Right Here, Right Now 3.0

The mice are gone.

Lilah and I are in SF for a quick get-away. Next visit I think will be a day trip to the Ferry Building. It's a fun place and is right off Bart and would be a fun picnic-making visit.

Old Crow Medicine Show is a bluegrass group that we like at the Hinde house. One of their songs is available for free on iTunes.

The flight home was fine. We did JetBlue, coming and going, and I'd do it again.

Saturday morning, mom sent me this:

It cracked me up. We didn't see any camels in the parking lot.

Molly woke up with a sore throat so we got a late and tentative start. Flexibility is key with Molly and I. It's what makes travelling with her so much fun. There's no such thing as a curve ball.

We were warned by our host that if we went into the city and couldn't get back before 3:30-4:00 that we might as well stay in for dinner. So, our goal was to get out at 4:00.

First stop was George Washington University. My great grandparents on the mere side lived in what is now student housing for GW. The photo below will take you to another picture of Molly posing with George and then me in the doorway of the old homestead.

After that was some random driving that got us to the White House. We parked, at about 3:15, a block from Lafayette Park. We walked up to the fence outside the White House; even though the street in front is now closed to cars, we got amazingly close. Security was obvious, but not overwhelming and fairly civilian. We then worked our way over to Blair House and then, with plenty of time left, made our way back to the car.

We were also looking for a bathroom on our way back. Nothing seemed obviously available, so we tried the Christian Science Reading room. The woman staffing the room decided we weren't a threat and let us in. While Molly took care of business the woman and I chatted about the dearth of public facilities. She made a faint attemtp at evangelizinng, asking if I was familiar with Christian Science. I said I had an aunt and a cousin who were involved, so I was somewhat familiar. (About as familiar as I am with Chicago because of their proximity there.)

So, now it's 3:40 and we need to go directly to the car. Except I forgot where we parked. As it turns out, it was right next to the reading room. But I'd forgotten and thought it was further out. What followed was 40 minutes of doing laps, radiating out from the White House, worrying that the car had been ticketed, towed or stolen. (We were parked in a lane that said no parking after 4:00...) After facing defeat, I called the cars owners. ("Is this a joke?"). 5 minutes later, we found the car. All I had to do was admit defeat. :-)

At 4:20 we found the car. A little more toodling, and then we hit the freeway at 5:00 (how bad could it be) and by 5:30 we'd stopped by the store to get Molly some soup and were home. Traffic had been a non-issue, full speed all the way.

I got my exercise for the month, the car is safe and sound, and all's well that ends well.

Howdy campers.

Today Molly and I buzzed down to Charlottesville to see Greg Swope, a long-time friend. It was meant to be a buzz, but road construction slowed us to a crawl at first. Once we were really underway, it was a nice backwoods drive through central Virginia. (We took a different route than the one proposed by MapQuest - Greg suggested and we went down 15...)

(Sort of a tangent, I noticed on this drive that gas was about 10% cheaper inland - $2.75 was the cheapest I'd seen. In the urban area I'm staying the cost is similar to what we pay in Sacramento, 3.05 - 3.10.

And for no particular reason, about a week before I left I noticed the 'grocery store' price of cigarettes . Cigs are half the cost here. We're in tobaccy country. And, heaven help me, you can smoke in restaurants. Our co-guests from Dublin tell me that Ireland is smoke-free, so they're as disappointed as we are.)

After spending a few minutes at Greg's house, where the pictures were taken, we headed into Charlottesville proper. Greg is actually about a half-hour east. This is Greg's commute - each day he passes by Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home in Virginia.

Charlottesville is probably best known for the University of Virgina. UVa is one of Thomas Jefferson's accomplishments that he is most proud. (it's one of three that is listed on his gravestone.)

So, the Mugster and I walked around downtown Charlottesville and poked around the original parts of UVa. We saw Edgar Allen Poe's room while he was a student there. The rooms on either side are still in use, but his has been set aside and reconstructed to reflect how it probably looked at the time. Apparently, living in these nearly 200 year old rooms is quite a coup, even though the bathrooms are down the hall (outside).

Spending the time with Greg, and later his kids, was great. It was nice to catch up a bit and have some face time.

One not fun thing about this trip is that I am, apparently, allergic to one of the host cats. I have two cats at home and no known reaction, but here it's been getting slowly worse all week. Last night it took me several hours to get to sleep because of the sneezing. Claritan isn't helping now. Once I'm out of the house I'm fine. I was thinking about getting a room for the last few nights but have decided to ride it out.

Tomorrow is a driving trip into DC. Georgetown U., Ford's Theater and the Smithsonian American History Museum. And the ThinkGeek party!

I became more interested in George Washington when I learned that he freed his slaves upon his death. The older slaves received a stipend until they died. The last one died some 30+ years after Washington and was supported the entire time. Compared with Jefferson, who, admittedly talked a mean game, Washington walked the talk. I'm ok (to an extent) with "they did well for their time."

We visited Mt. Vernon today.

The day started, like they all have, with breakfast with Willow.

It's sit around the house day. So, we have time to surf.

Day 3, still underway, started with a Metro ride into D.C. We wandered aimlessly and stopped by the Air and Space Museum, the National Archives and the Holocaust Museum. After a clean up we're out to dinner for our hostesses' birthday.

No pictures because trained photographers have done much better.

Day two in D. C. was a catch up on our sleep, have dinner at the folks, calm sort of day.

Day 1, was travel (leave the house at 4:30 a.m., arrive at Dulles about 4:30 local time), say hi to our hosts, have a very nice dinner and then the whirl-wind tour of D.C.