DC Trip

At the beginning of January, we made the trip out east to our nation's capital. The main purpose of our trip was to pay a surprise visit to Rusty's sister, Ronda, who was there visiting her boyfriend's family for two weeks. Since neither Rusty or I had ever been to DC before, we went into town one day with Ronda and Mark to see some of the sights. We didn't have a lot of time, so we just found a place to park near the Reflecting Pool, and walked to the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the World War II Memorial, and the Washington Monument. From there, we headed over to catch a glimpse of the White House, then grabbed a hot dog on the way back to the car. It was neat to see, in person, some of the things that, up until now, I have only seen in books and on TV.

Our family in front of Abraham Lincoln's statue

In front of the Washington Monument

Alex chasing pigeons -- the fattest, laziest pigeons I have ever seen! They didn't even fly away when he ran at them, just sort of waddled out of his path.

Alex and Auntie Ronda

We also traveled down to Virginia to spend a couple of days with my oldest friend, Michelle, and her husband, David. Rusty was able to do a presentation to their church on Sunday about Angola, and we enjoyed some time to just visit with them and catch up on their lives. (I am embarrassed to say that the camera didn't make it out of the bag the entire time we were there, so I have no pictures of our time with Michelle and David!)

On our way back to Detroit, we stopped in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania -- another place neither of us had ever been. We picked up a map at the visitor's center and did the self-paced auto tour. Seeing all the monuments and the battlefields which look much the same as they did in the 1860's was inspiring and thought-provoking. Then we stopped and got a bite to eat at a restaurant downtown before heading home.

Alex in front of one of the Gettysburg Monuments