2 July. Five pictures from my Washington DC trip.

On this day, Sara, was kind enough to drive me to Leesburg to visit my childhood friend. That's us there, myself, Becky and her son, Thompson. As you may guess from the picture, Thompson is about to have a new brother. It was a lovely visit, I hadn't seen Becky since her wedding in 2000. I also really like this picture. Double thanks, Sara.
Becky gave us directions to lunch which we found quite easily once I realized that we weren't lost at all, I was just reading the Mapquest directions incorrectly. I liked that the Hunter's Head advertised Beef Liver & Onions right on their sign. As if that is something people often look for in a restaurant.

After lunch (I had Colcannon) we stopped to take a picture of this lovely church.

We drove to Oatlands, but were not super inclined to take the tour. We wandered the grounds but were not allowed past this point without tickets. So this is my picture of the house. You can see the actual house on the link.

Returning home, I got to go to Costco with Sara and Shawn. It was pretty interesting. They introduced me to the "spot the diplomat corps car" game, and the parking lot was one you had to pay to park, unless you got your parking stub validated. I've never seen that in conjunction with a Costco. Costco itself is always a bit overwhelming to me--all that large quantity of food--so that was a tourist attraction in and of itself.

What took the cake (took the chocolate slab?) was the large, solid chocolates molded in the form of the Pentagon. They had them in the shape of the US Capitol and the White House, which I get, but would you want a solid chocolate form of the Pentagon? That place where wars are planned and executed? It's a little odd.

After Costco, the three of us attended Away We Go. Our ticket seller was perhaps part snail; he was the slowest clerk I've encountered in a long time.