so, last weekend, i went to dc. why? why not. jane had a teaching
conference there, so i figured that was a good excuse to fly up there and see some old friends, which i did... so, thursday, jane and i checked into the hotel, and the lobby was filled with journalists... and behind me in line at the front desk was an italian priest... so, yeah, all sorts of people for the pope's visit where at the hotel... including italian journalists... so that was cool. i didnt practice any italian. so, jane went to check into her conference and do some stuff, so, i wandered around dc... i had a mission. i wanted to go check out the jefferson memorial, because apart from his lousy defense policy, he's one of the greatest
of american presidents. he makes lincoln and adams look like carter, which isnt hard. but yeah, so i walked around the reflecting pool and went and to see the memorial. it was nice, there were the remainders of the cherry blossoms out... no where near as impressive or beautiful as during their height, but still, better than nothing... after i walked around and enjoyed the jefferson memorial, i rested in the shade of a cherry blossom grove within sight of the memorial. and then i walked back down the mall to meet my buddy todd for dinner and to meet my friend lisa to chat and make plans for after her kickball game... todd and i ate at oyamel which tasted really good, but i felt bloody awful a few hours later. not sure why. but after oyamel, todd
and i went to penn quarter, its a bar in penn quarters, and watched the caps game, and then lisa and her friend aj, and jen, and jane all came... and we hung out and watched the game and enjoyed seeing e
ach other/making new friends.
the next day i had lunch with jane at cafe atlantico, and felt bloody awful as well!!! after lunch with jane, i went on to the navy museum at the washington navy yard, which, i expected more of, because, i have incredibly high standards, BUT, the scholars from the smithsonian institute that i went around it with. they had raphael semmes confederate commission from jefferson davis, and the sternpost of the kearsarge, that the
alabama almost beat. she put a shot in the kearsarge's sternpost, if it would have exploded, it would have disabled her steering and allowed the alabama to beat the yankees into a pulp. they also had a us destroyer that took part in the cuban missile crisis
blockade tied up outside the museum. for any dc people that look at this, next time you go to a nationals game stop by. its about 10 minutes walk from the stadium... good time. all sorts of stuff there from the continental navy to modern oceanographic exploration vessels like alvin and the trieste... that night i took the metro down to reagan national airport to wait for nathalie to come. and then we walked around dc on saturday, the weather
was gorgeous. we walked around the
white house, enjoyed lafayette square, i wonder why its called lafayette, when the statue in the center of the square is andrew jackson... then we went to the hirschhorn modern art museum at the smithsonian... which, is totally not my scene, which made it totally awesome... some of the things that werent exhibits i thought were, and then some of the other things were cool too, and there was a tooooon of rando
m wierd stuff. then we went to georgetown for about an hour and then went back to the hotel, got ready for dinner and had dinner at a place called olives, which was good. and then sunday, we flew out... back to tulsa. except the weather was dicey in the afternoon, thunderstorms and what not... i flew through cleveland, which was the first time i'd been to ohio since i was 16... which wasnt bad, surprisingly ok.
conference there, so i figured that was a good excuse to fly up there and see some old friends, which i did... so, thursday, jane and i checked into the hotel, and the lobby was filled with journalists... and behind me in line at the front desk was an italian priest... so, yeah, all sorts of people for the pope's visit where at the hotel... including italian journalists... so that was cool. i didnt practice any italian. so, jane went to check into her conference and do some stuff, so, i wandered around dc... i had a mission. i wanted to go check out the jefferson memorial, because apart from his lousy defense policy, he's one of the greatest 
of american presidents. he makes lincoln and adams look like carter, which isnt hard. but yeah, so i walked around the reflecting pool and went and to see the memorial. it was nice, there were the remainders of the cherry blossoms out... no where near as impressive or beautiful as during their height, but still, better than nothing... after i walked around and enjoyed the jefferson memorial, i rested in the shade of a cherry blossom grove within sight of the memorial. and then i walked back down the mall to meet my buddy todd for dinner and to meet my friend lisa to chat and make plans for after her kickball game... todd and i ate at oyamel which tasted really good, but i felt bloody awful a few hours later. not sure why. but after oyamel, todd
and i went to penn quarter, its a bar in penn quarters, and watched the caps game, and then lisa and her friend aj, and jen, and jane all came... and we hung out and watched the game and enjoyed seeing e
ach other/making new friends.
the next day i had lunch with jane at cafe atlantico, and felt bloody awful as well!!! after lunch with jane, i went on to the navy museum at the washington navy yard, which, i expected more of, because, i have incredibly high standards, BUT, the scholars from the smithsonian institute that i went around it with. they had raphael semmes confederate commission from jefferson davis, and the sternpost of the kearsarge, that the alabama almost beat. she put a shot in the kearsarge's sternpost, if it would have exploded, it would have disabled her steering and allowed the alabama to beat the yankees into a pulp. they also had a us destroyer that took part in the cuban missile crisis 
blockade tied up outside the museum. for any dc people that look at this, next time you go to a nationals game stop by. its about 10 minutes walk from the stadium... good time. all sorts of stuff there from the continental navy to modern oceanographic exploration vessels like alvin and the trieste... that night i took the metro down to reagan national airport to wait for nathalie to come. and then we walked around dc on saturday, the weather
was gorgeous. we walked around the
white house, enjoyed lafayette square, i wonder why its called lafayette, when the statue in the center of the square is andrew jackson... then we went to the hirschhorn modern art museum at the smithsonian... which, is totally not my scene, which made it totally awesome... some of the things that werent exhibits i thought were, and then some of the other things were cool too, and there was a tooooon of rando
m wierd stuff. then we went to georgetown for about an hour and then went back to the hotel, got ready for dinner and had dinner at a place called olives, which was good. and then sunday, we flew out... back to tulsa. except the weather was dicey in the afternoon, thunderstorms and what not... i flew through cleveland, which was the first time i'd been to ohio since i was 16... which wasnt bad, surprisingly ok.
