Virginia Creeper Biking

I went to the southwest corner of Virginia, near Damascus, to go biking. Why? There is a path known as the Virginia Creeper. It used to be a railroad but the ties and stuff were taken out and replaced with gravel. It was a slightly downhill ride and it was cool. There were a couple of stops along the way and a big stop and rest area in the middle. The trail itself is 50 miles long but I only biked 17 miles of it. There were some places where it was bumpy and there were others where there would be a big rock sticking out and I would hit it and my head would snap back. The foliage was nice but not colorful and the bridges were also nice. There was the occasional pedestrian but it was mainly a bike trail. In the beginning, the gravel was very soft so I slipped for some time but didn't fall. For some time, the Creeper followed a small stream and then it would go past a deep valley full of trees. It was a very nice sight to relax and exercise. I stopped in Damascus.

Aladdin's Eatery

Yesterday night I went to a charming restaurant inside the Brier Creek shopping plaza. It was called Aladdin's Eatery. When I went inside, the lamps and the walls gave a quaint but modern picture of a Middle Eastern location. The food was great. I never had Lebanese food before and the hostess was very nice. I ordered a 'Kibbie Platter'. I was skeptical at first from the waiter's description. "They're just like mini footballs stuffed with beef and rice, you'll like them", she said. I ordered it, as I had never tried it before. The food preparation time was reasonable and I surveyed the surroundings. It was nice and clean, a bit spartan here and there but the tan walls and lamps reminded me of a place in Morocco. The restrooms were nice and the food, the food was wonderful. The Kibbie platter was great. The Kibbies themselves were awesome. When you put it into your mouth, the full flavor of the beef and rice make a bold statement that stands out. The pita and hummus was great as well. I would recommend that they put a bit more meat in and take out some of the vegetable in the platter. Overall, I would give this place a 4.9 out of 5 stars. All that was flawed was the price. It was a bit pricey. Slice of 3 bucks from each meal and it would be a 5 out of 5. My favorite dishes were the lamb and the kibbies.

Overall View.

Great food, clean atmosphere, but a bit over priced.

Indianapolis

We stopped in Indianapolis for a short time. We saw a monument getting built. It was a memorial with a winged person on top. It was a nice and mild city, not too hot or cold, and it was pretty much empty. We went to the capitol building there. We couldn't get in. There were random statues and busts of people outside. There was George Washington and Christopher Columbus. Christopher Columbus was donated by the Italian Society. There was also a monument to Abe Lincoln whose body passed by there.

All in all, it was a pretty nice place.

Annapolis

Annapolis was not a fair place. We all know that it's the recession and people are getting laid off. But that doesn't mean that you have to trap people and demand money. Well, unfortunately, that is what the police department did. I drove down an avenue(the exact name slipped my memory) in this little town. It was pretty nice with quaint little streets and nice houses. Up ahead, I could see lots of cars pulled over. I was intrigued and therefore slowed down. There was a man in pajamas sitting on a bench on the side of the road. I passed him and suddenly, I was pulled over! "What did do?" I asked the policeman. "Well, that man over there was gonna cross but you didn't let 'em!" This outrageous statement nearly made me shout. "He was sitting there, so how could he have any intention to cross?" You know the real kicker then? The policeman just said "Beat's me." He proceeded to charge me $80. I circled around again back to the little street. The hobo-guy was still sitting there. "QUICKLY! Cross already!" I yelled as loud as I could. "What?" "Cross already!" "I don't need to cross now." he said. That infuriated me even more. When I passed the policemen, I rolled down the window and said, "That guy didn't want to cross." He yelled across the street to the hobo-man. "Is that right Joe?" That hobo was actually a policeman dressed up! Joe must have said yes because the policeman thew his pen at me as I was driving away.

The three c's

The three c's that we went to were Cincinnati, Chicago, and Cleveland( in that order). Cincinnati had nobody on the streets even though it was a weekend afternoon. It turns out that everybody was at a concert. Cincinnati had a huge library. The downtown was full of one way streets. That made it confusing. We ate lunch at a La Rosa's. Something happened later.

Then, we went to Chicago. Actually, we went to Naperville. It was a pretty nice small town. There was free parking and a big bell tower. Chicago was not that nice. It took you thirty bucks to park for an hour. The Chinatown however, was really nice. The food was exceptionally good. The stores had wonderful products and they were all at reasonable prices. The grocery stores sold teas, spices, herbs and others.

Cleveland was also like Cincinnati. They had a large city with barely any people in it. The did have a Rock and Roll hall of fame though. The streets were narrower than Chicago streets because Chicago burned down and it was rebuilt with bigger streets.

Udvar Hazy

One of the things I saw in the Udvar Hazy Center was a collection of foods that the Russian cosmonauts ate. There were things like vacuum-packed bread, coffee and cream(which you squeeze out of a tube), cabbage soup(same idea of eating) and others.

There was also some American food like vacuum-packed M&M's.

The next display case that was interesting was the Charles Lindbergh display case. There were pins with little airplanes made of shells and stuff that didn't make sense with Lindbergh's plane slapped onto them. There was a Brotherhood of Some Monks pin with the plane circling the globe.

In this picture, you can see pins, cigarette cases, watches, buttons, letter openers, and a figurine. I even saw a hand washer soap thing called Lucky Lindy! There were bookends with his face and coin banks and mugs and other stuff.

D.C. trip part 5

We went to the Steven Udvar Hazy Center. It had a lot of airplanes, gliders, and gondolas of hot air balloons. Not to mention helicopters, models, artifacts, and uniforms. I took pictures of all the cool airplanes. They are below.

Beechcraft King air 350 (above)

Messerschimdt 163 Komet ( above)

German WWI biplane (above)

We also went on a tour. The tour guide told us that in their collection, they had a plane that was the same model as Hitler's plane. He also told us how the Enola Gay chose bombing targets. We also learned that the Aichi Seiran thing was meant to attack San Diego. They tried to do this with huge submarines and catapults on them. Over all, the tour was pretty interesting.

D.C. trip part 4

We went to the American History museum. We saw the Gunboat Philadelphia. That was really cool since it was a wooden boat with real cannons and stuff. It was like our Lego pirate boat except with only one mast. It had 3 cannons and 8 swivel guns. It was sunken by a british ship. A 24 pound bar shot sank it.

I also saw the Star Spangled Banner. The first American flag. It was much bigger than I imagined.

D.C. trip part 3

We went to the Natural History Museum to see the butterflies. We saw them and they were pretty cool. There was a cool blue Morpho that we couldn't photo since it was always flying. We could actually see the butterflies well since the room was small and many were resting on leaves. They even had cocoons. So many butterflies were there that it was very easy to photograph them. We also saw the ocean exhibit. It showed that one time the great killer of the seas was a ammonite. It was basically a snail! I also saw thatanother beast was a scorpion!

D.C. trip part 2

We went to the Museum of the American Indian. It was pretty cool. The outside was Kasoba limestone or something and the surronding area had decorative statues. We first watched a film in the 'Lelawi Theater'. It was about how Native Americans had roles in the community. We saw some folktales about some weird people who jumped into the sky and became stars. I also saw crafts and canoes and statues. There was also a place called Our People. It had crafts and gold and guns. The gold was all from Inca Peru and the Aztecs. The Spanish made the Incas pay one entire room full of gold and two others full of silver to get their king back. The Spanish, after the ransom was paid, just killed the king and ran away. The guns were all from North America, with a few from Siberia and Europe. It talked about how the guns affected Indian life. The one that looked coolest was the Siberian Eskimo's gun.

D.C. Trip part 1

We went to the Jefferson Library of Congress building. At first, we were about to go to the Madison Building but some one said that there was nothing to see. So we went to the Jefferson Building. We had gone here before but hadn't fully explored it yet. First, at the Info desk, we got 'passports'. It was where you put your passport into a machine and you did Learning Quests about information in that exhibit. I liked the 'Exploring the New World' exhibit the most. It was about the exploration of South America and the Caribbean. In that exhibit, I liked the 'Monster or Human' activity the most. It was where a old mapmaker put random things on his map and you had to decide whether they were monsters or humans.

The sad thing about the Jefferson Building was that you couldn't read any books. All you could do was watch other people read books.

Boreal

Boreal was this skiing place near Lake Tahoe. It had probably eight or nine ski lifts to different ski slopes. I only went on four of them because I was a beginner. The one I liked the most was called Castle Peak. Usually, I would go too fast and fall over. The third or fourth time, I did it without falling. I also liked the smallest one, Nugget. It was fun even though it was small. I never fell down on that slope. My brother showed me Cedar Ridge, which was a crazy one that went to the top of the mountain. Cedar Ridge had a lot of powder snow. I went down a small hill and then got stuck. Besides the powder snow, there were bumps. I went over one and fell on my back. But, all in all, it was pretty fun. The lift on Cedar Ridge was cool as well. It went fast and every time it stopped, it would swing back and forth. The 13th or 12th tower was leaned over so that was a creepy part. The one that I did not like was the Sunset Boulevard thing. It was the tallest one and I was definitely not ready for it. I liked skiing because it was fun and it was something that we never did before.