And DC, of course. They're neighbors, after all.
And I love it! -Them! So much, even, that because it was so painful to leave, it has taken me two months to blog about my trip there. TRUE, true love.
You might wonder, why now? Because 1) I have some rockin' photos from the trip, which are post-worthy; and b) why NOT.
I like to work it, work it. This time I worked it from the very beginning, and I mean beginning with my flight out-- I got myself bumped! I was in no hurry, really, and figured losing eight hours of a six-day trip was worth it for $400 Delta Dollars! (Hawaii, here I come)... PLUS, getting bumped from a red-eye flight (bleggh, no tears there) meant that I also got:
- two meal vouchers (I wasn't hungry, but free is free)
- a room at the Crown Plaza, which had a king bed with duvets and six pillows and a schmancy amenities kit AND a free USA Today at my doorstep in the morning (don't usually read The Paper, but certainly felt pretty cool walking through the concourse later with it folded under my arm)
- free towels! (I think they were complimentary? Were the pillows? Huh.)
And, of course, a much-more-enjoyable non-red-eye flight. I love being entertained (personal movies at my seat), and it's always tempting to just stay up and enjoy when I should be dozing.
2) My sweet ride! I would normally never, EVER drive and/or choose to drive a PT Cruiser, but with my new (ALSO FREE) elevated Emerald Club member status with National Car Rental, I was able to pick my own car... so I thought, okay, PT Cruiser! Because... HILARIOUS.
3) THE LEES OF LEESBURG!
If you don't know Sam and Fam, you SHOULD. Salt of the earth. Great mother, hilarious friend, fantastic wife, excellent hostess, has a phenomenal husband and cute cute kids, AND, she's about the coolest personal interior designer I know (tied only with her very own mother-- huh, weird, genes, that). Her house is a beacon of warmth and rustic charm, and I COVET it! I would like to live there. I might, for a few weeks this summer. (you're cool with that, right Sam?)
And she is dang cute racking leaves.
Here are a few select shots of the gazillion I took (to remind me upon my return to the unnatural 90-degrees-in-November-California that there IS a better way of life out there); not doing her abode or her talents any justice but that would require an entire blog. Oh wait, she has one.
Oh, and that's a firepit in that third photo, by the way. Where her husband builds toasty fires so the family can roast marshmallows and make smores on chilly autumn nights to inspire poetry shared around the hearthstone. SERIOUSLY. (jealous).
4) THE SCENERY. You just don't get views like this in SoCal, and especially not in the Great Central Valley of California where the cows are crowded up together on dirt heaps awaiting their turn for slaughter and it smells sooooooo good when you're driving by.. YUM. Pastoral scenery like this is a-plenty in Virginia, though, and Sam was nice enough (and knows me well enough :) to slow down so I could get a few shots out the window.
5) STANKS!!!
The second person I came out East to visit ("second" meaning in order of seeing, not in worth of course) is my old roommate, Christy-- a.k.a. Christanky-- a.k.a. Stanky. WE LOVE HER AND WE MISS HER out in California, but she is busy serving our country!! She recently got back from serving in the Navy in Iraq and we are so so proud of her! And grateful that she is helping to keep the peace! (If you were lucky enough to get her/her husband's Christmas card this year... ohhhh, yeah... :) Christy and her husband are the perfect match and I got to spend some precious time with them and stay in their ueber-cool condo in DC. (That's some great decorating, too-- they are world travelers and their collection shows it!)
Stanks and I spent an afternoon wandering the Mall, intending to read books on the lawn... yeah it was just a little too cold. Luckily she was prepared with the blanket... this was a 'test' shot so I could tell her where I wanted to be stationed in my own photo, but it is just so cute and Vintage Stanky that I had to post it :) Lucky are we who are friends with Christy and Jared!
6) OBAMA!!
So, here's a little human-interest side story...
I had just gone to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to buy my dad some sheets of uncut bills for Christmas (money, every father's dream). The exit puts me outside of the back of the building, Washington-Monument-adjacent, but I decide to find my way back around to the front because I remembered seeing a hot dog cart on the opposite side of the street and I am kinda hungry. And think to myself, Mmm, hot dog cart.
So there I stand, looking across the street at the cart and waiting for the light to turn so I can cross to lunchtime heaven. (There were no cars driving by, but I am a Good Citizen and am not used to the jaywalking practices of other states). Eventually my consciousness tiptoes out of my almost-starving-lightheadedness haze and I realize that there are rows and rows of police cars lined up along the curb just down the street from where I am. And that there are, in fact, NO cars on the road.
Now, I am no looky-lou, and I wasn't going to run down there and/or ask what was going on, but my imagination was running wild and I WAS thinking that it would be pretty exciting if the Bureau were being robbed at that very moment. Something along the lines of the crazy capers pulled by Queen Latifah and Katie (Kate, to Tom) Holmes in that fantastic (HORRIBLE) "Mad Money" film of late, specifically.
So, my attention having been diverted from the lunch goal for the moment, I am just standing there staring (and working out all possible scenarios, including what I would do if a gunman stormed out just then) and it takes me a minute to realize that a policeman is standing in the center of the street waving at me and asking if I want to cross.
"Hey, can you run?" he asks. I say sure, if I NEED to... (there are no cars in the street!) so I casually sashay my way across, feeling pretty pleased with myself that I have a Police Escort, and one encouraging me to cross against the light, at that. I reach the hot dog cart in utmost safety, and there's no one else waiting in line at that moment, so-- bonus!
I get my dog and am munching on it, walking up the street, and then it dawns on me that there are a LOT of people on the sidewalks, just standing there looking down the street. And it no longer appears that they are waiting in line for nearby museums or attractions or entertaining the notion of Diane Keaton committing felonies within nearby walls.
But, what of it, I continue walking up towards the Mall so I can go to the Air and Space museum, I need to buy Astronaut Ice Cream to take home. Then, though, I stop chewing long enough to start to hear the mumbled whispers and excited murmurs around me of "(hummanah-hummanah) Obama! -OBAMA!" among the onlookers. ... And, FINALLY, I have clued in.
So, I walk a little farther up until I've reached a prime corner spot, hold my hot dog in my left hand, and nonchalantly reach into my bag with my right hand to take out my trusty point-and-shoot digital camera. And commence to wait there with the others and their increasing excitement. (One lady was near tears.)
I didn't have to wait long... not one minute later, the cavalcade begins to glide by-- a parade of motorcycles, armored vehicles, a few batmobiles, and then... the Official Car with President-Elect Obama in it!!! It actually was pretty exciting, because the crowd itself was SOOOO excited. And, what you can't see in this picture--because the back half of the car is cut out of it-- is that Barack Obama himself is leaning out the back window holding a big sign that says "Welcome to Our Nation's Capital, Miss Doezie!" and simultaneously giving me a double thumbs-up. It was pretty awesome.
(by the way, when I told my students this story upon my return, they were disappointed when they heard the windows were tinted and begged to know if I had actually SEEN Obama. Not wanting to disappoint, I told them the above two sentences. They believed me for a minute. Ohhh, high schoolers.)
I felt like a little part of history, that moment. (in DC, not in my classroom). Later I learned that he had been on his way to the Official Debriefing at the White House (where I had just been outside of, a few hours earlier); this was just days after the election. America!!!
7) and finally, one more thing from the trip, not really a highlight but definitely worth making mention of...
Do any of you fly Delta? And have you seen the little movie that now instructs us how to crash and put on our seatbelts (not in that order), instead of a live flight attendant going through the motions? And has anyone else noticed how HUGE the film flight attendant's lips are? I mean, REALLY. Entertaining, though. You definitely are enthralled and really watching/listening to her... and that just might save your life someday. Maybe that was the point?
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BONUS SECTION!!!
Until I create my pure-photography blogsite, this will have to do: to close, here are some random cool images/views/findings in and of Virginia and DC.... it's not ALL about me, fall leaves, and Obama, after all.
