Touring DC with the cuz'

For those of you who don't know, my pre-married name was Wyly. It's an unusual spelling, but we're 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 60s, 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-high 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, and our 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 medal-winning downhill/slalom racers.  They shared their beautiful house with us for four nights---by the way, this was the first time in over three months we stayed in the same place for more than three nights...in or out of the van.

Richard took on the perfect tour guide role. There's a lot to be said for an insider's viewpoint, especially in the historically rich but confusing area of our nation's capital.  By bicycle, we covered miles-n-miles of monuments, museums, and significantly important white buildings.

Michelle O's beehives on left

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 six years, this was really cool to see it still there!

MLK

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.

Yo!  Obama!!

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 six black caravan SUVs 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 Museum
made by our Santa Fe friend Marcos Amerman

Renoir---my fav

Degas...exhausted

Richard and Cezanne

Oxymoron?

Cousin Richard

One of the biggest impressions for me was seeing all ages of Americans actively using the grass lawns around the three-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 four days 

in our nation's capital!!!!