Our Summer Also Contained...

A week at HiCamp and Synod, visit with Heather, a few days with friends in Pinecrest, a gifted getaway in Angels Camp, and a grand adventure in our nation's capital were definitely Summer 2022 Highlights, but here were some other happy moments...

Trying the new local froyo place.

Shopping with friends (and, not pictured, cooking, pool, movie, campfire, and game night dates with friends too!).

Fourth of July festivities.

Pottery class.

Photoshoots in our sunflower garden.

Fresh peaches!

Celebrating another summer birthday!

Coffee dates with co-teachers.

Major hair changes!  Eight inches chopped for Ella and bangs for Delia!

Delicious summer eats-- this salad ended up being our favorite.  Let me know if you want the super easy recipe. :)

A lot of reading.  The good thing about vacation at the end of summer is the long stretch of days with nothing big on the calendar!  So, I traveled to Ghana in the 1700's when slaves were being kidnapped and traded; and to a refuge camp in Kenya where an orphaned Somalian boy takes care of his brother with special needs; and to the futuristic opium fields of Mexico in 2137; and to Paris during the massive roundup and arrest of Jews; and to rural Vietnam when napalm dropped on a village and killed and maimed children during the Vietnam war; and to many other places and times.

 

A much anticipated gathering!  This group of people is a year in the making!  When the 2 new pastors our church hired joined the team this summer, we got all the church staff families together and celebrated God's goodness, new relationships, an exciting new season of ministry, and some much needed relief for Dave.

It was a pretty great summer, but here we are, ready to conquer our First Day of School!  Ella left for Senior Sunrise before anyone was even awake this morning,  And I don't expect to see the girls until later tonight when their Sound of Music auditions are over.  Thankful we had a season full of family time because now it's time to buckle up and enjoy the wild ride of having busy high schoolers!!

DC: HAMILTON!!

We've been feeling the sting of our Hamilton tickets being cancelled in 2020 for 2 years now.  DC went from an idea to a reality the day we realized Hamilton would be showing at the Kennedy Center the week we were thinking of going!  There is no better place to enjoy this musical masterpiece than in the city jammed with the history it sings of!  Everything about Hamilton after a week in DC hit different.  From the words of the Declaration of Independence in "The Schuyler Sisters" to Hamilton's writing of 51 Federalist Papers in "Non-Stop" to how we got the Capital in DC in "The Room Where it Happens" to Eliza's raising funds for the Washington Monument ("She tells my story...").  I cried twice and had goosebumps throughout.  My theater kids were in heaven to see their #1 show in such an amazing place!  

We decided to make this night extra special by treating it as a Formal.  We loved Hamilton dress shopping this summer and getting glamorous together in our hotel room beforehand.

(Once again, a friendly family photographer volunteered-- this time a security guard who popped out to say, "You're doing it wrong!  You need this angle for the best shot!" and then "You need to go stand by this sign now!")

We were actually trying to get a Christmas card picture and I think we got a really good one.  But, I'm gonna save it and reveal it in December. ;)

On the rooftop observation deck overlooking the Potomac and city.

In the gift shop!  (Masks required indoors at the Kennedy Center, in case you were wondering.)

So much of the Kennedy Center was a work of art!  We got there early on purpose so we could take our time exploring it.

Showtime!  This is one of the few times in life where our expectations were through the roof and they were still exceeded.  Hamilton just does not disappoint. 

The show was amazing, but check out this Lobmeyer Chandelier in our Kennedy Center Opera House!  It's from Austria and has 12,000 crystals and 200 light bulbs!  Nothing about this night was not special.

So, with this grandest of finales, our time in DC reached its conclusion.  It was an awesome trip in so many different ways.  We loved sharing this city with our kids and processing with them all the emotions that come with visiting it.  We loved sharing history and art and good food and once in a lifetime experiences with them.  It was not restful in any way, but had still had a sense of being recharging.  Not sure how to wrap up my journal on this incredible trip; so maybe I'll just use the words of hope and idealism that Lin Manuel Miranda wrote for George Washington:

  

If I say goodbye, the nation learns to move on

It outlives me when I'm gone

Like the scripture says

Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree

And no one shall make them afraid

They'll be safe in the nation we've made

I wanna sit under my own vine and fig tree

A moment alone in the shade

At home in this nation we've made

One last time.

DC: Georgetown

We were feeling pretty tired by our last day.  And we had a BIG night and wanted a more relaxed day, so we decided to explore Georgetown.  This was delightful!  We got peeks at the college and hunted down some of Uncle Kyle's former apartments.

My favorite Georgetown stop was this sweet coffee shop with a mission.  They only employ those with disabilities and special needs, seeking to provide them with community and opportunity.  Here we found a friendly environment with warm customer service.  I was tempted to get Delia something with  their "Radically Inclusive" slogan because that is how she lives her life. 

We took a walk down by the Potomac and watched the college crew teams practicing their rowing.  They were terrible, their coxswain was frustrated.  They must have been freshmen. :)

We did some shopping.  This made us laugh.

We walked along the historic C&O Canal, admiring the old locks.

We tried some delicious cupcakes at Baked & Wired.

We browsed the Bridge Street Book Shop and I stopped to read one of my favorite poems in the most appropriate place.

We ate a scrumptious early dinner at Circa and then hopped on the Foggy Bottom Metro home to get ready for a fun night!

 

DC: At Night

Another one of my favorite DC things we did was the bike ride just Dave and I took at night around the Mall to see all the monuments lit up in the dark.  I seriously loved those Capital Bikes.  This was the perfect way to get around quickly!  Surprisingly, DC After Dark was way more crowded than during the day!  Everyone's in the Smithsonians enjoying the a/c, we guessed!

DC: Capitol, Archives, and Natural History Museum

Our next day had us hanging around Capitol Hill.  Again, our Congressman came through, hooking us up with tour tickets for the US Capitol, something that is no longer just open to the general public.  I will straight up tell you that this destination was probably my least favorite.  I was feeling the most cynical on this day as I watched movies about how this building and the representatives inside it were for THE PEOPLE.  Appreciate the idealism, but anyone else feel this is baloney?

The building is certainly beautiful and getting up close was a treat!

Inside was a wonderful Visitors' Center that just opened last week!  We loved all the neat exhibits here, including several models showing how the Capitol building has changed over the years.

A fun Democracy Lab had the kids making laws, forming budgets, and giving speeches!

We learned that the bronze statue on top of the building's dome is named Freedom.  The design for how she was cast and lifted was done by a man who was a slave.  Figuring out how to do this impossible task earned him his own freedom.  Yet another Capital Contradiction.

Our tour of the Capitol Building was done under the watchful eye of a tour guide who had a very specific agenda for what we were allowed to see.  We were only brought to a few places and just for a short time.  When we asked her if we could wander around to look at the art and statues, she told us "No, we have to stick together."  Once I sat on the wrong bench and got scolded.  We were very managed.  I understand why they're being so careful nowadays, but it made touring the Capitol much less fun.  And I certainly wasn't getting the "this building is for THE PEOPLE" vibe.

But, we're still glad we did get to see it.  That rotunda is breathtaking!

The art is the stuff of History text books.

After the Capitol, we hopped on some bikes and rode by the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, Union Station for some lunch, and then to our next destination-- the National Archives.

Being a reader and writer and a general fan of words and documents, I've always liked the Archives.  So cool to see the actual paperwork that tells the story of our country!  Knowing much more about Alexander Hamilton now, I especially enjoyed all the information about the Federalist Papers, the Constitutional Convention, and his push to "Vote now, amend later!" in favor of the Constitution.

And then, needing to cool off once again after a sweaty bike ride, we popped into the nearby Natural History Museum.  This was not in my plans, but we found it the perfect place to see something totally new and random-- dinosaur bones, every kind of animal taxidermied, the Hope Diamond, and real mummies!  Truly a little bit of everything on this trip!