Capitol - the big white building

 
 
 
 

An early morning was needed to get to our appointment at congressman Putnam's office. One of his staff was to give us a tour of the Capitol. We tried out the subway and only took the wrong escalators a couple of times. Arriving at the Longworth Building almost on time, we realized we would need to go through security. All passed except for dad who had to go through the scanner several times, in less and less clothing. Finally he was released to go to Putnam's office.

Meagan, a senior at UF who is interning for the summer, was our guide. Into the tunnels we went to get to the capitol building. Alas, another security check. Mark had to donate his pocket knife and lighter, dad had to disrobe somewhat again to get through. Then we started the long walk under the streets of Washington to the Capitol building. We arrived to find a labyrinth of hallways and rooms broken up by large and small rotundas with beautifully painted ceilings and crystal chandeliers. We visited the room where the original supreme court would meet,and then the room where congress originally met - complete with bronze tiles depicting where famous politicians once sat. Story goes that John Quincy Adams would 'sleep' during meetings and still be able to argue an impressive discussion. The reason? The curved ceiling allowed him to hear what was being whispered across the room.

This same room now houses quite a few statues. Each state gets to contribute 2 statues to reside in the Capitol. Among the towering statues was one of Florida's, the statue of Willis Haviland Carrier, the inventor of air conditioning. Thank you Willis!!

Then on to another security check so we could sit in the gallery to watch a vote being taken in the House. What a confusing mess of suits all talking and walking around, seemingly ignoring the house speaker pro temp's instructions. But it was interesting to see how our government actually runs.

After our tour, we headed to the Smithsonian. Dad and mom targeted the Air and Space Museum while Mark and I hiked over to the Natural History Museum. After all, I had to do inventory on the Harry Winston jewels and Hope Diamond. We got to go into the butterfly house and saw an impressive group of them flying, sitting on the floor, sitting on our shoulders. We also caught up with their latest mammal exhibit which was impressively displayed. Dad and mom came over to catch up on the dinosaurs which were all waiting patiently to see them.

Off to the Archives building to see the documents that formed this country. The line snaked around the block, but we decided to hang out anyway. 45 mins later, we were inside..ready to go through security. Dad had it down by this time and didnt get held up. The line inside was not quite as long, but we finally got to see the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and Magna Carta among several key legal and social legislation documents. We discovered an extensive interactive area that, even in its volume of displays, only hinted at the breadth and depth of content stored at the archives. We could view early films and radio recordings of important events, see handwritten notes taken during battle, read bits of the census from the 1930's, and even notes the astronauts took with them on Apollo 11 to ready the LEM for the moon. Quite an interesting museum.

FOOD
After 11 hours of walking and standing, we decided to get back to the hotel and think about dinner. Across the street, we now saw Raku, a japanese diner. It had been packed the night before, so the food was probably good. We headed over for sushi, noodles and szechwan beef. It was delicious! And we could sit outside and enjoy the warm evening air, as well as the lively neighborhood.

Mark headed out later to the park to find a band playing into the late hours. People were dancing on the sidewalks and having a great time.

Buffalo Family Pics

 

What a House

We were ready to stretch our legs after our train 'adventure', so we headed into Virginia to Mt. Vernon, George Washington's home. This is a beautiful estate, right on the Potomac River looking down from a hill. George was a detail guy, and planned out the estate (which he got thru the family) in great detail. So much so that he was moving outbuildings and having gardens planted even during the 7 years he was fighting the British. He probably appreciated his slaves at least during this time. Did you know that George and Martha had no children of their own, but raised Martha's two children, then her son's children when he died. George was also raised in a family of stepchildren. So this seemed common at the time.

Good thing he found Martha because she was a 'sugar momma' and had enough wealth to run George's estate. George wasnt really much of a farmer. He was more interested in testing farming techniques and new seeds. We hiked through his orchard where they have just planted cherry trees for the first time. Currently there are peach and apple trees as well as berries and vegetables.

The museums and house were quite interesting, and the films were first rate. Through all of this, the history of our country was personalized, highlighting the people, their passion and their flaws. Mt Vernon is a recommendation for anyone traveling to the area.

FOOD
Our hotel is on Dupont Circle, a nice area. And to keep to the theme of the trip (irish reunion) we are staying at the Jury Hotel (Irish hotel company). The neighborhood is beautiful with Dupont park, the older homes, bookstores and restaurants, in addition to the Irish pub in the lobby. For dinner, we were tired, so decided to walk outside and see what looked good. Across the street we saw Kramerbooks. A genius idea - bookstore, bar and restaurant all in one. We were excited.
And not disappointed. Mark's dinner wins the prize. Mussels and real crab cake atop an amazing corn chowder that didnt seem to have any cream in it. My crab cake was what I remember from the area - chunks of real crab mixed with a little bit of seasoned breading and baked. Cant find that in Florida! Dad's dinner was a combination of Elvis Presley's favorite foods - country fried steak, greens, mac 'n cheese. Mom went for grilled shrimp and vegetables.
What did we do afterwards? We went to the bookstore!! A great assortment of books covering all topics were available, mostly in paperback. We found a small bar with entertainment in the back that added to the fun atmosphere.

Long Nights Journey into Day

 
 
 
 

The trip to the reunion has begun! We loaded us and the car into the Amtrak auto train on Sunday in Sanford, ready for our 17 hour journey to Washington DC, the sidetrip on the way to Buffalo. We were greeted with smiling faces, good humor and free wine tastings. There was a reason...

We began our adventure with views of scrubby Florida outside the windows, and bumpy rails to remind us we weren't on a plane. Our rooms were the luxury compartments on the train; a type of sofa (that would make into a bed), a side chair that was comfortable only to the suitcase, a sink the size of a cottage cheese container, and the toilet/shower room. Imagine a small toilet inches from all four walls surrounding it. And, above the toilet paper...a hand held shower sprayer. What else could you ask for? Well....

We ate our dinner at the late seating, 9pm - all that was available. A nice stroll after dinner was not really possible, so we all went back to our rooms which had been converted to beds while we ate. Imagine opening a door to find wall to wall mattress, with slightly smaller wall to wall mattress above it, joined by a steel ladder. Hmm, how inviting. I decided to ignore the lack of space and climb over to the toilet/shower to try out the shower. Any shower prep had to be done outside of the showering space. Then I stepped in, closed the shower curtain, and sat on the toilet seat - as suggested in the showering instructions on the wall. After all, this wasnt altogether intuitive. I turned on hot water and voila! it was spraying from the hand held sprayer. Then to dry, one had to step gingerly back into the mattress filled room to dry off. We decided the top bunk was way too treacherous and crawled into the lower bunk, to go to sleep.

Soon, Mark was crawling over me to get out and breathe. The air circulation was poor with all the mattresses and closed space, and he was having hot flashes. So he got dressed and walked the halls. This process was repeated about 4 times through the night - taking his clothes off, crawling into either top or bottom bunk, getting too hot, crawling out, putting clothes back on, walking the corridors. This wasnt helped by the jerky motion of the train as it rolled across ancient tracks in need of alignment. A couple of times we thought that me might have been knocked off the tracks - only to hit more misaligned tracks. Around 5am, I found Mark finally still, sitting up and resting his head against the window. I think he slept about an hour this way.

The porter announced at 7am that it was time to get up for breakfast. Since we'd not really slept, it was a matter of just climbing off the mattress and putting yesterday's clothes back on...again for Mark.

Breakfast was cereal, milk and banana with coffee or tea. Not what one anticipates after a sleepless night. Then we arrive 1 1/2 hours late to our destination. Happy to get off the captive train, we finally step outside to freedom. Freedom of movement, freedom from jerky moves, freedom from all-encompassing mattresses and from tiny showers.

Excitement mounted as we anticipated the car's dismount from the train. Finally it emerged, equally pleased with its freedom. Humans and car alike, spirited out of the Amtrak station on to the next adventure - Mount Vernon.

Kayaking to Caledesi

With our friend Tim visiting from Seattle, we decided to try kayaking to Caledesi Island. Mark was hesitant as he doesnt trust little boats. But we found these kayaks to be very stable....and very slow. I guess there are trade offs to stability.
The water was warm and clear. Except for crossing the boating channel, it was so shallow that you could walk over to the island. We got to Caledesi from the Dunedin causeway pretty quickly and landed on pristine, white sandy beach, complete with a wide assortment of unbroken sea shells. When we started examining them, we found most still inhabited, so we left them on the beach.
After a hike around the north side of the island, we decided it was time for more kayaking. So we confidently hopped onto our plastic boats and paddled...and paddled...and paddled around the mangroves to the island marina.

Along the way, we saw osprey, egrets, and an assortment of other birds living among the trees. All around us mullets were leaping up from the water. We kept thinking we could just reach out and catch them, but never could.
Tim, being the fair skinned Irish boy that he is, needed to get out of the sun. So we took a break at the marina snack bar and watch the tourists arrive from Honeymoon Island aboard the State run ferryboat. We decided they were all wimps!!

We were slowing down on the trip back to the causeway, partly because the tide was going out and we had less and less water to ride on. And maybe a little bit because our arms were getting tired. The excitement came when we had to cross the boat channel which is deep so boats can get out to the Gulf. By this time of day, early afternoon on a Saturday, everyone was heading out. And they werent driving slow. So, we got up our courage and paddled as fast as we could as very tall and big boats motored on either side of us. We hurdled their wakes like outrigger canoes in Oahu waves. And finally, we found ourselves in sandy, shallow water just feet from the rental shop. Whew!!

From tree hugging to tree pulling

 
 
 

Mark is furiously re-landscaping our yard. This past week,I made him too much coffee and he decided to pull out the wild trees in the corner of the yard that were ugly, growing into the cable lines, and taking up his part of the yard. Note: My part of the yard has the flowers, his part has the vegetables. It took him no time, and the trees were conquered.

But then the fence problems became apparent. So, without a pause, he started resetting the back fence. He had a helper on that one - the back yard neighbor Tom. Tom is quite a perfectionist, and has a lot of tools. So between the two of them, the fence was straightened and leveled, posts concreted,and the yard leveled around it in no time. As soon as they finished, Tom added another layer of wood on his side of the fence....so he can't see me and Mark. hmmm. I didnt think we ran around naked THAT much! :')

The French come to the kitchen..door

 
 
 
 
Our contractor and helpers showed up Wednesday morning and are finishing up Saturday morning. With sawing the concrete block, tearing out sheetrock, blocking up the former doorway, and changing electricity around - the yeckyist part was going without air conditioning for 3 days with mid 90 degree, and 90% humidity weather. It was so hot, the mud dripped off the sheetrock, ending Friday's efforts early. By then, we could close our new french doors and turn on the AC to dry out the mud.

Lots of details to finish, but the heavy duty tasks are done. Mark got help from the contractor in installing the HEAVY door. Methinks when the hurricanes come, standing behind the new door would be a safe place to be!