4th of July in Washington DC

Yeah, I know - I've fallen off the blog bandwagon again. I feel like we've even been doing interesting things lately, but I've been too tired/busy/distracted to actually post anything! But I will try...again.

We decided at the last minute to spend the 4th of July weekend in DC. Sounded like a great idea, but I woke up that Friday morning with a horribly sore throat (not to mention a vicious hangover from the wine party we hosted the night before!). We decided to still make the trip, however. It was raining in DC, but we still enjoyed the fireworks that evening.

The next day we walked down to the Smithsonian's "Folk Festival" at the Mall. One of the focuses of the festival was the country of Bhutan, which was ironic because Rob and I have just recently developed an interest in traveling there sometime. We watched all the cultural demonstrations with great interest!

We then wandered over to some of the memorials on the mall. I had not seen the World War II memorial yet, so we spent quite a bit of time there. It was a very hot and humid day, so we were pretty much spent by mid-afternoon! We went back to the hotel and rested until it was time for a delicious Italian dinner. :-)

The World War II memorial.

One of the other things we wanted to do on this trip was explore the various neighborhoods and get a feel for the good places to live. We figure that's probably where we will be transferred next, albeit a couple years from now. We're both very excited about the possibility of living there and want to make sure we pick the 'perfect' place to live! I know DC gets kind of a bad rap, but there are several exciting, vibrant neighborhoods. I'm already making plans!

If the cardboard cutouts were a barometer of public opinion, I'd say Barack has the November election tied down! People were lined up to have their picture taken with his likeness, whereas the John McCain cutout stood off all alone with no takers!