DC Trip

It's been a while.  I know.  I have had an out of town guest and that has taken priority over blogging.  I missed it though.  Every time something funny or interesting would happen I would have an impulse to go and write it down for the blog.  But even that didn't get done.  And now as I sit down to write I have that feeling that I am blocked, with no idea what to say.  That's what happens when I don't flex my writing muscles for a while I guess.  It's either that or the pressure of Thanksgiving that I haven't done anything to prepare for looming in the back of my mind.  I've only bought drinks- HELP!

My sister came from Utah for a week and we did lots of sight seeing.  It was wonderful, but exhausting.  Then at the end of her visit she offered (as a birthday gift to me) to stay overnight with my kids so that T and I could get away and be alone for a  day and a night.  That was super awesome!  We stayed at the Grand Hyatt with about 400 teenagers in their Sunday best probably attending a FBLA meeting or debate tournament or some such thing.  They were annoying and I kept thinking "I came here to get away from my teenager and here they are at every turn!"  Oh well...  At least the chocolate cake was delicious.

This will mark the 3rd time we have been alone away from our kids in almost 19 years of marriage.  So it was a very rare treat indeed.  We are already trying to figure out a way we can get away again.  Maybe for our 20th anniversary.  Any takers for the babysitting job?  DC is beautiful in the spring!  I hear it's especially nice when you take 5 kids with you everywhere you go... Anyone?  Anyone?  ... (crickets chirping....)  Anyways, after much thought, here is what T and I decided to do with our day off: We decided to hit the Newseum.  It's a new museum down town that was absolutely amazing.  It's focus is the media.  It's one of the few museums that actually charges an entrance fee.  The ticket is good for two days though and well worth it.  I didn't think I would be so moved but I think I cried as much in this museum as I did in the holocaust museum.  So much bad news, so much of cruelty and pain.  Poverty, injustice, hunger, etc.  I loved it because I am weird that way.  It was a bit weird to see the videos of the photographers talking about how they felt when they took the photos.  Like the guy who took the famous picture of some Vietnamese children running naked down the streets crying after being bombed with napalm.  He says that he knew he had taken some really good pictures that day.  Something inside me boiled and I turned to my husband and said "something much more important that picture being took was happening that day!"  Then it dawned on me a bit more.  If no one were there to take those photos we could just go on pretending it didn't happen.  Photographers risk their lives all the time to record the facts for the public so that we can stand up, be informed, and say "NO!"

Still I had to say that the reporters who kept sneaking into dangerous situations on the day of 911 to get those perfect shots were in need of a good slap.  I didn't see the heroism there, just stupidity.  Call me callous.  Anyways here are some of the shots we took with our Nikon D90 that day.  The only risk we put ourselves in was the risk of putting off our lunch for the day.  It was greuling let me tell ya!

Just outside the museum.

West Berlin side of the Berlin wall.

The King's eagle jumpsuit... quite newsworthy.

A diagram planning the first internet connection.  T used to work and SRI (the top circle) and we are from Utah (the circle on the far right).  So like Al Gore, I think T pretty much invented the internet.

A bullet proof truck used to go where no man should have to go and take photos.  

One of the radio towers from the world trade center.

A creative drummer entertained us on our walk back to the metro station.

Me with chips.... or is it my chips and I?