DC trip wrap

I arrived home safely today after a looooong drive.  My first-ever audio book really helped pass the time -- The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson -- and I'll review it in my July media diet if I can do enough solo dog walks to fill the 10 more hours of recording time left!

Greta is wrapping up day one of her National Leadership Conference, where today they visited the Japanese Embassy. The schedule has lots of field trips baked in, including an overnight bus trip to NYC for a tour of the U.N. and the Statue of Liberty.  Not going to be that special for the New Yorkers, but I'm sure she'll enjoy sharing a landmark and an institution in her home state. We got the first of what I suspect will be many emails today, informing us that a student in the international diplomacy course tested positive, so now we just hope COVID continues to pass over our family.  We did buy the insurance should we get bad news before she flies home on July 13! The only requirement for participants was a negative PCR or antigen test, administered by someone, not taken from home, in the last 48 hours. But for kids who flew across the country or otherwise interacted with humans after the test, well, you get the idea. Ain't no such thing as a "clean" environment anymore, I guess. But we don't seem to be dying as often, so put that in the win column.

Anyway, to wrap up the trip... Greta and I didn't find a postage stamp of lawn space at Iwo Jima, but simply stood on the sidewalk and enjoyed the 25-minute fireworks display.  I'm sure I'm jaded at this point, but it didn't thrill me like it did years ago when the kids were little. I do think it's cooler from the Virginia shores of the Potomac or on the National Mall itself, where they pipe in the orchestral music you hear on the PBS production.

The view in front of us.

The view behind us.

The view above us.

Tuesday morning we drove to Capitol Hill for a self-guided walking tour of the Capitol and Supreme Court. We both stood there, angry, for a brief period of time, and then went back to Aunt Kathy's to freshen up.

Dropoff at Georgetown was a flurry of activity as they changed her room assignment after we were half unpacked and she noticed she didn't get her promised sheets or towels or have her name on the door like other students. But we rectified that fairly quickly and I left her with her roommate at about 430pm. I then rode my bike from AK's to our old haunt in Alexandria, Va., which was a nice trip down memory lane.

Very collegiate view out her window.