Last day in DC

An unexpected treat was having lunch with my friend Shanna Steffy. I worked with Shanna in the ER at PVH 20 years ago. I had totally forgotten that she worked in DC. I posted a picture on face book of us at the capitol and a message pops up from Shanna asking how long we were staying in town. She and her husband met us for lunch this morning at the Tavern where JFK proposed to Jackie. It was just warm and fuzzy to see her after so many years. She leaving in a couple of weeks for Baghdad. She's going to work as a nurse taking care of the Federal employees stationed there. Her husband is going to work in personnel. I didn't know but she spent a year working in Afghanistan. Crazy life she lives. I'm so proud of her. I remember when she was working as a C.N.A. in the ER.

My feet didn't think they could take a whole day of walking. We only walked two miles today. We took a 90 minute boat ride of the Potamic. It was fun but it got really cold.

Sean pretending to be a statue. 

It's been a really fun trip. Our hotel was excellent and we saw lots. There's a lot more to see in DC then what you can do in three days but we gave it our best. 

DC on Saturday: oh my poor toes

Sean pretending to be a statue while waited in line to get in the archive museum. Today was kind of frustrating. We got on the wrong cirulcator bus first thing. The driver said something to the effect of "child you be on the wrong bus. You got to get off and go back." We decided it was less walking to just go back where we started and get dropped off there. She told us to tell the new driver we'd already paid. We got on the right bus got to Union station and then got on the red line bus. The bus didn't take the route it was supposed to because there were barricades. This was the only driver we had who wasn't helpful so we had no idea he wasn't going to our stop. We ended up going back to the beginning of his route too and then getting off near where we wanted to be. We went to the aerospace museum. Don and Sean liked that.

Sean had a hard time grasping that this was the first successful plane flight by the Wright brothers. Where did they sit? How did they stay inside? How did they stop? All good questions. He finally understood that the pilot was laying in the plane not sitting and they stopped as best they could

 

Kind of a freaky picture from the sculpture park. It was cold and windy today.

My favorite sculpture,a typewrite eraser. No one under the age of 40 would get the humor.

D.C.

We were able to get a tour through our Senator Orinn Hatch's office. It was nice because we had one tour guide for 12 people. I saw that some of the other tour groups were huge. We had a cute little intern from Kaysville named Ryder.

We walked into the waiting room of Senator Hatch's office in the Hart building and there were some pretty strong scents. We sat down and I look at the desk of one of the young men working in the reception area and there on the drawers next to his desk sat a tray of DoTERRA oils. I started to laugh and said to the kid behind the desk, “REALLY, DoTerra oils!” He said “oh yes, we had an atomizer on but we had to turn it off because it was too strong.” Don and I are literally laughing at this kid. I said “it smells like Utah.” I thought the kid was going to try to sell us some oil but thought better of it.

As we were sitting in our hotel room tonight I pulled up the pictures of the oils and Don said “I bet Hatch doesn’t even know those oils are sitting at the desk out there.” Hmm, I wonder. I googled Hatch and DoTERRA and low and behold Hatch and Essential Oils and vitamin supplements have a long and prosperous relationship. Don and I thought the whole oils in the office was ridiculous and funny but  none of the other Utahns in the office shared our humor.

The capitol is under construction to help it withstand earthquakes. The dome is not pretty because it's covered in scaffolding but it's unique. My 7 year old was pretty bored with the tour. Gorgeous ceilings and unique statues.

This is steel that will go on top of the capitol. They are performing all sorts of structural testing on it.

This is a replica of the statue that goes on top of the Capitol. The Capitol is under construction to improve it's ability to withstands an earthquake. It looks like Utah's Capitol when ours was under construction. I never even noticed there was a statue at the top of the Capitol.

Gorgeous ceilings. I know that DC and Buenos Airies are very different but I also felt a lot of similarities. The beautiful architect, the pride of a nation, all the statues. The Washington Monument, the obelisk, bands on the corners, homeless sleeping on benches. DC was considerably less of a party town and their public transportation totally rocked.

Muhlenberg

 I am not a history buff by any means but I did hear some historical fiction on the tour. My favorite is the story of the subject of Pennsylvania's statue of Muhlenberg. Our guide said that, on January 21, 1776, Muhlenberg a preacher preached his last sermon, and at the end of which he ripped off his clerical robes and was wearing an army uniform underneath he issued a call to arms and his congregation followed him to war. I said to our tour guide "I'm guessing he wasn't a Quaker." I thought I was pretty funny and the tour guide just looked at me and said "no, I don't think so." I don't think anyone else appreciated my joke. (No one seems to appreciate my humor in DC!) There were a couple other statements that I thought REALLY! Still, it was interesting as long as you don't believe everything you hear. Every state gets two statues in the Capitol building. Utah has Philo Farnsworth, the father of television and Brigham Young. I always thought Philo was from Idaho because there is a sign in Rigby Idaho claiming him. Apparently he was born in Beaver Utah and moved to Idaho as a young boy. Some Jr High Students petitioned in 1985 to have his statue placed in the Capitol for Utah. They must have been persuasive students.

Group selfie.

In front of the Capitol

Sean had three "must dos" on his list. See the statue of Abraham Lincoln, the Washington Monument (because he gets it confused with the one he saw in Argentina, and see the real Declaration of Independence.

I've been walking at home the past couple of weeks trying to toughen my feet up but I still ended up with blisters. We walked about 7 miles the first day. It was probably more but I didn't start tracking our walk until the monument and my feet already hurt at that point. Sean was complaining that his legs were tired and Sean is a trooper when it comes to hiking. It's tougher than I am.

It was 2 1/2 miles from the Lincoln Monument to the Washington Monument.

I saw other's taking a really cool shot but I couldn't get their hands close enough. 

Asleep on the bus ride home. He insisted he just had his eyes closed. I guess that's why he was drooling all over my arm. We drag that kid all over the world and he is always a trooper and a great traveling companion.

Georgetown Canal

We got to the hotel around 4 and decided to walk down the Georgetown Canal to find a restaurant. 

The hotel gave us a card with a bunch of discount to restaurants. I picked the one with the best reviews. I picked wrong. The pizza was really gross, Sean wouldn't even eat it. Don and Audrey didn't like their food either. Oh well, live and learn. The waited was nice and we sat outside so the atmosphere was excellent. I've been amazed at how incredibly nice everyone in DC has been. We were having trouble finding our hotel. We took the train from the airport to the stop about half a mile from our hotel and then we walked. A man walking his dogs came up and asked what we were looking for. He then walked us two blocks so he could point to where we needed to go. I thought that was the exception but the guy at the train station was so pleasant and helpful. The bus drivers are crazy nice. It's like everyone in DC loves their jobs. The help in fast food restaurants are cheerful and helpful. Utah customer service pales in comparison. I don't know why I'm so surprised but I am. I think in my mind it's a big city and the bigger the city the less friendly the people. That has been a poor assumption on my part.

Selfies at the restaurant. 

I love that boy!

A Fall Day

AJ and Steph wanted us to watch Khloe while they went to a movie. We had plans to go get Sean set up for ski rentals and ended up at Wheeler farm. Khloe got up close and personal with the animals

Chicken whisperer.

Sean waiting to get milked.

We did get Sean's skis. The farm was less than 2 miles away and it was a beautiful day.

The kids decided they need new bikes.

The cow train was cute.