Easter Island

We boarded a plane in Santiago, Chile at 5:30 in the morning on Thursday bound for Easter Island, after traveling all day and night the previous day. Jeff had upgraded us to first class, so we could stretch out and get some sleep, and it was a brilliant move on his part. We arrived well-rested and ready to begin a new adventure. That first day, our priorities were showering and finding a place to do laundry, and we had moderate success with both. The shower was cold but got us clean, and we were told that the only laundry facility on the island had "blown up" last week. However, our landlord's mother offered to do our laundry, so we were not completely out of luck. After those important tasks were taken care of and our national park tickets and groceries were purchased, we found a place to have lunch and then visited an awesome playground overlooking the ocean. The kids played there happily while Jeff and I wandered down the path to see our first moai statues, which was just amazing. We have both always wanted to visit Easter Island (also known as Rapa Nui), and we couldn't believe we were actually here! We all reconvened just as the sky opened up and started spilling its contents, and we headed back to our cozy little cabin.

The next day, we set out to explore the tiny island, which has a total area of only 63 square miles and contains three volcanos but only one town. The drive along the coast is absolutely stunning, and we had so much fun stopping to look at all the moai, especially the large group of 15 that stands on the coast and the ones scattered along the slopes of the Rano Rarraku volcano, which is believed to be the birthplace of all 887 statues on the island. We also visited another volcano, Rano Kau, which houses a mysterious village and has amazing views of the Pacific. It also has an amazing crater, which is now filled with a freshwater lagoon that acts like a greenhouse for many different types of plants. There is one spot from which you can view all these things at roughly the same time, and we believe it may be one of our favorite places on Planet Earth. Later in the evening, we had dinner at Pea, which sits right on the water.

On Saturday, we set out for another day of exploring, revisiting a few places and hitting some of the sites we had skipped during the rain storm that moved through the day before. We kept being astounding that we were actually here! It is such an amazing place and has been on our bucket list forever. We ended the day with an amazing dinner at Te Moana.

Today was our last day on the island, but we had time to visit the museum and Rano Kau again before our afternoon flight. We are so thankful we had the opportunity to visit this magical place!

Moai

Rano Kau
Clockwise from left top: Crater, Orango Village,
View of the Pacific, Rock carving

Amazing Rapa Nui

Fun for the whole family
(Notes: Top left--We never check bags, so it was special for
Clay to pick up his bag in the baggage claim. Bottom right--
Ruth wanted to say she had driven on Easter Island, so she
had the opportunity to learn to drive a stick shift.)

Arranged by size

Some of the moai scattered on the slopes of Rano Raraku

One of our favorite places on Planet Earth

Lima, Peru

We arrived in Lima around 6:30 this morning, and by the time we got out of the airport and our Uber driver arrived, we were just about smack dab in the middle of the morning rush hour. Our apartment is only 9 km (5.5 miles) from the airport, but it took us more than an hour in harrowing traffic to make our way here. But we did make it and then immediately crashed since most of us didn't get any sleep on the plane. By about 2:00, we were ready to explore. We are staying in the  Miraflores district, which is a lovely area right on the coast with a ton of parks and a wonderful malecon (walking path) that winds through many of them. There are workout stations and playgrounds sprinkled throughout, and the views are amazing! We walked and played and walked and rested and walked some more. Eventually, when we were worn out and starting to get a little hangry, we made our way to Mangos, an all-you-can-eat buffet with an expansive patio overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We enjoyed getting to try lots of local foods as well as Peru's famous Pisco Sour drink. The view, the weather, and the sunset were absolutely amazing, and we had such a wonderful time!

The Peruvians aren't messing around when it comes to produce!
The mangoes and papayas are gigantic and so good!

We loved the beautiful tile wall around Parque de Amor.

 

Parque de Amor is for lovers!

Views from the malecon

The boys insisted on stopping at every
workout station along the malecon.

Faro La Marina

We also stopped at several playgrounds.

Dinner at Mangos

Sunset over the Pacific

Day Six in D.C.

It was another full and fun day in D.C.! We spent most of it at the National Museum of American History, where there was so much to see and do and learn. Later in the day, we saw the Korean War Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, and the Albert Einstein Memorial. We also scoped out the Department of State building. As Jeff is currently on step two of a very long process to apply for a diplomatic position within the department, we thought it would be good to know where his future potential office might be located. Finally, we made our way over to The Carving Room for a delicious dinner. We are loving D.C. and can't believe we just have one more full day here!

Creating old school computer images at NMAH 

Trying out a kid-sized penny-farthing

Learning about chocolate

We weren't allowed to take pictures, but it was awesome to see the actual flag
that inspired the writing of the Star Spangled Banner.

Lunch break

Jeff was so happy to find an everything-on-it hog dog

 

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

Korean War Memorial

Vietnam War Memorial

Albert Einstein Memorial

Surely not one of the main attractions in D.C. but certainly of interest to us 

Dinner at the Carving Room

Day Four in D.C.

Today we visited the National Museum of the American Indian and spent several hours there seeing the exhibits, having lunch, and playing in the super fun, interactive kid's area. Later, we walked down to the White House. It was cold and windy out, so after that, we decided to come back to the apartment to warm up and rest, before going out to dinner in Chinatown.

National Museum of the American Indian

Clay loved the softness of the alpaca fur

Max worked and worked on making it through this relay game

Counting with Khipu

The boys loved the quiz game

Clay got to practice weaving

Cooking in an earthen oven

This Trump hotel is very near the White House, and
Clay was convinced this was Trump's real house--
afterall, it does have his name on it!

Max sporting some Benjamin Franklin glasses

My crew at the White House

The front of the White House

There is always something interesting to see in Chinatown

Watching the famous Chinatown noodle maker

Day Three in D.C.

We had the great privilege to visit Lincoln's Cottage this morning. It is one of the lesser known attractions and most people don't make the effort to get out there, even though it is only three miles from the capitol building. We really enjoyed the tour and museum and appreciated how our tour guide made Lincoln come alive for us.

Lincoln's Cottage

Max was so excited to "meet" his favorite president

Cannons are always a big hit with boys

After our tour of the Cottage, we headed over to Annapolis to tour the Naval Academy. The campus was lovely, and it was so interesting to learn about midshipmen life. When we finished up at the Academy, we made our way down to City Dock for lunch at Middleton Tavern.

Honoring America's first Navy hero

I loved this event building!

The Navy's first plane was built by the Wright brothers

The dorm building was designed to look like the Palace of Versailles in France

The kids really loved seeing the crypt of John Paul Jones

Clay being "Bill" the goat

Middleton Tavern

Eventually, we made our way back to D.C. and stopped by the Jefferson Memorial to pay our respects to another great man before heading back to our apartment to watch the Aggie game.

The back side of the Jefferson Memorial and the beautiful fall colors

Tribute to Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson Memorial