Washington DC

At the beginning of the month my local, professional chapter (AIA) sent me to DC for a leadership conference. Bob joined for a little research. I hadn't been to DC since I was a teenager and a lot has changed. The buildings at the capital all have funny entrances and additions for security reasons. Not that I got to much of the capital because my flight was a day late due to weather and the conference was in a basement of a huge hotel. None the less, I
met with a Senator and some staff one day and Bob and I walked the mall one night.













We started at the Lincoln Memorial,










Then on to FDR (and his dog)










And ended with the Jefferson Memorial. What impressive men. We also saw construction has begun on the Martin Luther King Junior Memorial.

Hawaii

A brief trip to the warm island seems like it was only a dream now. We joined my family for a couple days thanks to their generosity. This wasn't our first time so we mostly hung out and it was wonderful not to have a plan every day except eating and going to the beach. We took turns cooking, shopped at a farmers market, tried some new
fruit and even saw turtles. Bob and I rented bikes to get around for a day.


Bob and Cait









Bob and I rode our bikes here










And Here










Looking for turtles




















Sunrise looking at one of the volcanoes












Last Sunset

NYE

From swords to...










Our annual game













How else do you cut onions?










Goodbye bad things in 2010


For the past 5 years or so a group of us have been spending the New Year holiday in Sunriver. Snowshoeing, playing games, wii, eating, drinking and last year we added a new tradition of burning effigies. This year's list included budget problems, endless remodeling projects and lack of jobs. If only those things would disappear as quickly as they burned...
But as always it was a good time with great friends.

Downer Blog

My apologies for the blog being such a downer. I need to post on New Year's and what we lit on fire this year, our trip to Hawaii, Washington DC and an update on our upstairs. Hang in there folks, I'll get back into it. I may have over-committed (don't tell my husband I admitted it) to a few too many committees this year...