Time to play catch-up--Installment One

St. John's Episcopal Church

Why is it when you have a ton to blog about that you just don't? I'm going to do this in at least two installments so you don't feel overwhelmed (or maybe so I don't).

I took a ton of pictures in DC, only to discover that I have hardly with Glen in them, none with me in them. So most of these you could see by doing an internet search, but oh, well.

Highlights of our trip in bullet point style:

• CPAC (Conservative Political Action Convention)--Fun! Sure, it was more down Glen's alley, but I really enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. Here's a list of who all we saw speak: Newt Gingrich, Tony Snow, Ann Coulter (!), Kelly Ann Conway (Fox/CNN), Tom Delay, Angela McGlowan, Mike Adams, and more. We got in on Friday in time to hear Ann, and President Bush had been there that morning. The rest of them we saw on Saturday.
• Glen surprised me by taking me to Red Hot and Blue, a Memphis-style barbeque place that we first discovered in Williamsburg. We had a coupon on the bottom of our ticket Friday night, so we went back Saturday night! Man, I could go for a pile of that potato salad right now. How 'bout you, Kayla?
• On Sunday we attended St. John's Episcopal Church. We sat in the President's pew. Every President since Madison has attended the church at least occasionally. It was a much smaller church than I imagined, but still beautiful. I enjoy liturgy every once in a while.
• After church, we planned to "do" Arlington, as well as walk the memorial circuit. By the time we got off the metro and headed up the hill, the wind was picking up and it was down right frigid. Glen hadn't seen the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier since he was 10, so we took that in, as well as the JFK Eternal Flame. A wonderful surprise for us was the Lee House, which we'd never toured. All the furniture, etc, had been removed since they are completely redoing it (maybe that's why it was FREE!). Still our guide was terrific. On the walls we noticed several spots where the paint was stripped to the plaster and signatures revealed underneath. The Union soldiers had signed their names when quartered there. Whenever I had read of General Lee being summoned to DC to see Lincoln and asked to lead the Union troops, I had pictured his home deeper into Virginia, at least several hours' ride. It's amazing to stand on the front steps and see the Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials as well as the Capitol. By the time we were done with the Lee house, the wind was so wicked that we decided to just go back to the hotel. No use being miserable just for the sake of seeing history.
  

Lee's House (Custis Mansion) overlooking Arlington.

Eternal Flame, Lee house in the background