I found a couple of great design websites today that I wanted to share!

Here are 35 of the most awesome couches I've ever seen.

I'm absolutely in love with this upolstery place. It's odd, though - the style is both completely my style and yet totally unlike me. I really love it, but I'm not sure I'm brave enough to put it in my house. It would totally work in a loft apartment, though!

I could make a WICKED awesome guest room with my toy collection and furniture from this place.

For those of you in the banking industry: lolfed.com

Finally, a fantastic site for those of us who work with the public.

Here are a few awesome links from Mental Floss. :

A VERY interesting article about the Lincoln Assassination:
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/16515

A game that I have become addicted to in the last 20 minutes:
http://www.boomj.com/?page=games/default&brainGame=87

The sheer randomness of Mental Floss makes it a must-read for me every day!

Well, today was great, but I wore out pretty quickly. Overall, I walked about 9 miles on Sunday, 11 miles yesterday and 8 miles today. I have held up extremely well and taken good care of my feet, but I still have blisters on both of my little toes, the toes next to them and, finally each of my big toes. Frankly, that's pretty good - the first time I came here, by feet were bleeding after the first day. This morning started with a bus to a train and long walk from the Metro into Georgetown. I spent a few hours wandering the shops in Georgetown and had a snack at Dean & Deluca. Once again, I LOVE the architecture of the neighborhood and came back with lots of pictures of it:
After Georgetown, I headed back to the Metro and out to Arlington National Cemetery. Oddly, it's one of my favorite places in DC. It's very moving, very quiet and very, very beautiful. Here are a few pictures from Arlington:


After Arlington, I decided to head to Old Town Alexandria to catch a water taxi back to the hotel int stead of taking a long, convoluted series of trains and buses. I got off the Metro and walked 18 blocks from the Metro stop down to the harbor along King Street, which was full of little shops and restaurants. It was lovely and just as enchanting as Georgetown - and much more affordable!
The rest of our group has arrived at the airport and is waiting for their luggage. We are planning to get together for dinner - probably back over in Alexandria. Tomorrow, meetings start, so things will get much more boring for you, but, hopefully, interesting for me!

Yesterday was warm but nice - today was much more like what I'm used to when visiting DC - hot and humid. Of course, the fact that I walked about 11 miles contributed to my sweat-soaked look. I started the day on a series of buses and trains to the National Zoo. The grounds open at 6 and the buildings at 10 - they recommend you come early to avoid the crowds. What they forget to tell you, however, is that they've got most of the animals locked up inside so that they can work on exhibits until almost 10. Oh, well. The most important animal was out and about and unbelievably adorable. Say hello to Tai Shan:

I fell completely in love with him - I have NO idea how many pictures I took of him -I got a few videos, too. I did develop a new appreciation for the Sedgwick County Zoo, though - with the exception of the pandas, the invertebrate building and the O Line - the monkeys use it to roam freely between their various residences in the zoo - directly over the heads of zoo visitors - our zoo is MUCH better. I was surprised.

After the zoo, I headed back to the Metro and, feeling exceptionally brave, I headed to Chinatown for lunch - I had some very yummy Hunan Chicken, fried rice and a spring roll for only $5.00 at this place: In Chinatown, of course, everything is in Chinese - I took this picture for Candy:

I stopped at the International Spy Museum gift shop (did the museum itself last time), wandered past the FBI building to the National Archives where I saw the Emancipation Proclamation, Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights. After that, I went across the street to the Museum of Natural History to visit the Hope Diamond, then back to the Metro to head to Union Station. I did a little shopping, had a snack and then headed back to the resort for dinner. I had a very expensive, but VERY yummy all-you-can-eat gourmet Italian buffet here in the hotel called the Pienza Italian Market Restaurant.

Well, I've got to take a shower - here's one more picture for the road - Friendship Gate in Chinatown:

I was posting my last entry when Leigh called and invited me to have dinner with some of the friends that she'd run into in the lobby. We went to the National Pastime Sports Bar and Grill where the six of us had a great time and I ended up sitting one table away from one of my favorite authors - Lisa Scottoline! She was in my direct line-of-sight and, when I first saw her, I thought, "she looks fami -- holy crap!" I didn't approach her because I am a huge chicken (what if it's not her afterall - how embarassing!) and way too polite (the thought of interrupting someone's meal is slightly horrifying). Fortunately, I already have her autograph.

The day started out well. I took a Metro bus to the Metro train to the Metro DC area - you can see it from my hotel room, but the Potomac River gets in the way of actually getting there. I went to the Eastern Market then wondered around Capitol Hill for a while. After attempting to go to the Library of Congress (closed on Sunday), I headed over to the Capitol Grounds for some spectacular photo opportunities. I headed down The Hill, stopping at the US Botanical Gardens then the National Museum of the American Indian - though, I confess, I only went there for lunch at Mitsitam Cafe - it was yummy! After that I headed to the Jim Henson's Fantastic World exhibit at the Smithsonian's International Gallery. Then, I hiked up to the Washington Monument, took a peek at the WW II memorial followed the Reflecting Pool (which is green and disgusting) to the base of the Lincoln Memorial, turned north to the Vietnam Memorial, crossed Constitution to the Albert Einstein Monument, continued along Constitution past the Federal Reserve, turned north up 17th Street past the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Blair House and, finally, the White House. I've seen the White House several times, but always from the South Lawn, so, this time, I headed to the North side - it was awesome! By then, I was pretty exhausted, so I headed to the nearest Metro station to begin the train and bus trek back to the hotel. All told, I walked a bit over 9 miles, rode 2 busses and 4 trains, saw some of the most incredible things in DC and didn't buy anything that I didn't eat or drink throughout the course of the day.

I'm headed for the shower and then bed - tomorrow, I meet Mei Xiang, Tian Tian, and their cub, Tai Shan at the National Zoo! I can't wait!!

This was last night's sunset:


One more pic before I go, though - this one is for Mom:

Details later - here are some pics!

Continuing the rather odd tradition I started in Garden Key here are my feet in Washington, DC.



A rather unique view of the Washington Monument. I promised myself that I wouldn't come back with 100 pictures of it this time. So far, I'm staying in the low 20s. I should note, however, that for the first time, I was not on the verge of collapse when I reached the base, so that was a triumph in itself.




An orchid from the US Botanical Gardens on the Mall



Up close and personal with the Capitol itself. Since this is the "back" (the side away from the Mall) there were only a handfull of people around.



Capitol Hill - My absolute FAVORITE type of architecture and one that doesn't exist in Wichita.

My trip out to DC was uneventful (except for a VERY bumpy landing in at Reagan National) - I enjoyed an hour and a half at O'Hare - I've never seen an airport with a dinosaur inside.



It's only a cast (courtesy of the Field Museum), but it was awesome!

You may have to click on this to see it very well, but this is the view from my hotel room in Washington, DC. Well, not Washington proper - it's actually Gaylord
National Hotel in Prince George's County Maryland, but it's close enough. I had to use the digital zoom to get a pic of it, but in real life, it's pretty clear.



I'm off now to find some supper! I'll try to post a few pics along the way!

Someday, I hope to have the time and motivation to actually type something here for real, but, in the mean time, I just fell completely in love with this blog!