Greetings!

Greetings from Washington DC! We had a lovely drive today with beautiful (but cool) weather, a breathtaking show of color from the fall foliage, and surprisingly light traffic. I enjoyed Cracker Barrel's blueberry pancakes with maple syrup, a scrambled egg and a much-needed dose or two of coffee! You see, we're in the habit of traveling in the wee hours; particularly with little ones in tow. We hit the road at 3:00 a.m. and stopped in Durham, NC for breakfast. We had a quick sandwich from Subway here in the Crystal City/Pentagon/Arlington area prior to getting checked in and enjoying a bit of rest (I didn't sleep last night and it was beginning to catch up)! It was wonderful having our dinner and shopping fix at IKEA tonight. We go to the Atlanta location a couple times a year so imagine our excitement at being able to reach our choice from 3-separate locations in just 30-45 minutes!

Kenneth was wonderful getting all 3 laptops functioning with high speed Internet. Abbey's was left at home due to lack of space in the TrailBlazer (and probably in our room), as well as lack of time for online school work. We were unable to go wireless but if you could see the view from the sofa in our 10th floor room you'd know why we aren't complaining. We're watching jets on their approach for landing over the Potomac en route to Reagan International Airport.

This is a business trip for Kenneth and field trip for me and the kids. We'll be doing the tour trolley stuff some of Sunday while working around Kenneth's conference schedule. Monday evening we're scheduled for a moonlight tour of the mall area with the monuments and buildings beautifully lit and on display. Other scheduled tours inclde the Capitol, Bureau of Printing and Engraving, and the Spy Museum. We have a list of other sites we want to see, schedules permitting. No repeat visits to the White House, Zoo, or Air & Space Museum. With limited time we try to hit a few highlights each trip until we've covered about everything.

Don't forget to turn your clocks back Sunday, and enjoy the remainder of the weekend. We're all pretty tired and not complaining a bit about getting our lost hour back from last spring.

I'll be back with more Washington updates...uh, hello? Are you still there? Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. After all, travel blogs are probably even less interesting than watching someone else's vacation slides! Thanks for sticking with me, though.

Sonya

PS: Prayer Requests for Pamela's full recovery following recent surgery, and for healing for Christin S' hand from an acid burn.

"Missing You" note to my crew in Greenville and Due West. Also for Matthew, and Vera.