Hampton Inn Laurel, Md

... the fact that my favorite explorer as a kid was Magellan who first circumnavigated the globe (but sadly met an untimely end in the South Pacific islands before finishing his grand adventure - please, no jokes here from my friends and family less enamored of travelJ ), is to begin year of reflection, renewal, and creativity following my completion (at last!) of the Ph.D. program in Leadership Studies at the University of San Diego. I am calling it my "victory lap" and I can hardly think of ...

... friend Pierre L'Enfant to plan the city. Together they picked the location on the Potomac River. Wide Boulevards, sweeping vistas, calm waters, lush landscape, monumental backgrounds, and pedestrian comfort. I doubt that they would be disappointed with the result except that L'Enfant got hacked off when Jefferson would not give him the commission for the Capitol Building. But, then the French are so difficult.

... dark.. So I decided to walk down to the Capitol building and take some night shots.. After taking my happy snaps I made my way back to the hostel and decided to have Indian cuisine for my last dinner in DC. Turns out this wasn't all that good either and pretty steeply priced.. Not sure what I was doing wrong, but the food seemed to be pretty shocking everywhere here. Hitting the hay pretty early again, I decided that I would do as many museums as I could tomorrow before ...

... dropped me off at the Library of Congress. I am already starting to think of things I "need" to research so that I can just go sit in that Grand Reading Room and touch one of their old books. I was very impressed by the library, not just the grandeur and the decorations, but also the exhibits, which were very well done. The upper level of the Grand Atrium has these interactive screens that explained everything in great detail. You just touched on the object or painting that you ...

... me to another girl who gave me a new make up look that was very attractive and natural. Kathy and I got in a walk around the neighborhood and Sunny then showed me a great on-line tool for checking your mileage ~ goggle pedometer. I thank Kathy for suggesting that I purchase EZPASS for my travels. Each time I cruise through one of the toll booths I am grateful for that advice.

Today we headed back to the Air and Space Museum and then hit the National Art Gallery. The Space Museum was cool. We learned how computers have helped advance airplane and aircraft design. We saw an Apollo lunar module like the one that landed on the moon. It was the one that was built for a second mission but was never used because of the complete success of the first mission. We also got to design an aircraft using computer graphics. We saw two shows at the Einstein ...

Dunkin' Donuts Blueberry bagel with cream cheese + hot chocolate Michael: glazed donut + chocolate donut + coffee from Baltimore - Washington D.C. Drive and park at Greenbelt metro station took metro to Smithsonian station USD 3.15 one way Washington monument: tickets sold out at 10:30am already, better to go a lot earlier; windy World War II memorial: cute ducks Holocaust museum ...

... and shocking impact that left me on the verge of tears on more than one occasion. I've obviously studied the events in details over the years and have visited other exhibitions and museums, yet this place seemed to effect me more than others. I don't know why, but it did. Two particular exhibits stand to mind the first was a series of photographs about life in a Latvian village pre-war. At the end of the corridor, a simple sign stated that off the 1,500 or so ...

... the airport, boarding the plane, all of it just seemed to pass by as if I were having a flashback to some distant memory. It wasn't until the plane's wheels left the ground that it began to sink in- I was leaving for a long time. The flight over was fine, I slept most of the way, aided by American Airline's version of Lunesta, The Devil Wears Prada, and arrived in Miami with an hour and a half to make my connection to Guatemala city. I walked the half mile concourse that connected ...

We have decided that New York City is not a nice place. That's not to say that we haven't had a fantastic time, we truly have. But the journey to this city has taught us that we are country folk at heart! The city is manic. Those of you that haven't been, then go, it's an amazing place in terms of architecture, history, pride, diversity, characters, some wonderful people, some absolute ...., but for us, it didn't quite recreate what we ...