Off the Cluff

As you know, we bought our new house over the winter, and as we have talked about many times in this blog, we had a ton of work to do on the inside, because the previous owners were not what you would call easy on a home. So we've had very little time to keep the outside as maintained as we could have, and because the previous owners didn't leave it in great condition either, there were large areas of flower beds that were completely overrun by weeds. Including the dastardly morning glory weed, which is the absolute worst weed in the world, despite it's almost innocent looking exterior.

We would spend several evenings out pulling weeds, spraying weeds with roundup, and they would be just as thick and hardy the next day. So, I thought some rock would look good instead of weeds. Sara and I laid down a bunch of landscaping fabric and bought 3 tons of rock, and this is what we ended up with after several hours of work and a few sore backs and arms.

Special thanks goes out to Sara’s dad who helped us transport the rock on his trailer as well as helped us spread it out, including doing 1 entire ton by himself while we were at work!

Next we will be having some cement curbing put in.

WARNING: This post is extremely long, make sure you have a beverage with you or you will likely become dehydrated and pass out in the course of reading this blog.

The company I work for has recently expanded picking up an east coast operation. We’ve been working on integrating our two processes and work flows. It was only a matter of time before I got to go out there and see how I could integrate our programming department into what they’re doing and basically be an “asset” for them.
So, I was volunteered to fly to Bethlehem, PA on June 30th. 4:30am is early for a Wednesday, but thats what time we got up so that we could be on the road by 5. I got to the airport around 6 and checked in for my flight.

Which one of us looks more tired?

Apparently there aren’t a lot of huge jets that fly to Bethlehem.

I took the above pictured jet to Chicago, where I had a short 1 hour layover. The nice thing was, according to my research on the internet before leaving, I was arriving at the same gate my flight to Bethlehem left from. I had also discovered that the Chicago airport had a Johnny Rockets, which we don’t have in Utah, so it was a prime opportunity for me to get some fine food. The problem I discovered upon landing was that the gate I arrived at was the furthest down the terminal and JR’s was all the way back at the main concourse, just inside of security.

I decided it was worth it and made the long trek up. I got to JR’s and it was pretty crowded, but I decided to risk it. I looked at my watch and set a time that I knew I’d have to leave by to get back to my terminal. The food arrived just in time for me to eat it, and I scarfed down my burger, then I turned to my fries. I grabbed the picnic style ketchup bottle on the table and turned it over and began squeezing ketchup out onto my tray.

You know that feeling when something goes horrible wrong, and you can sense it happen, but can’t react fast enough to stop it? Well I experienced that as the lid of the ketchup bottle came shooting off and all the ketchup in the bottle came plopping down on my tray. A sticky sweet pile of ketchup lay on my tray luckily very little of it rebounded on my shirt, and I was still able to eat a few fries, but then I had to go with a few light ketchup freckles.

My way back up the terminal proved fruitful, I noticed that the very first gate, F1, was listing my flight to Allentown, PA (Allentown, Bethlehem, and Lehigh Valley are all the same airport). I checked the monitors and sure enough, my flight was departing from F1, not where I had flown into. I had foolishly not checked the gate once I actually arrived at the airport. Luckily I ended up in the right place.

Boarding this plane was a bit of an adventure because Chicago hates people, you can see this in their “Only Criminals Can Have Guns law,” as well as the fact that they made us walk outside and then take a winding mile long obstacle course in the hot summer sun.

The plane to Allentown was nearly identical to the one pictured above, however this one had some mechanical problems they discovered after we boarded. In a plane this small, it was easy to hear the ground crew as they discussed with the pilot the gouges in the wing. Ultimately they decided it wasn’t that big of a deal and we took off.

Taking off from Chicago

Flying into Bethlehem/Allentown two things impressed me. First off, there were trees literally everywhere and if there was an open area it was because at some time in the past the trees had been cleared back. Secondly, a huge number of people had swimming pools. I wouldn’t have expected it from an area north of Philadelphia, I had always just associated it with more of a winter climate.

I finally landed at the Lehigh Valley Airport (so many different names for the same place!) it was so cute! What a nice little airport. I like small airports, everything is so easy to find and get to.

Baggage Claim, even the peeps are there!

I got my bags and I was off to my hotel to get ready for work the next day.

A nice room at a very reasonable rate.

Arriving at work

The side streets of Bethlehem

When I wasn’t working, I enjoyed driving around the streets of Bethlehem. It was a very pretty community, pretty lush and green. The streets were also incredibly narrow and sidewalks were a rarity. Another thing never to be found were sprinklers or sprinkler systems. The people of Bethlehem could rely upon nature to water their grass! A shocking thought to a life long desert dweller.

Our work time went well there, and I was able to meet many people I’ve only heard of before and communicate with them what they needed and how things worked over there. I think it was overall a positive experience.

Friday came and it was time to return my rental car after a half day at work. I had originally been scheduled to fly home Friday afternoon, but at the last minute my sister, who lives in DC, brought up the idea of calling the airline and seeing if I could get my ticket changed to the next day and fly from DC so that I could take a short visit to DC. I wasn’t sure if this would work, but I was game for trying. I called up and they were willing to change the ticket for $150 plus any difference in fare prices. I looked around and found a fare from Baltimore that was nearly the same (flying out of DC, Reagan or Dulles, was way too expensive). Sara and I talked about it and we decided that it didn’t make sense to pay $150 to stay one extra day, but it did make sense if I could stay a few days, so I talked to the airline and made the change to fly back Monday from Baltimore.

So, I returned my car to the Lehigh airport and had my sister, Emilee pick me up from the airport – a short 4 hour drive for her to come up and get me. But she said she was happy to make the trip, and I was happy to be going to DC.

We drove down, through idyllic side streets and road ways. Apparently the East Coast doesn’t have the type of interstate highway systems we’re used to in the West. But the country side of PA was quite beautiful and quaint. Lots of corn fields and trees and rivers.

Rural PA is a lot like Rural everywhere else, just lots of trees

Our first stop on the way to DC was the Washington DC Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It is a breathtaking monument, surrounded by wooded hills. It’s quite large and beautiful. Pictures don’t do it justice, but here goes anyway.

Yes, the skies are really that blue.

Hitting the DC Temple is what really started my whirlwind tour of DC, where I went to and experience about as much as is humanly possible.

The National Cathedral, I didn’t get a lot of time here, and didn’t get to find Darth Vader (he’s one of the gargoyles) but it’s beautiful

People don’t follow street signs in DC, like this one advising that you cannot stand near this sign (by the way, this was taken while driving through Chevy Chase). We drove by the Kennedy Center and Watergate (sadly the Democrats have no more secrets worth stealing, so we didn’t go in).

Our next stop was at Iwo Jima, which is massively larger than you think it is.

Next, just a short hop around Arlington Cemetary was the Air Force Memorial. I love the design of this memorial, reaching out into the stars. Very cool. This memorial has a lovely view of the city and the pentagon, where you can see where the plane hit on 9/11.

From the Air Force Memorial, you can see the lighter replacement stone, and further in the background the Jefferson Memorial and the Capital.

Washington Monument towers over the city as a fitting reminder that although lots of great historical moments are here in this city, they all trace back to the inspired leader and our greatest president, George Washington.

After this, we decided to catch some lunch and go view the monuments at night, as I think they were best intended to be viewed. The designers worked so hard to make sure that their monuments portrayed the right spirit, and I think they captured it beautifully, from the underground wall of names for Vietnam, to the ghosts of Korea, and the grand splendor of WWII.

Vietnam Memorial (the three soldiers were undergoing preservation work and were thus walled off)

Lincoln, who held this country together, despite enormous strain, deserves his huge monument.

Washington Monument as seen from the Lincoln, with Congress behind it

Here you can see the ghosts that haunt the Korean Memorial, statues in a field and faces on a wall, it’s hauntingly beautiful. Including the famous Freedom is not Free

We then made our way to the WWII memorial, which completely unlike the Vietnam or Korean, is grand and full of splendor. I really feel like they captured the moods so well on each war memorial

Thus ended day 1 of my trip to DC. It was nice because I had a full fledged tour guide, who knew the exact right routes to go to each station, so there was no wasted trips, or long walks around places. Plus, because of her car we could drive into the city and park on the streets without having to take public transit.

Day 2 began innocently enough, we drove into a parking garage in the city and walked a few blocks to Ford’s Theater. On the way, I saw a Banana Republic, which delighted me to no end. My trip to Washington DC was now complete. Of course it got even more complete when I saw the Radio Shack and then the Payless Shoe store. I guess people need this kinds of stores, but it’s just funny to me to be in a place like DC walking between towering monuments and federal buildings and making a quick stop at the Payless.

This was the play house where Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth, the “Brad Pitt” of his day (famous actor, consider to be the height of male good looks). Just goes to show you that Hollywood has always hated Republicans.

What many people don’t know is that Lincoln was late for the play, and if he’d missed it entirely, he may have been fine. But nobody really knows why he was late, that is, until I discovered the truth. Right across the street from Ford’s Theater…

Who can resist delicious waffles? Not I, nor the President either it seems.

While we were waiting for our tour of the Theater there was a sightseeing bus/car accident. The nice man in the reflective vest was telling the woman (surprise surprise) bus driver how to go to get out of the mess, she pulled forward and you heard a large cracking. Surprisingly though, we walked passed the Jeep and there was literally not a scratch on it.

This is the gun that was used to assassinate President Lincoln. Is it in poor taste that it is currently pointed at him forever on display?

The Presidential box where Lincoln was assassinated. I wont cover all the details here, but if you’d like you can read about it on Wikipedia. It was a really amazing experience to be there in the same room where these things occurred , I cannot even express how surreal it was.

After Ford’s we decided to go through China Town (unpictured) on our way to a Metro Station, on the way we ran into the National Potrait Gallery to view Joseph Smith and the Presidents.

It’s an inspiring picture of a modern prophet.

The National Portrait Gallery is a beautiful place!

Once we got to the Metro station we rode over to the White House. Can you see the smoke on the right? The White House was having a BBQ, and boy did it smell good, especially after walking around all morning!

The park we walked through to get to the White House was Lafayette Park, Lafayette, as you remember was an important part in the revolutionary war, and likely without him we would not have succeeded. This statue is of Andrew Jackson. This park was nice because it allowed me to sit down and rest for a good 10 minutes or so. It had been a hectic day up to this point, so a rest was very nice. Emilee also provided me with a delicious snack pack from an airline food service. Yum!

We hit the Metro again, after the White House to go up to the Capitol, the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court. This is what the Metro looks like on the innards. I saw no evidence of rats or zombies on the tracks.

I had to see the Library of Congress. As a lifelong lover of books, and since I work with them every day, this was a no brainer. The exterior of the building is faced with busts of revolutionary figures, like Franklin.

The inside is simply stunning, with delicate arches, columns, and amazing mosaics on the ceiling.

Everyone you look you see famous sayings about the importance of learning

This is the famous reading room, you are only allowed in if you are an actual researcher

It was in the Library of Congress where people recognized my BYU Cougars shirt and came up to me to talk about the best football team in the world. But of course, BYU fans are smart, so it’s no surprise I’d find them in the LoC

You don’t realize how big this is until you see it up close. It’s huge. It’s probably so they can fit all the egos in there. This is the Capitol.

The Supreme Court. We had planned on eating here, but it was closed. It was still really cool to see it, if just from the outside.

We decided to hit the Metro again and go down to the Smithsonian Square. Where we went to the Museum of American History. George Washington was there to greet us in his god-like presence

On display is the original flag that the Star Spangled Banner was written about, the one that ‘yet waved.’ You aren’t allowed to photograph it, but here’s the sign. The flag is huge, with a lot of lost pieces and parts that have been cut out for mementos for people over the years. It is really inspiring to see it in person and to know how close we came to losing our flag and all it stood for in those days

I took this in the section of the museum on pop culture. My mom-in-law is a huge Wizard of Oz fan, and I knew she would appreciate these slippers

The Fonz, it would be cool if they had this jacket jumping the original shark…

Next we went through the section of the Presidents, this is Lincoln’s top hat, it looks amazingly disgusting. I wouldn’t want to wear that thing!

These are the masks that the conspirators who assassinated Lincoln had to wear during their imprisonment until their executions

A piece of the Twin Towers

A war ship from the revolutionary war. Can you say old school?

This is the old post office square, and it features a statue of a handsome Benjamin Franklin, inventor of the post office

At this time we decided that we should probably head home for a little while, get some rest and do some more during the evening. We had been out and about all day long and it’s a lot to do and see! So we walked back to the parking garage. Unfortunately, the GPS device we had took us to the wrong street and the parking garage wasn’t there. What in the world are you supposed to do when you don’t know where you parked and there are 2 or 3 parking garages on every block, and they all look identical? I wasn’t too worried about it, I knew that everything would be fine, but I could tell that Emilee was getting very worried, she was so concerned that I have a good trip, she didn’t want anything to go wrong. We started walking along the road we knew we had walked to to get to Ford’s Theater. That’s when we noticed the Payless and the Radio Shack and remembered that I had been a smart aleck about them earlier so we knew we were on the right trail. A little bit further down and I spotted the Banana Republic. Paydirt! We found the garage. Thank you Banana Republic, Radio Shack, and Payless for having shops in absurd places!

After a rest, we went back into the mall and went to two monuments we had missed the night before, namely FDR and TJ. Just like he did with the federal government, the FDR monument is huge. But it’s beautiful in it’s building block motif and lots of waterfalls.

Another FDR fall.

This is the Jefferson from the bridge. It’s a bit of a ways away from everything else, but it’s not too bad of a walk if you’re only coming from the FDR.

I found it very interesting that the Jefferson is cast in a greenish light, I’ve always considered him a jealous man, with his problems with Alexander Hamilton and jealousies of Washington. A little green with envy? That being said, he was a good man.

Washington from the Bridge to the Jefferson

That night we also drove through Old Town Alexandria, driving by Christ Church, where Washington attended services and this place, the Washington Masonic memorial. Washington and many of the founding fathers were very active Freemasons.

I also discovered that they like Speed Humps, rather than Bumps, and Turn Circles instead of Roundabouts.

Thus concluded Saturday, the 3rd of July. It was a long and adventurous day, in which I saw more historical items than I could possibly recount here, or show even a portion of the pictures I took. I was extremely blessed with cooler than usual temperatures and much less humidity than is typical, for which I’m extremely grateful for. There is no way I could have made the journey I did with hot and humid temperatures.

Sunday was the 4th of July and there were just a few absolute musts that I still had on my list to accomplish. The first was to see where my sister worked, the Holocaust Museum.

This is the Holocaust Museum. It’s a place of special importance for all the world to see, but I feel like Mormons also have a special affinity for it too.

The place is very reminiscent of what a camp or prison would feel like, it’s rather eerie

I’m not allowed to take this pictures, so don’t tell anyone, but this was such a powerful site, seeing the shoes of all the Jews who had been interred in camps, it just makes it so real to see something so mundane as a shoe, but to know that to each pair of shoes was a victim.

I got the inside scoop on so much of the museum because my sister works there, she gave me the tour in record time flat and yet I still got to see all the most powerful and amazing parts. Truly a place that will move you like no other in DC. This would have been something I’d have to see even if it wasn’t where my sister worked, and I’m glad I got there.

Anyone who knows me knows that George Washington is one of my biggest heroes. So no trip to DC would be complete without visiting Mt. Vernon, Washington’s home.

Because it was the 4th of July, the crowds were crazy, there were also period garbed people walking around and a military display on this green. I’m so grateful for Emilee because she immediately got in line to tour the house and told me to go take a look at all the other stuff, without this I would have never been able to see the grounds and everything there and get in the house because the line was 2 and 1/2 hours long to get in! That was really great.

Period actors lend a sense of what it would have been like on the 4th of July in Washington’s time.

A military display was put on on the green. It was loud, the booms of the guns and the canons just went right through you

Washington’s Tomb, with Martha at this side

That evening, it was the 4th of July after all, we retired to watch the fireworks over our nation’s capital.

Red, White, and Blue! USA! USA! USA!

The way back from the fireworks was fun, we rode the bus and I was molested by a high latino man. it was quite interesting, after he finished molesting me he tried to steal the small hand held flag that a Philipino woman was holding. After that a loud and obnoxious white woman got on the bus and started yelling at everyone to get out of the way so her kids could move to the back of the bus. Apparently this woman didn’t realize that we were all squashed in there like sardines and had absolutely no where to go. The bus driver finally had to threaten to have her arrested as she continued to argue with everyone near her.

The next morning, was Monday, the day I was flying home. I had time for just one activity, and there was no question about what it would be. Arlington National Cemetery, specifically the Tomb of the Uknown Soldiers.

The Women’s Memorial in Arlington, see how the grass is dying? Thats because it’s normally so humid the grass just sucks the water out of the air, but it was so dry the few days I was there it was dying!

Fields and fields of America’s finest, at attention forever

One of the best, and certainly most important things to see in DC. These guards are some of the best of the best, and it’s vital we honor our dead

These soldiers may be known only to God, but what is important to us is that every one is important, every life is sacred. That we have those who sacrifice their life for the greater good is inspiring and right and true. We can all look up to them.

After this we drove around the cemetery in the tour, but the Unknown was our only stop, nothing else could compare to this.

It was time to go, after a quick drive through DC again on the way to the Baltimore airport. It’s hard to believe that the trip came and went so quickly, and that we could do so much. I am very grateful to Emilee for hosting me and showing me around, and for all the line standing so I could see other things! and for the family that let me stay in their house while they were away. Very nice family and very nice home. This will be an experience I will always remember, and I can’t wait to get back again!

30 August 2010

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