Good bye DC

Washington DC is a great place to spend 4 weeks!  However, I might recommend a month other than August because it was very hot and humid and crowded with lots of other tourists.  As we planned this trip we knew we were not hitting DC at the best time.  We also knew we couldn't be everywhere in the world in September so some places we have to experience in less than perfect conditions.

Usually we spent about 3-4 hours a day doing tourist things.  At that pace we saw a lot, but didn't get to worn out with long days.  We did not have a car, but relied on the metro and bus system and our own feet to get us around.  Our apartment was just 2 blocks from the metro station, which made using the  metro very easy.   It was nice to have an apartment with a kitchen and a  grocery store a block away.    The thing I did miss was a yard.  The only close parks we found had small playground areas but no grass fields and were just not inviting.

We learned a lot about US history and government these past few weeks.  I especially enjoyed the tour of the Capitol building on Monday.  I sometimes complain about our government and politicians, but I am so thankful to live in this free country.   We are going to finish up our time in the US by visiting Philadelphia, Boston and New York.

DC with Cousins!

We spent our final day in DC with cousins!  Rich's cousin (who lives just down the street from us in American Fork) came to DC on business and he brought three of his children with him.  We met them at the Lincoln Memorial in the morning and spent part of the day with them.   We showed them some of our favorite places, such as the monuments, the National Archives, and the Air and Space museum.  It was so fun to see some familiar faces from home and the kids thought it was great to have someone besides siblings to interact with.  It was the perfect way to end our stay in Washington.  So if anyone else wants to meet us somewhere in the world we would love to see you!

Nats!

I'll bet some of you are thinking, "He spelled the title wrong."  And some of you are wondering what I mean by the last statement.  I didn't spell it wrong.  It is the affectionate name the locals have for the home town Washington Nationals baseball team.

While living in Washington DC for a month we tried to keep the boys involved in youth activities at the Church.  Even though we did not officially belong to the congregation they welcomed us warmly and let us be as involved as we wanted.  One week we played basketball.  One week a member of the congregation generously provided tickets for all of the youth to attend a Washington Nationals baseball game!  From the picture you can see that the tickets were awesome.  I doubt he'll ever read this and I already thanked him in person but thanks again Brother Eskelsen!

Joe, Sam, and Seth at the Nats' game.

One thing I noticed was that the "W" in the Washington Nationals' logo looks like the "W" in the Walgreen's logo.  Every time I saw the Washington Nationals logo (which was very often that night at the ballpark) I thought "Walgreens".  What do you think?

 

What a Memorial!

After we visited Arlington a few weeks ago I was disappointed when I learned that the Marine Corps Memorial was nearby and that I hadn't seen it.  You probably recognize the memorial from the very famous photo it is based on taken by Joe Rosenthal during the World War II battle for Iwo Jima.

A few years ago I read the book Flags of Our Fathers and though parts of it were very graphic it told a valuable story of the Marine victory on Iwo Jima, a turning point in World War II, and specifically the story of the raising of the flag on the island.  You can read more about the battle here.

We visited the memorial on a gray, overcast and rainy day.  The rain dampened my spirits and put me in a thoughtful, almost reverent mood.  The mood seemed appropriate for a visit to the memorial.  At the same time I think a bright, sunny day would have been equally appropriate for remembering the sacrifice and accomplishments of the marines memorialized there.  The sculpture is larger than life size (see the person in the bottom right) which seems to add emphasis to the importance of the Marines' sacrifices.

I believe the memorial does justice to the Marines.  I think it is one of my favorites and while it is a bit out of the way I think it is well worth the visit and recommend it to anyone who visits Washington DC.

The awesome US Marine Corps Memorial in Arlington, VA.

If you look closely in the photo you can see the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial in the background.  This memorial seems to fit in with the rest of Washington DC.

Missionaries

I am a priest now, and part of that is going around with the missionaries. Back in Utah we had 2 missionaries for 5 stakes, so I never went with them, I'm not sure I even saw them. But here in DC there is 8 missionaries for 1 ward, so I got a chance to go around with them yesterday.

I had really no idea what a day on a mission was like. I thought it was like in Best Two Years, where they are giving out Book of Mormons all the time. That was not the case. I went with the missionaries, Elder Fisher and Elder Chatman to their first appointment, but nobody answered. We went to 2 or 3 other appointments, but no results. They said that is pretty normal. Meanwhile, they are talking to everyone on the streets, trying to get people to be interested in the Church. We also got cussed out by a Mexican. The whole thing seemed rather discouraging, I am not sure if we/they made any progress the whole time I was with them. 

So while I am not looking forward to a mission as much anymore, I have a better realization of the life of a missionary.

Running in DC

In the 3 weeks we've been in DC Elaine and I have run pretty regularly.  The actual act of running in DC is mentally more difficult.  I have to think about running more here and can't let my mind wander to other subjects and here are a few reasons why.

• The surfaces are uneven.  There are always cars in the narrow streets and so we have to run on the sidewalks which are made in 2-foot square sections (2, 3, or 4 sections across).  Some times the sections are uneven.  Being in the city there are streets very frequently and therefore there are curbs of inconsistent height to navigate.  I have to watch the surface constantly so that I don't roll an ankle.  I'll admit that anywhere I run I have to watch the surface for abnormalities but it feels like I have to watch more closely here.
• There is more traffic.  No matter how early we run there is traffic on the sidewalks: people walking, people biking, and people walking dogs.  We have watch for traffic on the sidewalk.
• The sidewalks are narrow.  Some of the sidewalks are 2 sections across and some times they are 3 sections across.  A sidewalk might have a random planter box or tree or lamppost or street sign by the curb.  Another sidewalk might have bushes or branches hanging over the sidewalk on the "house" side.  Another thing that makes the sidewalks narrower is standing water.   We don't like to run through water and go to great lengths to avoid it especially when we can't see the surface under it.  Add another pedestrian or biker or dogwalker or garbage day and suddenly the sidewalk is narrower.  We have to watch out for variations in the width of the available running space.
• There are lots of red lights.  Being in a city, there are many streets and intersections.  Many intersections are governed by traffic lights and for pedestrians "Walk" and "Don't Walk" signals.  Some times we can time it right with the "Walk" signals.  Other times we have a choice to make:  stop running and wait for the light to change or follow the "Walk" signal in a different direction.  Some times following the "Walk" signal doesn't move us in the direction we want to go.

I don't want this to be a completely negative post.  There are two places (they are actually connected) where we absolutely love running in DC:  Rock Creek Park and the Mall area.  There are paths for biking, walking, and running in both places (and between) and I enjoy being able to let my mind wander a bit while I run instead of concentrating on each step.  Also, I realize now that running in Utah has spoiled me with wide smooth streets and little traffic.

A view of what the sidewalks are like in this DC neighborhood.

Adventures Attending Church

While on this trip we've committed to ourselves to attend all of church every Sunday.  So far we are doing well.  While in DC we've gone to church three times and each time getting there has been a bit of an adventure and each time the services have been great.

The first Sunday was sweltering:  high heat and high humidity.  We weren't exactly sure where we were going when we got off the metro.  Meanwhile we are baking in the heat, managing kids, and trying to figure out where we were compared to where we wanted to go.  We looked around for others wearing "church clothes" that we could follow and we were just far enough off the path that there weren't any others.  Google maps on my phone got us where we needed to be.  Not knowing how long it would take us to get there we had left early enough that we still arrived 15 minutes early.  We didn't stop sweating until an hour after church had started.  The stress of getting there on time dissipated quickly with the warm welcome we received.

The second Sunday we thought we had it figured out and left with what we thought was enough time to make it to church on time.  We missed our first train and had to wait 15 minutes for the next one.  Fortunately we had built in a few extra minutes to our plan and were only a few minutes late when we arrived.  It was a bit of relief that the meeting was also behind schedule and started moments after we sat down.

The third Sunday it was raining, only a drizzle at the apartment but a torrential downpour at the church. We had two single-person umbrellas and Seth and Joe had their rain jackets on.  We made it to church and were soaked through.  My socks are probably still wet.  But again the services were great.

One of the benefits of attending a world-wide church is that the format, content, and feeling is consistent.  The presentation varies slightly locally but we always feel at home.  The fact that it is a world-wide church does not impeded our ability to feel connected anywhere we go.  The people are what gives each congregation its own personality and that feeling of connection.

Where did George Washington buy his hatchet?

At the Chopping mall!

 A couple days ago we went to Mt. Vernon. We rode the subway for a ½ hour then rode a bus for a ½ hour. We watched an introduction movie. It said to prepare at least three and a half hours to see everything. I was thinking we were never going to stay that long. We ended up staying 6 hours! We walked around part of his 8,000 acre yard, before doing a tour through the mansion. At first the house was small, but George Washington kept adding on and on til it was a mansion. There were a lot of rooms and all the beds looked like they were for midgets. When we got out of the house, we went to the wharf. It had a good view of the river. After that we saw some sheep, they were so lazy, they just sat in the shade all day. Then we watched a demonstration of how they got the seeds out of wheat. There was a 16 sided barn with slots every few inches. They put wheat on the second floor and had horses run around them. The seeds came out when the horses stepped on them and fell through the slots to the first floor, where people would sweep them up. Then you have to get a basket with a little lip on it and fling the seed through the air so you don't have a lot of straw type stuff in the baskets like in the picture below.  It seemed like a lot of work just for wheat. We walked and saw a slave house from there, it was small and housed 8-10 people. They had very simple meals with a lot of dairy. 

 Eventually, ice cream made it over to the Americas from Europe, but it wasn't the ice cream I am used to. They had flavors like Parmesan! In my mind, cheese and ice cream should NOT go together. After all that we went and saw George Washington's grave. While we were there we saw a lizard that was blue on its tail and brown everywhere else. We walked to the slave memorial from his grave, where we presented our eulogies (it was a school assignment to make a eulogy for George Washington). The last thing we did is get ice cream :). I got a dove bar. The chocolate on the outside was delicious and the ice cream inside was also very good. Finally, we rode the bus and subway back home

Me expertly flipping seeds in the air.  All the chaff flies away in the wind leaving the wheat behind.

Lazy sheep

Joe as George Washington and me as Martha

Slave cabin

Monuments at Night

Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln are all monuments in Washington DC. There are many ways to see the monuments such as: day time, night time, on a paddle boat, or segway.  I have seen them in each of these ways except for segway.  My favorite way of seeing them is at night.  The monuments are all bright and lit up and everything else is dark.  They really stand out that way.  The only bad part of seeing them at night was that we walked to them and got bit a lot by mosquitos.

My favorite monument is the Lincoln. I like the patterns of light and dark when the lights are on at night.  I also like how Abraham Lincoln stands out from the rest of the monument because of the way he is lit up.  The lighter parts look like an arch to me with Abraham Lincoln sitting underneath.  The big stairs and pillars make it look like it is for a big person.  He was tall but I think he was more important than tall.  From far away at night you can see lots of camera flashes.

If you ever have chance to see the monuments, see them at night.  These pictures show why you should.

The Lincoln Memorial

Abraham Lincoln sitting on a curl chair

Washington Monument

Jefferson Memorial

The Jefferson Memorial

Road School

Since we don't have a home right now, we are calling our educational experience road school this year.  Sam is signed up for an on-line charter school that starts next week.  The other three kids we decided to not enroll in the on-line schools available.  For one reason or another none of them were a good fit.  Some wanted students to be available in February for testing, some wanted to send us boxes of materials to supplement the on-line portion, and some wanted to charge us boatloads of money.  So we opted to road school our three younger children for the year.

While we do have some specific curriculum,  we are mainly taking advantage of the museums and sights around us.   Let me share a few examples of that from sight seeing this week.

We visited the National Cathedral and the tour guide gave us a great lesson in Gothic Architecture.  It was much more interesting than reading about it in a text book.   After our inside tour, we walked around outside and looked at the various outside Gothic features.  I'm sure we will be able to identity more Gothic cathedrals when we visit Europe.

Outside the National Cathedral

Inside

The south side.  It is being repaired from damage received last summer in an earthquake.

Later in the week we visited Mt. Vernon.  A few days before I gave the kids the assignment to each research a bit about George Washington and write a eulogy that we would read when we visited his tomb.  Near the end of our day at Mt. Vernon we found a shady place to sit near his tomb, and each child took a few minutes to present a eulogy.  They had a few things in common, but each child had also come up with a few unique things to share.   We then had a discussion about things we had learned while at Mt. Vernon.

Seth and Jenna at Washington's tomb

Joe at Mt. Vernon

The kids resting on George Washington's porch after a day with lots of walking

We spent a few hours at the Holocaust museum.  I told the kids that it wasn't going to be the most fun museum they visit, but it was an important one to learn about.  I took Jenna through the childcare’s area while Rich took the boys through the main exhibit.  It was a good introduction to the Holocaust and we will learn more about it later in our trip when we visit Auschwitz.

This coming up week will be US Government week as we visit the US Supreme Court, the Capitol building, and the White House.

Top Secret

We need you to locate the Trigger (part of a bomb) it was stolen last night and we need you to get it back. The only leads to who might have stolen the Trigger are: Batir and Agent Topaz. Agent Topaz will be at a meeting today at a hotel to try to get some answers on who has the Trigger. We need you to spy on them through the security cameras. Do you accept agent fr74? Yes I’ve heard rumors of a secret passage around and in the back of the hotel. We will drop you off there.

Once inside, finding the security room was the problem. After wandering around I found the security room and opened the door. There was nobody in the room, just a few computers. Just then I received word that Agent Topaz was entering the building. I started messing with the computer controls until I found Agent Topaz through the cameras. I watched as Agent Topaz talked with somebody for a long time. Then the person who Agent topaz was talking to pulled out a phone and Agent Topaz left.

I made my way out of the Security room into another room that read on the door: Authorized personal only. Figuring that most likely meant something important I went in and found a room where you could intercept calls. From Agent Topaz's meeting we found that Batir has something to do with the disappearance of the Trigger. Agent Topaz also learned that Batir was having a call with an unknown receiver. I decided to intercept the call. I had to mess with the communications so there was not much static and outside noises. From the call I understood that Batir has the Trigger in a basement office.

I decided to see if batir has left his office. My sources told me he was going out to Dinner for an hour or two, so I advanced to his Office. Once on the basement level of Batir's office I realized that there were a lot of security cameras guarding batir's door. I noticed some voltage sticks laying around in places and places for voltage sticks to go. I collected them all and put them in avoiding the range of security cameras. Once the security cameras were shut off I heard voices wondering why the Security cameras where down. I hurried and pulled out all of the voltage sticks, dropped them and ran into Batirs office.

I had brought a scanner a long with me and started opening drawers and cabinets scanning what looked like important papers. I found a safe that I broke into and saw the Trigger. The Trigger was locked by some keys so I searched everywhere in his office but found no keys. I heard footsteps in The hall way so I went through another door. I peeked out of the door and saw Batir walking through the door. I found a way up to the street. Someone was waiting to get me out of there.

I wanted to have a chat with Agent Topaz so I found a time that night that would work. Someone hooked her up to a machine to tell in she was lying and then I started asking her questions. On one question the machine flashed which meant she was lying. Agent Topaz confessed that she was helping Batir. My Signal started flashing that someone was after me so I ran to the roof where I had Stationed a helicopter for an emergency. I flew away without the Trigger, but I knew where it was and who had it.

I went to the Spy museum and did a spy mission I thought it would be better to tell like a story so I did. It would be fun to be a spy, but also very dangerous. In the mission we where kind of successful.

Post Office Adventure!

Today we went to the post office tower. The Washington monument was closed so we went there and it is the next best thing. You have to go through security at the beginning, but there is nothing valuable there to secure. At the bottom of the tower, they have a bunch of little shops with ice cream, souvenirs, and CHOCOLATE! The elevator it get up there takes an eternity and a half to go up and come down and is made of glass so you can see how terrifyingly high you are. Once you are up at the top there are some bells and a great view of the mall. They used to use it as a post office (hence the name) then they added the tower to put the bells in. The bells were a gift from England.   The post office is no longer in use.

The bottom of the tower

The Lincoln Memorial

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Fancy Signatures

In the National Archives we learned that having a fancy signature means that you had high social status. Here are our fancy signatures. (in no particular order)

If any of you were wondering, all the kids drew them on a whiteboard and we took a picture of them, then I took them into Gimp to make them look a little better. My parents drew theirs on the iPad.

Best Of

In this post we will post the best of something we found. It will be mostly, or all food items.

Best French Fries ------------ Amsterdam
Best Hamburgers ------------ Hole in the Wall Hamburgers in LA
Best Pretzels ----------------- Lancaster, PA, made by the Amish.

Check back again sometime, this will be updated!

Me and Mom Day [BY JENNA]

Saturday I went out with my mom.  I got to do a me and mom day because my dad and brothers went to a spy museum and the "Dark Knight Rises" Batman movie.

We went to a sculpture garden and put our feet in a fountain and then we went to an art museum.  There were sculptures and paintings and we played "I spy" with them.  The museum had a paper with pictures of the paintings and sculptures and we tried to find the paintings and sculptures from the pictures.  Then we went to a butterfly garden.  It was very cool because there are some different kinds of butterflies that I've never seen.  One of them looked like it was fake but it wasn't because when someone touched it it started moving.  That's me and mom day!

This is the fountain.

This is the art museum too.

This is in the art museum.

This is a butterfly.

Wright Place Right Time

This week we went to the National Air and Space Museum.  Elaine and the kids went earlier without me and I finished up the work day and then joined them.  I had forgotten how much there is to see there.  They were a couple hours ahead of me and only saw a small portion of the museum.

After I arrived we were able to see two parts:  "How Things Fly" and "The Wright Brothers".  I enjoyed "How Things Fly" a lot because every display was "hands on" and taught some principle associated with how things fly.  It was fun to see the kids try to figure out the "how" and "why" of each display.  The mechanical engineer in me absolutely loved it and I think the kids had fun too.

I was so happy to discover that the museum had a Wright Brothers display.  Immediately I hoped it would make up for our disappointing trip to Kittyhawk two weeks ago where we arrived at the park 15 minutes before closing and didn't get the full experience.  The display at the museum didn't let me down.  It was really well done with good information and some hands on displays as well.

One of the Wright Brothers displays that was interesting to me described Orville Wright as easily doing well in school, inquisitive, super smart, quiet, and having a creative/artistic side.  When I read that I immediately felt like it was describing my son Sam.  When I pointed it out to him he seemed to like the comparison.

The rest of the display was great too.  There were hands-on models of wings and gliders/planes constructed like the Wright Brothers', real pieces from the Wright Brothers' original gliders/planes, the actual structure of one of the original planes with new fabric on the wings, and realistic animated videos re-creating those historic first flights.  The models of the different airplane parts (wings, structures, components, etc) showed how the Wright Brothers worked around weaknesses in their designs and solved problems.  I really liked how they described the Wright Brothers' success as the result of an iterative, incremental, experiment-improve cyclic process.  They would make a design, fly it like a kite, refine the design, fly it as a kite again, and then ultimately if it was good enough try it themselves.  I think a lot of progress in life is iterative and incremental.

Here is a neat quote from Orville that I liked:  “Isn’t it astonishing that all these secrets have been preserved for so long so that we can discover them?”  Included in those secrets were the three things that they discovered about an aircraft as it flies:  pitch, yaw, and roll.  These three things together describe an aircraft's position in the air as it flies and controlling them is still the basis for controlled flight.

The Wright Brothers display definitely made up for the disappointment of our visit to Kittyhawk.  I'm glad we went and would recommend the museum to anyone who visits Washington DC.

First Week in DC

We are in Washington DC right now, and have been since Tuesday. It took us about five minutes to move in to our new apartment, which I thought was pretty sad. Our apartment is big enough, two bedrooms, a tiny kitchen and tiny sitting area/family room. The best part of it is that we are really close to the metro station, so we don't have to walk far to get to the subway. We took our rental car back the same day, so we don't have a car anymore. Most of the days this week we went to different sites in DC. Our dad stays at home and works while the rest of us go see stuff.

On Wednesday we went to see the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. We also went in to one of the Smithsonian museums and saw the Star Spangled Banner. It was pretty cool to see the documents in person. They were really faded though, from being exposed to too much light. Also, in the Constitution there are a few typos, including Pensylvania. They were pretty neat, those documents are really what started our country. The Constitution gave us our whole legal system, the Bill of Rights gave us rights that can't be taken, and the Declaration of Independence, while it holds no legal value, spurred on the colonies and people to fight to free our country.

The Star Spangled Banner was pretty neat as well. It had lots of holes in it though. It would be pretty cool to look out and the only thing you could see was it waving in the wind. It could inspire someone to write a song, namely Francis Scott Key, who wrote the national anthem. On a side note, when it said the bombs bursting in air, that was the point. A whole bunch of little sharp metal pieces could do more damage than a big cannonball could.

On Thursday we went to the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. It was very hot and humid, which just made the half a mile walk terrible. It was only around two or three blocks to the Washington Monument, but those blocks are pretty big. Then when we got there, the guy said that it was closed because of the earthquake last year, and won't be open again until 2014 (I think, or maybe 2015). So that was kind of a disappointment. Then we walked to the Lincoln Memorial. It didn't look very far, but it felt pretty far. We saw the World War II memorial with the big pool of water. We walked to the side of it to see the Vietnam War Memorial. It is a big wall with the names of all the soldiers that died in the Vietnam war on it, and the wall is pretty big, and the names are pretty small. It made me appreciate soldiers a little bit more. We walked on to the Lincoln Memorial. It is a big Greek Temple with a statue of President Lincoln sitting on a Roman Throne. It looks like his arms are resting on books in the statue, and we asked one of the park rangers what they were, and he said that the pattern is the one the Roman Emperor would have on his thrones. It symbolized high ranking or high status or something. So the guys who made the statue and the temple really should have coordinated better. They mixed Greek and Roman stuff.

We visited Ford's Theater and the Smithsonian Art Museum on Friday. Ford's Theater was where Abraham Lincoln was shot. It was one of the more interesting museums I've been to. It showed the days of Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth. That was my favorite part, it was pretty interesting to learn about the days of both Lincoln and Booth. Lincoln was just doing normal president stuff: meeting with people, going to meetings, writing speeches, and stuff like that. Booth was planning out his murder: he was renting horses to escape on, obtaining a gun, and preparing to do the deed. I learned there that Booth was a big time actor. He was good looking, smart, athletic, basically the Brad Pitt of today. That was why nobody really questioned him going into the box with the president.

I found it very interesting that Abraham Lincoln had a dream about five days before he was assassinated. He was in the white house and saw a casket being guarded and protected. He went over to one of the guards and demanded to know "who is dead in the White House?" The guard replied "The President! He's been assassinated!" I thought that was very interesting. He had told his wife a few days before he was killed.

The art museum was just like any other art museum, with paintings and sculptures. Except for one exhibit. The Art of Video Games. That was my favorite part. It had every game console, starting from the Atari. My mom remembered the Atari, with the 6 games on it. She thought it was the coolest thing to go over to her friend's house and play it. My brothers and I found that pretty funny. That would hold our interest for about 12 seconds. The Exhibit had little videos about the best games from each console in several categories, and I'm happy to say that the Zelda games were always the top Adventure games. They had some games you could try out, but there were lines, and the games were old, like Pacman.

We went to the Arlington Cemetery on Saturday. It was my dad's day off work and he wanted to go to the cemetery. It was a pretty somber place. There are a ton of graves. We took a tour around it, because it was huge, and we didn't want to walk it. We saw the grave of the Kennedy's. It was kinda cool to see the eternal flame. We went to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was cool to see the changing of the guard there. They marched around all military like and changed the guard. They clicked their boots whenever they turned or stopped. After they changed the guard they changed the flowers by the tomb, and that had it's own little ceremony, with five guys and a trumpet player.

Today (Sunday) we went to church. It started at 1:00, so we left our apartment at noon. It was pretty much the same as at home, but we don't know anybody, and the ward has a pretty small youth.

So far, Washington DC is pretty cool, but it is very hot and humid.

Ford's Theater [BY JENNA]

I went to Ford's Theater.  That's where President Abraham Lincoln was shot.  The shooter came from the back and shot Abraham Lincoln and then jumped out of the booth and onto the stage and broke his leg.  After he was shot they took him to the house across the street.  He was shot in the back of the head.  Ten days later they found the guy who shot him.  I thought it was cool to see where Abraham Lincoln was shot.

That's where Abraham Lincoln was sitting when he was shot.

Memory at the Memorial

The penny is worth 1 cent.  We may not realize the value of a penny just like we might not realize the value of Abraham Lincoln and that's why the government built The Lincoln Memorial, the place where many people come and remember what a great president he was and what things he did for this country. With ending slavery as his main goal he did just that. The Lincoln Memorial is a very unique building with an ancient roman design and a 19 foot high sculpture of Abraham Lincoln in a curl chair. The Lincoln memorial was a lot bigger than I expected it to be. In the Lincoln memorial his most famous speech is carved in one of the stone walls: the Gettysburg Address. Earlier in the trip we saw the place were Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address.

Abraham Lincoln in the curl chair. 

The Lincoln Memorial from the outside.

Abraham Lincoln in the curl chair.

The place where Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address.

Run on the Mall

This morning I had an hour-long, guided, running tour of the National Mall in Washington DC.  On the tour my lovely tour guide, Elaine, showed me the National Archive, the Washington Monument, the White House, the Vietnam War Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial, and Jefferson Memorial.  In all we ran about 6 miles.  I think it is the most patriotic place I have ever run and can't think of another that would be more patriotic.

I owe two heartfelt apologies.  First, I apologize to all of the service men whom we did not properly stop and remember at the memorials.  The memorials were touching even as we ran past them.  Second, I apologize to the other passengers on the subway.  I'm sure I didn't smell nice after our run in the heat and humidity.

Video Conferencing via Skype for Meetings

At work we have a monthly reporting and planning meeting.  We all come together and talk through what we've accomplished during the past month and what we plan to accomplish during the next.  My employer has been very supportive of me working from the road.  Recently we had the first monthly meeting since I've been gone.  Skype was the technology we used and it worked fabulously.  It isn't exactly like being there but I would recommend it to anyone who needs to be remote but stay connected.

Beware, the pictures aren't very flattering of anyone in them but they are good enough to illustrate how it worked for us.  The formal meeting was in a conference room in Utah.  The conference room is set up with a PC and a big screen monitor mounted on the wall.  There is a webcam mounted at the top of the monitor (the little black rectangle).  You can see most of this in the first picture below.  The PC sits in one of those cabinets and runs Skype.  My picture is on the monitor on the wall, larger than life.  I was reclining in a lounge chair on my mom's covered patio at the time.

The meeting's view of me.

The next picture shows what I saw during the meeting.  Again, not a great picture but good enough to feel almost present.  It really surprised me how well the sound worked.  The microphone in the conference room was so sensitive that when no one was talking I could hear the ticking of the clocks on the wall (see photo above).  The microphone being so good had a downside.  Whenever there was a side conversation the microphone picked it up and mungled all of the sound together.

My view of the meeting.

For now this arrangement is working great.  It will be interesting to see how it works when I am in Europe or Asia.  I'll post again later and let you know how it works.

The Amish Don't Use Technology

We went to an Amish town. The Amish don't use any technology. There reasoning is that their forefathers didn't have it so they don't need it. The five oldest bishops decide what is too modern. When bikes came out they said it was too modern and outlawed bikes, but when scooters came out they didn't say anything against them so everyone has scooters. They can pay other people to use technology. Many of them that have a large business pay someone to use a computer and track the money they make. They can have telephones outside their house, at the end of the driveway, but not any closer! Everyone in the town gets around with buggies. We went on one that went through the farming places. The tour guide was Amish until he was 17. He lived on a farm and every year when his dad needed to contact people to get all the crops they moved there phone closer to the house. They did that for five years until one of the bishops said no phones for you. Then they stopped being Amish and changed to Mennonite. They also have the best soft pretzels in the world. They dip them in butter, they were really good.

This is Jenna and a horse

This Is Seth :) and Joe :( waiting for the carriage