Ok, first of all Virginia......very, very, very long drive. Went through some pretty areas and the trees are beautiful. My pictures really do not do them justice. At first you couldn't see much from the interstate and then the countryside started to open up and there was farm land and cows. We did see some deer and some coyotes eating the leftovers of some critter, not pretty but I was surprised at how they were there in the daytime and didn't really seem real concerned about the cars coming by. Now as for the pictures you will have to look at them backwards because I forgot to put the newer ones first and the older ones last. (Will try to do better next time.) That is how good I am at this. Anyway, so far the trip has been really different than our usual trips. I USED to think that Texans ignored speed limit signs, but these people have this down to a fine science. EVERYBODY speeds including the cops. It is just incredible. Larry and I took turns driving and you just finally hit the cruise and kept up with the traffic and if the speed limit changed.....so what.

Saturday morning Marissa and Drew left for a craft show and we were in charge of Reagan until Cody and Lisa showed up to go to Mount Vernon. Larry and I were hungry and Reagan told us she knew where a Starbucks and a McDonalds were, but I told her he couldn't eat that and started talking about I-Hop and she said she knew where an I-Hop was. We were a little doubtful, but figured what the heck and put her in the car seat and told her to tell us where to go. She sat back there and would say "you need to go that way" and I would turn around and look which way she was pointing and tell Larry which way to turn. After a few turns and a few "keep following the highway" she said to turn and I looked back and told Larry right and then she said that way and it was left and we missed it because we were in the wrong lane and had to turn around and by golly there was an I-Hop. We were so amazed and just laughed and laughed that we took directions from a 5-year-old and actually made it to our destination. WOW.

After that Cody and Lisa and Reagan were in charge of us and we went to Mount Vernon (which Reagan repeatedly reminded us she had seen before). The setting for George Washington's home is just incredible overlooking the Potomac river. The first picture is of Reagan standing in front of a replica of the house that opens up to show rooms that are furnished. It was really neat and Reagan, Lisa and I put in an order with Larry and Drew for one for each of us.







This is Reagan in front of their house. The houses are attached, but you couldn't hear anything from next door. The house is really cute and they have it fixed up nice. It is three stories and Larry and I are in the bottom floor. You can see our window at ground level in the picture. The middle level was the living area and the top story was the bedrooms. I felt like we were in the Cosby show because that is how I remember those houses being.

Just a shot of Reagan before she gave us all the good directions.

Here are some of the shots of the trees. I hope to post a few more that look a little better. These were taken as "drive by shootings" and considering that we were traveling 70 miles an hour they turned out pretty good.

Anyway, today (Sunday) we got a private tour of the Pentagon. How neat is that? We got to see where Marissa works which entails going through a metal detector and a vault. That was pretty cool. I couldn't take any pictures from the outside or the inside without getting shot so I behaved myself and kept my camera in Marissa's purse. We also went to the Pentagon Memorial from the terrorist attack in 2001 and I will post some pics later of that, but it was very moving and very sad at the same time. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

That is all for now. Larry and I will be on our own tomorrow so we will be taking the Metro into Washington to tour the National Mall and see what we can see there. You all may never see us again (we won't have Reagan to show us the way).