The People's Government

We got to go on a trip to the U.S. Capitol last Friday. We left bright and early on Friday morning and arrived at the Capitol by 8:15 am. The day was cloudless and a bit breezy.



Here is the view from the west side. The sun had not yet risen above the line of the Capitol.



On the east side, I got another photo of the dome in the morning sunlight, and then zeroed in on the House of Representatives. I love this architecture.



Here is a bigger picture of the Capitol. There weren't too many people there because of the early hour.



Here is the Capitol dome from underneath. This painting, if you look closely, is starring George Washington. It is depicting the ascension of George Washington into Heaven. Washington really is a legendary figure in our history. He is shown with the purple blanket on his lap, on the left side of the inner ring of figures.

I also learned that the Capitol dome is made of cast iron and weighs nine million pounds. That is 9,000,000 pounds. That is 4,500 tons. I was pretty speechless by this incredible figure. I guess you have to fireproof it somehow!



I like Ike.



Two of my favorite Founding Fathers, Ethan Allen and Samuel Adams. Adams must be spinning in his grave right now given the state of affairs. But I digress.



Here is a giant bust of Lincoln. It was taller than I am. According to the tour guide, this was Lincoln's son's favorite sculpture of his father, because he said that it captured Lincoln's character the best. Take a look... what is he missing?



Last but not least... the view from the southeast corner of the Capitol facing toward the Washington Monument. I thought that this really great view was totally unexpected.

A Walk Around Campus

Most of you reading this know that I am at Georgetown University for a month-long class sponsored by my agency. We got a chance to walk around the campus during the day earlier this week. I hope to get some more pictures over the next three weeks, but here are three to start.



My distinct lack of botanical knowledge makes me, regrettably, unable to tell you what this tree is. But I thought it was pretty.



This is White-Gravenor Hall. The admissions office, Dean's office and registrar are in there. Here is what the campus visitor's brochure has to say about White-Gravenor.

The White-Gravenor building takes its name from Andrew White, S.J., and John Gravenor, S.J., two of the first Jesuits to come to Maryland in 1634. Completed in 1933, the building houses the Office of the Registrar in the basement and the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and the Dean's Office for Georgetown College on the first floor. The Department of Psychology, chemistry labs and classrooms are located on the second, third and fourth floors.

This is the front of Healy Hall. It is a big, Gothic-looking building that can be seen from a fair distance. At night, it has a red light on top so nothing flies into it. The cross is from Georgetown's Jesuit heritage. It's kind of like the House of the Twenty Gables. You can see the head of the statue of Archbishop Carroll in the lower right area of the picture.

Here's what the visitor's brochure has to say about Healy Hall.

With its distinctive spires towering above the Washington, DC, skyline, Healy Hall is an impressive example of 19th century architecture. At its hightst point, the building rises more than 300 feet over the Potomac River.

The Hall's construction in 1877 carried symbolic meaning and educational purpose--signaling to the nation that Georgetown was no longer the small, rural academy founded more than 100 years earlier by Archbishop John Carroll. Healy Hall is named for Georgetown's "Second Founder" and the first African-American president of a major university, Patrick F. Healy, S.J., president of the University from 1873 to 1882. The building was completed in 1879 and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Considered the centerpiece of Georgetown's campus, Healy Hall houses classrooms and academic and administrative offices including the Office of the President, the Office of Student Financial Services, Campus Ministry and the Office of Mission and Ministry.

Gaston Hall, located on the third floor of Healy Hall, is an ornately adorned lecture hall that is a popular venue for heads of state and other distinguished speakers, concerts and awards ceremonies. Riggs Library, locagted in th south tower of Healy Hall, is one of the last cast-iron libraries in the United States. Riggs Library and its various annexes and reading rooms served as the main campus library until 1970, when Launinger Library was completed. In front of Healy Hall, facing the Main Campus gates, is a statue of Georgetown's founder, Archbishop Carroll. The cannons in front of the building are relics of the two ships, the Ark and the Dove, which brought the first Maryland colonists and Jesuits to America in 1634.

Sweater for Baby Dawson

My colleague Maj Dawson and his wife Krista are having another baby. I had another excuse for a baby item! I got the duckie buttons at the yarn and fabric store in Breckenridge. I had had the happy face buttons, but the duckie buttons were just so great. I had a blast making this. This is so far my favorite baby garment to make.

My First Blue Run

On March 8, I skied my first blue run, Clear Cut. It was very short and connected two ends of a longer green run. Here's me getting started. I was very excited, of course, because I did a blue run without blowing out my knee... YAY! And there were no moguls.



Here's Jeff in front of the village, about halfway down Carefree. Bonus: I had to ride up a new lift, American Flyer, to get to the mid-mountain greens. We started with Coppertone and transitioned to Carefree all the way down to Center Village, which is behind Jeff. I put this in because there are entirely too few pictures of Jeff on here.

Paco in Bloom

For the past three years, our cactus, Paco, has delighted us by blooming around the first week of March. Again, he did not disappoint.



(What? Yes, his name really is Paco.)

A Little Bit of Eternity

I did a new run, Soliloquy, on Sunday, March 1. By now you all have seen the photos of me skiing... but this one came out pretty well!

A New Lift

At the end of the day on Sunday the 22nd, we tried out the High Point lift for the first time! I went down Easy Feelin' and Scooter. Those sound like nice, kid-friendly slopes, don't they? Er, not.



So this is what happens when the lifts are about to close! The cone shows the lift operator that there is no one else behind the cone and that it is OK to stop the lift without stranding anyone.



After we took a wrong turn at the end of Scooter, we ended up going down the Loverly run. It was narrow and ended in a steep area full of moguls. The afternoon was cloudy so it was difficult to see where the moguls were. I still tended to ski across steep areas instead of down them, but that doesn't work too well on moguls! This was me after I got down. I was so glad to get off the mogul field!

Galena Street Mountain Inn

We got a chance to stay at an amazing bed and breakfast in Frisco on February 21. We got the King Tower room, so named because above the bed, there is a high ceiling with windows. Sort of like the inside of a turret.



These were the main views of the inside of our room. The bed was enormous and really nice. We were very comfortable. There was a little sitting area and views across three out of four of the walls.



The first picture is the view from the bed straight upward just after sunrise. It was wonderfully bright in the room. The second picture is of the sitting room next to the front lobby.

We were very glad that we stayed here instead of at a big chain that would have cost the same but would have been soulless. The breakfast was excellent. We will stay there again.