Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

One Saturday in July, my friend, Heather and I went to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Anacostia, Washington D.C. We met up at the metro station closest to the gardens and then walked from the metro to the gardens. It wasn't too far of a walk. 

The Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens have been on my bucket list of things to do in Washington D.C. for a long time and I finally made it there!

On the metro to the gardens! I enjoy taking the metro. I probably wouldn't feel that way if I had to ride it more often, but since I just ride it to do fun things in Washington D.C., I don't mind it. :)

The waterlilies and lotus flowers were in bloom!  

Enjoy the pictures of the pretty flowers and scenery!

 

 

 

 

 Isn't it pretty?!

 

 

 

I loved this two-toned flower! I was a little obsessed with it! (Heather took this picture.) 

 

Look how pretty that flower is! (Heather also took this photo.)

There was a trail in the gardens that led to another trail where we could walk along the Anacostia River. The trail went a long ways and we only walked a little bit on it but it sure was pretty! The picture above was one of the views from the Anacostia River trail.

Some kayakers on the river!

Back at the gardens!

I am so glad that I finally made it to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens! It was beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the pretty flowers and scenery! Thanks Heather for inviting me to join you on this field trip.

Tennessee

I'm getting close to starting my new job. I don't have a start date yet, but hopefully soon. Since I haven't known exactly when my job will start I have been hesitant in planning any trips. But a couple of weeks ago, I knew my job wasn't going to start in the next couple of weeks so I bought a plane ticket to Tennessee to visit my brother, Nate. 

I decided I needed to go then because once my job starts it'll be harder to take time off. I, of course, will still travel once my job starts, but it'll be awhile before I will be able to again because I need time to earn PTO. I found a really good deal on a budget airline and flew to Tennessee the week after I bought the ticket.

It rained and thunderstormed for like three days straight while I was there. I did a lot of reading and watching shows and movies during those days. When it stopped raining, Nate and I went on some hikes not too far from where he lives. 

We went on a hike in downtown Clarksville and one direction of the trail ended on this bridge that led to nowhere.  I just found it so interesting, why not just end the trail before the bridge? Why spend the money on the bridge to nowhere?

 

I guess the views from the bridge were kind of nice though. Maybe it was built to watch the trains go by.

 

I must admit a lot of Clarksville is not very pretty (in my opinion). The architecture of the buildings is functional but not beautiful. 

But on this particular trail we walked on, it was a little nicer part of Clarksville with pretty buildings and bridges.

We ran into this eternal flame on our hike. It's "Dedicated to those patriots who lit the flame of freedom with their lives and to those who continue to fuel the flame with selfless sacrifice and service to our country." (As written on the plaque below the flame.)

A cool looking building on our hike!

I liked the bridge and the mural!

Another cool looking building!

Nate lives in the country and has a great view from the back of his house. This was the view from one of the upstairs bedrooms one morning. I had to take the picture through the screen so it's not the best picture, but you can still tell how beautiful the view from the window was! So pretty!

As I mentioned already, Nate and I went on few hikes while I was there. This was another place we went walking. I don't remember the name of the lake but it was pretty! I also found it super interesting that most of the benches at the lake said NO TOBACCO on it.

A view of the lake from the trail!

I don't think I've mentioned this, but Tennessee was pretty dang hot and humid while I was there. I took this picture trying to show how red and sweaty I was from the heat and humidity, but I don't think you can really tell. Oh well. 🤷

While driving to one of the trails, we saw this on the side of the road. I asked Nate to stop because I was so curious as to what it was. 

The picture below tells a little more about it!

This is Fort Donelson National Battlefield, a Civil War battlefield! I love this place, it is so beautiful!

I visited here the last time I visited Nate also. I loved it both times!

Still on the battlefield! I could just stare at that view all day!

I took this one morning walking near Nate's house. I thought the field and the lighting was just so pretty, although the picture doesn't really do it justice. 

Sometimes I sat on Nate's deck and read my books. Look at that view!

The sky was just so pretty while I was there! This is looking from the back of Nate's house on different evenings!

Overall it was a nice trip with excellent company, lots of pretty views, nice trails, and lots of reading and watching shows time! Thanks Nate for letting me come and visit you!

Alexandria

A few Saturdays ago, I went to Old Town Alexandria with my friend, Heather. I've been to Alexandria before, but it's been a few years and I love it there. :)

 

Heather and I met up at the metro station closest to Old Town and started walking down King Street toward the Torpedo Factory (which was our first stop of the day). We ran into this butterfly mural along the way.

Also a lion!

I just thought I would clarify that I was not actually touching the painting. I just wanted to make it look like I was petting the lion. ;)

I love walking along King Street. There are so many shops and restaurants, it's fun to window shop as well as go into the shops sometimes too.

We made it to the Torpedo Factory. I love visiting there! The building was used as a place to build torpedoes after WW I but eventually became an art center.

Artists have studios here and display their art for sale. The artists are often in their studios so you can talk to them about their art. 

The dinosaur in the picture above is called Gluey Louie. See picture below to learn more about him.

 

I didn't take many pictures at the Torpedo Factory but I thoroughly enjoyed walking around and admiring people's creativity and talent. 

After the Torpedo Factory, we went to an ice cream and custard place. I think I got raspberry cheesecake ice cream and it was delicious!

The Creamery where we got our ice cream.

Our next stop was the Stabler-Leadbetter Apothecary Museum. We arrived at the museum and the next tour wasn't for another 45 minutes or so. We bought our tickets for the tour (which were $8 per person) and then headed over to Captain's Row (not too far away from the museum) until it was time for our tour. 

Captain's Row has cobblestoned streets and many of the homes on the street were built in the 18th and 19th century. It was a beautiful tree lined street with lovely homes. Apparently this street was home to many colonial sea captains and Revolutionary patriots.

The homes on Captain's Row were beautiful, with lovely details.

We spent some time on Captain's Row and then it was time to head back for our tour. 

If you go to the apothecary, I highly recommend doing the guided tour. When you do the guided tour, you get to see upstairs (when you do the self-guided tour, you do not).

The picture above and the picture below were taken by Heather. (I forgot to take pictures on the first floor of the apothecary so Heather let me use her pictures).

The first floor of the apothecary was where the customers would come to buy things when it was opened. I thought it was kind of pretty and well organized. 

This apothecary was in business from 1805 until 1930. A few years after it closed down someone bought the place and wanted to preserve it in the condition it was left in. So the museum we see today is pretty much what it looked like in 1930. I think it's pretty dang cool!

 

Upstairs of the apothecary wasn't quite as pretty but it was really cool to see though!

In the upstairs (where the picture above and below were taken) is where they stored the ingredients they needed for making medicines and also where they would mix the ingredients to make the medicines.

The tour was super interesting and I highly recommend visiting the apothecary if you're ever in Old Town Alexandria.

Just because I think this house is cool, we had to visit the Spite House. It's a house that was built in what used to be an alley. The former owner of one of the houses beside it were tired of people using the alley way as a shortcut and scraping the walls of his home with their horse drawn wagons that he decided to build a house there to close up the alley. 

The house is only 7 feet wide and 25 feet deep. Although the house had been a full-time residence for a long time, the current owner only lives there part-time and will sometimes let his friends and family stay there.

 

At this point of our day, it was time to eat! I had researched restaurants in Alexandria while I was planning the day and found this taco place had good reviews and was decently priced. The food was delicious! I definitely could have eaten another taco but I only ordered two. I enjoyed both of them thoroughly though. :) The taco place was called Don Taco Tequila Bar.

Also, can I just say I was tired from walking out in the heat so I was happy to be in an air conditioned building sitting down?!

Yes, we may have already had ice cream earlier in the day, but that didn't stop us from getting more. :)

We had actually seen this place as we were walking from the metro to our first stop of the day, but it wasn't open yet at that point. We decided to go there on our way back to the metro. 

The ice cream was delicious but it was a little expensive.

Overall it was a good day in Alexandria and we saw a lot of cool things and ate delicious food. Thanks Heather for coming with me on this outing!

The Dentist

This is a really boring post about my tooth pain and dentist appointments... so feel free to skip this post. I write this for my own record.

This last Sunday afternoon, I started feeling pain in my mouth. It wasn't constant but when it was there it was pretty damn painful. It was painful enough and often enough that on Monday afternoon, I called to make a dentist appointment. Since I do not have dental insurance or a job right now, it was a hard to convince myself that I wanted to call, but ultimately decided it was important although I knew it would be expensive. (I actually have a job lined up but I'm waiting for a security clearance and I have no idea how long that will take. But that's a story for another day.)

I set up my appointment for Wednesday morning. Honestly it was hard waiting to go to the dentist from Monday afternoon until Wednesday because I was in quite a bit of pain and pain killers were not helping me. I went to my appointment and the dentist told me I needed a root canal and a crown and she prescribed me antibiotics to help with the infection in my mouth as well as the pain. I know it takes time for antibiotics to kick in, but it never really helped with the pain. 

I set up an appointment with an endodontics office to get my root canal done. I had it scheduled for today, but I was in so much pain and since nothing was helping with the pain, I moved the appointment to yesterday. Thankfully the office had availability on such short notice. 

I went to that appointment and the dentist told me it was worse than she thought and I might have to get my tooth pulled and an implant. She said she would take a closer look at it and see if she thought getting a root canal was worth it. I started bawling at this point and couldn't stop. I felt bad, but I was so overwhelmed with how much this was all going to cost and the thought of being in pain longer that I couldn't help but cry. 

But thankfully when she looked at my tooth closer, she determined that I could get the root canal. I was glad mainly because I was worried about having to deal with the pain for another day (since I would have to go to an oral surgeon to get a tooth pulled) and I know the recovery from getting a tooth pulled is harder than a root canal. I guess getting a tooth pulled is cheaper than a root canal but also getting an implant is super expensive. 

Why do I tell this story? Honestly I don't really know. But I will say that it is super expensive to go the dentist without insurance. (I know it can be expensive with insurance too, but man oh man without insurance it's painful). Although it's going to be expensive for all of my procedures, I think it's worth it because the pain was really bad, it was getting hard to eat and it would've just kept getting worse if I didn't do anything. 

Also, take care of your teeth. It may seem annoying at times, brushing multiple times a day, flossing, getting regular teeth check ups etc but it's worth it if you don't get cavities or need a root canal or other such dental procedures.