The Zoo Part II and Other Random Bits of Life

Well, it's taken me a while to get around to posting the second part of my photos from the zoo. Since then I have also visited the Museum of Natural History and the National Holocaust Museum.

The Museum of Natural History is too big to do in one day, so I just plan to keep going back until I've made it to all of the different areas! Plus, it is very busy and I get tired of the million kids who are there on school trips and couldn't care less about looking at the exhibits.

The Holocaust Museum was also very busy, but luckily I was there in the off season when you don't have to pick-up time cards to the visit the main exhibit. It was very interesting, although after living in Switzerland and studying World War II and the Holocaust while I was in school there, I was surprised by some of the things I thought they very briefly passed over or did not mention that I expected them to spend more time on.

Besides visiting downtown DC, I have also been busy with the last trappings of the move. Primarily, getting a Maryland Drivers License and registering my car here. Getting my car registered here turned out to be more of a fiasco than I expected since they require a long and expensive safety inspection, from which they made me get several hundred dollars worth of work done on my car. The fan belt I was happy to replace as from what I understand that is a rather important thing and bad things happen if it breaks (yes- clearly I am mechanically inclined as I can explain it so well!). They also made me replace this broken piece of plastic on the edge of one of the rear wheel wells. Now, you have to understand my car is plastic and the broken part wasn't sticking out, it was just a big crack. This piece had also been broken for the past three years and the state of Hawaii had twice inspected my car and deemed it safe even with this piece of plastic cracked. But the state of Maryland- NO, they decided it was a clear safety hazard to have a cracked piece of plastic on my car. And could this piece of plastic be replaced while I waited? Of course not. I had to leave my car for two days and get a rental car because the stupid piece of plastic needed to be painted and the stupid paint had to dry. (Okay- I will concede that I am not ghetto enough to drive around with a different colored part on one piece of the car, so the paint part was necessary.)

I have also found a great church out here and I have recently started attending a Bible Study at the church and a small group in my area. I already love the ladies in my small group and feel so blessed to have found them. They are so much fun! They get together every Wednesday night, but they often get together on other days/weekends for impromptu things like to go out to dinner and a movie or to have a potluck and play boardgames. Over the past couple of years almost all of my friends have been from work, so it is fun to find girls outside of work but also single and with careers to hang out with.

Anyways, here are the pictures from the zoo:

Does this not look like the worlds largest Guinea Pig?

Visiting the Zoo

This weekend I took my first Metro ride and went to the zoo. I managed to figure out how to purchase and use the reusable electronic card with the help of some nice strangers. I also managed to get on the train going in the correct direction and get off at the correct stop. It was so warm, I figured it was the perfect time to go to the zoo. Here's some of the photo's I took. More to come later. I would explain what all the animals are, but if it's not obvious what they are, I probably don't remember either. The lion and the tiger tied for my favorite of the day. The Lion posed so nicely, but the tiger was playing with his toys and that was pretty entertaining to watch.

Penguins at the Hyatt

One of the things I loved most about Maui was that my property was right next to the Hyatt and the Hyatt has several different types of birds at their property including penguins. If you're feeling sorry for the Penguins thinking they must have hated the warm weather, you should know these Penguins come from South Africa not Antarctica and are used to warm weather. The last couple of months I was there Brandi and I walked over to the Hyatt at lunch time for a little exercise, so I got to see the Penguins a lot. The day I took my camera along there was also a Heron fishing in their pond.

Last Days at the Maui Ocean Club

One of my last days at the Maui Ocean Club I walked around and took some final photos of the property.



Here is where the high tides washed out the bank and also part of the beach walk.


The falls and pond just under the Welcome Center.

Part of the super pool.

Another part of the super pool and the water fall and cave you can swim into.


The pond and waterfall in the lobby.

Another view of the falls and pond under the Welcome Center.

The view of the pool from the lobby area.

The waterfall and pond by the front entrance, along the circle drive.

Brandi by the waterfall at the entrance.

Where I Live Now

It's been a while since I have blogged, but I am finally moved in and mostly unpacked. It is just the pesky little things like hanging photos and organizing my craft stuff in the second bedroom that still remains to be done. I don't want to take any pictures inside until I get rid of all the empty boxes and paper and the boxes of stuff for the Salvation Army. I'm so proud of myself for how much stuff I am giving away. I am a consummate pack rat and it's hard for me to give away or throw away things even if I haven't used them in years. I always feel like I'm going to give it away and then the day will come that I need whatever it was.

I love my new place. The kitchen and bathrooms are outdated, but lets face it- that's to be expected unless you're willing to pay a significant premium for a brand new or newly remodeled place. The location is great- really can't be beat. I'm in a little town that still has lots of stores close by, I'm close to the interstate for getting to work, and I am right on a lake.

Here's some pictures of the outside of the buildings:

Notice how the snow looks surprisingly shiny? We had an ice storm earlier this week. That was my first ice storm ever and it was pretty interesting. My car looked like a giant ice sculpture and it took me almost a half hour to chisel the ice off the windows so I could drive to work. The upside? All the schools were closed and there was much less traffic on the roads so I made it to work in about 20 minutes.

Here's the view from my balcony. It's hard to see the edge of the lake because it is frozen over and white like rest of the ground is:

You can kind of make out the foot bridge and trail (white strip) in the picture above. Here's a close up of the bridge (also taken from my balcony).

Here's a picture of the lake I took from a different spot along the shore this afternoon. The trail is still really icy, but I was able to get down to to the shore at this spot because it's by an open grassy area where more of the ice was melted.