April 2007

In April I had to go to Washington DC for some meetings. The meetings were scheduled for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and under normal circumstances I would have flown out Sunday night, but due to flight schedules I was a lot less expensive for me to fly out Friday night, so I ended up staying over the week end.

Because I had some extra time, I decided I’d play tourist for a day and bought a tour with “Old Town Trolley” for $25. It was worth every penny. The tour covers Washington's major attractions such as the Capitol Building, Lincoln Memorial, Washington National Cathedral, the White House, the museums of the Smithsonian Institution, and Vietnam Veteran's Memorial.

The trolley’s stopped at each site every 15 minutes so you could get off at the sites you wanted to see and skip the ones you don’t have time for. It was perfect. I only had two regrets. First: I wish Hannah were there. It would have been much more fun with her. Second: I wish I would have brought warmer cloths. It was 60 in Denver and the forecast for DC was in the mid 50’s…..well it was much colder and the wind chill was brutal. I did the tour in a sweat shirt and froze my nubbins off.

On Sunday, I attended church in Virginia. The ward was very friendly, and I had a great time. I even got a dinner invitation, but declined. The rest of that day was spent in my hotel room and walking around Bethesda (that’s were my hotel was).

Monday meetings….Tuesday meetings…Tuesday night I get a call from my friend Tim, and he tells me that our friends Joe and Barbara Muir live in Chevy Chase MD. Tim had their address and contact information, and low and behold they lived 10 minutes away from my hotel. I was disappointed that I didn’t get this piece of information sooner, but I was able visit them.

Joe was instrumental in helping me return to the church, and the meeting was kind of emotional for me. It had been seven years since I’d last seen him and I wanted to tell him that I had been grateful every day for everything he’d done, but when I saw him it was the same old Joe, and he down played everything he did. It’s wonderful to have good friends.