Month: October 2009

Okay, we’re still here in Washington DC (Falls Church, Virginia, to be precise). We decided to stay and spend some time with Keith and Mariamalia on the weekend and now we are staying to trick-or-treat tonight.

Morgane has made a little friend across the street and they may have a sleepover tonight.

After taking a day to organize ourselves, we are ready to move on tomorrow morning. We will miss Keith and Mariamalia and their dog, Negrita.

I am, however, excited about our next stop. At Keith’s suggestion, we are going to Chincoteague and Assateague Islands where we can camp with wild ponies! How cool is that? Check it out.

We’ll pass through Annapolis on the way and, afterwards, we’ll stop in Hampton and Virginia Beach.

And we may have found a woofing place near Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It’s even warmer there! Plus it’s where my friend Claudia lives. We’ve never met except we chat on-line through our creative writing program.

We also looked at our budget today and realized that if we want to get back to Quebec with some money for a house, then we only have $5000 left to spend. We’ve spent a lot even though we’ve tried to avoid hotels and other luxuries. So our goal is to stretch that money by woofing, by making money, by not spending… Whatever we can do.

Whenever our trip ends, we will have had a lot of amazing experiences. How much longer? One month? Two months? Three months? Only time will tell.

Ghis took the van in early to get the oil changed and some other stuff. He called me to tell me how nice the city of Alexandria was so Morgane and I hopped a bus down after lunch.

It is a great area, nice to windowshop in, and there’s even a free bus to shuttle visitors around. I’m only sad that I didn’t get all the way to the waterfront. Is this another spot we’ll have to go back to?

It doesn’t look like we’ll leave tomorrow in the end. But soon, further south we’ll go.

Morgane really liked this museum and I learned some new things. For example, how things fly. That’s also the name of the kids’ hands-on exhibit.

We watched a little demonstration that explained the principles of flight – lift, thrust, drag and ?? Morgane got to be a volunteer. Now I understand how rockets are designed for space where there is no air and propellers are designed for air. Air is a fluid like water, so moving through air is a bit like swimming. Also, air that is moving more quickly has less pressure than slower moving air. So the air that goes over the wing (the longer path, therefore the air moves faster) creates lift. Okay, I don’t understand it perfectly, but if you take a strip of paper and hold it against your skin, just under your mouth and you blow straight forward, the paper will lift up.

I think that was our last DC day. Anyway I am museumed-out. I would have liked to see the art gallery, that’s all I really missed.

We are not sure where to go now – the mountains or the coast. We are looking for a woofing spot, but no luck so far. Ghis’s back is feeling better though.

Ghis and I snuck out at 10:30pm last night and drove to Washington DC to take pictures of the lit buildings. We started with the White House and while I was trying to focus, they shut all the lights off. Also, there was nowhere to park or even stop near a lot of the monuments.

I did spot a cupcake place but it had just closed at 11pm. We did get a few nice shots though.

We’ve both discovered that our parents have their own histories in these parts. My parents took their honeymoon at Virginia Beach. Ghis’s parents visited Washington DC and got kicked out trying to climb the White House stairs or something. Maybe Ghis can correct me on this!

Another museum day. It went quickly. Then we were tired and came home. Lots of amazing stuff to see.

The above are all by Brian Jungen as well. It was great to finally see these pieces of art.

I found a few more pictures from the zoo.

I finally put Morgane’s pictures on my computer. Some pretty amazing ones! I like the way she catches me, too.

Today we didn’t do much. Morgane played with a little girl who lives nearby. We just did groceries and laundry and rested. Tomorrow we’ll hit Washington DC again and now we only have 3-4 days before we leave!

We still want to see the art museum and the portrait museum. Plus, we have to go to the American Indian Museum because a great Canadian artist is being featured there. Brian Jungen. He makes masks out of Nike running shoes and made a huge sculpture out of lawn chairs. Check it out.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/ATM-Back-to-Basics.html

There is still lots to see at the Natural History Museum. Morgane wants to see more of the ants at the zoo. They go from one habitat to another through tubes, gathering food.

The other morning she was playing with her stuffed animals and she told me: “Mom, these two get along – they’re going to share the same habitat.” Needless to say, she has a great vocabulary. People tell us all the time how bright she is. Tonight she also decided to make a board game out of paper. She made a pathway and cut out game pieces. Then she made some scary stuff and cut crosses in the paper so she could stand the scary stuff up. Then she cut up papers and drew dice rolls on them so instead of rolling, you pick a piece of paper from the pile.

I also heard that there’s a news museum in DC where kids can pretend. And a children’s museum. And I’d love to see photography, too. We’ll see what we manage to accomplish.

Today was a special event at a wildlife refuge and Keith, Morgane and I went. Ghis’s back was still hurting and Mariamalia was working.

We went on a bus tour around the refuge, but the only interesting part was seeing the Whooping Cranes. Since this species was so endangered, they take very careful care with the babies. We saw two 6-month old birds, but we could only see from the van. Anyone who goes close to the birds has to wear a head-to-toe costume so the birds don’t get used to being close to people. They play a recording of the sound of the ultra-light (flying contraption) to the eggs so they get habituated to it. And they place the hatched chicks next to an adult bird, but not in the same pen.

The birds were almost extinct (around 20 left) in 1940, and now there are over 300.

Tonight I visited a Target store. Not very exciting, but I always saw ads for them and had never been.