Linda's Visit

We got home late on the 26th after spending the first day with Eleanor while Marie went to work.  We showed caretaker Karen what her day will look like then sent her home early while we had more discussions with siblings about what this kind of commitment really means for Marie.

 The morning of the 27th we finally opened the few gifts we had.  Mom had let me try on the boots while I was in Utah and had shown me the painting she was giving me (yes, she's an artist too!) before wrapping them up and sending them home with me.  We both look worn out in these pix!

 We had been given tickets to The Military Bowl at RFK stadium.  It was very cold but we decided we had to go if only for a quarter.  We arrived at half time and had great seats right down front.  We were surrounded by the Bowling Green fans who were playing San Jose.  Didn't really care about either team but the small crowd who had traveled to support their teams were very excited to be there. We lasted through the 3rd quarter then hopped the Metro for home just in time to snuggle into blankets and catch the end of the 4th quarter on tv.

Felt sorry for the twirlers in the freezing cold weather

 Our friend Linda flew in around 11:30 pm that night.  Tom had gone to bed because he had to work the next day but Linda and I sat up chatting until around 2 AM.  THAT is a Christmas miracle as I'm normally in bed by 9 or 10.

 Tom worked half a day then came home to join us for sight-seeing.  We stopped at our neighborhood restaurant Station 4 for lunch then headed to The Library of Congress.  You're going to have to forgive me if I keep taking photos of this place!

 Next we headed to the visitor's center at the Capitol then into the Capitol itself.

 We came home and crashed the first night over a home cooked meal and relaxation.  Saturday we decided to head to National Harbor to check it out. Linda's requests for this visit had included seafood so the harbor seemed like a good place! Settled on McCloone's Pier House.

No, that is not seafood....it is the tiramisu we shared AFTER the seafood

 We were going to go through Old Town Alexandria on the way home but detoured to Mount Vernon instead as Linda hadn't been there.  It was 4 pm when we arrived so the last tour had already left but they did let us into the visitor's center (for nothing!) to look around.  That is new since I've been there and was fascinating.  Tom and I have been listening to George Washington's biography so it was doubly interesting. Would love to go back again.  We spent a couple of hours there, in the shops, and enjoying the beautiful drive along the parkway. Settled in that night with munchies, good books and sudoku puzzles.

Got up Sunday morning and went to church before going to Ted's Bulletin (remember the pop tarts?) for breakfast.  We had brought Linda's things with us so we could drop her at the airport without having to go back home.  We also took her to Eastern Market which had fortunately moved a lot of the vendors inside because it was so cold!

After that we headed towards the White House where they're building all kinds of seating for the inauguration.

While we waited for Tom to swing back around and pick us up we stepped into a beautiful Episcopal church that was holding services.  Couldn't get pix of the gorgeous chapel but they did have this beautiful carved wooden nativity in the lobby.  Tom arrived just in time to drive to Reagan National and send Linda on her way.  It was a short but fun trip!  Always fun to show off the city.