The Great Adventure - is over

We are home. Two weeks, 3204 miles, and absolutely as many things packed in as possible. If you have not visited our nation's capital you should really consider taking the trip. Wow! We called our senator after we arrived and got to tour the capital with one of her aides. We got on this little subway train in the basement that goes from one building to another. Johnny and the boys got on a train with John Kerry. Jessica, our two guides, and I got bumped for John Kerry. When we caught up with them Johnny said he flashed John Kerry the "W" -- you know, for George W -- but he was kidding!! The closest we got to the President was standing on the street as he went by. We didn't get the White House tour. So, one day we were downtown eating at the ESPN Zone and walked over to Hard Rock Cafe to buy Jess a t-shirt. It's right across the street from the FBI building. The President was there...there were tons of police parked outside. (we asked someone when we saw the police and they told us what was going on) Later, we were down on Pennsylvania Avenue and you could hear the whistles blowing. We knew what that meant because we had seen a smaller motorcade earlier in the week. The police blow their whistles and stop all traffic. It was the President's motorcade and we waved and I took pictures -- I am such the tourist!! One of the last vehicles in the long motorcade (after the van with the Secret Service hanging their rifles out of the window) was an ambulance. Interesting...I guess it's a sign of where we are.

We saw the original Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Amazing! There was also a document where notes had been written before the final draft was complete. We went to Arlington Cemetery and walked about 3 miles. We chose not to take the tour trolley and it's one mile from the entrance to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The changing of the guard was impressive. We also walked to the Arlington House, or the Lee House, and found out the history of how the cemetery was started. Fascinating! Did you know that Lee, the Confederate General, was related to George Washington? I don't think I knew that -- Lee married into Washington's family and the Lee House was originally in the Washington family!! Wow!

We took a night tour of all the famous monuments. Imagine...standing at the Lincoln Memorial, looking back at the Washington monument reflecting on the water with an almost full moon in the background. We also went to the holocaust museum but I didn't think it was as good as the one in Jerusalem. It's a reminder, none the less, of what we haven't seemed to learn -- just referring to current world conflict. I was quite impressed with one of the Smithsonian museums and not so much with another.

I'm glad to be home. Really glad...it was great to have the 2 weeks away...great to have the kids all to ourselves (except for the constant texting to friends on the metro and other places) Now, however, there is laundry to be done, tons of it...oh well, life goes on...and on and on and on...

holdin' on to the feeling,

Jeanette

Ok, I just had to add this note to the above blog that I published this morning. This afternoon I was catching up on some blogs that I like to read and was on Vicki Courtney's. She's an author and speaker published by LifeWay. The end of my blog was a very vague reference to a song that all five of us were singing loudly in the car driving through Nashville, TN, Saturday night. Vicki has the YouTube video of the song on her blog...I laughed and laughed...check it out at www.virtuealert.com -- go to her post dated 7/29/07 -- if you can't figure it out!