Anyone who lives by a big city has had to play tour guide on more than one occasion. Since I live near DC, I get to bring people around DC from time to time. I always try to cater what we see based on those who are visiting me--what their interests are and what they are hoping to see. Within reason of course, because some people want to see everything. And due to the vast amount of walking it requires to see everything, you just can't do it all in one weekend. And since 9/11, DC keeps changing to upgrade its security, things do change a bit, so I have to adapt to those changes.
For example, this weekend I took Sarah and her husband Nino around. We went to the Postal Museum (since Sarah collects stamps) and the National Gallery of Art (since both Nino and Sarah wanted to see some art.) However Sarah also wanted to see alll the monuments and the White House. We did see the Capitol as we entered the mall by way of Union Station. We saw the Washington Monument from a distance and we did swing past the White House. That was enough walking for one day. (Since 9/11, you can only tour the White House if you request tickets 6 weeks in advance. Tickets for the Capitol and the Washington Monument require getting there very early in the morning. All things we were not able to do.)
The next day we did the DC Ducks tour, which did take us past the Jefferson Monument. (A great tour for the kids and if you like getting close to the runway at National airport, LOL.) And we saw Lincoln from a distance when we visited Arlington Cemetary. Not sure if that's quite how they wanted to see all the monuments, but hey, they did see them. ;) We also stopped in Chinatown for a lunch.
They wanted to see the Air and Space museum, but I said that would likely hard to get into...it's usually crowded on the weekends and with the bag check it gets tricky. The IMAX was mentioned, but I think we ended up forgetting to do that.
The only major sticking point was Sarah seemed annoyed that I wouldn't agree to me or them driving into DC on Sunday. I knew that parking tends to be scarce and also that I don't know my way around DC by car very well at all. I mostly Metro down there.
Today when I asked others about that decision, every single person agreed that driving down there would have been not a wise thing to do. None of them would have even considered driving. The places where Sarah saw parking, she didn't realize were by permit only. Parking really is problematic. So I feel even more justified that I insisted that we take Metro into DC.
Hopefully, I succeeded at getting them to many of the things they wanted to see. I did get to see and do some new things, which always help make the touring interesting for me. However, my poor pinky toes have blisters on the bottom in spite of me wearing my sneakers both days.
Now that it's August, I figure I'll mention I'm still reading the Dante Club. It's getting more interesting....I'm just reading other stuff as well. I'm reading another Janet Evanovich book. I'm up to Hard Eight. And last weekend I bought the latest JD Robb, Origin in death. I've read the first chapter or two...but then I decided I better finsh Hard Eight first, LOL.
And I still haven't finished reading The Light Possessed by Alan Cheuse. I set it down and simply haven't gotten back to it. July proved to be quite busy for me.
Maybe in August I'll find more time to read.
My cat Gee was having issues again these last few weeks. Cystitis Issues. Normally I just try to live through the 2-3 weeks of his squatting and dribbling bloody urine in various corners of the house. These days it only happens once or twice a year, and is generally brought on by stress and allergies.
But unfortunately this time just when I thought he was getting to the end of a bout, he got worse. He became really depressed and was having a rough time with it, not eating much at all. So I took Gee to the vet. And this time, when they took an X-ray, they did find a bladder stone.
That meant Gee needed surgery to ensure the stone wouldn't block him. On Monday Gee had his surgery and I brought him home on Tuesday evening. Then I kept him isolated for a day. Since he's been so happy and upbeat I figured he was ready to be sprung from my room and given free reign of the house.
In fact he just jumped on my desk and rubbed against me, chirping with joy. I'm just thrilled he's feeling much better. It would have sucked if I spent all that money and he still felt bad. ;)