Photos Galore: District of Columbia

You've already seen the monuments and the Capitol. Here are all the other sights we photographed during our two weeks in DC:









We also ventured outside the city to Mount Vernon:



And took a bonus trip to Baltimore, Maryland:



Huge, huge thanks to my friend Tony and his wife Eunju for feeding us food and tourism tips during our stay!

~CKL

This is bad news.

She is taking everything out of the drawers. The packing has begun. I guess they knew that we were getting comfortable here. We should never have let them catch us both in the window at the same time!

Okay. Now it's confirmed. She's putting away all their smelly bathroom liquids. We're definitely moving to a new mini-house. I need to go hide before they pack me up in something less comfortable than our car tent.

I just hope the next place is almost as good as this one. We had such a great window here.

Last Day in DC

Because we've been so lazy here, we extended our stay by one day. So now we're getting ready for a late breakfast and some final sightseeing in the nation's capital. Tomorrow it's off to Niagara Falls and then westward ho! More DC photos coming soon.

~CKL

A Capitol Second

Yesterday afternoon, staffers from Representative Anna Eshoo's (D-CA-14) office led us on a tour of the Capitol:



Anecdote: Anna Eshoo's office is in the same corridor as Ron Paul's, and his office door was open when we walked by. The receptionist had a big wooden sign on her desk, facing out, that said "PRAY."

You may have noticed many of my photos are a bit blurry. I've gotten in the habit of turning off our camera's flash, since most museums don't allow flash photography, and now I kind of like getting the natural colors of things instead of blasting them with artificial light. To make a bad analogy, it's like preferring letterboxed movies over pan-and-scan ("full frame")--I'd rather have information than detail. I know our goofy Sony DSC-P93A doesn't have the greatest color reproduction in the world, but it's more accurate than not. Plus there's that "I'm feeling lucky" button in Picasa.

~CKL

That's What I'm Talking About

Here's a link just in case you don't know what I'm talking about.

~CKL

A Monumental Day

How we spent our afternoon in DC:



After getting out of the heat, we went to the Old Post Office (unfortunately, the tower tour was closed due to rain), then spent some time at the National Museum of Natural History, where we saw the Hope Diamond and lots of other gemstones before the place closed and the guards kicked us out. We'll go back tomorrow or later in the week. We also plan to visit the International Spy Museum and the National Air & Space Museum while we're here.

~CKL

I like it when the humans are sick.

When the humans are sick, several good things happen. For one, they stay in the mini-house and keep us company. Jasper's pretty nice for cuddling, but nothing really beats a big human body on the bed. There's plenty to snuggle up against, and--when they aren't sleeping--they'll even reach out and give pets every now and then.

The humans usually make sure that we have lots and lots of food before they climb into bed. I'm guessing this is just in case they sleep for a long time. Whatever the reason, it's nice to have as much as we care to eat in the bowl.

I could go on with the benefits, but I think I'll wrap up with just one more: When the humans are sick, they don't let anyone else into the room. Knowing that our territory isn't going to be invaded by a strange human is maybe the best of all.

The humans have been sick almost since we got here. I think this is my favorite mini-house ever.

Sick Days

D and I will be the first to admit that we're not the most physically fit people in the world. This week, our respective ailments caught up with us: for me, it was "tummy trouble," the gastrointestinal distress which afflicts me a few times each year (we've never identified a specific cause, but a few days on liquids and soft foods and I'm okay); for D, it was her recurring migraine condition (no painful headaches, mostly balance issues and tiredness).

Ironically, she started feeling bad on Wednesday, then got better when I was laid up for the next few days--perhaps because sitting around nursing me back to health is not a strenuous activity--and today, when I was finally ready to go walk around DC, she got dizzy again. So we're spending a lazy Sunday indoors until we meet my old friend Tony and his wife for an early dinner.

So, yes, we are totally lame, because it's now our fifth day in the DC area and we haven't actually been to DC yet. But that's okay, for a few reasons:

1. We used Marriott Rewards points for this stay, so it's essentially a free room. (w00t!)
2. We've still got another full week here, which should be plenty of time to see the sights. Plus we can always extend our stay if we want--our schedule is still pretty malleable.
3. Up to this point, we've both been quite healthy--to wit, our recurring maladies have been recurring much less frequently than we're used to. Perhaps they were stress-related, and that's alleviated now that we're footloose and fancy-free? Discuss.

To that last point, I blame our current convalescence on the recent COBRA fiasco, which had us both fuming for a few days. But we've got a whole month to deal with that, and the aforementioned Tony--who is a healthcare regulatory attorney--has given us some good advice on other insurance options.

Oh yeah, speaking of the mail, that lost Priority Mail finally showed up. In the words of our friend Karl:

It turns out we hit the 13 ounce rule, one of those brilliant post-9/11 feats of bureaucratic incompetence. Since it's impossible to blow someone up with less than 13 ounces of explosives, anything over that must be accepted by a human. Apparently the sweet little old Filipina ladies behind the counter are even better trained at explosives detection than the TSA. Or maybe they figure we'd just feel too guilty to hand them a bomb. Since it went in the slot, they couldn't deliver it. I guess we're lucky they didn't detonate it as a precaution.

So that's the good news. We're looking forward to Peking Duck tonight and fun in the nation's capital all week!

~CKL

Boring!

The humans take us to a lot of different mini-houses. We always get there by taking a long, boring driving trip. This is usually how it goes:

The humans pack up all our stuff. Bayla hides under the bed. Once everything is in piles on the bed, the humans take half of it away. The mini-house isn't a familiar home anymore when that happens. It gets scary! So I go hide under the bed with Bayla.

After a while, the humans crawl under the bed and grab us. We both get stuffed into a tiny carrier! Bayla yells for freedom, but the humans don't let us out.

They carry us outside. It's hot! We go into the car and she puts us into the cloth tent with our litter box. Bayla always gets in on her own. I don't like the tent, so I always have to be pushed in.

Then we drive. I look out the window. After I'm tired of looking out the window, I tell the humans that I'm bored. They ignore me! Bayla and I take a nap. I wake up and look out the window again. I remind the humans that I'm bored. They ignore me. They just drive and drive and drive! It's so boring.

When we finish driving, the humans stuff us back into the tiny carrier. I want to see the new mini-house, so I get in on my own. Bayla has to be dragged. Then the humans lock us in the bathroom while we yell to be let out.

Eventually, we get to explore a new mini-house. It has all our stuff, so it's okay. The view out this window is great too! Last time, I saw humans swimming. This time, I can see for a long distance... birds and parks and cars and humans and even a dog!

But I still hate driving! It's too boring.

Our Revised Itinerary

You've seen our route for the first seven weeks. I'm sure that was very exciting for you. Now, after a brief detour into Pennsylvania to see D's family, we are back on track for the rest of our trip. Please, hold your applause.

We won't hit every single state, and we've had to bend a few of our self-imposed road rules--in particular, the drive from Denver to Las Vegas is going to be brutal. Overall, though, we're pretty happy with what we've got planned for the next couple of months:

• June 24-July 67: Washington, DC (+1 laziness)
• July 78-12: Niagara Falls, NY
• July 13-16: Cedar Point, OH
• July 17-21: Madison, WI
• July 22-25: Minneapolis, MN
• July 26-August 1: Mount Rushmore and Badlands, SD
• August 2-10: Denver, CO (Worldcon)
• August 11-15: Las Vegas, NV (Coverville 500)
• August 16-22: San Francisco Bay Area, CA (old home week)
• August 23-26: Ashland, OR
• August 27-September*: Seattle, WA (PAX)

If you're going to be in any of these places when we're there, and we haven't emailed you already, please drop us a line so we can meet up with you!

~CKL

* Our dear friends Karin and Bryan are also in the Seattle area, so we'll visit with them until they get sick of us, then finally roll into Portland and start looking for a new home.