Vacation part 3

I know.. it's taken me a few days to post more on our vacation. We've had so much fun there hasn't been time to bet online much at all.

Thursday was another busy day but I think it was my favorite of all the Museums. First we went off to the Bureu of Printing and Engraving. Here we got to see how paper money is actually made. Its a cotton paper, our guide made special note to tell us that yes, you can wash it as much as you'd like. It's a very interesting process. We watched them printing 20's in one area and numbering 100's in another. This was a short tour but really informative and interesting.
Next we found ourselves at the National Air and Space Museum. This place is HUGE. The aircraft in this building has outgrown the actual building and they now have a whole hanger at the Dulles Airport. We didn't get to go out to this part of it. Guess that means we'll have to go back sometime. :) It's so hard to describe this place. its so big and filled with so many wonderful things. From the first planes, Amilia Airheart's plane, NASA rockets, the moon orberter, WWI and WWII planes. This place could easily take up a full day (or two) if you stopped and read every display.
Our last museum was the National Post Office. This is another small and out of the way museum. However, it was interesting and you could even send post cards. They had displays from when the mail was carried on the pony experss all the way to modern day.
After our day of musums we found a wonderful seafood resturant and headed to it. Legal Seafood. This was a history lesson all to itself. They are a major part of standards for fresh seafood and the rules and regulations that companies go thru when dealing with fresh seafood. They even have a cookbook. The food was wonderful and the server was the best I've seen in a very long time. You could tell she really loves her job.
After a long day.. err week of sight seeing we headed back to the hotel to pack up and get ready for our next phase... FAMILY TIME!!!!!!!!!

Friday morning we got up early and packed the car and headed off to see Christy, Cliff and Alyssa. I haven't spent alot of time with Christy since we were kids and was really looking forward to seeing her and her family.
We had a wonderful time. On Friday we hung out, had dinner at TGI Fridays and dessert at Cold Stone Creamery. The sinless cake batter is sugar free and was really tastey. Then back to their house to hang out and played some cards. We taugh Christy and Cliff to play FLUX. Saturday morning we ventured out to their favorite mexican resturant and then to bowling. I haven't done that in years and it was so much fun. Alyssa is pretty good. The ball weighs more than she does but she went from using the ramp to rolling it down the lane all on her own. :)
That night was the first of our two U2 concerts. All I can really say is WOW!!!!
The traffic was horrible. I have no idea why they didn't do a better job of parking people, or even of getting people off the interstate. We went 2 miles in 2 hours. I'm not joking. Thanks goodness for Cliff. He got us off the interstate and onto back roads and we went right in. It was crazy!!! We missed the opening act MUSE. But no big deal, didn't go to see them anyway.
The set was enormus. There was a report on the local news that said if Carter Finley Stadium had been 2 feet narrower they wouldn't have been able to play there. And they were right.. our seats were right behind one of the "claws" and it was about a foot from the wall. The seats were not in the best of locations, however, for me.. I loved it. I got to see alot of techie stuff :) The band made its way all around the set and we got to see them pretty close several times. Afterwards we stopped by the booths and Chris bought me a wonderful jacket for my birthday. It looks like a varsity jacket, although its fleece. It has their tour log onone lapel, and Raleigh 2009 on the other lapel. Then after getting back to Christy's we discovered it has a silver U2 on the inside of one lapel, 3 inside pockets and where the tag is it says the name of the staidum and the actual date. How awesome is that?? a jacket with my birthday stitched into it. LOL. I know, its the little things that amuse me.
Sunday (after sleeping in) found us at Chapel Hill. We visited the planitarium. That was something I hadn't done since I was in 8th grade and I really enjoyed the show. It was a tour of our solar system. Even Alyssa, who's in kindergarten, enjoyed the show. Afterwards we headed back to their house and the guys watched football and the girls did some beading. Christy makes some really pretty things and made me 2 braclet/earring sets. Dinner was prepared by the guys too!!! Hot Dogs on the grill with homemade hot dog chili. YUM!! And Christy even had cake for my birthday. It was a sugar free angel food cake with sugar free cool whip and fresh strawberries. THANK YOU Christy, Cliff and Alyssa for such a wonderful birthday!