Rob's family

I signed up to read to Gretchen's class in early December.  Over the last four years, I'm pretty sure I've read every year to either Melinda's or Gretchen's classses around Christmas time.  I always read "the Grinch."  Wednesday night while I was travelling, Tracey fielded a panicked call from another reader in Gretchen class that she had read my book.  Thursday night when I returned I set to finding something I could read. I happened across the original text from "The Gift of the Magi" (1906).  Great story, but it had some hard words (I needed to look them up).  So I downloaded a copy and put in translations. I discovered this morning as I practiced that I couldn't read the story out loud without tearing up.  Wonderful irony.  Happy and sad.  Great story.  After half a dozen readings I felt like I could do it without losing it. When I sat down, to read, I knew right away that I was wrong - no way was I finishing that story without...

"I love the smell of a real Christmas tree" I thought to myself a couple weeks back.  I mentioned it to Tracey while she was making dressing for the Thanksgiving bird.  No doubt, she had flash backs to our first couple years of marriage where (without fail) we drove out to a Christmas tree lot on the coldest night of the year and bought a Scotch Pine already dry and losing its needles. "No, no."  I assured her, "We'll cut down our own.  It'll be romantic and Norman Rockwell-esque." I wrote down the directions before we left the house, "Head out to our Apple Orchard, turn right at the cow pasture."  We of course got lost.  Not too bad though, we found the farm while the sun was still high in the sky. We got a quick run down on the tree types and how the farm worked (cut down,drag out) and in we went.  The trees started immediately.  The weather was brisk but sunny.  Really, I'd say it was about ideal.  We had a dusting of snow Frida...

So Gretchen's broken arm recovery continues. She was quite worried for the first couple days after the cast came off, but she's basically gotten over that. Today she saw her therapist who advised her that it was time to start strengthening her arm. As with everything, start small - just lift a spice bottle (in a specific way). She tells me as I'm tucking her in tonight, "I'm trying to decide between cinnamon and cloves." I laughed.

Happy Father's Day Dad. I'll try your phone again later. 5-12 hours today in the car. Depends on whether we stop in Pittsburgh or plow all the way through to Chicago. Yesterday we took a boat tour to Georgetown. Unfortunately DC received its 17th and 18th inch of rain since 6/16. I love being outside on a boat, so once we left the dock, Gretchen and I headed up on deck. Rain Poncho protected we searched (without luck) for the sites. When the guy said, "You'll see to our starboard, the Pentagon." we did not. Alas. Fortunately, the rain ended about the time we got to Georgetown (expensive water taxi). The big expensive houses in Georgetown were impressive. The highlight there was the Dumbarton Oaks garden. Cool old house and a whole slew of gardens.

This was our day for our US Capitol tour. We started knocking off Gretchen's Mt. Rushmore item - the Lincoln Memorial. After trekking 117 miles over the three days, we were a bit wiser today. Metro to "close" and then a cab to complete the job. We started at 10 and had plenty of bounce in our step. We followed Lincoln with a number of other monuments around the reflecting pool. I liked WWII; the girls liked chasing squirrels. Following the monuments (holy cow was the Washington Monument big) we Metroed over to the House for lunch. To sum up our house tour, it was LONG. We probably waited two hours at various times throughout the tour. Very cool building though. Over our 3 day tour, we got a number of juicy pieces of House trivia including a chandelier that came from the Titanic, paw prints that appeared in granite after JFK's death and an overly punctual chief justice. I jest (of course). The tour was long, but it was cool to see the building and we got to sit ...

We started today in Alexandria. I led a tour (of four) through the cobbled streets of Old Town. We got (a little) off the beaten path as I shared a couple tidbits about Fire Insurance plaques and old buildings. We also managed to find a couple tourist shops to squander some hours in. Melinda found a license plate with her name on it. No such luck for Gretchen (she never has any luck with that). After lunch we took the Metro back into DC. We're still ticking off "Mt Rushmore" events off our to-do list. Aside. In 2004 when we drove out to Denver, on the way back, we stopped at Mt Rushmore. Before we exited the car, we had a 5 minute conversation about the fact that we'd driven 2500 miles for this next thirty minutes. Furthermore, we were about to hit the biggest tourist trap north of Orlando (Wall Drug Store) and if they were good, we'd let them get a souvenir. For the record, they were good and our visit was excellent. End Aside. Thus, the name "Mt. Rushmor...

Today we took the Metro downtown and saw Smithsonian #1 - American History. Seeing the Star Spangled Banner was a highlight for me. I was surprised to find that in the 1800s, the owner cut pieces off of it and gave them as mementos to their friends. We also walked over to the White House and did a bunch of reading at the White House visitor center. Gretchen asked me if I thought we'd see any Secret Service guys. I pointed out three black cars that drove past over the next 10 minutes and informed her that THOSE guys were Secret Service. After taking the train back out to Alexandria, we drove out to Warrenton VA - where Tracey's uncle and aunt live. On the train M&G bickered about whether or not DC was part of the US or not. Gretchen took the negative position mostly because it annoyed Melinda. In VA, we had dinner with Tom (aka Tuck, Tommy) and then went to see his farm. The girls had never seen the house that Gramma Kendall (nee Greene) grew up in. Bonus, he's...

First, the soap at hotel #2 was sufficiently cute for Daughter #1. Unfortunately, the hotel has an outdoor pool (didn't I mention that THAT was a problem?). I actually far prefer outdoor pools. Ours, unfortunately closes at 8pm (problem getting back from dinner at 8:05pm). Our highlight today (remember, Rob's perspective) was the Gettysburg battlefield. I meticulously planned this part of the journey - much as I did our stop at Devil's Tower in Wyoming. Brief aside on Devil's Tower... Looking back at my blog I never told that story... While travelling from Colorado to South Dakota, we stayed someplace in the middle of NOWHERE. Going to breakfast, I saw a brochure for Devil's Tower (the cool looking rock formation from Close Encounters). "Hey Tracey, this thing is only 200 miles out of our way - let's go see it." and we did - and it was cool. Tracey's reflection on our vacation was she spent 100 hours painstakingly researching where to go, where...

Day one of vacation took us from Chicago to Pittsburgh (enroute to DC). The car travel is quite a bit easier than it was when we drove from Chicago to Denver. No DVD player anymore. The girls are quite content to read the whole way. My favorite memory of the day was Melinda rating our hotel room. She did a brochure before we left on good hotels vs. bad hotels. Good hotels have indoor pools, bad ones have no pools. We arrived to discover - no pool. Wow, bad news. Furthermore the soaps were not "the cutest little things you ever saw." Instead they were almost real bar sized. Fortunately, they have an agreement with another property and we were able to go swim for an hour. I don't know what we'll do about the soap. Tomorrow we drive to DC to take in the sights and see some museums. I'll try to force myself to publish nightly.