see every year.

It was afternoon at this time, so the sun was already lowering from the sky.

I love the effect of the shade gradually covering up the landscape.

It's like the shade creates a frame around this picture!

Look how bright and beautiful a day it was!

Sweet Grace in rays of sunlight

Julie and Mary

Julie and Mary falling behind.. but I got some good shots of them!

After a couple of hours of hiking, we reached the top, Mary's rock!

Priceless!

The view behind me ;-)

All together - as you can see - I had a lovely weekend. So thank you Julie and Willy for that.;)

I will soon write a blog post about the news from life at school and home at the Markle. I just wanted to share these pictures with you as soon as I could!

All my love. X