Took a long flight to Norfolk on Sunday to speak at a conference. Josh L picked me up at the hotel and we hit the VA Beach area for some excellent seafood and conversation. I took a midnight tour of Regent University and while we're wandering around gawking at the buildings (that would be me) I notice what appears to be a small dog not far away. Turns out to be a fox, and not just one. Well lit fountains and foxes. Nice.
Headed to Richmond Monday evening and, on the way, stopped and wandered around Williamsburg with the digital camera. Again, gawking. When a new house is only 120 years old, you know you're in some fine country. With Sears Vinyl siding NOWHERE in sight, I was soaking in the history of Yorktown, Jamestown, and ALLLL that 'so and so died here' and 'so and so died there'. At the Richmond conference I was pleased to hang out with some wonderful people like the two federal agents and the guy from the legal dept of Phillip Morris (there's the job not to have right now).
Heading north, I arrived just south of DC in time to catch a quick meal and the last episode of the Amazing Race, which I haven't seen at all until now. I was choked up. Great moment when they're trying to beg for money from passers by to pay the cab driver when the finish line and a million bucks is a hundred feet away.
Today in Washington, DC was highlighted by an airplane that flew into the no fly zone and threw the city into a fit. I just happen to get in on all the action. OH YES. Homeland security evacuations? I'm there! I got to the Capitol Hotel and took off on foot to see some sights. Kenneth Cole shoes don't make for comfy walkers folks. After the 5th mile or so I began to wish I had taken the car. Sitting on the lawn between the Washington Monument and 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, I took in an outdoor show put on by the military called the Twilight Tattoo. It was wonderful and moving. Cannons going off, the band playing, and rifles being thrown into the air with surgical precision. What's not to love? After all of the memorials what stands out? While Lincoln at night was breathtaking, the hidden treasure for me was stumbling across the Korean Memorial after the sun went down. Statues of a squadron lurking through the brush are in front of an amazing wall carved with hundreds of faces in great detail. The jawdropping thing about this is the way they light it at night. A couple of small pen size spotlights on the ground in front of each statue light them with just enough emphasis that it makes you wonder if they're real. When you come in from behind all you see are the tiny lights on the ground and not the statues that they're shining on so you walk right by them without regarding their presence and head toward the wall to check it out. It isn't until you turn around that the statue squad of nearly two dozen appears out of nowhere. It's so spooky that it catches you and for a moment you're in Korea. You feel like an enemy who is about to be overrun and you just might lose that dim sum you had for dinner. Man it was cool.
So much more to write but that'll do for now...