Washington DC

We went into Washington DC today and had a tour of the Capital. I did take some pictures, they weren't good but will be a reminder to us of the things we saw.  While not very good, we do have proof that we were there and this is the first time, in a long time, that I have pictures of me in front of any of the things we have gone to see.  So here goes...

First stop was the Capital building. We had a tour scheduled for 11:40 a.m. today.
After watching a short film we began our tour in the rotunda
then on to a room where Congressional meeting were held when the Capital was first built. After that we went down to a room directly under the Rotunda. They call this room "The Crypt". It was built as a final resting place for George Washington. As often happens even with the best of plans, he is not buried there, in fact, no one is. The story about why was interesting. The rooms we saw held beautiful paintings such as the Rotunda ceiling and there were many statues. Now how does one decide which statue to take a picture of? The pictures below are the only ones I took. Blogspot won't play nice and let me put the pictures where I want them or in the order I want them in, so...

Rotunda Ceiling

plaque

From the Crypt

After our tour of the three rooms of the Capital we went for lunch. We went to Old Ebbit Grill. I had salmon and it was delicious, I forgot to take a picture of it before I ate it. However, I did get a picture of my dessert, Peanut butter pie. It also was delicious.

After eating a scrumptious lunch we took a walk over to the White House.

It wasn't too crowded out on the street so we were able to get some nice pictures. There were fourteen of us and we all took pictures of each other in our little family groups and the group as a whole. Below is a picture of my grandson in front of the White House. It really is a shame that they have suspended tours. It would have been wonderful to get pictures of us closer and without the fence behind.

As we were leaving, it started to rain. Thank you, rain, for waiting till we were ready to go back to our hotel. It really only sprinkled and it was nice to walk in the rain.

It was a very nice day spent with family. Tomorrow we go again.
I will try to do a better job of taking pictures. LOL

Never, never again

I am never going to visit VA again! Oh, the people are very nice, the roads are nice and the area I'm in is absolutely beautiful. We went to a nice little zoo and had a good time. I will put a few pictures at the bottom of this post. We went to a 50th wedding anniversary party and had a great time. More on that in another post.

So why am I never visiting VA again? Because every time I get on the road to go someplace I GET LOST!! I have never had this problem before. When I left the airport to go to our hotel, I took HWY 28 as directed, but I went South instead of North. I pulled off to call for help. I haven't been in VA for more than an hour and I'm already lost. It took my GPS a good 20 min. to find the satellites. I finally got to the hotel. Later in the evening we went to Five Guys. Got lost again. I never get lost. I'll save this story for the scrapbook. Its too embarrassing to go public with. I did make it to my brother's and back without any missed turns. That was day one.

Day two didn't fair much better. We did get to Wagman's with no hitches. Feeling better about going out on the road we went to the zoo just 20 mins. down the road. Only one "U" turn. However it took us nearly an hour and three tolls to get back to the hotel. I am not going to share that story except to say that when you type an address into the GPS, ya better make sure its the right city before ya tell it "GO". Ok, go ahead, laugh, I did later on in the evening. I'm seeing a lot of VA that I didn't expect to see and if it keeps going like this, I'm gonna see a lot more of it.

If you have stayed with me so far, let me share a couple of pictures with you. I think you might enjoy them.

This was taken from our floor looking across inside the hotel.

Isn't he just the cutest baby camel you have ever seen? Sorry its fuzzy, but he wouldn't stay still.

Jeffrey is talking to the baby camel.

Baby camel is telling Jeffrey a secret. Actually, he's trying to eat Jeffrey's hair.

Outta my way!

Told ya to move, its my board.

Can I help?

 We enjoyed looking at the animals, hope you
enjoyed our pictures. Thanks for stopping
by.

Flight reservations made, car and hotel reservations are made. Necessary addresses in the GPS and important phone numbers in my phone. I can now relax. Oh no, I can't relax yet, I still have to pack.

I'm heading to VA for my brother's 50th wedding celebration.I have had a lot of ups and downs with getting things set to go. Making reservations, cancelling reservations, making more reservations and cancelling. I'm pretty sure everything is set now. It better be, I leave the end of the week.

I'm quite nervous about this trip. I'm using an airline that I haven't used before and its a "red eye" flight. Landing in Washington DC at an obscenely early hour in the a.m.

With all my preparing and anticipation, I have had a lot of nervous energy. Wish it could have been directed at house cleaning, but it wasn't. Here is what I did with that nervous energy.

 I do hope this is an ok host/hostess gift. I  made it with the idea of giving it to the family that may be putting up with me, oops, putting me up. They have been a big help in getting my hotel lodgings for the first few nights while all the relatives are there. . I'm going to be there for nine days I think I will be shuffled around from couch to couch which is ok, it will give me more quality time with individual family members. I will be putting some thank you gifts together for others that may put me up.

As for a gift for the honored couple, I have absolutely no idea.

Welcome little one

I've never done a baby card of any kind. However, when I saw the Free Stamp of the Month from Delightful Inspiration, I had to make one.The image is Sea Turtle Beach and I think it is adorable.

 After downloading the image (thank you Faith) I opened it in Word. I then re-sized it, placed it where I wanted it on my page and printed it out. I then cut the page to make a card base 5.5 x 4.25. I printed several copies of the image in order to cut out mom's shell, the starfish and the seashell. After coloring with pencils, I pop dotted these items While it doesn't show, I used some sparkly markers on various parts of the image. The sentiment was computer generated.
Now that arrow stands out like a sore thumb,doesn't it? This was the card I made for the "mystery" swap I'm in. I had to use an arrow and didn't have any creative arrow moments, so there sits the arrow There were three arrows to use, so I slipped the other two into the card and sent it all to my partner.  I hope she likes my card and can use the arrows. The arrows were a real challenge for me.

June Color of the Month

Its June, one month closer to the winter holidays; Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Hanukkah . Don't remind you? Okay, I won't, just pretend you didn't read  that first sentence. Now for the June Colors of the Month.

 So Saffron, Perfect Plum and Wild Wasabi.

Unlike May's colors, these go together. I cheated and used the Color Coach.
 

Besides the SU papers, I used D'Vine embossing folder, SU blossom punch, the flower is from SU Button Buddies stamp set and the center of the flower is Stickles. The sentiment is from Judith.

That's my June COTM card and I'm wondering if I will see any of these colors used when I visit your blogs.

Thanks for stopping by and Take Care