Tuesday, December 14, 2010

One More Day

Only one more day until Nate and Cindy leave for Idaho. Yippee!! I am ready. Only 5 more school days until Christmas Break.

One More Day in DC











Robert and I had a miscommunication about what time out flight home was. Ky relieved him at his meetings so that Robert and I could do some sight seeing. There was a mess up at the Archives with the records that I had ordered for the morning so Robert and I bagged the Archives and set out for the museums. My feet were killing from the walk the night before but we made it to the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of American History. Needless to say we only saw a small fraction of each before our flight out. We decided to we needed a week at the Archives and a week for sight seeing. I got to ride the Metro back to the airport. We passed the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery but there wasn't time to see either. Oh well! Another time maybe... Anyway thanks Grandpa and Grandma for the trip. I learned so much and it was a great experience.

Our Walking Tour of DC











After wasting a day in the airports and losing a day at the Archives, I decided that I better make the most of the time that I did have there. Robert and Ky had meetings all day. I got up and went down and asked how to get the National Archives. The luggage guy showed me a map and explained how to get there. I then asked how would be the best way to get there and he said, "Walk!" I thought to myself, I am a country hick from a small town like you have never seen. I have never even dreamed of a city this big and you want me walking around by myself? What if I get shot, mugged, kidnapped (because I am so gorgeous), etc. However, I didn't want to look like a chicken and so I decided to suck it up and walk. I paid very close attention to my little map, and made it there safely. The security around downtown DC is incredible. There are cops and security everywhere!!! It took almost an hour to get clearance to look at documents at the Archives. That in and of itself is a whole other story!! Anyhow, I spent all day looking at records that my ancestors had actually written and touch. It was awesome. I went with over 30 records that I wanted to look at but due to cancelled flights, and tons of red tape at the archives, I only got to look at 6. However, now I know more for next time! I will be able to use my time more wisely. That night, Robert and I followed Ky around downtown DC (he had spent the previous week there at different meetings). It was freezing cold outside and we walked forever!! I thought I was going to die. However, I am still alive and we saw some really neat things. We walked around for about 4 hours before returning to our hotel for a nightcap (juice, ice cream and cookies) in the "Club" before heading to bed.

Washington DC











Robert had meetings in Washington DC the first week of December. So as a Christmas present to me, his parents sent me along. I took a week off of school and was hoping to spend a few days doing genealogy in the National Archives. However, we got FOGGED in in SLC. Can you believe that. They cancelled our flight out due to fog. We did finally get out on Monday but then we spent the full day on an airplane or in Denver Airport. I was bummed! We made it to our hotel around midnight only to find out that our room was not ready (it was missing a door). So for our convenience they put is up in the "Club" rooms on the twelfth floor. It was so special that you had to swipe a card to get to that floor. Talk about awkward! The hotel was beautiful but we probably would have been more comfortable on the regular floors. However, we did find out that only on that floor, if you swiped your card again, you could get into a "Club" room where we could have free breakfast, snacks, juices, cookies, etc. It was pretty fancy. In fact, it was so fancy that we decided that we'd never have another experience like it. I made Robert buy me room service breakfast, just so that I could say that I had actually had room service before. Weird, huh???

Bridger's B-day