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November 11-13, 2003
The weather is finally making its presence felt.
Our first full day in DC was barely OK. The rain pretty much held off and allowed us to see the President deliver the Veteran's Day speech in relative comfort.
The following day it rained all day. We were in need of exercise, laundry, and rest, so the time was still well spent.
Today the winds came and the air cooled down. It went from the low 50's to the low 40's during the day with the winds running 30+ mph. When you're walking, that's COLD.
None-the-less, we spent the day on the mall, resumed our visit to the Holocaust museum (begun on Veteran's Day), toured the Air and Space museum, and saw the visitor's gallery in the House of Representatives courtesy of Jennifer Dunn's office.
Colleen wanted to see the Senate during the "talkathon" but it would have meant going to one of the Washington state's two democrat senators office's which she was reluctant to do.
We wanted to see the Korean War Memorial, and the First Lady's gowns, but the walk/wind was too long/cold.
By the way, there is a picture for Barb from the Arboretum that Colleen thinks would be one idea for a water feature in the back yard.
November 9, 2003
The next time we try to see the Great Smokey Mountains National Park will be in my next life when I come back as a NASCAR loving blue grass banjo player from "Deliverance".
It seems that half of Knoxville, TN was enjoying their beautiful Saturday afternoon trying to get to Gatlinburg to see Dollywood and/or the mountains. Miles of cars that made the Santa Ana freeway look pretty tame.
Our plan was to drive through the Smokies and see the Biltmore mansion. We turned around and skipped it.
We proceeded north to Charlottesville, VA and wound up spending the night at DOD's JAG school on the campus of the University of Virginia. It trains law school graduates in military law and makes them TV stars. Laura, are you interested?
On the way we stopped by James Monroe's estate which is adjacent to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. It seems they were best buds. In addition to being the fifth president, he along with George Washington, were the only two presidents to fight in the revolution.
Today we finally got to see the Shenandoah National Park and made it to the Bethesda Naval Hospital where we have a nice room (not in the hospital).
We had to come all the way to Virginia to see a real live bear.
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