One of my fondest memories of my summer in Washington, DC was watching the fireworks from the Mall. I figured since we were going to have a 3 day weekend, we could go down again this year. I got a good rate on a hotel room, but it turned out we didn't need to use it. John & Katherine Faust had to cancel their trip to San Diego at the last minute, and they generously offered to let us stay with them in their new home. It was a great place - much bigger than it looks on the outside. We loved the master bedroom. It had a step down area in the front of the room that was more than large enough to accommodate a couch, desk, and a tv. Awesome.
We got to their place around 2pm. After a tour of the house, we took the Metro downtown. Man, it may be kind of 70's retro, but that thing is a whole lot cleaner than the NYC subway. Downtown we went to the Spy Museum. It's privately owned, so it's a lot more high tech and "edgy" than most museums there in town. It's pretty cool, but there's a lot more to read than there is to see. I think we both enjoyed it though. After we finished up there, we met John and Katherine a couple of blocks away at the District Chop House for dinner. John eats there for lunch sometimes, but I guess the lunch menu is a lot cheaper. He was kind of embarassed for bringing us to a pricey place, but it was about a 3rd cheaper than it would have been in NY, so it wasn't really a big deal. Tasty food.
On the way home, J&K were nice enough to show us around the monuments, which are beautifully lit at night. The highlight was the brand new World War II monument. It is quite large, and very well done. It has only been open since Memorial Day, so it was kind of crowded, but rightfully so.
Actually, the real show stealer was the fireflies. Kristi had never seen them before, and she was enchanted by the little insects with the glowing backsides. It was really cute - I wish I could have gotten a picture of her reaction.
Sunday morning we went to church with the Fausts. It seems like it's still a very strong ward. The district president from Belarus was there, and he bore his testimony. Apparently there is no such thing as freedom of religion in Belarus. A very sad thing to think about on the day when we celebrate our independence...
Kristi and I skipped out after Sacrament Meeting and went to the Udvar-Hazy branch of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. It's basically a giant hanger out near Dulles airport, filled with airplanes. They have a Concorde, a Blackbird, the Enola Gay, and a space shuttle. The shuttle is still being put in place though, so it wasn't that cool.
After that we went back to the Faust's for a 4th of July BBQ. The massive rain storm knocked out the power for about 45 minutes, so we dined by candlelight. It was fun to spend some time with them again. Marcus (now Bishop Faust)spent some time playing with my Treo to see if it would work for him. It did what he needed, but I don't know if it was really fast enough for him.
We'd planned to go in to the American History museum before the fireworks, but because of the weather and the BBQ, we opted for a nap instead. By the time we woke up, the weather had cleared up enough that we were willing to risk going into town. Kristi and I rode in on the Metro again, and camped out on the lawn below the Washington Monument. We really lucked out, because they were launching the fireworks from just a couple of blocks away, so our view was totally unobstructed. It didn't seem to last as long as the last time I went, but it was still a lot of fun. We even managed to get home at a reasonable time, though still too late for home made ice cream at the Faust house.
Monday morning we said thank you and good bye to John, Katherine, and the boys, and drove downtown to see the American History Museum. It was funny to see Fonzi's jacket in the same museum as the Star Spangled Banner. We spent a couple of hours wandering through there, and then headed out to the Cheesecake Factory at Tyson's Corner for lunch before hitting the road in earnest. Surprisingly, we didn't hit very much traffic at all on the way home. The one notable exception to that was the parking lot known as Delaware. Man, that place is always a mess.
Well, Kristi's uploading the pictures to Snapfish right now, so as soon as that finishes, I'll be back to plug those into the above slop.
We had breakfast and lunch there if that says anything. After breakfast we drove to Princeton and Andy went to his appointment and I wandered around. Downtown Princeton is full of cute shops and the campus is just wonderful and old. I found a great shady bench and watched students come and go and read my book. It was very pleasant.
When Andy's appointment was done we had lunch at Wegmans then drove to the shopping center Jersey Gardens to kill time until my flight. We found some adorable outfits for the kids at H&M but not much else. Andy drove me to the airport around 4:00 and I flew home!
