6th day

We left the Mudricks house and headed South to the Norfolk area (Nor-#*$@ as the locals say). We made a couple of stops along the way one of them being StoneWall Jacksons home, not much to it as one would expect since he was on the losing side.

The one thing that made the long drive berable for Ashlee and Myself was the infinite amount of trees. It was so beautiful at times we were saying to each other "I could live here easily, its so beautiful". Unfortunately housing costs on the east coast mirror those on the west coast. Driving along the highways and interstates is a treat though because it is really so clean and green. The one thing that made the long drive berable for Lance was my video iPod and the old time Disney short cartoons I hastily downloaded before the trip "just in case". Goofy and Donald Duck saved this leg of the journey.

We made it to Hampton in time for dinner at the Napoleons. We had not seen Kalani and Cheri since their move from Alaska to Virginia. They stopped in for a couple of days that summer in 2004. Kalani was running ragged from the graveyard shift he was assigned at the Airforce base and mixing in a newborn baby into the schedule. He has since retired from the Airforce and has gone into the private sector. Cherie's sister was there helping out and we just came over for dinner and a quick visit. Lance could not have been happier, since 2 of Kalani's kids were eligible palaymates. When it got close to bed time he even got to take a bath. I showed Cherie how to set up a blog and make posts. Since then she has proved to be a far better regular poster than I will ever be. She takes loads of great pictures too.

We headed to a hotel at Colonial Williamsburg since that is where we would spend most of the next day. Lance was so sad to leave the Napoleons he attempted to leave our hotel room a couple times in the middle of the night. There was no way to lock the door from the inside so Ashlee rigged up some type of alarm with the ironing board, some luggage and a tripwire or something, MacGyver style.

5 down 3 to go!

After getting a good night's rest at the Mudricks house we slept in a little, had a nice breakfast and then headed to the coolest museum in the world. I have been a huge fan of the Smithsonian National Air and Space museum on the Mall in Washington and loved visiting it. But this new one they built at the Dulles airport is the real deal. They call it an annex, but come on! The term is so dimunitive for what it really is. Its every boys fantasy collection of cool airplanes and spacecraft.

There is the epic SR-71 Blackbird, the Supersonic Concorde, the Space Shuttle Enterprise, and the Enola Gay. Thats just a few of the world-changing machines on exhibit. Yeah they don't have the Apollo Lunar module, but we all know that was only used on a sound stage anyway (hold on, my Aluminum Foil helmet keeps slipping over my eyes, I need to tighten the chinstrap.) Lance loved the jets and other planes, he was suprisingly fascinated by the smaller aircraft and helicopters. We later went up into the air traffic tower and watched planes take off and land at Dulles. A very cool stop on our trip.

The next stop was one I knew we would do from the time we decided to go. Arlington National Cemetary. I had not been since my Grandfathers burial in 1998, and wanted to show Ashlee how our nation honors those who served so faithfuly and at such a high cost. The story of Arlington its self is interesting and fitting. We were allowed to drive on site and go directly to the grave marker. Lance was too young to perceive what the signifigance of what all of the headstones mean but somehow he was reverent and somber. I was glad to see my grandmother memorialized on the back of my grandfathers headstone, I had not yet seen that. Later we went to see the tomb of the unknown soldier and witnessed the changing of the guard, Lance amazingly remained still and respectful. Ashlee was moved by the ceremony and magnitude of the whole site. I am grateful our country remembers those who protect it.

After closing Arlington down and being the last visitors to leave the grounds we headed to Georgetown. I love Georgetown, its beautiful homes and neighborhoods are a real treat to visit and see. We went to the Canal area and had some truly incredible seafood at Sea Catch restaraunt overlooking the C&O Canal. I have never had Scallops so good. We had to park a ways from the restaraunt as the area was really busy, and we even got a little lost on the way back to the car. It wasnt a help that it started to rain like mad. We decided to cut the night short and not head to the Mall area since the weather was not cooperating.

This early night gave us the chance to hang out more with Ben's dad, David Mudrick. He is truly the salt of the earth and we were so lucky to be able to stay in his home. Ben's mom, Pat Mudrick was on a trip to Boston visiting and helping a family member, so we weren't that lucky to meet and get to know her. David Mudrick has a unique hobby, he likes to draw cartoons. I find them and him hilarious and check on his site all the time. Click on me to get to the site. Everybody went to bed before 11 PM and that is still a record to be beaten in the Bruford household. We needed the rest though beacuse in the morning we were hitting the road to go south.