Monday, July 30, 2007

City Sidewalks, Wild Ponies, and Surprise Banquets!

Well, I just got back from a 10 day vacation... It was really fun. Our first stop was Washington, D.C. We rode the Metro all over the place to get closer to the area, so we wouldn't have to walk so far. That was fun. We went to lots of museums, and monuments. We went to the south lawn of the White House, and with binoculars could see some people getting ready to have lunch on the balcony (in front), at least that's what it looked like. We also went to the National Zoo, which has 3 pandas....really cute. We went to the Lincoln Monument, Thomas Jefferson Monument, Ford's Theatre (where President Lincoln was shot) and the house across the street where he died, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, National Postal (Museum?), and food courts.... (Union Station is the best). We walked all over the place.... let's just say, my feet hurt. We probably went some other places, but right now, I can't think of any other place. Our next stop was Williamsburg. This stop was really neat. For those of you that don't really know about Williamsburg, it's sort of like a giant Conner Prairie, but different. It was historical homes and shops (like a carpenter, silversmith, blacksmith, bakery, millery, wigmaker, apothecary, etc.). There are people there that are dressed in 18th century attire, and talk about the issues of the day. One nice thing about Williamsburg, was you could talk about the issues of today too and how they would have been viewed back then. We heard Patrick Henry give a loooonnnngg speech, which was interesting. Our next stop was Norfolk, on our way to our 2nd to last stop. Norfolk is a huge Navy base, where they have gigantic aircraft carriers and other ships. We went on a tour thing and then continued on our journey to Exmore, VA. We stayed in this little heard of town, because it was as close as we could get to Chincoteague Island. We went to Chincoteague and Assateague during the day and went on a few hikes (one to a lighthouse) and then went swimming in the Atlantic. Chincoteague is famous from the book "Misty of Chincoteague." We happened to come the week of the pony swim. (That's why we had to stay an hour away, because "everyone" was there.) We saw the pony swim, which was kind of a let down, because there were way too many people, but the up side of it was that people started leaving, and we thought they were done, but when we looked in the binoculars, the ponies were still out swimming, so we got a better view. To let you know how much people get into this.... I overheard someone say that they had been there since 5:30 AM, and the swim was around 12. Our last stop was Fayetteville, West Virginia. We went there to visit our dear friends, the Moreys (Pastor Robert, Esther, and Heidi). We got there real late on Friday night, then went to an old, abandoned house on Saturday with them. Meanwhile (while we were supposed to occupy them) the people at their church decorated and set up for a surprise banquet for their 25th anniversary. It was very tricky not to let the cat out of the bag. We were part of the surprise, however, since we had been planning on coming anyway, we got to help with the surprise. Sunday we made a special effort to get with them for breakfast, so that they wouldn't notice anything unusual at the church... like people running around with special papers (given to the wedding party) and food, and wonderful smells, etc. Meanwhile the church had planned that they would recommit to their vows, and have the family and wedding party come in. (My mom was part of the wedding party.) So after the service had been going on for a little while, in comes Esther's family, and Robert's sister.... it was great to see the excitement and all the tears of joy. They were totally shocked... which was a hard task, because they are usually the ones plotting and planning on how to bless someone. After the service the church had prepared a wonderful banquet and wedding cake.... and it was just great. Then we came home.... we met up with our friends from Fort Wayne, who had come to the service (part of the family/wedding party) and so we got to spend some time with them carpooling, which was really nice. We got home after midnight, and so now we are getting everything back to normal again. I still have 2 more weeks of clubs and then I think one week, and then off to college hopefully. I hope you all are having a wonderful summer! (I'll add pictures, once they get developed.)

No comments: