Travelog for: Plaid Moose

Hi! I'm Plaid Moose! I've been sitting on my owner's desk since she was in college, and with all the talk of traveling from my friend Chocolate Moose, I decided I wanted to do some traveling too! I'm a little shy, so I'm going to travel with my owner. But I can't wait to start seeing the world (or at least the little part outside of my house!)

What a weekend we had! It was my owner's dad's birthday, so we traveled to her sister's house in Pennsylvania to celebrate. First up was my first ever ride in the car! Here we are about to get on the highway...

(can you see the signs for the Capital Beltway? We live just outside of Washington DC - so "outside the Beltway" for those of you who follow US politics!)
Once we got to Pennsylvania we went to the Shrewsbury Amish Market. Here I am at the market...


We walked around for a little bit and bought some treats for the rest of the weekend. Then it was on to my owner's sister's house for a birthday party! There were tons of animals for me to play with there. I really liked playing with them in the tree. Can you find me?

Here I am!

And, of course, there was cake! German chocolate...her dad's favorite!

I got to go to another party! This time the humans were getting together to watch the Super Bowl. My friend Fenway's favorite team, the New England Patriots, were playing, so I was pretty excited to go to the party! My owner, Mara, made her favorite dip, a 7-layer dip that she says is tradition to make for every Super Bowl.

Not what a moose normally eats, but it was really yummy! Watching the game was fun too, even though the Patriots lost (sorry Fenway!!)

Something VERY exciting happened today! A box arrived from France! I know that Calixte is coming for a visit...maybe it's him!

With a little help (moose don't have thumbs!), I got the box open...

...and Calixte was inside!

I am so excited to show him around Fairfax. He wants to see road signs and traffic, and there are LOTS of both around here!

It was an exciting day today! We're expecting a visit from Resi...Calixte was so excited when the mail came! I helped him open the package (he's better with the scissors than I am!)

It's Resi!

After she gets settled in, I can't wait to show her around!

I have been having so much fun with our visitors, Calixte & Resi! Yesterday we decided to take a trip into Washington DC to show them some of the sites!

First, we took the metro into DC. I checked the metro map to figure out our route...

Then we got on the train!

Because Mara lives in the suburbs, we had a long trip, and had to switch stations a couple of times. But finally we were crossing the Potomac River and into the city

Our first stop in Washington DC was for lunch! We went to Chinatown - here I am at the Chinatown arch!

After lunch, we were ready to go to the museum!


Our destination for the day was the National Portrait Gallery, which is part of the Smithsonian. I explained to Calixte & Resi that lots of people think that the Smithsonian is one big museum, but it is actually LOTS of big museums! This one is all art. It also has a very beautiful atrium that has been in the paper a lot. So we stopped there first.

We looked the gallery of portraits of American presidents. I liked this very famous one of George Washington

And we all liked this sculpture of bears!

The biggest excitement of the day was a very strange portrait of Stephen Colbert, a popular tv show host. We watch his show every night - he does a political satire show, and as a joke he tried to get the portrait of himself from his set put in the Smithsonian, and they hung it up here, at the entrance to the bathroom! The funniest thing was how many people were in line to get their picture taken with it! I waited too - so here I am with Stephen Colbert!

It was such a beautiful day, so after walking around the museum, we decided to walk around the Mall a little bit. I told Calixte and Resi that the Mall isn't a shopping mall - it's a big grassy area with monuments and Smithsonian Museums around it! The Washington Monument is at one end...

And the Capital Building is at the other!

We also walked through the garden at the Smithsonian Castle - the main building for the Smithsonian museum!

Everyone here is all excited for the NCAA basketball tournament (college basketball). They call it "March Madness," and everyone goes nuts for it! People fill out brackets to guess who will win, and there are lots of contests and games with it! So, Resi, Calixte, and I decided to play too! We filled out our bracket based on the mascots - we all like animals a lot (and don't know a lot about basketball) so it seemed like the way to go!

We picked West Virginia University to beat Wisconsin in the final. West Virginia won their first two games...and here we are watching Wisconsin play this afternoon!

What a day! This weekend started the National Cherry Blossom Festival. The Cherry Blossom Festival celebrates the gift of 3,000 cherry trees from Japan to the U.S. and is a huge festival every year when the trees bloom along the tidal basin. So we all went into DC today to see the trees and the Jefferson Memorial!
Here I am in front of one of the beautiful trees:

And here I am along the Tidal Basin with the Jefferson Memorial in the background!

Hello! We have been having a lot of excitement the past two days! Yesterday, Bloem arrived - I had never met a tiger before, but this one is so friendly! Right after Bloem arrived we got ready to celebrate Passover. Last night we all traveled with Mara's family to her sister's house for a seder (but we forgot to take pictures!), and tonight we went to her parents' house. First, Bloem, Mister Snow, and I helped to set up for the seder. Here we are getting the seder plate ready:

Next the three of us read from the Haggadah, where we learned about the Passover story & symbols:

And of course we got to taste matzah too!

What an exciting week I am having! We have been worried about my friend Fenway. He left Canada almost two months ago, and hadn't made it to Costa Rica yet. BUT...guess who ended up back in  Canada this week? That's right, Fenway! He's coming home for awhile to recover from his misadventures - I can't wait to talk to him and hear about his trip around the world!

THEN, a new Toy Voyager arrived! After we opened the package, I poked my head in to say hello!

It's Summy! She was visiting Florida, and is now going to spend a few weeks with us! We were all excited to see her!

What a fun weekend we have had! Along with Bloem & Summy, I went to my very first baseball game! We went to see the Washington Nationals play the Pittsburgh Pirates at the brand new Nationals Stadium. I had a great time! The weather was beautiful, and I learned that I really like baseball! Here I am at our seats looking at the huge scoreboard:

And here I am watching some of the game:

Then, I helped Mara keep score...

Look how much fun we're all having!!!

What a fun day we had yesterday! We all went to Baltimore to go see the Red Sox play the Orioles. We watch lots of baseball here - Mara LOVES the Boston Red Sox - so I was really excited to see them play in person! First, we had to drive there...here we are in the car as we entered Maryland (can you see the "Welcome to Maryland" sign on the right side of the highway?)

Once we got to the park, we headed right to the field to watch the players warm up and take batting practice. Here we are close to the field, and with a new friend - the Baltimore Orioles security guard!


We told him that we were toy voyagers - I hope he checks out our travel log and is happy to see his picture!
The game was really fun. I enjoyed cheering for the Red Sox, and even filled out a ballot for the All-Star game!

After the game, we walked around Camden Yards (the stadium) a little bit so we could see the rest of the park. Just outside of the stadium are are giant numbers. I was confused about them until Mara told us that they are for the players who have had their numbers retired. We really liked the "8" which was Cal Ripken Jr.'s number. He is in the Hall of Fame, and Mara saw him play a lot (including getting to go to his last three games)

Then I stopped to get my picture taken in front of the famous Warehouse.

And on the way back to the car we took our picture with the statue of Johnny Unitas in front of the stadium where the Baltimore Ravens (a football team) play.

What a GREAT trip!