Finally Home

Vacation has been wonderful but I'm so happy to be home.

The U2 concert last night was great. I can't decide which I liked better. They both had some awesome moments. They have announced they'll be back in the USA next June/July and I'm hoping they come around this way again. LOL

The trip home was uneventful. And we didn't even stop at the outlets at the Converse store.. those of you that know me well, you can pick yourself up off the floor now. hehehe. Chris and I decided we'd just make a trip down to Charleston one weekend for our Converse fix. :)

The furbabies seem to be very happy to see us and to be home. I think they've played themselves out. And get this.. they got along with the cat!!!!!!!!!!! well 2 actual. I'm still in shock and Melissa sent me a picture to prove it.

Tonight has been all about getting caught up and ready for work tomorrow.
So I'm going to get off the pc and go put away a few more things.

Vacation part 4

Monday morning we got up early and headed out as Cliff was off to work and Christy was taking Alyssa to school. The drive wasn't too bad, but it was long. I've lost most of my "padding" and sitting for long periods of time isn't the most fun. We stopped a neat place for lunch called Cook-Out. We had seen a few of these in VA but never stopped. I'm glad we did. It's not really anything fancy.. just burgers and hot dogs. But it was neat and they have footlong hot dogs. It's been years since I've even seen them. So of course that's what I had.. although Chris ended up with half (like I knew he would). We also stopped in Comerse GA at the LODGE store. Chris and I both enjoy cast iron pans so we stopped in to see what prices they had and to rest my aching tush LOL.
We ended up getting a set that has 2 skillits, 1 griddle and a dutch oven along with a mini cornbread pan and a 12" skillet. How I'm going to make room at home is yet to be seen but I know they'll be used and used alot.
Shortly after that stop we arrived at Ricky's. Ricky and I used to be really close and since I went off to NCSA we haven't spent much time together. So its been wonderful catching up with him. Lastnight we went out to a few local stores and then to dinner at Dave and Busters. That was fun. It's like Chuckie Cheeses for adults. We played several games after dinner and then headed back to Rick's apartment. We played Phase 10 and then crashed.
Tonight is our 2nd U2 concert and I'm really looking forward to it. We get to take the Marta train to the Georgia Dome and this time it shouldn't take 2 hours to go a few miles... crossing fingers LOL

So that's it for now.. you'll all caught up on our vacation. I'm missing my furbabies alot and can't wait to see them tomorrow.

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!

Our Vacation Part 2

Wednesday found us Arlington National Cemetery. What an amazing place. It's quite moving to see all those headstones and know that many of them died while in service to our country. The stones range from small marble (which is paid for by the Cemetery) to huge statues and monuments. We visited the graves of the Kennedy's and saw the eternal flame. The tomb of the Unknown's and witnesed the Changing of the Guard. WOW!!! I've seen it before..in 1987, and its still a very moving ceremony. A few facts about the guards that I found interesting, they are all about 6 feet tall, wear wool uniforms year around (because that material holds a crease the best) and their belts are 2 sized too small (to assit with their posture). They have never left their post, even during the worst hurricanes.
After Arlington we took the metro downtown to near the White House. First we stopped to take pictures of the Treasury Department. My mom worked there before I was born. It was very neat to see. Mom told me that there is a tunnel that connects the Treasurey Dept to the White House. When she worked there one day Vice Presidnet came thru the tunnel and she got to meet him. Next we walked over to view the White House. It's nice, but not as big as the pictures make it seem.. or we just coudn't see that much of it.. not sure which.
Our journey's next took us tot he National Archives, where we got to see the original Constitution, its 13 pages long and pretty faded.. hmm wonder why after all these years ;)
The Decleration of Independance is also on display along with Shaq's shoe. Yep, not quite sure why its in the National Archives but it's there. It was signed and given to Bush.
Next we trecked on over to The National Portrait Gallery and American Art Gallery. This was nice, but honestly, after walking all day long, it wasn't my favorite Museums. The Pictures are huge and amaging. The detail in many of them rivel any artest today. We got to see 4 Emmy Awards from Katherine Hepbern and a really neat painted portoriat of her. And of course all the presidents.
Dinner was at the famous Ben's Chili Bowl. Very good and not so pricy. Highly recommended if your in the area.

(getting ready to leave DC and head to NC to visit my cousin Christy and her family.. can't wait to see them, so I'll finishour DC update tonight or tomorrow)

Our Vacation (part 1)

Friday after work we headed out and stopped in Rocky Mount, NC. This was only for overnight but we did make a Wal-Mart run to pick up a few things.

Saturday we arrived at our hotel in Maryland around 3:30pm. It would have been sooner however traffic had other ideas.
That night we took the metrorail down to the Smithsonian and saw a few minutes of the National Book Festival. It was raining so we walked around a bit and then headed back to the hotel.

Sunday we slept in and then left to go to National Stadium for the Baseball game between Atlanta Braves and the Washington Nationals. We had great seats, up high and front row. Our Braves won!!!!!! YEAH!!!!
Afterwards we took the Metro back down to the Mall. The metro stops in the middle of "The Mall" so we walked down to the Washington Memorial and then on down to the WWII Memorial and then on down to the Lincoln Memorial.
It was a beautiful afternoon and turned into a beautiful evening. We took alots of pictures.
When we arrived at the Lincoln Memorial there was some filming going on. I recognized the actors immdeiately. It was Bill Paxton (Bill) and Chloe Sevigny (Nicky). There was a third actor, Nicky's daughter, however, I'm not sure of her name. It was fun watching the filming and we were able to get a few pictures also. Afterwards we hiked back toward the Metro. We stopped by the Washington Memorial again and a lady on a bike rode by and said "you just missed your president". I wasn't 100% sure what she said and just noded. A few minutes later she came back and said "you did hear he was here, right?" I then figured out that I had heard her correctly and said No. She said he'd just left as we got up to the top. (She'd been just ahead of us getting up to the top of the walkway. ) Wow.. we just missed seeing President Obama by mear minutes!!!!!
The rest of the treck back to the Metro wasn't very eventful.

Monday we spent the day at the National Zoo. Part of the day was very frustrating as they were doing renivations on several of the exibits. The bears were sleeping inside and others just weren't out at all. But what we did see was great. The renivations will be awesome. The Elephant house will be amazing and HUGE!!! State of the art for sure.
The metro station for the zoo is about half a mile from the zoo.. all UP HILL. The zoo itself is on a hill.. by the time we were back at the hotel our legs were killing us. But it was a great day.

Tuesday we started in on the Smithsonian exibits. We started at "the Castle", this is an informational stop but has a few exibits in it and a short video. In the very middle of the entrance is a display of the trasure that you see in the Night at the Mesume 2. It was fun to walk around it and see what all you could identify. There was Archie Bunkers chair sitting at the top of the heap, a computer keyboard, a light bright box, and alot of other fun items.
Next came the Mesuem of Natual History. This building is huge. It took us 3 hours to do about 2/3 of it. And that was passing up alot of things. Here we got to see the Hope Diamond. WOW.. this thing is beautiful. We also saw dinasours and other fossels. A giant female squid and other various under the sea creatures. Next came the Mesume of American History. This was what I was waiting for.. I'd been reading about Julia Childs donating her kitchen to the Smithsonian and was very extcited to see it. It's pretty cool. Very very very originized. She sure knew how to keep a perfect kitchen. We also saw the real Archie Bunker chair, Dorothy's ruby slippers, Kermit the Frog and R2D2. We took about 3 hours here. We did stop for lunch on the ground floor. Talk about expensive!!!!!!!!!! But it was good. Afterwards we came back to the hotel to rest up for tomorrows adventures. So stay tuned in a day or two for part 2 :)