August Wrap Up in DC

 Tom has thrown in a few Coast Guard Reserve duties along with his new regular job since we've been here.  We are very fortunate that Coast Guard headquarters is right down the street from Fort McNair so he can easily get there.  He also got to take an orientation bus tour they give to newcomers and got a "backstage" look at many of DC's sites.  Apparently the tour guide mentioned 3 ghosts who supposedly live at McNair including Mary Surratt......remember that whole Lincoln conspiracy?

My week has been spent wrapping up my Utah Real Estate continuing ed online (Passed with 97%, thank you very much) and trying to use online tools to A) design a lay out for the new apartment's furniture and B) put last year's blog in a book.  Struggling with both as I can't remember exactly what the apartment looks like even though I have a sketch outline, those online tools never work as easily as they pretend and I can't remember what furniture we had sent and won't know for sure until it arrives at said apartment on Friday the 7th.  Blog book difficulties a result of deciding how much time I want to put into layout.  Do I want to make it cute or just get the dang thing on paper?  Sort of why I turned to blogging rather than scrap booking.  Oh well, I can always work on that later.

 Week wrapped up with a 2 hour catch up session over lunch in Union Station with my friend Dalliss.  You met her back in October when I was last in DC.  Old friend from Utah who now lives just down the street from cousin Vicky in Virginia.  Have committed to making the most of our time here AND making time to see each other.  Just because you're suddenly closer in proximity doesn't necessarily mean you see any more of each other......right Michele?  When cousin Michele moved to Centerville which is 10 minutes from my Farmington house....we rarely saw any more of each other than when she was living out of state. Crazy!

Last night we met up with our friend David who had come down from NYC to see our other friend Victoria Mallory as Anna in The King and I at Wolf Trap.  I threw together a pre-show picnic that we enjoyed on the lawn while Vicky's husband Mark, entertained some clients he had joining him.  Nice to just relax and catch up.

The show was beautiful!  I wish I could have taken photos during the show as the drops, set and costumes were just exquisite.  The show originated in Virginia Beach and will go from here to Atlanta.  Each city has it's own orchestra and casts locals in the children's roles.  Yikes!  Can't imagine coming into a show like that with all new kidlets AND a new orchestra.  They were all terrific though. Stunningly beautiful voices...there just is nothing like old musicals!  Acoustics were wonderful as well and better yet....at half hour pre-show they sell half price tickets for military so we got good seats for a steal!

 We waited after for Vicky to get out of her giant hoop skirt so we could say a quick hello.  She has 4 shows in the next 2 days and it's a vocally demanding role so she had to make it quick.  It was lovely to see her on stage again and by hanging around after we missed all the post show traffic!

David, Vicky and Mark