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Tuesday, July 30, 2002
Ok, ok, ok. I’m a poor “webmasthter.” I am bad at updating. I had grand plans of daily updates throughout my vacation, but alas, this never happened. I was having too much fun being on vacation. But here is an abridged version of said vacation. Now that I’ve been at the Independent-Mail for 5 (cough, sputter, hard to believe that long) years I get three weeks of vacation. This allowed me to take a nice long period of time off. The first few days, Meghan and I finished painting our living room (which is no longer the horrible pink, thank you.) After that, plans were to go to Washington D.C., see Peeg and Stacy, tour the town, then go to Charlottesville, Va., then Winston-Salem, N.C. to see David Clark, then home. This of course, being what I planned, didn’t turn out that way. We of course, didn’t leave on the day we planned to. This was due to a nice little kidney infection that I came down with the day before we were supposed to leave. It’s always something. I’m just not meant to go by schedules or be on time. After going to the doctor (on the day we were originally going to leave town), I received medication and assurances it was safe to travel. My brothers Joe and Nick came up from ‘Bama to take care of the ol’ homestead in our absence. They arrived Monday evening and we played our fair share of video games. The next day, Meghan and I finally finished our packing, got in the car, and headed to Winston-Salem. You will note that we wound up doing everything in the opposite order we originally planned. This actually worked out better because we got to hang out with Da Peeg on one of his days off. So, anyway, we went to Winston and saw David’s new house. It’s really very nice. He has trees. A lot of trees. And he knows exactly how many are on his lot. We met his new girl and had a wonderful dinner. The next morning, a bit hung over (seems like that always happens when I visit Dave), we got up and drove to Charlottesville, Va. to see Meghan’s aunt in a monastery there. Her aunt is a nun. The drive from Winston to Charlottesville was by far the most scenic of the trip. I’ve always heard how beautiful Virginia was, but words really fail to describe the mountains there. I know now why all those Civil War guys shouted “for Virginia” all the time as they charged into battle. We decided that night that we’d try to go to the monastery before checking into the hotel. Now, this monastery isn’t in Charlottesville the city, its in the boonies about 30 minutes from Charlottesville. Long story short, we got lost. I mean reaaaaally lost. I thought my photojournalist instincts would get us there. Man was I wrong. We wound up seeing some gorgeous country, though, and wound up at a huge lake in the mountains. This unfortunately, wound up to be in the opposite direction where we intended to be - the monastery. We eventually found it though, visited for a bit, then went to our hotel in Charlottesville. The next morning got up and shot photos of the sisters for a brochure they are putting together. They make cheese (good gouda cheese) there in the mountains to support themselves. It was very peaceful. There are cabins there from the 1800’s that people can rent. We’re considering going back in the fall or spring if possible. After spending the morning with the nuns, we drove back to Charlottesville and saw Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home. It was awesome. We both had a really good time, and I got a bad case of garden envy. The garden there is incredible. After touring Monticello, we hopped back in the car and drove on to Alexandria, the new home of Peeg and Stacy. We hung out with them for a bit, but didn’t stay up too late because teacher Peeg had to get up for school the next day. After Peeg left in the morning, Meghan and I got up (eventually) got ready and Stacy drove us to the Metro station near their apartment. Our first stop on our big city adventure was the National Zoo to see the pandas. There was just one thing in our way - the huge honkin’ escalator at the train stop for the zoo. That thing was I don’t know how many stories tall but it tapped into my childhood fears of steps - especially the moving variety. I was a man about it though and got on (I did, however lean forward, cling for dear life with both hands, and keep my eyes firmly shut the entire time). This really seemed to amuse my wife and a few other fellow escalator passengers. After the harrowing moving steps incident, we went to the zoo. It was hot. It was crowded, and there were lots of crying kids. Besides that, it was nice. We watched a sea lion show and saw the pandas. After that we ate at a really good Thai restaurant and then got back on the Metro. Next stop - Holocaust Museum. Let me say that this was by far the most depressing part of the trip. The permanent exhibit was a stark contrast from the zoo. It was still really crowded, but totally silent. It was really eerie how no one spoke. We stayed there until they kicked us out (we didn’t really allow enough time to go all the way through). Next came the most monumental part of our trip - seeing the monuments! We walked up and down the mall seeing all that we could - the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, and the Vietnam Memorial. While at the Vietnam Memorial, I showed Meghan all the guys my dad served with that got killed in the days just after he was injured by a grenade and medivaced out. The battle was called Ripcord. There are a lot of names. Now, when you look at Washington, D.C. on a map, it’s amazing how close everything seems to be geographically. It’s deceptive really. I say this because after our monument tour (we skipped the Jefferson; figured we got enough of him at Monticello) we, well, I should say I, decided to walk to the White House. It is a long way to the White House from the Vietnam Memorial when you’ve been walking in the D.C. heat all day. We made it though, and found the Metro station to take us back to Peeg and Stacy’s. The next day Peeg was able to hang out with us. We went back to the Holocaust Museum first so Meghan could check out the book store, which we didn’t have time to do the night before. While she did that, me and Peeg looked at an art display downstairs. Next, it was on to the Mall. We went to the art museum first, wandering through the sculpture garden, then seeing the Egyptian exhibit. It was spiffy. On our way out, we just happened to notice some Piccasos and had to stop. Unfortunately we were kicked out soon after discovering them because the museum was closing. We headed next to the Natural History Museum which stays open later. We saw the hope diamond, dinosaur bones, and got to play a reaaaalllly cool video game. The game is in a room with a huge screen. Everyone has their own touch sensitive screens too. The game takes place in the sea and is based on the food chain. You start out low on the food chain and work your way up, until, if you’re lucky, you become a GREAT WHITE SHARK! The first time we played, there were very few others in the room (it’s interactive, everyone tries to eat everyone else). Two of the people left because we kept eating them. Meghan did the best that round. The lady who ran the game seemed to like us, and she let us stay for the last game of the day. There were a lot more people in this game. That’s OK. It meant there was more food for me when I evolved into a GREAT WHITE SHARK! There were a few times when I ate everyone on the board. Yes. I rocked. I won. Beat everyone. Peeg was second. It drove him nuts. He was pretty close behind me. After the awesome game, we went to visit Stacy in her new work place. She now works in the National Press Building. It’s pretty cool. The National Press Club is on the top floor. Pretty fancy. We ate dinner at a Subway across the street while a crazy homeless guy watched through the window and grabbed himself. The next day we got back on the road and drove the 516 miles back to good ol’ Anderson, S.C. It was fun. If you’ve read this far, I’m impressed. You have more patience than me. Thanks. 7/30/2002 10:54:00 PM |
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