This page will be chronicling our tips. Right now it's just our Washington D.C. trip, but as we take more trips we'll put them up here.

(4.06.02) Well, we travelled all day by train today. Since Greta and Brian are still feeling pretty sick, we all slept in very late this morning and missed the breakfast on the train. The train is a great place to sleep late. :-) We got in to Chicago's Union station and had enough time to take a brief walk around downtown Chicago (very breif since the wind was so cold) and have lunch in the station. Then off to Minneapolis.

Our ride back home from Chicago was not very exciting, except that we were all very tired of traveling, and even (gasp) tired of the train. The feeling of relief when we pulled into the Minneapolis train station was incredible. We got home about 11:00 PM and went right to bed.

Well, this is the last update to this log. We had an amazing trip. Only about half of the pictures we took with the digital camera are up on these pages, and we have a full hour of video and a roll of film left to help us remember it too. I don't think any of us will forget this week anytime soon. I want to thank everyone who's been reading and letting us know that they enjoy these updates. It has been a very fun project which I plan to do again, next time with much better automation in place to help the process be less of a burden while traveling.

(4.05.02) Today was our last day in D.C. We slept in (lazy Schmalzes!) and then packed up all of our many bags as we ate our last breakfast in the Holiday Inn. After checking out at about 10:00 AM we drove on the beltway west to Wisconsin Ave, which we took south into the city. Our destination was the National Cathedral. Greta didn't like the car ride AT ALL for some reason, and navigating by car within the city was not pleasant. We were all very relieved to get out of the car and walk down the sunny, tree-lined old streets which led to the Cathedral.

To say the Cathedral is large is an understatement. It was amazing to behold. Beautiful and majestic, with more little intricate details everywhere you looked, it seemed to go on and on when we stepped inside and looked towards the altar. There was a service going on, so we couldn't take pictures or be very loud. We rode an elevator up to the 7th floor observation floor and looked out over D.C. It was amazing - the view was very clear and we could see most of the main landmarks of the city. It is chilly today, but very sunny and not as breezy as it has been the last couple of days. We got some great pictures, and Emily bought some nice postcards (since you can't take pictures of the inside while a service is going on) in the Cathedral giftshop.

E here.Back in the car and onward to Union Station! We found ourselves driving down Embassy Row to reach the station- lots of limos and important looking people milling around. By the time I got the camcorder out to film some of the austere embassies, it was too late so all we captured was Peru and Australia. Brian did some AMAZING navigating to reach the train station; I sat dumbfounded with the useless map in my hands while he whizzed down side streets to reach the main parking ramp. Things inside the station were very hectic- our luggage kept falling off the cart, Greta was hungry and had to pee, we didn't know where to board the train, etc., but finally we got our act together and sat down in the food court to enjoy a $5 Haggan Daaz milkshake with G. Amtrak provides a ritzy lounge for its sleeper travelers, so we chilled out there and made the most of the free drinks and snacks. By 3:30 we were on the train and waving good-bye to D.C. It's about 5:00 now- Greta is asleep and Brian is reading my Marie Claire magazine while we wind through the woods of Maryland. Dinner tonight is shrimp or prime rib...yum.

(4.04.02) We woke very late this morning. Greta and I (Brian) seem to have sore throats, so the extra sleep was needed. We ate breakfast in our room again, then drove to the Metro station. We filmed a bit more of our Metro experience as we rode into D.C. Since we were going to the Lincon Memorial first, we had to transfer between Metro trains for the first time. As we rode, I wrote last night's log entry.

On our walk to the memorial, we realized that we were very close to the Watergate Hotel. We walked there and took pictures, then found a nice deli for lunch, which we took outside to the Watergate courtyard to eat. Greta chased pigeons while we ate. As we started to walk towards the monument, we began to see it off in the distance. What a sight. On the steps we snapped lots of pictures and helped Greta 'push' the stroller all the way up the steps. Once inside, we were taken with what an emotional effect 'just' a building can have. It was astounding how much power such a place can have over you.

We then proceeded to walk all the way to the Smithsonian Castle in the hopes of getting some D.C. t-shirts and a snack there. We had seen signs in other Smithsonian buildings that the Castle is the place for some light food and tourist info. Unfortunately, they only had a sit-down resaturant that only served an all-you-can-eat buffet and no gift shop to speak of. The walk to the Castle, while very long, did take us through some more beautiful cherry blossoms and past the reflecting pool. The gardens there were very pretty.

Outside of the Castle, we saw the Carousel, which Greta and Emily rode. Both enjoyed it less while riding than when we were just watching. Something about going around and around very quickly. :-) Next stop was the Smithsonian Arts and Industries building, which had not only an excellent gift shop (with t-shirts aplenty) but also a nice coffee shop. We needed a rest after the long walks and so we sat down for awhile to enjoy the atmosphere. Then we hopped back on the Metro, transferring once and getting back to our hotel about 3:00.

After the now traditional nap we drove back to Emily's cousin's house for dinner. It only took us about 20 minutes this time (on Sunday afternoon, we got hopelessly lost in the northern suburbs) and so we made it there in time for dinner. We had a lovely chicken dinner and got to visit with some of John and Anne's friends. It sure is nice to have family you can visit when you're far away from home. We left at about 9:30 and Greta was swimming by 10:00 back at the hotel. Now Emily and Greta are asleep already and I have a chance to catch up on updating our web log.

I'm not sure how many more updates there will be to this journal. Our train leaves at 4:00, and we will check out of the hotel at 9:00 AM or so, which means my phone line goes away. Any updates after this one will be via my cell phone's data jack, which is not only exceedingly slow, but unreliable as well. We'll try to get at least one more up, probably during tomorrow evening while there's still good cell coverage in the D.C. area as we are riding the train. I'm not quite sure what we'll do tomorrow morning, but we'll be driving into the city so as to return our rental car by 2:00.

(4.03.02) We slept like logs again. Greta had her first bowl of Lucky Charms for breakfast. We reached the zoo by about 9:30. The cherry blossoms were blowing everywhere...just gorgeous. A bank sign flashed 73 degrees. Greta enjoyed the gigantic reptiles and apes at the zoo. Brian and I were the only people at the zoo in long pants and long-sleeved shirts--tourists? from Minnesota perhaps?? We all got pretty warm but were able to alleviate some discomfort on Greta's part by buying her an adorable panda bear umbrella. The zoo here is known for its giant pandas but we could only glimpse their butts hanging out of trees. We left around 11:30 and picked up subways and fresh fruit on the way to the hotel. After lunch Brian and Greta slept for almost three hours!! Everyone is feeling refreshed now and ready for more sightseeing. We're planning on driving to the coast tonight. Bye for now. E.

Well, I am attempting to edit this page while riding on the Metro. But I am not using my laptop. Rather, I'm using Pocket Word on my iPAQ. We'll see how far I get. After our nap yesterday, we drove on highway 50 to Annapolis. (Greta says "Sounds like Minneapolis!") We were looking to show Greta the ocean and a beach with sand. Unfortunately, we could only find a public dock on a bay by sundown. Maybe next time we are on the east coast we can find a beach. The good news is that we got to walk around Annapolis a bit. It is an amazingly cute town! It seems as though the entire town is dedicated to the Naval Academy. We ate at a very nice local restaurant for dinner. Of course, the specialty is crab, which we very much enjoyed. We stuffed ourselves and got some Ben And Jerrys ice cream before heading home to our hotel for some swimming and laundry.

(4.02.02) Well, this morning we woke up late (since we swam until the pool closed at 11:00 last night) and ate breakfast in our room. Some donuts, cereal and orange juice later and we were out the door to the metro station. After a fun ride into D.C. (during which Greta had her Ladybug magazine read to her several times) we got off the train and walked across the Mall to the Smithsonian Air and Space museum. The weather was absolutely beatutiful - we brought our jackets but ened up not needing them. The line to get into the Air and Space museum was huge - we were in line for at least 20 minutes. And all of that just beacuse of the metal detectors. Once inside, we found many fun things to look at ("Look daddy! Rockets - just like Kipper's!") and walked around for quite a while. Well, it was quite a while to G., just about right for Emily, and not long enough for me. :-) But that's OK - we got to walk through Skylab, see a 1:100 model of the U.S.S. Enterprise, and walk through a real airplane. It was fun a fun place to be, but we left after an hour and a half, when G threw a horrible tantrum.

We walked around some more, found a little resaurant for lunch right behind the Department of Education building, and then walked over to the reflection pool right in front of the Capitol. Greta loved it - she pushed the new stroler around by herself while Emily and I watched the birds. We next walked to the National Gallery of Art, passing by some beautiful cherry blossems on the way. They were not only in full bloom today, but were very fragerent. What a sight. We found a small spot on the grass outside the Gallery and got some juice to have with the crackers we brought allong. After most of the crackers had been fed to the pigions, and they had been sufficiently terroized by our little monster, she fell asleep in the stroller just as we walked into the Gallery. The amazing thing is that all of these places are FREE! No tickets to buy. Amazing.

The National Gallery of Art was definatly the most amazing thing we've seen so far on the trip. It just took our breath away - the building was just as majestic and beautiful as the art contained in it. Emily of course took us right away to the French Impressionist exhibit. We saw many beautiful paintings and had a very peaceful time wandering around as Greta took her nap as we walked.

The Metro ride back was uneventful, and the nap attempt back at the hotel a failure as Greta had already slept in the Gallary. Drat. Maybe we can get to sleep earlier tonight so we're not tired tomorrow.

(4.01.02) Our first day in the city! We woke up around 8:00, feeling very well-rested. Greta slept like a log all night- a snoring log. Breakfast was muffins and juice at a Dunkin Donuts, then we drove a scant two miles from our hotel to the metro. Greta was in a sort of trance at the metro- huge loud trains, people bustling by, blinking lights- Bad Train in the flesh. We took the metro into the District (as it's called by natives) and got off at the Archives stop. The weather this morning was about 55, sunny, and breezy. Just gorgeous! We wandered past the Archives, the FBI building, the Justice Department, EPA building, (stopped at a drugstore for Excedrin and a lollypop) then turned off the windy streets to find ourselves behind the White House! Greta ran like a crazy woman through the large expanses of green grass at the Ellipse. She seemed fascinated by the Washington Monument and asked repeatedly if we could see it, so we took turns carrying her on our respective backs and hiked up the hill. The monument was closed but by this time our tummies were growling and it was time to head back to the retail area and devour some sandwiches. Greta decided this was as good a time as any to fall deeply asleep, so we took turns carrying her on our shoulders and in our arms. This drove home the point that we needed to buy a stroller. After sandwiches and cookies we got back on the metro and headed back to the hotel for a two hour long family nap.

Monday evening: We had to forgo the enchantments of the Big City tonight and take care of some necessities. For dinner we drove to a Bennigan's near our hotel and Greta experienced chocolate milk for the first time...yum. We ate the standard American fare and then crossed the street to (yes) Target for some shopping (film, water wings for the pool, detergent, batteries, etc.) Brian went on a quest for a small stroller while Greta and I continued shopping at Giant (kind of like Cub Foods) for breakfast and snack foods in the hotel. Brian arrived out of breath just as we were paying for the groceries...he had found a stroller, and cheap too! We piled back into the car, assured Greta that the rest of our trip would be more interesting than this, and drove back to the hotel for a night of swimming.

It's about midnight now. Brian has politely yielded the computer to me so that I can write today's journal. He's looking very sophisticated reading The Washington Post in bed. Greta swam for two straight hours tonight, relishing the independence she acquired with the water wings. I was grateful to get some laundry done while she and Brian swam. Tomorrow we're off to some museums and perhaps an evening stroll through the Mall. Good-night!

(3.31.02) 8:43 Eastern (Local) time - Well, we had dinner (at about 11:00 PM!), we slept the night through, woke up and had breakfast this morning at about 8:00. The big news is that the train is about 3.5 hrs late. We are just now arriving in Pitsburg, PA. What we've heard from the other travlers on the train is that there are is a whole group of people on this train (number 30) that are traveling on to Florida via Washington D.C. Since we're so late, they won't be able to make their connecting train in time. The reason this is a big deal is that they're all going on a big cruise, which won't wait the extra day they'll need because of our train being late. So they are all being asked to get off here in Pitsburg and Amtrak will charter a bus for them from here to Washington D.C. to try and get them to their connecting train in time. What a royal pain for these poor folks. And all becase of a late train from Texas.

Our dinner last night was brought to our room at about 11:00 PM. We had almost given up on it and decided to go to bed, when a knock came on the door to our room. Emily was taking a shower, and when she got out, she exclaimed "What's that amazing smell?" The steward had ordered a T-bone steak with baked potatoe and steamed vegies along with baked chicken with mashed potatoes and vegies. Salad and bread were provieded - we turned down desert. Talk about delicious - it was very, very good and ended up being a great end to a great day. Since Greta was already asleep in the lower bunk, Emily and I had our romantic dinner in the dark, lit only by the moonlight coming through the window as we sped through Indiana. It's true what they say - eating without really seeing your food does change the tatse a bit!

Greta went to sleep with no problems at all. The motion of the train and the long day did it for her. She slept very soundly, but we all woke up with the sun this morning at about 7:00. We put our bunks up, washed up a bit, and went to the dining car to eat breakfast. And what a breakfast it was! Greta decided she wanted pancakes and told the waiter so - good thing that was one of the choices on the menu. I got eggs and hash browns, and Emily had fruit, bagel and yogurt. Greta had a little bit of everyone's breakfast, and we left very full. After a short trip through the rest of the train, we're now back in our room playing with toys and reading books.

(2:30 PM update) We're still several hours from D.C. yet, and it's begun to rain outside. We had a very nice lunch at about 11:45 AM, and we've been napping since then. Unfortunately, since we are in and out of hill (mountain) valleys, there is no cell phone reception to speak of, so I can't upload the latest pages. Oh well, it will have to wait until we get to the D.C. area.

We finally pulled into D.C. at about 5:00 tonight. We rushed through the baggage claim and rental car, and were on the road to Emily's cousin's house by 5:30. Greta has shown infinite patience and flexbility with us. She sat in the backseat and sang her own made-up songs while we tried to navigate through D.C. and the burbs to reach Cousin John's house in Rockville. With the help of a new map and a cell phone call to John, we made it to his house by 7:00. We enjoyed a delicious Easter dinner (crab cakes, lamb, cream pie...) with John, Anne, Linden, Kate, Stan and Jackie. Greta warmed up to her cousins very quickly. She was delighted by an Easter egg hunt and stood by giggling while Linden and Kate played computer games after dinner. We reached the hotel by 10:30, let Greta swim for about ten minutes as a reward for being such a GOOD GIRL today, then we all fell into our beds by 11:00.

(3.30.02) 8:25 PM - Update

Well, we got to Chicago just great. While we were traveling through the suburbs on our way to the Windy City I used my cell phone to upload the pages and pictures to our web site - mobile internet does work! We got off the train and immediately found one of the many, many little restaurants in the food court of Union Station. We got a very resonable dinner consisting of pasta and calzone along with drinks and ate it in the common area. Union Station was very busy but we had two hours before our train left for Washington D.C. so we went to the big, old waiting room and enjoyed the atmosphere for awhile. We got on our train at the right time, found our sleeper room (room D of car 2901) and explored for quite a while. These rooms are amazing! We have our own bathroom including shower, sink, lots of little nooks for storing things, and they even provide free soda, ice, bottled watter and coffe all the time for the foks in the sleeper rooms.

Here's the only bummer so far - there are problems with something relating to a train from Texas and so here it is 8:35 and we still haven't left the station yet! (We were supposed to depart at 6:40.) It's not so bad but because we're at Union Station, the entire train is sitting between two other trains, all under the big Union Station roofs, and the diesel fumes are very strong. (cough, cough) We can't wait until the train starts to move. Fortunately, the room is spacious enough that Greta is having no problem keeping herself busy. There's even a ladder that allows her to climb up to the upper bunk (So far she's gone up and down 10 times.) It's amazing how comfortable and relaxed you feel while traveling in a sleeper room.

Well, 8:53 and we're now moving out of the station! Oh, wait, we've stopped to pick up some extra cars or something. Now we're off again! We will be having dinner brought to our room as they won't be ready to serve until after 9:00PM, after Greta's bedtime. That's OK, we'll wait for breakfast tomorrow morning to try out the dining car.

(3.30.02) We are going on vacation! The Schmalz family is taking a week long trip to Washington D.C. We are leaving today (Saturday) on Amtrak headed for Chicago on a coach car. This afternoon, we'll arrive in Chicago and transfer to a sleeper car for the rest of the ride to D.C. We will be getting back to Minneapolis next Saturday night.

We had to wake up extra early this morning to get everything ready for the trip. We have been packing and preparing for the trip for the past week, but this morning it all came together. We had more luggage than we thought - a small cooler for lunch, a normal carry-on bag, a backpack for Greta's things (toys, books, juice, etc.), my computer bag and a large pillow. And that's just what we took to our seats! We had the carseat and two suitcaes that we checked.

The bunnies are all set in the bacement - we have two live Internet Cameras on them so that we can monitor them throughout the week to see how they are doing. We also have a live cam in my computer room (the front room of the house) so that we can record anyone going in/out. Hopefully that will only be our friends feeding the buns! I had hoped to get two automated bun feeders built that would eliminate the need for anyone to feed them while we're away, but unfortunately there wasn't quite time to finish them before we left.

We're on the train right now - everything has gone perfectly so far. Emily and Greta are in the observation car looking at the Minnesota landscape as we ride to Chicago. I don't think I've ever seen Greta so excited about anything in her life. This trip has been all she's talked about for the past several weeks. She's doing really good - the train is a wonderful way to travel with a 2 year old. She has all the room she needs, there are lots of empty seats to explore, it's quiet and calm and she can eat the entire time. :-)

We are planning on checking into our hotel tomorrow afternoon and then immediately driving to Emily's Cousin's house for Easter dinner. He can also give us lots of pointers on touring the D.C. area. Our hotel has a pool and we plan on swimming each evening to tire G out and help her sleep.