Washington DC!
So, I took a red eye flight out of SLC to JFK. When I printed out my ticket it only printed out the black, and not the blue, text so when I got to the SLC airport I just looked for a letter/number combo and reasoned that that must be my gate number. I didn't notice another letter/number combo on the ticket... I got right through security and had time to mosey over to gate and there was only one dude there. I admit it did take me a few minutes to realize I was in the wrong spot, and I hadn't realized
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| Notice the complete emptiness.. |
Once on the plane I was really dumb and plugged in my headphones to the personal entertainment system they have on planes now which resulted in me watching movies and soccer all the way to JFK and not sleeping, at all. Not a big deal, right, I've got a 4 hour bus ride too... ha. Anyway, with the plane leaving late it also arrived late and I had to rush to get to my bus. I met a nice family from Utah who I navigated the complexities of the transit system with until we got to the subway. I saw a sign to Penn Station so I told them bye and hopped on the train. Fortunately for me I made a mistake and took a train instead of the subway. This is good for one reason- I made it to my bus on time. If I had taken the subway it probably would have taken 20 minutes more to get to Penn, which I didn't have. So I meant to take the subway, but God was watching out for me. I got to Penn Station and had no idea where to go. They're seriously lacking in signage in New York it seems. A really nice guy saw me looking at a map and helped me figure out how to to get to the right exit and pointed me in the right direction to where I needed to go. Again I walked as fast as I could with a duffel bag, down the longest block I've ever seen in my life, and got there just a few minutes before departure. The guy in the seat next to me was name Fabien. He's a German working for Bloomberg's in NY and was headed to a birthday party. We had a good time and talked almost the whole way to DC. He thought it was really funny that I was taking the bus everywhere, and only for a week! So again I didn't sleep when I had anticipated. By the time I got to DC at noon I had slept a grand total of an hour since 6:30 am the day before. And I hadn't eaten more than potato chips and juice (Jet Blue serves potato chips made from blue potatoes! Radtacular to the max!) since dinner Friday either. I got food before the auto show, but not sleep. This created for a more happy, but not all together aware Aunt Fuzz, and by the end it was hard to stand up after sitting down in a car. But the auto show was the bomb! It was so much fun, and so many cool cars. A few examples:
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| This car was painted super cool all the way around. Amazing artwork. |
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| The coolest car in the expo. Just look at those doors! And it had screens built into the headrests of the front seats for the people in back. They were so seamlessly integrated into the seat Christine and Marriner didn't even notice them. They had some really cool music they'd turn on when they'd open the doors, and it attracted a big crowd. Good publicity work. And just look how cool the kiddos look. They were just doing that all on their own. No prompting involved in this wonderful shot. |
Monday, while Lige was at school and Marriner at work, we decided to go see a few cool things I hadn't seen before downtown. We started with the Fredrick Douglas house then drove downtown to the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial and then walked around the tidal basin to the Jefferson memorial. Lillian and Ellis did a really great job of walking all over the place. They were sure tired by the end! Pictures-
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| In front of the Fredrick Douglas house. He had good style. |
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| The bushes were blooming! It's only the beginning of Feb! But they were quite lovely. |
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| It was so nice that we took a minute to sit on the edge of the river and finish our lunch. Of course we removed our shoes so they wouldn't accidentally fall in the river. |
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| They love walking on the little ledges all around the many flowerbeds at the MLK Jr. Memorial. Also you get a nice view of the controversial quote from this side. I imagine it'll be really lovely in the spring. |
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| A very cool branch on the walk around the tidal basin. Ellis was so scared of falling off, she didn't want me to let go, but then she put on this big cheesy smile so I snapped a picture really quick, before she lost her ability to put on a smile for the camera. Turns out she was more stable up there than she thought and she was actually smiling cuz she was having a good time up there. Guess I could've taken another pic that was a little more in focus... |
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| Lige seemed to think that "duck & cover" was a good pose for this picture. He originally wanted to be on the ground, earthquake drill style, but we told him that was a bad idea for pictures. I still ended up having to hoist him into the picture cuz he kept covering his head and ducking... |
After a yummy dinner we had FHE. I had demonstrated my lovely piano playing Sunday and it was requested that I demonstrate again as the talent portion of FHE. I was pleased to play the only song I know, Follow the Prophet. We had a lovely lesson by Ellis and played the Scripture Mastery Game, where I learned that I don't know my references as well as I thought.
Alas, the time was spent and early Tuesday morning I was taken back to Union Station and proceeded to wait in line for quite a while to board my bus to NYC. The chilly garage waiting paid off and I got a really good seat- front row of the top deck. Extra leg room and nothing but window in front of me = )
Ah, DC is such a good time. I enjoyed it so much. I wish I'd taken 2 weeks off so I could've spent more time there. Thanks to the Merrills for their hospitality! And to Lige, Ellis, and Lillian all I have to say is "You guys are SILLY!" and I love yer guts!
Stay tuned for part 2, "Albany"...
