Yellow Ribbon and a goodbye

Kristine: This weekend I got to meet with the unit Dave is deploying with as well as their family members. It was sobering, to say the least, when the information sessions detailed what notification I would get should Dave be killed, captured, wounded, or missing in action. But, other information was incredibly useful as we were briefed on health benefits and other administrative details connected to the labyrinth that is the US Army.

In our free evenings, we got to go out to dinner, worked on a puzzle, and enjoyed our last free days before the longer-term separation. Dave has some pictures on his phone he will hopefully post soon. He is now at another base and learning all about soldier readiness...again. Just under 400 days to go, and counting.

In other news, Spring has sprung in DC. The weather keeps vacillating between cold and beautiful, but hopefully it will settle into gorgeous sometime soon. The National Cherry Blossom Festival starts this next weekend and DC is sure to be blooming all over. So exciting!

Work and school are plugging along too. I have just 5 weeks left in this semester and then I'll be heading straight back to Syracuse and on to graduation!

Just wanted to give a quick update.

Two Weeks in DC: Last Night

Dave: Wednesday was my last day of leave before getting back in the whole deployment thing. All I wanted to do was spend a little more time with my wife before saying goodbye. The weather was fantastic at 65 degrees and sunny so I met Kristine downtown where she works and we went for a walk. When all you want is to just be together, some of the most random things can be really entertaining. Take squirrels for instance. Kristine and I met in a park next to the metro stop. Next to one of the benches was the leftover fries from someone's lunch and the squirrels were in heaven. The funny thing is that they would fight over the area and in chasing eachother, they wandered away from and never made it back to the fries. Kristine decided to help them out. Most of them were too afraid, but one brave soul struck the jackpot and feasted on handdelivered french fries.

After the Squirrels in park we decided to take a walk along the mall before finding some food. Being that it was close to sunset, everything just seemed to glow.


We tried our own picture (above) then thankfully some family came by and offered to take one for us. We helped them back by doing the same thing three steps later. Somehow just walking and talking seems to be the best thing ever.

So Long DC. Its been fun. Take care of Kristine until I return.

Two Weeks in DC: Wk2 National Sculpture Garden and Museum of Natural History

Dave: With only one full week left before returning to Army life, we decided to take advantage of a couple more sights together. Kristine had asked to go to the National Sculpture Garden on the Mall previously, and I not really wanting to go, always found a better option.  This time it didn't matter, I just wanted to spend some time outside with my wonderful wife.  So we went.

There were signs next to all the sculptures, but I can't remember what they had written.     

What is an ice skating rink doing in the middle of downtown DC?

Its a pyramid, I think.

Doing a little streching before pt.

After the Sculpture Garden we went to check out the Museum of Natural History. 

First we went to the Geology section where there was this picture of the earth that displayed all the earthquakes in size and location that have ever been recorded.  It was really suprising to see the midwest and other places have semi-regularly occuring earthquakes. 

Here was this deep black rock with huge chunks of garnet that came from a mine in NY.  I want this for my countertops or tile in my future house. 

This just looked cool.

Here is my Kristine with her amethyst.

Of course we had to see the Hope Diamond.  It looks cool, but honestly I don't understand why its worth millions.  Size and rarity don't really make it worth it to me. There was also a decent collection of jewelry.

We couldn't leave with out seeing the zebras.

The best part of the day was sitting on the bench in the Sculpture Garden.  We talked some, but mostly just absorbed the sunlight and snuggled.  We watched some really cute kids and listened to the securtity guard yell at all the people who were touching the silver tree sculpture I had just taken pictures with. There is something more to us when we are together.  We don't have to be or do anything. Just physically being next to each other somehow makes us more, or better. 

Two Weeks in DC: Wk 1 cont and Wk 2

Dave: To end my first week of leave we decided to go to downtown one more time.  Kristine had never been to the National Holocust Museum, so we went.  I can't say it was fun. Very informative, yes, impactful, yes, enjoyable, no.  I think the greatest dissapointment was historically Europe in general. Before becoming predominately christian and especially after, Jews were terribly persecuted all over Europe.  Hitler and the Nazis tried to do what England had done in the 12th or 11th centrury which was forcibly evict the Jews from the country.  The Nazis needed a scapegoat in order to rally for political power, and Jews were that for all of Europe.  The Final Solution was only developed once the Nazis didn't have anywhere else to put the Jews they found.  Everything that happened was terrible.  People lost themselves by ignoring the humanity of others.  

It was a good trip and once again we found ourselves at the end of the exibit right at the time the museum closes.  We would have waited in the long lines outside, but my military ID got us immediately in. Sweet.     

Week 2

To start week two of leave we had a grand plan of going to Colonial Williamsburg.  We stopped at Bolling AFB to get discounted tickets, when we found out the tickets weren't so discounted, and Colonial Williamsburg wasn't really as close as we thought.  Willliamsburg suddenlty changed to bowling at Bolling.  Kristine and I hadn't bowled in a while so we went for it.  We both averaged over a hundred, and had a friendly competition. 

Kristine's proof that she was winning.

We were on our way to the Mall after bowling when we saw these guys. I didn't know a skill for rappelling was necessary for washing windows, but evidently I was wrong. 

 

 

Two Weeks in DC: Wk 1 Mount Vernon and Terracotta Warriors

Dave: I survived training in Arizona, and to Kristine's suprise, made it home a day earlier than I was suposed to. I had a choice. Stay and party after graduation or immediately go to the airport. American Airlines must have known I was coming home to my Kristine, because they got me on two earlier flights that were sold out and into her arms by 11pm that evening. We were more than a little excited to see each other. With that flight my two weeks of leave began.


After having heard how interesting and how well preserved Mount Vernon was, we decided to make that one of our first visits.

Here we are as George and Martha. Can't say I'm a fan of the wig.

Here I am getting sworn in.
As a bonus tour, Mt Vernon offered to take us to see the sights used in the filming of National Treasure 2 Book of Secrets. During the movie, Nicolas Cage's character takes the president through a secret underground tunnel from Mount Vernon's basement to the river nearby.

The film crew only worked during the middle of the night so as to not disturb the regular daily visitors. The movie depicts the presidents birthday celebration which was actually very similar to a birthday celebration JFK had here. They copied just about everything, even down to the giant "Happy Birthday Mr President" sign in the background.

So the tour guide takes us under the house, shows us a bunch of pictures from the filming, and lets us know that there isn't actually any tunnel at all, but they did film in the basement. They also used the old ice cellar(below) for the exit of the tunnel which is a ways away from the house. So basically we took a tour to see a tunnel that didn't exist. Kinda disappointing.

Nonexistant tunnel tour aside, Mount Vernon is very impressive and huge. George Washington's heart really was in his farms and fields. Through all that he did, he always kept in touch and a guiding hand over his land.


At the Washington Family Tomb

Kristine: On Thursday, we went to a special showing of a movie based on a book we read together called "Half the Sky". It was sobering, but great. The book is about women's issues around the world that don't make the headlines. Everything from maternal mortality and blocked deliveries that cause unnecessary deaths to sex trafficking. It makes me sad to think that millions of people are mistreated and disregarded around the world simply for being women. But, there are ways to improve the world. Check out the book if you have a chance.


Dave: The neat thing about Washington is that there is always something going on. We went to the National Geographic museum here in DC to see an exibit on the Terracotta Warriors from China. The Chinese cultural tradition is that in the after life people need everything they need in their normal life. When the first emperor conquered the rest of China, he started building his tomb so that he would be all set up in the afterlife. Not only did he want riches and luxury, but also he wanted an army at his command. So they made a full sized army out of clay and buried it with him. The really interesting thing is that they know where the emperor's main room of the tomb is, but the chinese archiologists don't want to dig it up. Supposedly there is tons of expertly crafted items along with a recreation of all the waterways of China flowing with mercury. Also it, like many rulers' tombs, is boobytrapped.

Here is a picture I got from the National Geographic site. They wouldn't let us take any pictures...

Except for the fake terracotta warrior at the end. We probably could have got a better picture, but the museum was closed and they were trying to kick us out. I would recommend going and seeing it if you can.

Kristine: I hate how this picture turned out, but at least they gave us a fake warrior to stand next to!

Go 'Cuse!!

Thanks to some sweet nose-bleed tickets facilitated by the SU Club of DC, I got to see the much-anticipated SU Orange vs Georgetown Hoyas game on Thursday. What a game! We started out REALLY strong and soon held a commanding 20 point-plus lead. But, the Orange failed to stick it out as strong in the second half, and soon the crowd was on fire as Georgetown came within 1 point with only minutes to go. The tension got my heart pounding, and sitting in the upper bowl of the arena, we had to work hard to make our voices carry over the ever-energized Georgetown fans. Luckily, we held out in the end and pulled off a VERY VERY tight win.



I forgot to bring my orange shirt that I had laid out the night before...but at least I wasn't wearing blue and gray.



I invited my friend Nicole from the ward to come with me. She got a hard time from her coworkers because she had refused to get hyped about a Jazz game and all of a sudden was going to basketball games anyway. Funny.



A live action shot...

And the final score. Go 'Cuse!!