Archive for April 2014

2014 Spring Break! - Going to Washington DC Mall as tourists Day 4

Since we didn't get to stay at Myrtle as long as we would like, we left Tuesday evening and came home. On Wednesday we rested and cleaned our house and clothes. And on Thursday, we set off to Washington DC..as tourists! We've been to DC many times but do the casual visiting but this time, with the mentality like we're tourists. (Basically it means we're a little generous and enjoy what's there and not think about what we shouldn't buy..etc)


We started the day going to Maria's Bakery..a little place in Rockville, in fact probably only place in the area that serves Hong Kong style breakfasts. As you see, Abbey ordered a feast.


Though we were late for the Cherry Blossoms by a week, there was still two trees, yeap only two trees left for us to take these cool photos!



Walking around the Tidal Basin close to the Jefferson Memorial, this is a great shot of the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial. The kids were semi-cooperative.


SS requested to have this photo taken...



Normally we wouldn't think about renting a paddle boat on the basin but since we're on the 'tourist mentality state' and the kids kept begging to wanting to paddle there, I gave in and we had a blast!









We peddled around the basin for an hour and though we weren't suppose to switch seats, each of us rotated at least 10 times either because we were tired of peddling, didn't wanted 'someone' to steer, or kept screaming/yelling at one another where I forced them to switch seats or to kick them to the back to calm them down. However out of the whole time, I managed to get some decent photos of the kids. We even peddled so hard to chase a duck for 15 minutes and that duck was playing with us knowing that we will never catch him...such a evil duck.


So along the Tidal Basin from the Jefferson to the Monument, there's a small patch of beautiful tulips in various colors.


















The following photos of the tulips are taken by Clayton. He took them from a different angle and they turn out great! He has a great eye on how to take these photos!















Around the patch of tulips, there's a nice open area of grass where we played frisbee!! Good thing that Clayton brought his bag and I was able to to convince him to bring the frisbee. We had a great time throwing and catching it. It also fulfilled one of his scout requirements!


 FF kept nagging me about wanting to ride on the 'horsey' from the time we were circling the Mall to find parking space to three hours later when we finally get there..she kept nagging. Since the boys were all tired from walking and running, I gave in and let her ride it. I guess she liked it.






Afterward we went to the outdoor Sculpture Garden and Air and Space Museum. They kids were tired after these exhibits and didn't really want to walk back to the car so I had to convince them to walk with getting them Popsicles! that did the trick (except SS dropped it within 5 minutes and mom gave hers to him)





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2014 Spring Break! - Myrtle Beach Day 2

This year we had a short trip due to difficulties with booking the hotel and weather. We only stayed at Myrtle for two days. But we did manage to make the best out of it. Next morning we managed to get a quick breakfast before going to Ripley's Aquarium. I'm glad we bought tickets the night before, the lines to buy tickets were extremely long.



One of the best attractions to the aquarium was the hands-on of touching the sharks and the horseshoe crabs. The kids spent over an hour touching them. (Poor sharks and crabs..)












 
























 After the Manta Ray show, everyone get to go and touch the Rays. It was pretty cool!























 This is the WonderWorks building. It was a cool building!

 SS holding an Africa face mask.

 And at the lake there, there were tons of koi fish that were always hungry for fish food.

The best part was while we were walking around, they smelled fresh made popcorn and couldn't resist but to but some! It was delicious and great while we were walking and eating them. 

Not pictured. We went to Outlet shopping and end up eating dinner at Olive Garden before heading home. Didn't end up buying what we wanted at the outlet since the tax was 11%. At Olive Garden the food and service was so bad that Abbey had to complain to the manager. And on the way home, while everyone was sleeping I drove through torrential rain but did manage to drive home safe.

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