Am-Can Adventures - Day 5 Stitching Shops & Driving to NJ

The fifth day and we decided we would have a quiet-ish start to the day and head over to two local stitching shops and then make our way to north New Jersey to meet up with Margaret and possibly Megan.


The first stop, Needlewoman East in Falls Church had a great selection of fibres but not so many cross stitch charts, they seem to have concentrated more on Needlepoint since I was last there. I bought Quaker Diamonds by Rosewood Manor here.

Lovely fibres in Needlewoman East...

Then on to In Stitches in Alexandria which was awesome. I could only dream of having a shop half as good as this near me! And if I could run my own shop it would be like this. So many fibres and charts that I really didn't want to leave. I bought the threads for Quaker Diamonds here (Valdani Perle) and I'm looking forward to starting that project one day soon.

Leaving Virginia and heading to Maryland - state #6 on our tour


We drove under Baltimore harbour through this tunnel which is over 2.3km long

As you can see it has two quite narrow lanes but that doesn't seem to slow people down much!

Entering Pennsylvania - State #7

Philadelphia - The City of Brotherly Love. We didn't stop here, but somehow ended up going into Philadelphia instead of past it and then back out again.

Finally the Comfort Suites Inn at Mahwah New Jersey - too late to meet both Margaret & Megan but plans to meet tomorrow after our day in New York. Beds were gorgeous, huge and comfortable and breakfast in the morning was amazing, but more about that in the next blog post.

Am-Can Adventures - Day 4 Washington DC

Our first sight-seeing day after 3 days of travelling and we were looking forward to getting out and stretching our legs. On this day we walked more than 5 miles around the centre of Washington DC but we still didn't get as far visiting the White House. Maybe next time and we'll try to arrange a tour around (apparently we have to apply to our local Senator for tickets!)

The very Borg-like metro stations, this one was at the Smithsonian where we stopped.

I loved the curves and the minimalist look, though I think I would have preferred slightly brighter lighting. They were very clean. All the stations on the Orange Line we passed through seemed to be identically finished.

The Washington Monument from the National Mall. As you can see DC had already had a coating of snow (about 4-6" in places where it wasn't trodden down)

Looking East towards the Capitol Building. As you can see the National Mall is huge!

Inside the Smithsonian Natural History Museum there were many amazing things to see, here are just a few:

Skeleton of a fossilized Giant Ground Sloth.

A variety of mammoth.

Some malachite in it's natural form, I love this mineral when it's carved, the deep green colour is so beautiful.

Some rocks & minerals with amazing properties...

Here they are glowing under dark light.

These are meteorite specimens.

And this is one of the pieces of moonrock on display.

Some of the fabulous gems in the collection.


And this is the Hope Diamond, one of the owners used to store it under the sofa cushions according to the write up on the wall, even getting her Great Dane to model it!

A 2000 yr old Egyptian mummy and sarcophagus.

Three totem poles in a stairwell.

Skating on a rink in the park outside the Smithsonian.

A tree made of concrete and aluminium in the Sculpture Garden.


This house was by Roy Liechtenstein and was very clever, from which ever position you looked at it the perspective changed, the effect was particularly apparent if you walked slowly around it.

The Capitol Building with a Frozen Reflecting Pool in front of it.

Soyuz spacecraft on display at the National Air and Space Museum

A full size Skylab - you could go in this and see just how cramped the quarters were.

Catherine in front of a Saturn V engine exhaust - with mirrors used to show the huge size of the Saturn V rockets.

Space Ship One

A quick dash to the Smithsonian Museum of American History before it closed to see just one exhibit.

Julia Child's kitchen - I have always loved this woman for her quirkiness and her sense of humour. After watching Julie & Julia and realising that her kitchen was in the Smithsonian we had to visit, though we did not bring a pat of butter with us!

Tom took this quirky picture of the Washington Monument, I can assure you it does actually stand straight and tall so I'm not really sure how he created this effect.

Dusk at the Washington Monument.

Looking down the Reflecting Pool towards the Lincoln Memorial as the sun set.


The adventurous squirrels of the National Mall were only too keen to check us out when me and Catherine sat down for a rest on a bench.

Looking down to the Washington Monument from the Lincoln Memorial

The Washington Monument at night.

The Lincoln Memorial at night.

We loved Washington DC and all of us wanted to go back for more. You would need a week just to go around the various Smithsonian Museums and there were plenty more places we could have visited on our trip.

Am-Can Adventures - Day 3 Visit with Kristin & Drive to Washington DC

As we didn't make it as far as Kristin's house on Day 2, we called in before heading off to Washington DC. It was far too short a visit, especially as it had been 5½ years since my last visit to the USA.

Here's the trusty Sebring after a fresh coating of snow on the morning of Day 3

Kristin's house looking like a Winter Wonderland after the previous day's snowfall.

Finally two old friends reunited. And we were fed delicious chilli and rice for brunch. Sadly we had to leave before long or we would not make Washington DC, our next destination.

Tom ate Fruit Loops but he wasn't very impressed with them!

On the drive up through NC & VA we saw lots of ploughs and gritting lorries and the roads were very clear after the heavy snowfall the day before.

Welcome to Virginia!

Lunch at Denny's - edible but not inspiring.

We went past this really high expressway in Richmond - Pocohontas Parkway (State Route 895) - and of course boys with their toys, we had to double-back and pay the toll just so we could drive across it.

And just in case you think you can get away with going really fast because the police can't catch you, this sign says it all!

And finally Dinner at I-Hop before crashing at an Econo-Lodge in Fairfax VA. This was Tom's dessert and for the first time I can recall in a long time he couldn't eat everything!