HI3 has already provided us with an abundance of cool wild equines in December! Check out these beauties!
Also, this little wonderland pony deserves a huge shout out.
He may not look all that impressive, but he has higher genetic stats than any wild we have lassoed before, even Sal, our lucky find Kathiawari! He also has an impressive jump power for a wild - it's in the top 5 of all of our lassoed wilds. He's not even from the volcanic biome, so this totally took us by surprise.
Pepsi does look rather ridiculous riding him, but at least she can ride him, ha ha. (Again, I sure wish we could shrink Pepsi! *sighs*)
The rest of this post is totally unrelated to HI3, but as 3 of the 4 of us are American Girl dolls, including myself, I figure it's only right to talk about it here.
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, Mom, Grandma, and one of our aunts took a whirlwind trip to Washington, D.C.! Mom's aunt and uncle are living there for just a year, and they were generous enough to offer to host them in their 7th floor apartment.
In case there was any doubt about which floor you were on...
Ruby the traveling reindeer went along, of course. =)
The view from the apartment
Mom says it was like getting to experience fall twice in one year, since many of the trees were still losing leaves. (Whereas around here, trees were already bare.)
The apartment was actually in Arlington, VA, but conveniently close to D.C. and a metro station. They relied on the metro to get around. So many escalators, so many trains, so many people!
Mom says she was super glad her aunt and uncle were there to escort them around. =)
On their first day, Wednesday, they took their longest metro trip to visit the National Zoo, which involved a transfer and a ride on what seemed to Mom to be the world's tallest escalator.
Many of the animals seemed to be MIA, probably moved to winter holding (even though it was around 60 degrees that day!) Fortunately, the purpose of the visit was to see giant pandas in person, because they are Grandma's favorite animal, and they were on exhibit. The two they saw put on quite a show: lumbered around, itched their rears, play wrestled with each other, and rolled together down the hill.
After a quick sandwich lunch on a park bench near the American bison, mom and fam left the zoo, descended back down the ridiculous escalator, and eventually made their way to the Old Post Office Building.
They got some peeks of the fancy hotel interior on their way up to the top of the clock tower, and then enjoyed some gorgeous bird's eye views of D.C.
They then strolled past the White House.
A lit Christmas tree was visible inside, and there were giant round Christmas ornaments floating in the fountain. =) I guess they don't wait until after Thanksgiving to decorate either.
The final stop of the day was an art gallery. Mom didn't write down the name of the gallery, regrettably, but it housed incredible art. It reminded her of being at ArtPrize back home only in a super fancy building and with serious security guards watching everybody's every move. Here are some of her favorites:
On Thanksgiving morning, they visited the National Museum of the American Indian. To get there, they ended up having to quickly cross the turkey trot course in two places. So, technically, mom and fam ran in the turkey trot.
They only had a few hours in the museum but could've spent all day inside. Some highlights for Mom were the animal-themed art:
...and the exhibit titled "Raven and the Box of Daylight." As you walk through and read the story, it is illustrated by beautiful backdrops and glass sculptures.
They spent the rest of the day with Mom's cousin and the cousin's boyfriend, who live permanently in D.C. They had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner at their apartment despite the fact that their oven had crapped out the day before. The thawed turkey got chopped up and portions moved into crockpots, and it turned out great.
On Friday morning, they visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Again, they could've easily spent all day here and still not have viewed everything. Unfortunately, Black Friday is apparently a huge museum-visiting day. It was overwhelmingly crowded... everywhere, despite the museum's efforts to stagger guests' entrances. This made photos pretty difficult, so Mom left it to her sister and didn't try to take any herself.
After some World Cup watching back at the apartment, they visited a Christmas market and had fun looking at the various things for sale, admiring the fake snow swirling around, and posing by Christmasy decor. Mom didn't buy anything but was most tempted by some small animal sculptures made out of pop cans.
They concluded their evening by attending a performance of A Christmas Carol at the historic Ford's Theatre.
Mom says the show itself was excellent, and it was... quite something to sit through a show in the same theatre where President Lincoln was assassinated. That box on the right is where it happened...
On Saturday morning, the group went for a walk in Arlington Cemetery. They made it just in time to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
It was another beautiful day, and they got a good workout, as vast and hilly as the cemetery is. They visited the gravesite of President Kennedy and his wife (complete with eternal flame and fresh-ish roses) and also happened to see where Ruth Bader Ginsburg is buried.
Then it was back to the apartment to grab their bags and head back to the airport.
Farewell, Crystal City metro station!
The snow they'd left behind in Michigan was mostly gone when they returned, which nobody seemed to mind. They got the Christmas lights up outside without freezing their extremities, for once.
