Oakwood at Gates of McLean

... at the local beach. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I climbed Mt.Fuji!! No big deal...yeah right! Hardest thing I've ever done. After I said a (non-tearful) good-bye to all the employees of the local Board of Education and some teachers at the train station I was on my way to Tokyo!! I stayed in Tokyo for about 2 weeks doing all things touristy and hanging out with Kat and Dave (they both lived in the rural part of Wakayama my first year in Japan but have since moved to ...

... first stop was the Whitehouse. Whilst it is a lovely looking building, it was not as big as we had imagined. Due to the terrorist risk they now have large concrete and metal barriers at the south entrance which is not particularly pleasing to the eye. Next we moved to the National Mall which is a huge parkland area which contains masses of memorials, museums and the Capitol building, here we just strolled around taking in the sites. Washington Monument - A huge ...

... year and for those who are planning on taking off for an extended ...

... by little Italy which is really one street with Italian restaurants for tourists as Chinatown now surrounds it. I had a cannoli from Ferraras. They make the best in the world! We headed into SoHo (named for the area SOuth of Houston). This area was once the Garment District with sweatshops and then designer garment factories. Then as artisits realized they could get large ...

... Sunday, March 4 Drive: Charlotte NC to Charleston, SC (3.15 hrs) Visit: "Philadelphia of the South" (a la the row houses) Monday, March 5 Drive: Charleston to Athens (eve) (5 hrs) Visit ...

... waiting for me at arrivals. Few things are worse than crying in public, and I've done it too many times this year. "A bad year for grandma's," everyone keeps saying. What about a bad year for the rest us? There is never a good time for someone you love to die, I thought, at her funeral, thinking of Eric and Abbie, in Rome without me, of my unfinished essays, of the packages of food meant for christmas that my mother had sent me, now ...

... to do some wine tasting, we went to a place called cakebread. The wine was ok... I dont really drink wine. While up that way we went and seen an old faithful. It's similar to a blow hole but these are located at the bottom of volcano's. The one we saw the volcano explode many years ago. Its quite and amazing thing to watch, i was expecting the spurt of water to only last for a couple of ...

... br>Badlands, South Dakota
Visiting our friends in Billings, Montana
Hiding from the Grizzly Bears in Yellowstone NP & the Grand Tetons
Shivering in Glacier National Park
Crater Lake, Oregon
Visiting Kay's family in California
The Grand Canyon
Bryce, Zion & other Utah parks

We planned on leaving by Thursday, October 4th and spending 3 nights camping in the Shenandoah National Park ...

... before my birthday, and then feigned innocence. Erin made me play with her freakishly small dogs. Sandy gave me my last pair of her Hello Kitty underwear (Noooooo! I'll be naked without a regular fresh supply!). Adele and her sister Jana and I lollygagged about. Chris and Jen and I skateboarded Central Park. Met up with Nick Chong and enjoyed a big Filipino family feast. Ran into Steve Buscemi at Diane's office (oh yeah, we're tight now.). Went to 2 Daily Show ...

Today was the first day of Kensington training in the new Tyson's Corner office. I was asked to help get them set up and working on the case study, working with Jim Campbell. The five newbies seemed a little greener than I remember us being, but a good group overall. The Tyson's office is one small office in a shared office rental complex.