Dancing in Circles

All I'm doing lately is playing catch up.

In keeping with my "one weekend here, one weekend away", I spent last weekend in Washington, D.C. My aunt and uncle have lived in D.C. as long as I've known them and we have made the occasional visit, usually when my dad has a meeting there in the summer. I actually was just there this past October when I ran the Marine Corps Marathon. In a city with that much to see and do, how could you possibly see everything in one trip? Or two? Even though I had just been there, I decided to go down, mainly because of the Cherry Blossom Festival. For two weeks the cherry blossoms bloom and there are all sorts of activities going on in the city.

Friday night I planned on taking the Amtrak to D.C. around 7:45. Five hours later, I arrived. Yeah, it's only supposed to take 2 hours. Max. When I got to the station, I saw a sign that said there were power outages north of Baltimore that were causing train delays. Our train was right on time, the only problem is that we had to go through Baltimore to get to D.C. The train came to a halt about 45 miles just north of Baltimore and didn't move for about 30 minutes. Jennifer was going to Baltimore for a meeting so I at least had some company and wasn't completely bored out of my mind. We had a lot of fun watching everyone walk up and down the aisle toward the snack car. While we were stopped, the train was on an angle and people kept running in to the wall. It was rather hilarious. Or we were so delirious that it made everything ridiculously funny. Once we started to move, we were again going at snail pace. We were able to finally pick up speed and made it to D.C. around one o'clock in the morning. I felt horrible too. My aunt and uncle had been waiting at the train station all night long for me. But they were good sports about it. Apparently the station there practically has a mall inside so they had been walking around all night.

Me and Jennifer on the train

Saturday morning I would have loved to sleep in, but I wanted to see and do all I could. I got on the Metro and headed into the city.

First stop was Einstein.

Then to Lincoln

the Korean War Memorial

the World War II Memorial

the Washington Monument

and the Capitol.

I had seen most of that last fall, but you can't go to D.C. without seeing those icons. When I was here in October, my parents and brother went to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. But, since I couldn't walk around too much before the marathon, I didn't get to go. So that was the next stop on my trip.

There's no place like home

It's not easy being green

Julia Child's Kitchen

The next place I wanted to see was the National Gallery of Art. I started in the west building and was not that amused with the art. But, the east building had more contemporary art, and a bonus. They were having a special exhibit on my favorite artist, Mark Rothko.

No. 7, Jackson Pollock

Untitled, Mark Rothko

White and Greens in Blue, Mark Rothko

No. 9, Mark Rothko

Loneliness, Alice Neel

Aztec Josephine Baker, Alexander Calder

Field Painting, Jasper Johns

Piece of Beef, Chaim Soutine

(recognize this from Mona Lisa Smile?)

After visiting these museums, I decided to walk around and head to a different area. I walked up Pennsylvania Avenue. In all of my trips to D.C., I have never walked past the White House. So...

I then hopped on the Metro and went to Arlington National Cemetery. We visited this briefly in October. Most of the Cherry Blossoms in the city had already bloomed, but I got to see some here.

The Kennedy's

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Coast Guard Memorial

After walking around all day, I was pooped. I had dinner with my aunt and uncle and then crashed at their place. There was still so much more to see and do that I wanted to get up Sunday morning and go back into the city before heading back to Philadelphia. I went to the Holocaust Museum, the Air and Space Museum and the Arboretum.

The Spirit of St. Louis

The Wright Brothers

After a great weekend, I headed to the train station and back to Philadelphia. But first, there had to be a glitch in me getting back. Or two. Glitch #1: there was a train delay because they had to check out the engine on our train. I'm all for safety. Glitch #2: there was "activity in the area" and we were stopped on the train tracks for about 10 minutes. What does that mean on a train? "Activity in the area"? Was there a dead body? Someone threw themselves on the tracks? I'll never know, but I made it back to Philadelphia in one piece.

I had quite a busy week following my trip to D.C. Monday night I started playing in a softball league. The field is in the hood. There is no fence and there's a basketball court in right field so you have to be careful. This league also uses wooden bats. I've never swung a wooden bat. It was fun though and my team isn't that bad. It's not real competitive so I have to remember that.

Wednesday and Thursday I was able to observe at the Philadelphia Shriner's hospital. It is very similar to Scottish Rite and I had so much fun hanging out with Dr. Kozin. He is such a great teacher and made it a point to explain things to me. I hope to go back and observe before leaving Philadelphia. He did stir up some trouble in Dallas though. He is good friends with the surgeon I work with in Dallas and while I was there on Wednesday, he emailed her and told her I was there and that I was not moving back to Dallas, but staying in Philadelphia. Well, by the end of the day I had all sorts of emails and phone calls from my co-workers. I had to calm them all down because yes, I am moving back to Dallas. My flight is even booked. July 2nd I will be flying back to Texas for good.

What I love about the spring is baseball season. And being in Philadelphia, we have one awesome team to go and watch. So, Wednesday night I went with my TA, Holly to the Phillies/Nationals game. I was quite the game too. Gorgeous weather, great seats, good time! I then went back Friday night with Jennifer, Jason and Matt, one of the surgery fellows. Not so good weather though. It was raining, but bearable.

Me and Holly at the Phillies/Nationals game

Matt and me trying to stay dry at the Phillies/Marlins game

Jason and Jennifer

Jennifer and Matt

Me and Jason

Our attempt at a group picture on the subway

To end my weekend here in Philly, I signed up for a 10K. It was to benefit organ donation and it was held out at the Art Museum. They also had a 5K run and a 3K walk. I haven't been able to run with my Garmin so I have no clue what my pace has been. So, I started out in the 11:00's. At the halfway mark I somehow got a second wind and pushed ahead. I was running 10:30's and faster. I was actually feeling good too. So I ended up with a negative split and a PR. This was much first race since my marathon and my first race in Philadelphia. It was good to be back in races. Now I'm ready for the Broad Street Run!

Lucky for me, this week is only a 4 day week. I am off Friday as I am going out of town again. It's somewhat of a surprise though. So, next week I'll show you pictures. Let's just say I haven't been where I'm going in 18 weeks and I can't wait!