Wednesday August 7th, 2024
My wife knows that I get stir crazy if I go for too long without camping or travelling and has purchased a weekend trip to Washington DC.
Two days, one night, a nice hotel and two Amtrak rides.
The goal: Get a ton of U.S. National Park cancellation stamps and stickers.
I have been attempting to map the locations of the various stamps, but there are so many!
I have about half of them mapped at the moment thanks to www.parkstamps.org which I have recently renewed my membership to.
Postcards! I sent one to Ukraine.
This card is from Guadalupe Mountains National Park out in West Texas. One of the last places I visted before moving to New York City.
Thursday August 8th, 2024
I’ve been on a roll with postcards. On this day I sent one to The Netherlands.
The recepiant is a former postal courier, so I used extra USPS stickers and my favorite stamps.
This postcard is from the Natural History Museum here in NYC.
Speaking of the musuem, I got a penny stamped while I was there, but I could not find it when I got home.
It was in my wallet.
Penny found.
Friday August 9th, 2024
Another day, another postcard with postcrossing.com.
As I get closer to the 100 cards sent mark that will increase my limit by one, I am more driven to continue to send cards out.
Today’s card is one of the shortest distances as it went just across the border into Canada near Toronto.
This card was very old and I used a bit of tape to keep it together as the layers of paper were separating.
Y’know what? It’s been a while since I sent my pal Tony in Michigan one of my “dud” postcards.
Here you go, Tony.
As this is a large postcard with a non-standard size, I used a forever stamp instead of a postcard stamp.
(And I used good stamps to make up for the postcard that is a kind-of-plain design).
See?
I don’t use those one cent stamps very often.
Off to bed early tonight for tomorrow I leave Penn Station on an Amtrak at around 5 in the morning.
Day bag packed.
Big bag packed.
Lovely journal that my wife purchased for me for my upcoming birthday packed and put together.
Little backpack in big backpack? Check.
Saturday August 10th, 2024
4:53 am
I realize that the bus & train combination that I had planned on taking has less walking time, but also has a less reliable bus and so I decide to walk further to take a single train to Penn Station.
During this walk I realize I forgot to bring my water bottle.
Oops.
I broght along some recording equipment as pictured above in case I feel like making a YouTube video.
I am taking a lot of b-roll footage of the walk through Queens, Manhattan and the subway for this and at 5:15 am I get a glorious view of a large subway rat.
I did not snap a picture, so here is a recreation of the event.
Successful trip to Penn station where I wait for the gate announcement.
5:46 am The gate is announced and I make my way to the center of the station and a man in the waiting area alerts me that I had left my baseball cap behind.
Thanks random train guy. I appreciate you.
I also realize that I didn’t bring the strap for the camera in my backpack as well.
Heck.
The Amtrak ride is uneventful.
I can see that they pack these to be full, which makes sense.
In my mind an Amtrak ride has plenty of room to lounge and have some space to yourself, but I can see now that this is not the case.
I am very glad to have this experience because I have been trying to determine if it would be possible to use a coach seat on an Amtrak as a place to sleep as part of a long trip around the country.
I do think it is possible, but I also think I’d rather just sleep in a tent.
I am very excited that they have outlets, though I do wish they were more easily available for the folks with the aisle seats.
The train arrives in Washington DC about seven minutes early.
Off to the hotel about two blocks down the road to stow my bag until check-in time.
Noting to myself that there is a stamp gallery here.
Spoiler: I forgot all about this until seeing this image while writing this blog post.
Great news, the hotel just let me check in early.
It is a nice room at a nice hotel for a reasonable price, though.
And you better believe that I’ll be using the provided robe.
The view does not meet the expectations as described by the hotel. Hmm.
I like this hotel, but they’re overselling and not meeting expectations in some areas.
The best thing about this hotel is the artwork, though.
Well, with the bag stowed in my hotel room, I’m off to begin the adventure of gathering park stamps & stickers!
Ohh, neat flowers here.
Neat squirrels, too.
They have ghost tails.
Spooky ghost tail aura!
Oh shit! It saw me!
Time to wait for an American bus which as we all know is never late (it was super late).
The good news is that the machine that takes money was also down and so it was a free ride.
As a reminder I have forgotten my water bottle (I bought a bottle of water at the Penn station Walgreens), my camera strap and sunscreen.
Heck. I forgot the sunscreen, too.
My wife Lauri even put it on top of my backpack and I somehow took it off of my backpack without putting it inside of my backpack.
Dang.
Okay, so there’s a CVS near the monuments, I’ll just get off the bus early and walk there.
I did not get off at the correct location.
The bus stopped at every stop along the way, so I did not bother to pull the string to notify the bus driver that I needed off and the only stop skipped was the one that I needed.
So I got off at the Jeferson memorial instead.
I could just walk around a little bit and then get the sunscreen…
No! That’s sunburned guy talk!
Just get the sunscreen.
It’s only a twenty minute walk.
So the Jefferson Memorial.
It’s a boob on pillars.
We all see this, right?
Get your mind out of the gutter, Levi.
…
I have nothing to say about the Washington monument.
Just get to the sunscreen, Levi.
Great news, I don’t much care for CVS and so when I walked past a marina, I stopped in to search for sunscreen and not only did they have it, they had it in a travel size for a reasonable price.
Sunscreen success!
Back to the monuments!
Heh heh.
Penis.
The Jefferson memorial looks much different on the other side.
And they have lots of cancellation stamps!
“Four stamps in one location, this must be heaven.” I thought as I greedily stamped my passport book.
A few notes about the Jefferson memorial.
- The air conditioning here is terrible.
- There’s a basement in the Jefferson Memorial, but not the Alamo?
- The ranger here is delightful.
- Four cancellation stamps gained and noted in my journal as I suspect there may be some repeats at upcoming locations.
- Check out this book! I bet it has great stories in it.
Back up to the elevator and on to the next location!
…
I should bask in some Jefferson before I leave.
Basking complete!
I don’t know what this memorial is called, but it has many waterfalls and it made me cry a little.
Before the sad part, I had a naughty moment.
I saw the stones that went out into the fountain and they have to be for getting to the middle of the pond, right?
I’m sure this is intentional.
I live here in the U.S. They can’t deport me if I’m not supposed to do this.
It’s only a few steps.
There’s other footprints here, so plenty of people are doing this.
One more step to go.
Made it.
The view is more delightful when it’s naughty.
See?
This view is delightful.
And then I got kicked out of the park.
Kidding kidding!
I didn’t get kicked out of the park.
I simply read the messages and viewed the statues as I worked my way to the FDR bookstore.
I gave the good puppy statue a head pat.
This is the one that made me cry.
Amazing art in the next area.
WHAT!?
THE FDR BOOKSTORE HAS NINE STAMPS!?!?!?!
Amazing!
Two are repeats from the Jefferson Memorial, but that’s still seven new cancellation stamps!
Oh, this looks neat.
I’m not much into scrapbooking, but I like to have craft bits and bobs around for various projects.
I should check over my notes about the locations to visit.
There are a few special places I would like to visit like the Office of the Interior where the instructions say to request to go to the library and then to request the cancellation stamp.
Oh…
It’s only open on weekday.
Okay, well an excuse to come back.
There’s no way that I’m going to get all of the stamps that are available here anyway.
On to the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Bookstore.
Seven stamps here, only one is a repeat.
Note that the unlabeled ones are Junior Ranger stamps, by the way.
Next up is the Lincoln Memorial Bookstore.
On the walk to this location I saw a group of people with various signs walking the opposite direction.
Some kind of a rag tag march.
I’ll be honest. I couldn’t tell if these were insurrectionistsor trolls until one of them handed me a card.
Oh good. They’re trolls.
I’m sure they’re a good cause, but I really had no idea what was going on when I first saw them.
On to the Lincoln Mem bookstore.
Note that the regular bookstore is closed and this is being held in a temporary portable.
Remember portables from grade school?
Nine stamps, only one repeat.
Nice.
This area is the densest location of stamps and so from here on there will be more traveling.
Time to see the Lincoln Memorial.
I overheard a ranger talking and he noted one hand open and one closed, but I did not hear the explanationso we’ll say that Lincoln was preparing to stand up and give a fist bump to George Washington.
That’s probably what was happening.
1:49 pm Time to visit The Lockkeeper’s House.
Only two stamps here, but this is one on my “must get” list during this visit. (Go ahead and say that out loud).
There’s a lot of stamps in DC that didn’t get their own listing in this collector’s edition version of the passport book and so I used the heck out of this page.
Two more stamps acquired.
I need to eat soon.
I’m so close to the White House, let’s head to the visitor center and get a few more stamps over there.
Three new stamps here (I’m not bothering with the junior ranger stamps).
This place feels a little bit like Christmas.
Probably due to the many Christmas themed items in the gift shop.
Y’know what?
People are right.
The White House is smaller in person.
See? Christmas items.
Several places had these medallions for sale.
I did not purchase any.
Ohh, these are nice.
Blue Room jigsaw puzzle?
I put serious consideration into purchasing this.
Okay, I really need to eat.
I did some research into unique places to eat and nearly all of the suggestions were $300+ meals, except for one.
I had my choices narrowed down to three items and asked the server which is best and we landed on the Lamb slider.
With a Dulce De Leche milkshake.
And fries, of course.
Oh look, there’s my notes on the left that I am using to write this blog.
One small thing.
This restaurant adds a mandatory %20 tip.
I don’t mind, but there’s also a tip option when the bill comes back.
This was stated on the initial bill, but not noted on the credit card slip.
Make of this what you will.
4:04 pm Old Stone House
Closed?
Heck.
They should be open soon.
I can be patient.
The ranger returned from grabbing lunch as I was taking these pictures.
Nine stamps. I might have one of these already? It’s getting hard to tell.
Ther was a guy here wearing a Hawaiian shirt with tractors on it and whenvrer I see a tractor on clothes I can’t stop myself from telling this joke.
“Oh man. The tractor on your shirt. That’s really bumming me out. My… My tractor left me recently. All I got was a John Deer letter.”
Luckily this guy 1. thought the joke was funny and 2. was excited that someone knew it was a tractor on the shirt.
We had a nice chat.
I forgot to take pictures.
The stamps are at the box office window, which is a little bit awkward.
Luckily the theater was closed for the day and so I was able to score two more stamps before deciding it was time to rest my feet.
And by “Rest my feet.” I mean “Return to the hotel and take a nap.”
It was hard to get up again, but I did and I went and had a nice burger and a couple of drinks at the hotel’s bar and restaurant.
It’s a nice bar and a great staff.
I explained that I don’t like the taste of alcohol in hopes of getting a fruitier drink that does a good job of masking the flavor and the drink that I got was delicious and had not a hint of alcoholic flavor.
Or alcohol, I found out.
I accidentally ordered a mocktail.
The aioli pictured here is truly a thing of beauty.
Time to use that robe back in the hotel room.
Look at this saucy panda with his matching glasses.
Oops, you can see a reflection of my butt on the glass.
Made you look.
Left a note for the room cleaners.
Good night sweet District of Columbia.
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