It's a small world after all...

Ok, so sorry that you have that song stuck in your head (what is that called.. an earworm?) but it fits my ramblings...
The internet... it's called the WORLD WIDE WEB... but really what it means to me is that I have friends that I chat with from all over the world. People who share my interests (ok, interest singular... scrapbooking) and gift of gab. I have sent cards to women that I have never met IRL (in real life, for those of you who are not acronym savvy) but who needs cheering up (illness, tired from kids, just life stuff). I know their faces, their kids' names, their husbands names and what they do... I KNOW these women, without ever having met. We laugh together, we give cyber hugs when we are in need, we offer assistance when we can. I guess it is sort of like the pen pal of my youth. Someone out there who I really can get to know, without seeing.
Yeah, I know that because we have never met, some people may not be all that they seem...and I won't let my daughters get online and "meet" people...but when they are grown, and can discern people, I hope that they can form lasting friendships with people from all walks of life... people who would never cross paths with them normally, but who we can learn much from. People like my girlfriends on the internet.

Childhood Friends...

So I have been googling names of people I grew up with and went to college with... I am finding out lots of stuff! I got a college degree and then proceeded not to use it too much, but my friend Ron went on to get his Masters and Doctorate and is now the VP of a company in Portland and teaches at the University there. We used to hang out together trying to figure out Physics and Calc as freshmen at TVCC... I am so proud of him!
My friend, Lisa and I met in 7th grade...we were best buds in Jr. High and High school... she went on the get a PhD and teaches at a University. She studied Basque Dance. She was a beautiful dancer and I am sure she is just as graceful now. She taught me to say a sentence in Basque when we were in 7th grade... something like "shut up! Do you want a slap in the face?" I still pull it out.. at least what I REMEMBER it to be... to make my kids laugh, but I am sure that I am butchering that wonderful language everytime I say it! Anyway, Way to go LISA! You make me proud!
For the rest of you... beware... my googling is just getting started... I may run across your name soon!
Oh and by the way... if you google my name you will find out that unbeknown to even myself I am some sort of Health Safety Expert on the east coast!

I'm a BAD blogger...

I can't believe that it has been so long since I updated my blog! I have no excuse except for extreme business! It is graduation season, so my work load has increased dramatically. I find myself having a hard time being polite on the phone with customers who are panicky about getting their kid's cap and gown on time (well duh! They have been able to order since OCTOBER.. now you want to get a gown a week before graduation?!) My boss, Danny, says "their lack of planning does not constitute our emergency", but we do our best to get them what they need.
On the computer front, some of you know that I have had an issue with an external hard drive (long story short, I moved all our docs and pics and music over to it, and it died 3 days later!)... now I am trying to reinstall itunes and it keeps giving me a fatal error cuz it is pointing to the external drive that is no longer there! Maybe it is time for a whole new computer! Like I have that kind of money...
The kids have 2 more weeks of school... then we are home for a week and then on our way to Colorado. (Tim is speaking at Horn Creek Family Camp again) After Horn Creek, we head to Idaho for my parents 50th wedding anniversary. That means I have 3 weeks to lose 60 pounds... don't think that is gonna happen! It's not like I didn't know this event was coming, but I kept putting the diet off. Oh well. So, now you have been updated... I will try to get back to the DC trip pictures this week... really...

Procrastination...

So, I left you all wondering what happened on the rest of the trip... I will get back to that in the next post.

Hannah is learning a valuable lesson about procrastination (not that I EVER procrastinate... yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!) tonight. It seems that the past week when I have asked her if her homework was done and she said she didn't have any... well she did! A big ol' science report, due tomorrow... so she was up until past 11 tonight doing her report and she needs me to get her up at 6 in the morning to finish before school. On her way to bed she said "Mom, if I tell you when my reports or projects are due, could you push me to get them done, so I don't have to do it all in one night again?" I think she's learning... now if I could just get my act together and finish posting those pictures!

Illumination Tour- Wednesday night

After dinner at the Old Post Office, we picked up our tour guide and started our Illumination tour. We started at the World War II Memorial. This memorial had two arch ways that represented the Pacific and the Atlantic theaters of the war. There were columns for each state of the union and then a pool in the center.

From this spot you could see both the Lincoln Memorial (starting to "illuminate" as the sun got lower)

And the Washington Monument... which we took some fun pictures of.

Next was the Jefferson Memorial



On our way back to the bus, I caught a glimpse of the Washington Monument, I dashed down to the water to take the picture, hoping that the bus didn't leave with out me. (Next camera I get will take a little better night time shots, but I think this turned out pretty good.)

Our next stop was the Lincoln Memorial. This was probably the highlight of the Entire trip for me. I was very moved by it. I was taking the picture below of the Gettysburg address, when music started... something like angels singing... it was the Battle Hymn of the Republic... at first I thought that it was recorded, but I turned around and there was a choir of high school students (obviously just touring, not really performing) singing. It made tears come to my eyes. SUCH a beautiful moment!



When you are standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, this is your view.

We walked over to the Korean War Memorial. This was really lovely, but I wish we had gone during the day. The pictures on the wall were cool. The tour guide said that these were not pictures of people who had died in the war specifically. They were just random pictures gathered. He said that sometimes a Korean War Veteran will find his picture up on the wall.


We headed for the White house. We only ever drove by the South lawn (never stopping, I tried every time to get a picture, but never succeeded), but this was up to the front of the house (OK, as close to the front as you can get).


We got back on the bus and headed to the Kennedy Center for the Preforming Arts. See the Oregon Flag you Oregonians? Thought of you at that moment. (Even you traitorous Idahoans!)


After leaving the Kennedy Center, we dropped our tour guide off and headed back to the hotel. In bed by 11, Breakfast at 6:45.. have to leave early to try the Capitol Building tour again...

Washington DC- Wednesday April 11

Here we go, Washington DC!!!!!!! We drove into the city and got our first glimpse of the famous places in store for us. We passed the Pentagon.. I had NO idea that it was so close to major freeways! On 9-11, the plane would have come in right over all the cars. I can't imagine what that must have been like! We never stopped at the Pentagon, and I have a few just "ok" shots of it out of the bus window, so if you REALLY want to see it, let me know and I will email you a picture.

Our first stop this morning would be the Capitol building. You have to stand in line to get tickets to tour the Capitol. We waited in line for about 1 1/2 hours and they sold out before we got to the front. While we waited, we snapped some pictures.

Hannah and her friends. I really LOVE this picture. After much grumbling from the kids.. "We waited in line for nothing???", "That was stupid..." etc., we walked up the hill and went to the Library of Congress.

The kids may not have been excited, but I was BESIDE myself at the joy of seeing THE Library!

Let me say first in my defense of this picture, that I had already taken it, when I realized that it was not allowed...
A GUTENBERG BIBLE!!! I said, "Hannah, do you know what this is?" and she said, "Mom, its just a Bible... we have those at home." (OK, so the Page in me is coming out, she may not have said those exact words, but her sheer look of boredom expressed that sentiment) So, I explained the relevance of it to her, she was slightly more impressed, but not much. I, however, was thrilled! You can check out this link to see more about the Gutenberg Bible. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutenberg_Bible
I must say that the inside of the Library of Congress is perhaps the most beautiful building I have ever been in. These pictures just don't do it justice. You can't take a picture of a massive room like this and get the full effect. This is the great hall.

This is the ceiling of the 2nd floor hallway (which you see from the great hall). Really this is a STUNNING building. If we could have spent more time in any of the buildings we saw, this would be my choice. I could have spent hours in it.

Our next stop was the Supreme Court building (next door to the LOC), we actually ate lunch in the basement. This building was also impressive, but very "cold" feeling. We got to go into the court room, and they told us about the way things are done. It was interesting.

This is the ceiling of one of the hallways (actually, I guess it is the main hallway leading from the front steps to the courtroom itself) I noticed this flower motif, in several buildings. I thought it was pretty.
When we left the Supreme Court building, we are pretty sure we saw President Bush's motorcade. We had seen some other "short" motorcades and were told they were not the President, that we would "know" when we saw a Presidential motorcade. So this motorcade, was about 10 motorcycles, and 10 black SUV's long and the back SUV had its back open so the secret service to fire if needed. (that is how it was explained to us)

Next we walked down Constitution Avenue to the National Archives. Again, I was beside myself at the thrill of seeing what was inside! (For those who are interested, the movie "National Treasure" was NOT filmed in the building.)
We saw the Magna Carta, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights, The Gettysburg Address, just an amazing assortment of documents. They had a room that had things from Presidents' schooling (report cards etc), and a room of letters sent to the Presidents' (there was a letter to FDR or Eisenhower maybe, from Fidel Castro when he was a kid... he asked for a $10 bill, because he had never seen one before...) It was a fascinating building.
After we finished there, we went to the Old Post Office for dinner (the Old Post Office is now a mall). We were looking forward to our "Illumination Tour" after Dinner, my next post will have all those pictures, but I didn't want to overwhelm you by having it all in one post!

Day 3- Yorktown and Monticello

April 10- We started the day at Yorktown. This is the place of the last battle (or the last important battle.. or something. I think Cornwallis surrendered here) of the revolutionary war.
At Yorktown, they have a farm, set up like the 1770's, and a military post. The farm had some interesting things. We found out that they had a house, and they had a kitchen or "cookhouse" separate from the house. This is so they didn't have to live with the smoky smells all day. They showed us how they lived. At this point I must admit, I was not paying too much attention. I spent the tour outside photographing a turkey. He fascinated me. I am not sure why.. I have seen turkeys before. I just took about 10 pictures of him. I did snap back to pay attention to the tour guide as she told us how they made linen from flax. Did you know that it takes an acre of flax to make one set of linen sheets? No wonder linen is expensive!
The military post was a bit more interesting. They had a bunch of pup tents set up. They had 6 people go inside. They were very cramped standing there in the tent. Then the guide said, this is how many people were assigned to each tent. MAN! No wonder sickness was an issue for soldiers then. If your tent mate was sick then you were sure to get sick too. The commander's tent was a nice roomy tent about 20x20. It slept just the commander. Had a desk, table, bed, Chandelier type candle... I think he was a little spoiled compared to his men!

Next we boarded the bus on our way to Monticello. This was about a 2 1/2 hour trip. (did I mention that the bus had 20 inch flat screen tv's all the way back?? We did get to watch a few good movies.. mixed in with a few teenybopper movies, like high school musical, blech) Anyhoo... this picture is of Hannah and her friends by yet another Dogwood tree...did I mention that I REALLY like Dogwood trees?
And I REALLY LOVE the pink Dogwood trees!!!!!
So, here we are at Monticello. Tim wanted me to have a picture taken with both Hannah and I, so here I obliged... The lighting was good, you can't see my flaws! Anyway, this was a wonderful place. I was in awe of the buildings here. I can't imagine being that well to do!

I loved the grounds. Full of flowers and trees. I could imagine spending time on the porch here and reading my book and sipping iced tea...

And one more shot of Hannah with the house in the background. After the tour, we got back on the bus, headed for a pizza hut in Charlottsville, had dinner, and then drove the rest of the way to the hotel in Springfield, VA which was our home for the next 4 nights.