In April, my art student Joey won the 11th US Congressional District Art Competition. He entered a photograph he took at our cemetery after an ice storm in Jan.2007. Part of the prize was airfare for 3 to DC and 2 nights in a hotel there. My fantastic principal paid for an extra night for Joey and his mom, and 3 nights for me and Dan, and our rental car, and part of our meals. It was the trip of a life time!
We left from Midland EARLY Wed. AM Jun. 27 and flew to Austin then to Baltimore. LONG trip, we got in about 2:30PM and drove around awhile, then got settled in our hotel - Capitol Hill Suites - and then went driving around to look at the lights. WOW, DC is gorgeous at night.
I lived in Alexandria, VA and in Upper Marboro, MD in the mid seventies. It has changed alot since then. The most noticeable is the accessibility of monuments and the government offices. Thank you 9/11...
Anyway, we visited with Congressman Mike Conaway Thursday morning in the Cannon building(wow, what a beautiful building!) and then went to the Capitol through the underground walkways - saw Joey's picture hanging in the passageway - we have awesome high school artists in this country! The temperature was 94 and VERY humid. I think we walked 10 miles that day. That night we went to the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial - again, awesome places.
Friday it was cooler and cloudy, we went on the White House tour, and then did MORE walking, went to the Air and Space Museum, and the Hirshorn and went to the pavillions on the Mall - they had Irish musicians there and Vietnamese dancers - very interesting. I ended up with shin splints...OOS(out of shape!) But I'm a trouper, so we went driving around all over, up Embassy Row and Georgetown, it was so pretty. On Saturday, we left at 3 for the airport, and got home at 11PM - VERY long day. As always, so glad to be home.
Next time I will do my homework for the trip. I should have looked up what art I wanted to see and had the addresses (we have a Garmin - absolutely indispensible in a strange city!) and the address of my old job on M St. NW - Aetna still has offices there, but I didn't remember the address...it was a great trip for me, down memory lane...
