Day 107: All Good Things... (10/27/2010)

We woke up at 8 am and quickly threw the last of our things into our bags. The train arrived in the L.A. station at 8:20 am. Noone could tell us what track we could find the Coaster bound for San Diego on, but Davin saw a coaster out of the train’s window so we knew which way to head. We had no idea if we could catch it, but we were going to try! We did know that the Coaster was scheduled to leave at 8:30 am, so we only had 10 minutes to run and grab it.

We made it in plenty of time thanks to Davin’s eagle vision. Had we needed to go back to the station terminal to consult the monitors we would never have made it in time. I called mom to alert her to the change in plans. We would be arriving early!!

We arrived in San Diego around 11 am. Then we had to wait for mom and Scott to arrive. We had a very happy reunion. It was so strange to be back!


At home, we gathered together all our luggage and suitcases we had accumulated on the trip and took a “WE MADE IT!” picture. (Actually, we took several!) Can you believe all the crap we initially took with us?? We mailed two suitcases and a box home so we wouldn’t have to drag them around with us anymore! When you plan to use public transportation, and walk to your destinations, you should pack a lot lighter than we did! Hahaha.


Then we spent the rest of the day relaxing, and chatting about our experiences. I unpacked various gifts for mom and Scott. The rest of the unpacking can wait. It always takes me a few weeks to get unpacked after a long trip. (Much to my mother’s chagrin!) =D

It’s SO good to finally be HOME!


(FINALLY! We got the picture right!)

And so, we came full circle. This journey came to a close, but there will be future adventures. And when the next one comes, our Tenhunen Travels will BE CONTINUED...

Day 106: Homeward Bound! (10/26/2010)

Today I woke up at 11 am. Our steward signed us up for lunch at noon, but Davin wasn’t hungry so we pushed it back until the last call at 2 pm. I survived off of chips and salsa and Dr. Pepper until lunchtime.

Meanwhile, I read links and watched the Texas scrub go by. I saw a wild boar darting through the bushes!! That was exciting. :) In the afternoon, the train made a thirty minute stop in El Paso, so we were able to get off and stretch our legs. We didn't stay outside too long however, because Texas is too damn hot!


We had our lunch at 2 pm. I had the hamburger, and Davin tried the sandwich (though I really recommended against it. I had the sandwich on the way to New York and it wasn't good!) In the end, Davin took his food to go because he wasn’t feeling well.

Then I finished reading all the links I had printed to my laptop. I moved on to watching Voyagers. Around 11 pm we packed up our things and went to bed. Tomorrow we’ll be arriving home!

Day 105: Hurricanes, Alligators, and a Day of Voyagers (10/25/2010)

We woke up at 10 am today. I had a disgusting store bought blueberry muffin for breakfast (the last of the Washington D.C. stash). We checked out of the hotel at 11 am and walked back to the train station. We got there around 11:20 am.

We had the ticket agent print out our L.A. to San Diego tickets so we would have them for our transfer in a few days. Our train left at 11:55am. We arranged to go to the earliest lunch because we had basically skipped breakfast. Then both of us went and hung out for an hour in the observatory car. It was interesting to see New Orleans residential suburbs go by. You could really see the destitution left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Homes were falling apart, and other neighborhoods seemed partially abandoned. We also saw alligators lounging in ponds!


For lunch I had chicken curry, and we were seated with the couple in the sleeping car across for us (our neighbors, so to speak). They were a friendly middle aged married couple.

Back in our room we set up Davin’s computer. Our neighbors and cabin attendant were very amazed by the whole thing. :) Then I watched some Voyager episodes and read internet links that I had printed to PDF in New Orleans. Besides the rocking, train rides are very relaxing. There is nothing to do but enjoy the scenery and stay occupied with the fun things you’ve brought with you.

Dinner was at 7:15pm. We sat with our neighbors again! We chatted about Davin’s computer, among other things. This time I ate the chicken enchiladas.

I wrapped up the evening by watching several more Voyagers, and went to bed around midnight.

Day 104: "Yours Orders Are to Proceed to New Orleans. There You Will Locate, and Consume Chicken Jambalaya." / "Yes, Captain!" (10/24/2010)

Today I woke up at 11:40am. We made breakfast out of the sweet rolls I pilfered from our Washington D.C. hotel's breakfast. Davin took a nice long bath and shower. Meanwhile, I worked on uploading diary entries to the blog.

We weren’t very motivated to go out and sight see. The trip has just slowly worn us down. Both of us look forward to being home again. At 1pm, we finally got out of the hotel. We walked to the French Quarter. We just looked in shop windows and admired the architecture. Eventually we came to the river, and walked along that for awhile. Then we turned back toward the shops and restaurants.


We really only had one thing we wanted to do in New Orleans: Eat Chicken Jambalaya! Why, you ask? I’m so glad you want to know! We wanted to eat chicken Jambalaya in New Orleans because Captain Sisko makes it ALL the time on Deep Space 9, of course! Capt. Sisko grew up in New Orleans and learned how to cook from his father who owns a restaurant there. Anyway, neither of us had ever had chicken Jambalaya, so it seemed fitting to try it in the town where Capt. Sisko learned to cook it himself. =D


So, to accomplish this goal, we started casing restaurants for this mystery meal. It didn’t take long to find one that had it. We kept looking though, but ultimately walked around the block to get back to the restaurant we found in the first place. There we had a delicious meal.


At this point, we were both hot and tired and ready to go back to the hotel. We had one more errand to run though. We needed to find Dr. Pepper for the train ride home tomorrow. We bought some soda at Walgreens. I also found some really awesome neon green socks with purple skulls and crossbones on them. I really love these socks!

We returned to the hotel at 4 pm. I spent the rest of the afternoon/evening working on the blog. At dinner time we walked aross the street to a pizza place and got a pizza. It was decent. After that, it was time for bed!

Day 103: Next Stop, New Orleans! (10/23/2010)

I slept okay last night. I had another earthquake dream. I think it’s funny that I keep dreaming about earthquakes when I sleep on these shaking trains. I’m a real California girl! I woke up at 10am EST and watched the scenery go by for an hour. Then I changed the time back to 10am CST. It’s nice to do something for an entire hour and not have any time go by!

I spent the morning watching two Voyagers. At noon, we went to lunch in the dining car. It took forever for our food to arrive. Apparently one of the waiters was called off duty, so a single man had to wait on us all.

Back in the room, Davin and I lamented how hot it was. Everyone else's rooms were too cold! In our room it was like a sweltering California day. We were stripping down just to get comfortable.

I worked on catching up our blog for awhile, and then watched two more Voyagers. Finally, I ended up taking a nap.

Dinner was early because our train was arriving in New Orleans at the usual dinner time. We ate around 4:30pm. Then we switched rooms so the sleeping car attendant could make up our room for new customers. I worked on making a ‘Trip Highlights’ folder on my laptop. It consists of all my favorite pictures from the entire trip.

Eventually it was time to pack up. The train arrived in New Orleans at 8:05pm. It was a quaint little train station compared to New York or Washington D.C.

It was a 15 minute walk to our hotel. When we arrived we called mom to let her know we made it safe and sound. Then I took a relaxing bath, and did some more work catching up on the blog updates. I went to bed around 12:30am.

Day 102: Washington D.C., a Final Glimpse (10/22/2010)

Today I woke up at 9:45am, and went down to bring some breakfast up to our room. We slept a tiny bit more, then ate breakfast, and packed up our bags. We were ready just in time to check out at noon. Then we took the shuttle to the metro.

We rode the metro to Union Station today and dropped our luggage off at Club Acela. One of the perks of having first class sleeper tickets is that you get to use Club Acela for free (when you’re at a city that has one).

It was about 1:30pm once we got our bags squared away. I was ready for lunch, so we bought a couple of gyros from the food court. Only after the food arrived did Davin realize he wasn’t hungry yet... so he took his gyro to go.

After lunch, we walked to the Library of Congress. We arrived there about 2:30pm. We admired the architecture and looked through the window into one of the library areas. It seemed pretty nice.



Next we walked toward the Aerospace Museum. We stopped in to look at the Botanical garden on the way. It was nice but it obviously couldn’t compare to the Eden Project in England.


Then we popped into the Aerospace museum.


We admired all the planes, and we were amused by how we had already covered much of the contents by visiting the Kennedy Space Center. It was neat to see the exhibit about the Wright brothers’ original plane. We also enjoyed the digital display showing daily air traffic over the USA by the hour.


When we finished with the Aerospace Museum, we walked back to the National Archives. This time there was a line just to get through security, so we decided to forget visiting the Constitution all together. Been there done that, after all.

We returned to the Natural History Museum. It was about 3:30pm when we arrived, so we had two hours to peruse the exhibits. First we saw the Mammals of the World exhibit. There as an interesting video about the evolution of mammals. Then we visited Human Origins, which was a very interesting exhibit. I especially enjoyed the comparisons of different extinct hominid skulls, and the reconstructions of whole ancient hominid skeletons.

Next we went upstairs and walked quickly through the Gems and Minerals exhibit. We saw the Hope diamond, which was very unimpressive, though a nice color. Also we saw the largest flawless crystal ball in the world.

Lastly, we visited the ancient civilization of Cyprus. That was a good exhibit. I enjoyed looking at all the artifacts. It was interesting to see their culture and technology evolve over thousands of years.

At 5:30pm the museum closed, and we walked back to Union Station. We arrived just as they were calling for our train to board. Perfect timing! We got on board and settled in. Then we ate dinner in the dining car. I had mannicotti, and Davin had clam chowder.

Back in our room, I bullet pointed the last few days, and watched a couple Voyagers. Davin worked on his RPG and watched Voyager as well. I went to bed around midnight.

Day 101: Supreme Court, National History Museum, and Nighttime Monuments (10/21/2010)

Today I got up at 9:15am. I went down to the continental breakfast and brought a pile of stuff back to our room. Then I went back to bed until 10am. We had breakfast, and I worked on the blog until noon. We weren’t in a huge hurry to get into town today because we planned to stay late to visit all the monuments lit up at night. We left the hotel around 12:30pm and walked to the metro because the shuttle wasn’t at the hotel at the moment. It took us about twenty minutes to walk. We were on the metro and on our way around 1:15pm, and in town by 2pm. We took the metro to a different station today: Capitol South.


We walked from the metro to the Supreme Court building. We arrived just in time to join the 2:30pm talk in the court room. It was interesting to learn the history of such an amazing building. The architecture and design of the building is truly amazing. I loved the Supreme Court building. It seems like a fitting place for the highest court of the land to work. I simply felt inspired by being in the court room with its marble pillars and four sculpted reliefs.


Next we walked to the National Archive. We went inside and browsed some old documents from our nation’s history. We decided to skip the viewing of the Constitution because there was a 20 minute long line.

We went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum instead. We arrived at 4:30pm and had one hour to look around before it closed. We perused the dinosaur fossil section, and the ancient sea fossil section. It is a vast museum with many interesting things to see, so we plan to go back tomorrow to see more. At ten to closing, we were rudely ushered towards the nearest exit. We weren’t allowed to even finish reading the sign we were on at the time! The security guards probably really hate tourists, hehehe.




We made our way back to the WW2 memorial. I actually really like this memorial. I think it has a nice, contemplative design, and like it’s historical reference to both theaters of the war: Pacific and Atlantic. We waited at the monument for the free 6pm Ranger talk about the ‘Battle for Moscow’. It was very interesting, and our two rangers were very amiable. It would have sucked to be in either Hitler’s or Stalin’s armies.

It was dark when the talk was over. My plan for sightseeing until dark worked perfectly! The only downside was that it was very cold, so we were now freezing our asses off! It was very nice to see the Washington monument lit up, and the Lincoln memorial. The WW2 memorial was also very nice in the dark. I took pictures of them all.



Next, we walked to the FDR memorial. It was very different from the others. It is just an expansive area fashioned out of natural rocks and with lots of waterfalls. The other memorials are very Greek in style. We enjoyed it’s uniqueness. Then we continued to walk around the lake to Jefferson’s memorial. It is in the Greek style of the other impressive memorial and buildings in the Mall area. It was a nice memorial, very large, very impressive.




Our nighttime tour of the monuments over with, we headed for the metro. We took the metro back to Franconia-Springfield. We arrived there about 9pm. Then we walked back to the mall that we had passed on our walk this morning. We stopped in Target to buy train ride supplies: Dr. Pepper and chips. From there we walked to the nearby Silver Diner. It was a bit pricey but all of the food was locally grown or produced. I like old fashioned Diner type restaurants. I had a turkey cheeseburger, and Davin had a regular cheeseburger. We split a chocolate shake. It always amazes me that when you split a shake you get two full sized glasses. How one person could essentially drink two shakes is beyond me!

It was a short walk the rest of the way to the hotel. It was damn cold outside so we high tailed it back as fast as we could. We got back to our room around 10:30pm. Then I worked on my blog until bed at 12:30am.