Before I went gallivanting off to the west coast we took a weekend trip to D.C. Some friends we met in Oregon years ago actually moved to New York City for a short period of time but then employment took them to D.C. Ariel met both Nadia and Kimito during an internship. They met at work just like Ariel and I met at work. Here’s a pic of the cute couple -
Since it was summer, we decided to do outdoor sight seeing. We’ll go back and see the museums when it is 0 degrees outside. The most amazing thing about the White House to me was what poor shape the lawn was in. Part of me was offended (the former gardner) and part of me was happy that our tax money does not seem to being going toward fertilizer.
This is the probably the coolest picture from the weekend. The Vietnam Memorial is by far the most powerful in my eyes.
Then there is the self portrait at the Jefferson Memorial with geek in the background.
The part of the trip that left a lasting impression upon me (as in gray hairs) was the bus ride. We took a Chinatown Bus which is a great deal, both in terms of money and excitment. It was like a four hour amusement park ride. Our ride to D.C. was actually somewhat tame. We sat in the very front seat both ways to experience the sights . . . bad idea. On the way back, the spedometer was pegged on 85-90 pretty much the whole time and the driver was screaming into his cell phone the entire way while weaving in and out of traffic like he was driving a sports car.
At one point he didn’t notice that traffic ahead was backed up and a loud gasp from a women in the seat next to us got his attention. He slammed on the breaks and everyone got a nice taste of the seat in front of them. The guy was a maniac. He did get us home in four hours. I understand the average time is about 5 hours. If I were a race car team, I ‘d start scouting the bus lines for new talent.