DC

We left Luray Caverns and stayed at a hotel for the night. As soon as we turned on the tv (first time we turned a tv on in a week!)Michael Jackson had just died. We were in complete shock. He was such a strange man but amazing also. When I was in elementary school he was super big- and my last name was Jackson. I figured it was my one and only chance to be 'big' so I told everyone that he was a cousin of mine. Some people actually believed it too- I was loving that!
Anyway- the next morning we were off to DC. Ethan is at the age that seeing stuff like the white house is really cool. I didn't want to spend too much time there as I really wanted to get to Chesapeake at a decent hour. We parked, then walked to the White House. There were some protesters there- Ethan thought that was pretty weird. I got my zoom lens out and decided to see what I could see inside the White House windows- hehe! I didn't see any Obamas peeping out, but I did see someone moving a ladder around in one of the rooms. Then we walked around the 'block' saw the Treasury, saw the Capital building way off in the distance, and saw a few other things in the distance. We had lunch at a food stand on the street- Cameron chased squirrels that were in the grass. Then we headed back towards the back end of the WhiteHouse. There was security there and they blocked all traffic to let someone important through- I watched them go by but it wasn't anybody I knew! As soon as we saw the White House again there was someone on the upstairs balcony, as well as 2 guards on the roof. I had switched lenses on my camera back to the smaller lens so I was trying to get the zoom on as quick as possible to see who it was- and of course by the time I got it on, the man had gone inside. So I just waited and waited. The kids got bored and Jim started nagging about leaving. Ugh- I was really hoping to see Obama come outside! After stalling as long as possible, we finally left. Bought the kids a couple of souvenirs and went to the parking garage. We paid $18 for parking- and I think we were there just over an hour! Yikes!
Then we sat in DC traffic for HOURS because we missed the HOV exit by a few hundred feet :(

some crazy protesters

You can see a lamp and mirror through the windows to the whitehouse. No Obamas to be seen though.

This is where I was waiting for the man to come back out onto the balcony. My family is too impatient. I could have waited for a long time for the perfect shot. Maybe I should look into a job as a paparazzi! LOL

Oh, and I forgot to mention that Jim offered to climb the fence and make a run for it toward the White House- just so we could make the evening news. Isn't that sweet of him. Though when I told him to go for it, he chickened out, claiming something lame about not having a job after that.....