yet again, more of day three

Can you tell I took a lot of pics today?? The blog site only lets me post five at a time, hence the multiple posts.

The World War II Memorial moved me to tears. Tree Hugger says I must have lived another life during that war. I don't know about that, but I've always loved WWII history. They have giant triumphant arches facing each other with the water and fountains in the middle. One arch commemorates the war in Europe, the other commemorates the war in the Pacific. The Tennessee column is just one of 56, representing the states and territories of the US at that time. The gold stars pay tribute to those who served, living or dead. It just blew me away.

Isn't the pic of the Lincoln Memorial from the WWII Memorial just awesome? I may have to have it framed.

After the WWII thing, we walked,ever so slowly - 'cause we were dead tired at this point - to the subway station and rode "home" back to the good ole Motel 6. What a welcome sight THAT was.

We just ate at Boston Market and are now collapsed.

We had a really, really awesome day.

We see Monticello tomorrow and stay with my brother tomorrow night. Should be another awesome day.

More later!!

more of day three

After we did the Lincoln Memorial (just finished a book about him recently, too), we walked over to the Viet Nam Memorial. I was very surprised that this place didn't move me like I thought it would. I mean, it was my generation's war....right? The statues of the soldiers and the women who served...they were great. The sight of the old veterans gathered around the statue of the women, was poignant and really moved my sweet Tree Hugger. I thought it was all great, but I was strangely unmoved.
Then we took a long walk up the path beside the reflecting pool approaching the World War II Memorial. Since I can't post anymore pics here, tune in to part three.

day two and three, part one

So, how do you describe the day from hell and still accentuate the positive? You DON'T!!

Here's how day two went...briefly. We started out at the Cracker Barrell for breakfast. Anyone who knows me knows I love that place. We didn't think a sit down breakfast would make us too late. And by itself, it wouldn't have.

Then the GPS thingy seemed not to be working (we figured it out later). We fiddled and fiddled with it. I was pretty obsessed with making an expensive toy work!

We spent another half hour at the Pfaltzgraff outlet store stocking up on replacement dishes for the set we have at home. Again, not all that bad of a time loss.

But Noah decided to come back from the dead and bring his flood with him! The rain poured and poured and poured. I was ready to kill something.

A 4 1/2 hour drive had turned into seven and we were still almost an hour from Mount Vernon. So......we got on the Beltway and headed for our motel and crashed. A motel room and bed never felt so good.

We did still have dinner with friends last night and it was great. Tree Hugger and I totally dominated the conversation (blabber mouths that we are), but our hosts were kind and listened. They were delightful and fed us well. We loved it. A good time was had by all.

Then this morning, we got up and headed for Mount Vernon anyway! We only spent two hours there, but still enjoyed it thoroughly. We didnt rush, but we didn't dawdle, either.

Since I discovered that I totally love colonial American history, I've read several books on the Founding Fathers....AND Founding Mothers. I'm into a Jefferson biography now, but I have plans to read one on General Washington, too. Martha Washington figured prominently in the Founding Mothers book, so seeing their home was great. I had seen it in the 70's and remembered virtually nothing. Both of us loved it.

We traveled all day on the Metro, DC's very excellent subway line, by the way.

After Mount Vernon, we went into down Washington to see some presidential and war memorials. As you can see from the pics, we only did General George and Honest Abe. We never even found the Jefferson Memorial. Oh, well.

The sun was out and we were soaking wet by the time the day was over. But I am ahead of myself. I shall post part two now with more pics and spew out some more stuff.

Day One

Well, we did make it. We worked like two people possessed last night to get ready. I did a WHOLE lot less than Tree Hugger did and I went to bed earlier, too. But hey.....I had been up for more than 24 hours. Give a guy a break! She had an agenda to get done as long as your arm....and she did it all. She is amazing.

We got away today after taking our furry children to a friend's house. That was a little hard to see them so confused, but they'll be fine. Our friend is a total animal lover, so they're in good hands.

We drove the first leg of our journey to Scranton, PA today. We're chilling now after yet another fast food meal. Maybe tomorrow we'll find something not so fast to eat. That would be a GOOD thing!!

The pics above were taken along the way today. The scenic two were taken in the Thousand Islands area of the St Lawrence River. It's sooo beautiful there. One is an island with nothing but a chimney left sitting on it's crest. The other is this weird three level house built on an island not much bigger than the house. The Thousand Islands is breathtakingly beautiful. The fall colors are out in the north now so it's even more lovely than it usually is.

The dark, moody, sillouette picture is me, taken by Tree Hugger while driving on the Thousand Islands Parkway. oooooooo...

Then the border crossing to get into the USA!! woo hoo!

You wouldn't believe how gorgeous upstate New York is right now. The fall colors are close to peak. I-81 south through the Adirondack Mountains was a sight to behold. We rode through hills and valleys and had such views! We sang to ABBA and just had a great time.

We're just so grateful to be done with the getting ready and gone. We already miss our sweet children, but we're planning on a good time.

Tomorrow, Mount Vernon and a visit with George and Martha. Then dinner with friends....should be great!!

night before

We are like chickens with our heads cut off. I worked all night and haven't slept a wink all day. If I make it to bed time, it will be a miracle. There's still so much to do. I feel a little overwhelmed!

The one relief is that we're only driving six hours tomorrow, so we can chill some at our first stop. We can't wait to get going but the getting ready is killing me!

The pics are of a couple of cats in our neighborhood. The black and white one is our next door neighbor. The autumn kitty is....don't know who he belongs to. He's just around all the time.

encouraged!

LePew Man here today.

Well, well! Four comments. That's cool. Thanks, you guys.

We're busy sending out emails to friends to confirm plans. We're trying to think of things we need to do. We're trying to use up the perishables in our fridge. There's stuff we need to buy. blah, blah, blah. Everybody knows what it's like to get ready for a vacation!

I've five 12 hour shifts to work in the next six days, but I'll have a day off to try to switch my sleep cycle over to the night time before we start. Wish me luck on that....yea, right.

We're excited to get going!

The cool pics are of this past May's Tulip Festival, here in Ottawa.

ciao, friends.

just starting

We're just starting this photo blog. Either of us could be posting here. This is LePew Man today. I've never kept a blog of any kind successfully, but I'm motivated by the idea of sharing pictures, so maybe I can be more regular about it.

Here are a few pics of Tree Hugger's tomatoes. She's so very proud of them! There's some basil in there, as well.

So...no matter how often we post, welcome to our world!