Enough to make you want to Fly

So I left Carolyns house at 9:00 Sunday morning to go to the Airport in CHARLESTON. I had a pretty screwy schedule that day. I bought 2 seperate tickets and it ended up saving me like 200 dollars (in hindsight not worth it). The first ticket was from Charleston to atlanta to phoenix and the next was from phoenix to salt lake to boise. So when I checked my baggage in I only checked it into phoenix and I would have to pick it up there and go and check it back in. Anyway my flight from charleston ran a little late (40 min) which made it so that I was walking off the plane just about 5 minutes before my flight was taking off. I had to change my flight all around and the Delta people were oh so happy to help. After about 20 minutes and changing my flight 2 times they finally got me on a plane to slc. I completely by passed phoenix. They made it so that I could make my original flight out of slc to boise. I arrived at the airport in slc at 4:30 and my flight for Boise was leaving on time at 7:36. The next thing you know my flight gets delayed to 8:30. About 40 minutes later it gets delayed again to after 9. At this point I really just want to get home. Not just that I find out that I have to fly standby and the flight is booked due to a cancelling of another flight. Around 7:50 I still dont know if they are actually going to let me get on the flight when we are told that our gate has moved to c9 to b4. I hike my take end there and I wait for about 10 minutes until I am told that they dont know why they send us here our real gate is c3. Back I go to c3. I go and sit there for about 10 minutes until I am told that our gate is in its perminate spot at c11. just one gate down from my original gate ugh. I hustle so I can be the first in line to see if I get a boarding pass. I am so lucky to get on the flight. I finally get into Boise at 10:16. But of course my luggage doesnt make it here. I had to make a claim on it. They told me that it would be delievered tomorrow (which thankfully it was). Needless to say, I didnt get home until midnight. So if you count it I was traveling for a total of 16 hours. but I am finally home and boy did I miss my family. And everyone is extremely happy to see me.

Visiting Carolyn

I had a great time at Carolyns house and for some odd reason I didnt take any pictures except with my phone which I cant get to go on my computer. Thursday we spent the evening in Charleston and ate there. Friday we got up and ready and she drove me around huntington. I got to see my first ever Frat house. I didnt know that they really did look like the ones on tv. We also ate at Stewarts Hot Dogs where I had a BBQ pork sandwich with coleslaw on top. She drove me around to show me all of the cool looking older houses there in W.V. We also went to Kentucky that day. That night we stayed up kinda late watching movies and talking. Saturday We went to Ohio to do some shopping. So hey I knocked out 3 states in 2 days. She also took me on a drive around Wayne County. All of those twisty windy roads. I have to say they made me quite nauseous. And I felt sick to my stomach for several hours after. I had a great time at her house and had hoped that I could of stayed a little longer except for the fact that I had been away from my family for 2 weeks already. And I really missed my family. Thanks Carolyn for letting me stay at your house.

I am very thankful that I have such great friends. I am so happy that I got to impose on them for all of that time. I had such a great time. Too bad I can't do it more often.

Where oh where has Carolyn Gone!!!

I flew out of Maryland at 9:00 Thursday morning and had a layover in Detroit of all places. I arrived to West Virginia at 3:10 just as my flight was supposed to. I called Carolyn to tell her that I was there and was told that she was going to be waiting for me by the luggage claim and that she would look for my luggage while I got off of the plane. When I got to the Luggage claim she was nowhere to be seen. I thought that maybe she was just talking her little boy to the bathroom. After my luggage arrived and I still couldnt find Carolyn I decided that it was time to call her and the conversation went something like this.
"Hey Car where are you?"
"I am by baggage claim. Where are you?"
"I am by baggage claim. I cant see you."
"How could I not of seen you? Are you really by baggage claim."
"Yes I already have my bag. I am standing right in front of the rental cars."
"You are not I am at baggage claim and I can't see you anywhere. Are you still on the plane?"
"No I swear I am here."
"Are you at theright airport?"
"I think so."
"Are you at a small airport?"
"Yes."
(panick starting to set in)
"Are you at the Huntington Airport?"
"What other airport is there?"
"The Charleston airport"
"Crap I am at the Charleston airport."
"Are you really because I am at the Huntington Airport."
"How far away from you am I?
(complete dread thinking that I was about 3 hours away)
"Are you really there. If you are then you are an hour away."
(phew relief I can hang out for an hour. Then the doubt of Carolyn sets in.)
" Jessica are you joking with me."
"No Carolyn."
"listen I am getting in the car right now if you are joking with me I am not coming back to pick you up."
"I am really not joking with you."
That is one part about being a very sarcastic person when you are being completely serious people never believe you. Needless to say I spent an extra hour at the airport. But I got to see Charleston which by the way is a very small city.

Time with JoLynn

I had all the next day to hang out with JoLynn. It was so nice to sit down and visit and do a little shopping with her. I had a great time at her house. I really enjoy just sitting down with someone that I havent seen in a while and just visiting. My last night we went to eat at Bucca De Beppos. Yummy!! I am so lucky to have such a great friend!!! Thank both of you for letting me stay at your house and showing me around your town!!!

The Capitol Building

After all of that walking we still had the capitol building tour to go on. But it was really neat and I learned alot of stuff. We went to Senetar Crapo's office and the intern showed us around. We went underground across the street to the Capitol Building. It was nice to be in a well tempetured area. We got to see some neat things. Like they have a whisper spot were someone from the North could hear the South plan the civil war. I really enjoyed myself there too. Its a good thing that I like history. After we went on the tour we went to Union Station which is now a mall and had dinner and rode the metro home. The total trip was 10 and 1/2 hours. Most of it was walking. Andrew quesses we walked atleast 8 miles that day. outside the National Capitol Building.

This is a exact replica of the lady that is on top of the Capitol building except this one weights alot less and is not made out of copper. The on on top of the building only weighs 15,000 pounds and she is resting on a dome that weighs 9,000 lbs.

They had these paintings over the doors of important events in history. This one is of the first moon walk but they also have the space shuttle challenger and stuff like that. Some of the doors are not painted yet.

They purchased this chandelier in the 70 for like 1500 dollars which was well below what it was worth.

This is the middle of the Capitol building. This is a picture on the ceiling. It is of Washington surrounded by 13 ladies which represents the 13 original colonies.

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were kinda rivals. They always had bets on which one was going to be president first. When Adams won Jefferson pained off the artist to make him look more masculine and for Adams to look more feminine. He paid him the equivilant of $48 now a days.

You can see in this picture Jefferson standing on Adams foot.

Each state was asked to donate 2 statues of important people from thier state they are placed in differant places in the Capitol building but alot of them are in this room. I am standing infront of one of the ones donated by Utah and it is no other then Brigham Young.

This is where the zip code system starts so standing in the middle of this is standing in 4 differant zip codes

This is the old supreme court house. When the old judges retired they were able to take thier chairs with them. When they were restoring this room they asked the families to donate the chairs and 3 of them did.

The National Mall Part Duex

Andrew and I took off for D.C. at 7:00 in the morning trying to beat the crowds at all of the monuments. We drove to Andrews school where he parked the car and we jumped on the metro which is kinda like the subway. We went to the National Mall. We were going to go into the Washigton Monument but the line was crazy long. Went to the Jefferson Memorial, Then we walked through the F.D.R. Memorial, The Korean War Memorial, the past the reflective pool, around the WWII memorial, up to the Washington Memorial. After we saw all of those things (it was now a little after 10:00 they don't exactly put any of the memorials close together) Andrew and I went our seperate ways. I went to the Holocaust Museum and Andrew went to the Natural History Museum. We were going to meet up at 11:30 for Lunch. I stood in line for a very long time to get a pass for the museum and then my time to go into the main exhibit was at 12:15. I decided to just go to the stuff that you didnt need the pass for. I went to a short movie and I went to this exhibit called Daniels House and it was the story of a little Jewish boys experience throughout the Holocaust. Which took up almost my whole time so I called Andrew to meet up with him. And what a gentlemen he was. I who do not know my way around the area had to go and find him!!!!! Ugh needless to say I got a little misplaced (I can't say I was lost because I was headed in the right direction I just wasn't sure that I was). We went to Lunch and then to the Air and Space museum. That is all we had time to do before we had to get to our tour of the National Capital building. The Thomas Jefferson Monument. You feel so small when you are inside these monuments because they are just so tall. Andrew and I were the only ones there. Oh there was a squirell but he was polite enough to leave for my picture.

You could literally pull his finger and so many people have that the cooper has rubbed to shiney.

This was inside the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Monument. It is a very long monument. But it was amazing to me. This man had very strong opinions about war and this country that I greatly admire. This particular saying says "I HAVE SEEN WAR I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded... I have seen the dead in the mud, I have seen cities destroyed... I have seen children starving, I have seen the agony of mothers and wives.

I HATE WAR" What a strong statement.

The World War I Memorial for all of the soldiers that died from Washinton D.C. I am standing next to the name John Thomas Banks. Amoungst many others. The names went around the whole building and those were just the ones from Washington D.C.

The Korean War Memorail. Along the side it has a wall that has war scenes and stuff like that eteched into it. It was really remarkable to see.

The Washington monument in the reflective pool. But man was that reflective pool nasty dirty.

The Washington Monument is so big that if you ever go to the National Mall this should be your meeting place for if you get lost. Everyone should be able to find it from almost anywhere.

Behind me is the Smithsonian Castle atleast I think that is what it is. By this point in the day my head was pounding but I trooped it out and made sure to strike a pose isn't it great. At the Air and space Museum. I can't remember exactly what in front of there were to many things in this area.

Part 1 of the national mall

After we went to the National Cathedral we headed over to the national mall. I must of picked a horrible time to go to D.C. because apparently everyone is on spring break and they were all at our nations capitol. I got to see a few intersetin monuments while we were out. I had a great time. The Lincoln Monument was so huge. The dome roof is just overwhelming in size. It is all marble and very pretty but as you can see I wasn't the only one that had to have thier picture taken infront of Mr. Lincoln.

This is at the bottom of the Lincoln monument. I hiked up those stairs carrying Isaac good thing he didn't squerm and man there are alot of stairs.

This is the Vietnam War memorial they have theese books at the begining of the monument with thousands of names written in them so that you can locate your loved ones name on the wall. People left pictures of thier family members on the side of the memorial of thier loved ones. There were letters and life stories of the people along the wall for you to read about.

This is the closest that I could get to the White House. They had thier annual Easter Egg Hunt on the White House Lawn so if you want to do it next year sign up now there is a year long waiting list to get to go. There were thousands of people out that day. Too bad I couldn't get a better picture without all of the people.

The National Cathedral in D.C

Wow what a beautiful lace the National Cathedral is. I'm sure that there are prettier Cathedrals in Rome but I have never been there and I have been here. It is so big and the ceilings are so tall. It took 93 years from the time the first corner stone was laid until it was completed. We got to walk around the chapel but a service was in session so I didn't get to take pictures inside there. But it was so beautiful. There was a ton of stain glass windows and beautiful stonework on the ceiling. I enjoyed seeing it.
You can't tell really well but there are some women carved into the stone here

this pails in comparision to the stain glass inside the chapel. I have never seen anything like it.

Isaac sitting on one of the benches. He is such a good boy!

The outside of the chapel. I actually think that the sides of the chapel are much more interesting to look at but you can't see them very well in these pictures.

this was taken inside the chapel. It is the side view of the chapel looking down.

Maryland

I arrived in Maryland on Sunday around 11:00 and went to see JoLynn and Andrews apartment. I had to have a quick nap ( I stayed up with Lesley until 1:30 and got up at 4:55 in the morning ) later in the evening we went to the Patomac River. It was really pretty and really fast. The rapids were insane They had a sign up that the average number of deaths there was 7 a year and I could understand why. If you fell in that there was no way that you could survive. I wish that you could hear this too it was so loud.

The picture does not do this river justice. White water rapids that are insane.

these are shells that were along the path that had at one time come from the river. they were quite a few feet from the water.

JoLynn and I by the water. It was quite a sight to see. Very pretty. I am glad I got to go on the hike to see the river.

I got married to a hottie while in Georgia.

yep that is me looking longing into my new husbands (Patrick Demsy) eyes. Oh and I lost a lot of weight. He is so good to me. Look at all of my brides maids. I wonder where he is going to take me on my honeymoon? Any suggestions?