My First Political Protest .... Ever

We have been in Virginia and blogging about our adventures for fourteen months now, and so far we have not blogged political ... until today. (Unless you consider the account of our Inauguration adventure to be political.) Today, you may have heard, was a rally at the foot of the Capitol to express displeasure with the proposed House health care legislation. I don't intend to opine political here - I would be glad to have the conversation with you, though - let's just say that while I agree with the need to improve health care, I STRONGLY disagree with the way the House wants to go about it.

About a week ago, House conservatives called for a rally at the foot of the Capitol at noon today to protest the bill (just a day or two before the vote would take place). So I slipped away from work for a while and Metro'd over to the Capitol to show support for the cause. This is actually the first DC political protest that I have ever gone to. I have seen them on TV, but now I have been to one.

For a rally that was called on short notice, it was really well attended. Because of the crowd I couldn't really get close enough to see the speakers, but the crowd was pretty well-behaved. After the rally they lined up at the House office buildings to walk the halls and talk to the Representatives. The lines were too long and I had to get back to work.

Well, for a guy who grew up in an era of protests (remember Viet Nam?) it's about time that I protested something!

Just another DC adventure!

Dan

A Gray Day in Virginia

Monday was a Gray day in Centreville, Virginia. Not talking about the weather here. We had a short visit from good friend Roger Gray. For those of you who don't know Roger, we have been friends with the whole dang Gray family for many years. Roger is a pilot for Delta AIrlines, flew into Dulles Airport and had a 36 hour layover. We were able to have him over for dinner and had a great time catching up.

Next time bring Peggy, too!!

Monticello

Saturday we took off on an adventure that has been on our list for over a year - ever since we saw Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, we have wanted to go to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.

We were hoping for a sunny day so that the fall colors would be vibrant. Although the day was mostly cloudy, it was warm and dry, so made for a good day.

Monticello is Jefferson's mountaintop home in Charlottesville, VA, about two hours south of us. Jefferson was a self-taught architect and designed Monticello himself, including many features that he had seen in Europe during his years as a U.S. statesman there.

Dan meets Thomas ... and he is shorter than we thought!

It is as beautiful up close as it looks in photos. We went on a thirty minute tour of the interior and then were allowed to walk through the outbuildings and basement on a self-guided tour.

At its peak, the Monticello plantation was 5,000 acres and had almost 200 slaves and hired help. Unlike other plantations, the outbuildings here were built naturally into the slope so they did not interfere with the vista of the main building. Above left is the north wing, which housed stables and a carriage house. Above right is a Jefferson innovation, a sixteen foot deep underground ice house.

Above left is the beer/wine cellar; above right, the kitchen; below is the room the cook and family lived in.

A small portion of the property is still devoted to raising crops. Here is the terrace garden that the employees care for. Note the vista on the left - Monticello offered Jefferson a grand view overlooking Charlottesville in the valley below.

Thomas Jefferson, and many of his descendants, are buried at Monticello. At his request, his tombstone reads:

Author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia.

It says nothing about being president of the United States.

Eight U.S. presidents have been born in Virginia, more than any other state. We have now seen the residences of three - Mount Vernon, Berkeley, and Monticello. We hope to someday see James Madison's Montpelier as well.



Another adventure ...!

Graves Mountain Lodge

Last Sunday was a beautiful fall day. It was the day we had planned to take an outing with some of our friends from church to Graves Mountain Lodge for country air and Sunday dinner.

The lodge is about 90 minutes southwest of us, right at the foot of Shenandoah National Park. The drive and the lodge setting were beautiful, enhanced by the crisp fall air and bright country sunshine. It was a wonderful day, as we were blessed by the beauty of God's creation and the fellowship of our brothers and sisters in Christ!

The View:

The Colors:

Good food and fellowship:

Warm sunshine and relaxation:

These people are an incredible blessing to us:

Couples (l to r): David & Carol Trujillo, Dan & Barb, Barbara & John Finity,

Paul & Kerry Kraft, Tracy & Mitch Darling.

Do we look like we enjoyed ourselves?

C'mon down and join us some time soon!

WIHS

What is WIHS? It is the Washington International Horse Show. Just like last week with the Redskins game, we were the lucky winners of tickets given away by Boeing Wa DC. Boeing was a sponsor of the show and held an employee drawing last week for the Grand Finale of the event on Saturday evening. We really aren't equestrian enthusiasts, but Barb loves horses so we decided to put our name into the drawing and WON! We counted this as another adventure.

The event was held at the Verizon Center in the heart of DC, the place where the Washington Wizards (NBA) and Capitals (NHL) both play. The Verizon Center is right around the corner from Chinatown so we went early to have dinner at the renown Tony Cheng's Chinese Restaurant.

We had pretty good seats - second row center, with a great view of the action.

All the horses in the final event were beautiful, powerful animals. They had a course of about 15 jumps that had to be completed in 77 seconds, hopefully without knocking down any of the rails.

We were so close we could hear the horses grunt as they leaped over the rails.

(No, this one isn't eating the flowers - it is jumping!)



All that was great, but the most entertaining moment was actually canine, not equine. In between events, the held Terrier races - Jack Russell Terriers chasing after a fake rabbit. Have a look at the video clips below and tell us you didn't laugh:

Like I said another DC Adventure!

Autumn in DC

While Dan was in Seattle last week, I decided to take one of our gorgeous fall days and go into DC to see how the fall colors looked against the monuments. I was NOT disappointed!!


Korean War Memorial


Washington Monument



Jefferson Memorial

World War II Memorial

Capitol building and The Mall

These photos were all taken at the Tidal Basin where the Cherry trees are and where we had taken our photos during the Cherry Blossom Festival.


Hard to believe this is our 2nd fall here! The colors are truly glorious!!