Touring DC with the cuz'

For those of you that don't know, my pre-married name was Wyly---unusual spelling and proud of those Scottish roots that first immigrated back in 1725.   Outside of Washington DC in historic Leesburg, Virginia, we caught up with my first cousin Richard and his Wyly girls (wife Ellen and daughters Sarah 17 and Jenna 16)

Wyly's in Virginia

 In the 60's, our fathers and grandparents owned a ski shop in Roswell making us 3rd generation NM skiers.  We would ski at Sierra Blanca Ski Area (now called Ski Apache) near Ruidosa, NM.   Richard, my two brothers and I used to be those little speedy knee-hi devil skiers---you know, the ones we now curse because we've become the typical older "Slow-the-*@!#-down!" Sunday-driver-skier.
We had a game we'd play called cops and robbers.....ski poles were great for poking the robber in the tush.  So no surprise that Richards kids (just like our kids) are ski enthusiasts---- his girls are avid medaled downhill/slalom racers.  They shared their beautiful house with us for 4 nights---by the way, this was the first time in over 3 months we stayed in the same place for more than 3 nights...in or out of the van.

Richard took on the perfect tour guide roll----there's a lot to be said for an insiders viewpoint---especially in the historically rich but confusing area of our nations capital.  By bicycle we covered miles-n-miles of monuments, museums.....

and significantly important white buildings.

See the little white box on the left in the trees? That's Michelle's O's beehive she had installed at the White House next to a new veggie garden back in 2009. As a beekeeper for 6 years, this was really cool to see it still there!

We saw the big Abe guy-----                                          and the newest MLK monument too.  I can't believe I got photos without a single tourist in it....it was a beautiful day and quite busy.

One of the highlights for us was an actual Presidential sighting.  We happened upon a roadblock near the White House.....and sure enough, second in a line of 6 black caravan SUV's was this car....

and a person waving from the window on the other side.  We had seen black silhouettes of security agents earlier on several rooftops east of the capitol building and we knew the President had been at a DAV memorial dedication.

Boy Scout statue.......with a naked man???

George Memorial standing tall under the perfect sky

A beaded bracelet in the American Indian Smithsonian Musem
made by our Santa Fe friend Marcos Amerman

Renoir---my fav

Degas...exhausted

Richard and Cezanne

Oxymoron?

One of the biggest impressions for me, was seeing all ages of Americans actively using the grass lawns around the 3 mile long mall for a sports field---flag football, soccer, kickball etc....it was alive and healthy.

A giant boatload of gratitude to my cousin Richard Wyly for an unforgettable 4 days 

in our nations capital!!!!