It was planned for such a long time: Thomas, Michael and Norma wanted to visit me in March for 2 weeks. We were all so excited but just one week before the scheduled departure, Mia, Norma's child got sick and the result was that Norma unfortunately and sadly enough had to cancel the entire trip. Thomas and Michael nevertheless decided to come and on March 8, in the late afternoon I picked them up at Philly airport. It was so good to see them after such a long time being away! To me, it felt like as if they also brought a taste of home with them.
As I had to work the following 2 days, they rented are car in order to be independent and flexible. We picked up the car and went home. To keep them a bit longer awake, I decided to take them out to the 'Cheesecake Factory', a restaurant which has normal dinner meals but their specialty is the huge range of cheesecakes as dessert. Saying this, the boys got introduced to the American way of being hosted in a restaurant (where the waiter introduces himself: "Hi, my name is Bob and I am your waiter tonight") as well as the enormous portions in this restaurant and they also tasted their first American beer. While I was at work the next day, they made their way to Philly and explored the 'City of Brotherlove'. In the evening we met for another intern farewell dinner. On Wednesday they decided to visit some spots in Philly again while I was at work. When I came home from work, we packed our stuff together, threw it in the car and off we went for Washington, as I took the next 2 days off from work. Tyra, a very close friend from high school lives there and we were lucky to stay with her.
Our Thursday started with a bus ride to the Washington Capitol. I had booked a free tour in advance for the Capitol. After this little education about American history, we strolled down "the Mall". This is the mile where you can find all the museums in Washington and this is also called the Smithsonian. Almost all museums don't charge for admission which is great! We didn't entered any of them this day as we saved it for the next day because we heard about rain for Friday in the weather forecast.
Arriving at the Washington Monument, we couldn't get any tickets to get up there because all the tickets for the day were already issued. So we just continued walking down to the Second World War Memorial and continued to the Lincoln Memorial. After taking the typical tourist pictures, we decided to walk over the bridge to the next Metro station and went back to the City centre to make our way to the White House. Being exhausted from the sightseeing, we were happy to hang out in the evening with Tyra and her boyfriend Christoph at home with a glass of wine.
As I had to work the following 2 days, they rented are car in order to be independent and flexible. We picked up the car and went home. To keep them a bit longer awake, I decided to take them out to the 'Cheesecake Factory', a restaurant which has normal dinner meals but their specialty is the huge range of cheesecakes as dessert. Saying this, the boys got introduced to the American way of being hosted in a restaurant (where the waiter introduces himself: "Hi, my name is Bob and I am your waiter tonight") as well as the enormous portions in this restaurant and they also tasted their first American beer. While I was at work the next day, they made their way to Philly and explored the 'City of Brotherlove'. In the evening we met for another intern farewell dinner. On Wednesday they decided to visit some spots in Philly again while I was at work. When I came home from work, we packed our stuff together, threw it in the car and off we went for Washington, as I took the next 2 days off from work. Tyra, a very close friend from high school lives there and we were lucky to stay with her.
Our Thursday started with a bus ride to the Washington Capitol. I had booked a free tour in advance for the Capitol. After this little education about American history, we strolled down "the Mall". This is the mile where you can find all the museums in Washington and this is also called the Smithsonian. Almost all museums don't charge for admission which is great! We didn't entered any of them this day as we saved it for the next day because we heard about rain for Friday in the weather forecast.
Arriving at the Washington Monument, we couldn't get any tickets to get up there because all the tickets for the day were already issued. So we just continued walking down to the Second World War Memorial and continued to the Lincoln Memorial. After taking the typical tourist pictures, we decided to walk over the bridge to the next Metro station and went back to the City centre to make our way to the White House. Being exhausted from the sightseeing, we were happy to hang out in the evening with Tyra and her boyfriend Christoph at home with a glass of wine.
The weather forecast became true: We woke up and heard the rain drizzling outside. With our perfect German planning :-), we managed to have almost all the attractions left which are inside. Only our first stop was outdoors: We took the car and drove down to Arlington. Our first picture session took place in pouring rain at the Iwo Jima Memorial. When we entered the Arlington cemetary, the rain fortunately became lighter. We walked around, saw J.F. Kennedy's grave with the eternal flame and caught a glimpse of a funeral. I have to say that Arlington really impressed me but I cannot even describe it.
Our next attraction on our 'list-to-see' was the National Museum of Natural History which is famous from the movie 'Nights at the Museum 2'. After that we went to see the National Air and Space Museum. Both of these museum are so such and bear so much variety that you could easily spend a day in each of them. For the evening, we had decided to try out an Italian restaurant in Georgetown. Later on, we met Tyra and Chris at home again. They both had just finished to pack for their Las Vegas Trip. We also packed our stuff together as we were about to leave for Atlantic City the next morning.
For more visual impressions, visit my digital photoalbum:
Our next attraction on our 'list-to-see' was the National Museum of Natural History which is famous from the movie 'Nights at the Museum 2'. After that we went to see the National Air and Space Museum. Both of these museum are so such and bear so much variety that you could easily spend a day in each of them. For the evening, we had decided to try out an Italian restaurant in Georgetown. Later on, we met Tyra and Chris at home again. They both had just finished to pack for their Las Vegas Trip. We also packed our stuff together as we were about to leave for Atlantic City the next morning.
For more visual impressions, visit my digital photoalbum:
No comments:
Post a Comment