Super Troopers in Washington, D.C.

So here we are. Cassandra and I are sitting (she's actually sleeping) in our hotel room for the second night in a row just outside Washington, D.C. When we first booked the tickets to the Washington Dulles airport we were going to visit our Great Uncle Raymond for two days before heading off to London to see Michael Jackson in concert. Well, both of those plans didn't exactly work out. Raymond is recovering from a stroke and isn't able to have visitors, and MJ is, well, dead- but long live the King of Pop. Since the changes with Raymond were at the last minute, we decided to not spend the money to change our flight plans and to go ahead and spend time in D.C. We have both been here several times for different reasons- we have both attended leadership conferences, I lobbied with the Women's Mining Coalition, Cassandra attended the 2005 inauguration, etc., but we have never been here at the same time. Great time to come...it's been storming like crazy and the past two days we have spent completely drenched. Luckily it's been warm, so no need for a jacket, but nothing will air dry and our "let's use the hair dryer to help things along" trick has been failing miserably. Tomorrow morning we're going to have to pack our bags with wet jeans and shirts, which will be kinda gross but oh well. At least we still had fun. We weren't able to make it to the National Gallery in time before they closed thanks to us not waking up until 1 PM (only 9AM Alaska time!) and it taking a long time to get into the city from where we are, not to forget that it's Saturday where nothing stays open. We decided to visit different monuments instead, especially since Cassandra had never seen the World War II Memorial until today, and it didn't require money or a time limit. When we went to the WWII Memorial we saw a bride and groom walking along inside it. I thought that was interesting, especially since the rain was coming down so hard. We later saw them at the Lincoln Memorial and I'm going to assume they went to other ones and had a photographer follow them along. It's a neat idea, and I hope their photos come out alright despite the weather. After all that, we got back to our hotel room and it felt like we crawled out of an ocean. It was still a fun visit. Oh, and yesterday we decided to go to the movies and see the new Brad Pitt flick "The Inglorious Basterds." I had a great time throughout the whole thing, even if it did exhibit a couple moments that made me cringe into my seat. If you see it you'll know what I'm talking about.

Before Cassandra and I arrived on the East Coast we got to visit our sister Carrie and her family in Anchorage. That was a fun time! At first our oldest niece Camille wasn't there at first because she was in school. This is the first year she has not been home-schooled. She seemed to like the school enough, especially since one of her best friends is in her class, but she said so far they haven't done a whole lot. I'm sure it's because it was only the second day of class. :) I tell you what, for a 13 year-old who has been in home school her whole life, she is one of the most social people I have ever met. She does more than I do! Her sister Stella doesn't start kindergarten until next week, so she and the littlest one Lulu were at the house and we all read stories and played around until Camille came home. I am really going to miss those girls, and Carrie and Grant too. I look forward to seeing them all when I come back home in December to visit for Christmas.

That's it for now. When I wake up in the morning I'm going to pack everything away, including the wet clothes, and get on a plane to Europe!