Draw from the Well

Vacation Time...Almost

Officially my vacation begins in 17 minutes.  That's when the clock rolls past midnight and it's Monday, June 15.  I am always torn when I have to get up early for a trip to the airport - do I just stay up or try to get a few hours sleep?

Well for now I still have a few things I need to finish for work, some laundry drying, and then it's off to dream land for a short three hours...maybe.

Before I head off to San Diego for 9 days of fun, I wanted to share something I felt the Lord has been speaking to me about this vacation...that I'm to go minimal technology this time.   Unlike some, I do not have a hard time turning work off...I'm a very much "what's in front of me now" kind of person. Therefore the technology deal hasn't been that big of one for me on past vacations.  I could take it or leave it.  As I've prepared for this vacation, I've felt the nudging of the Lord to "leave it behind."

First it was my laptop.  This is actually a relief because I hate carrying it through the security check.  And I don't really need it, since I have the nifty iphone (which Jesus has made no mention of yet!)  It did feel liberating to contemplate not bringing it...so this was an easy decision.

But then I realized I'd left my noise-canceling, little-slice-of-peace-and-quiet headphones at work.  These babies are a lifesaver on airplanes...they really do work.  And slapping those things on insures peace and quiet from my neighbors.  As I headed to work to retrieve them, I felt the Lord suggesting a better way.  While the laptop was easy, these are not...even a three hour airplane ride is enough to tip this poor introvert over the edge.  Nevertheless, I'm trusting Jesus' leading and leaving them behind.

What do I think is going on?  Not totally sure, but here are a few thoughts (only 6 minutes left I need to write fast!)  My new role at work is technology laden.  My own personal learning curve has been off the charts.  I do think I'm techno-tired.  I also know that I've really been asking the Lord to speak in new and fresh ways.  Clearing out some of the things that can clutter will help with my hearing.  Finally, it just feels good to be less burdened down with stuff.  This is one thing I really miss from China - life was much simpler and less filled with extras. 

All in all, I'm looking forward to it.  Just wanted to share a bit of my process with you.  I don't know if I will post much in the next two weeks...I can from my iphone, but much more than pictures are a pain.  Well see how it goes.  Later!

Pictures from Today

Here's what we did today: National Archives, Old Post Office,  and Washington Cathedral.

Washington DC - Day 6 & 7

Monday was our day to tour the U.S. Capitol and then head to the National Air and Space Museum.  If you are planning a trip to DC, here's another place where preparation will pay off...contact your state representative and get a staff led tour.  For the public tour, we stood in line for an hour to get tickets.  The tour itself was very good, but very short.  You also can't go up in the dome (which you can do if you have a private tour.)  The Capitol is filled with beautiful and interesting art and statues.

While we were waiting for our tour, we breezed through the National Botanical Gardens.  They had a cool second level walkway which allowed you to look down on all the plants.

Have I not mentioned that we are space geeks?  We had just finished watching Discovery Channel's When We Left Earth (which is excellent) and were pretty excited to see some of the things we learned about up close and personal.  The NASM is the most visited museum in DC.  It was crowded with lots of screaming and running kids.  Fortunately, they have a McDonald's built right in...so when it got to be too much, one could retreat for a little bit of refreshment.

What is too much you might ask?  We stayed at the NASM for five hours.  That's right...five hours.  Here's another DC tip.  During the summer, NASM is one of the two Smithsonian museums which stays open until 7:30.  After 5:30 or so, the museum clears up quite a bit..dare I say even gets a bit peaceful. 

The whole museum was awesome, but I really like the space stuff and the Amelia Earhart plane.  Here's a cool thing you can do until June 27 - send your name to the moon.  See here.

In other fun little trivia, we've heard that several movies are filming in the DC area these days.  Yesterday we walked by a filming location which could have been this movie or this movie or possibly this movie.  We think it was the middle one.

Today (Tuesday) we are resting in the morning, before we head into the city to see the National Museum of American Indians.  It's fairly new and is supposed to be pretty cool.  After that we are doing the night tour on two wheels (see picture).  It should be a blast.

We've found that China Town has become an easy place to eat and it's an easy connection to the Red Line.  We are also making friends with the DC Circulator, though we do have some funny stories, i.e. a two block run inspired by David's misdirection. 

Washington DC - Day 5

We decided to take it easy today.

First, we headed to National Community Church.  This was my first experience with a theater church and I was excited to try it.  I was also hopeful to hear Mark Batterson preach.  We hoped on the Metro and were to Union Station in no time.  Pastor Mark wasn't there, but we got to hear a message from the One Prayer series. It was a great service.  I was a bit distracted by the sticky floors, but it wasn't too bad after a while.

Then we walked upstairs into Union Station and ate lunch.  That's right.  We walked upstairs into Union Station and ate lunch.  I never would have predicted that Union Station was such a cool thing to see, but it was.  We had a great lunch and then headed to one of my definite too see sites in DC:  the Postal Museum.

Yup, I'm a stamp geek and my Dad was a postman before he retired.  I was way excited to check out the museum.  It's probably not everyone's cup of tea, but we had fun.

Washington DC - Day 4

[I tried to post this yesterday, but the Internet wouldn't let me!]

We affectionately called today "Sad Saturday" because we planned to visit all the war memorials and the National Holocaust Museum on this day.

We started out with the WWII Memorial.  This memorial impacted me greatly because I had an uncle who died in WWII.  There were also lots of veterans visiting the memorial today and that was sort of cool.  Many wore t-shirts which read: "If you can read this, thank a teacher.  If you can read this in English, thank a veteran."

From there we moved on to the Lincoln Memorial.  I had heard that this is one of the most popular place that people visit in Washington DC.  It was very crowded.

After some lunch we moved on the the Vietnam Memorial.  Catching the tour guides talk helped me to understand the significant features of the wall. 

Seeing all these memorials gave me a fresh sense of gratitude for all the freedoms we enjoy in the United States.

In the afternoon we went to the Holocaust Museum.  It is a very nicely done museum.  One really gets an understanding of the history and the aftermath.  We weren't allowed to take pictures at this museum. 

It was a pretty emotional day.

Also we walked a ton - over 4 miles.  Sore feet!

Washington DC - Day 3

Today we headed into the center of the city.  There are so many things to see that it can be overwhelming, and one can be tempted to do too much.

We headed off for the White House and the Washington Monument.  Unfortunately we didn't have tickets to go up in the Monument.  Here's some photos:

After eating our sack lunches, we headed for the Museum of Natural History.  The gems section was amazing, but the rest seemed long, dusty, and crowded.  Here's a mummified cat and a really big, really dead fish.

We also walked through the Smithsonian Castle, went to several small art museums, and ended up eating dinner in China Town. 

By my count, we walked more than four miles.  My feet are a bit tender.  It was a beautiful day here in DC.

Washington DC - Day 2

Today we have been getting settled into life in the big city.  We've rented a house, so first thing we needed to do was get food.  Next we needed to become familiar with the Metro system (our friend.)

Here are a few things we are learning about life in the big city (I'm the only person who has lived in a large city.)

• When moving about the city, step lively for all buses, metros, lines, etc.  We are probably used to more "nice-ities" than is needed.  We've already showed that we're country folks and got yelled at in the subway yesterday.  Oops.
• Life is different when you don't have a car.  Two words:  Walk and Carry.  Shopping is a different reality when you have to carry everything.

It's been an exciting day - the police showed up around 10 am.  Apparently the alarm company registered that there was a break in.  (We haven't touched the alarm...) 

We are recovering from jet lag and checking out the area.

Here are some things we've learned in DC:

• In DC, slugging doesn't have anything to do with slime.
• While shopping in WA we are used to "long and wide"; in DC it's "tall".

Here are a few pictures from today:

Travel Notes

My first post from my iPod touch.
In Denver. Lunch.
They have free internet-rock on!
Noise cancelling headphones are from heaven.
Slept for two hours last night.
Two flights to go.

More later.

Places I've Stayed...

...that I probably shouldn't have.

I was reading this article in Time the other day and it spoke about the infamous Chungking Mansions in Hong Kong.  One time when I was traveling back from the US to China (by myself) I stayed in the Chungking Mansions.  It was the smallest room (think closet) I've ever stayed in.   I remember that I had far too much luggage [that was the time I got stopped crossing the boarder and I had a ton of Christian book (in English) that they wanted to confiscate and I convinced them that they were for teaching!]  I remember thinking that the Chungking Mansions were not the smartest hotel choice for a single, white female traveling alone and praying that there wouldn't be a fire (can you say "death trap".)  But it was cheap.  Shhh...don't tell my mother...she never knew that she should worry about her foolish daughter.

I also got to stay on Khao San Road in Bangkok.  This was with my whole China team and we had a blast (I visited Thailand three different times.)  Khao San Road is backpacker heaven in Bangkok (translation:  drugs, drinking, rock-n-roll and other stuff.)  Did I mention that it was cheap?  I remember checking my email and watching people take bong hits 10 feet away (at 10 am in the morning.)  [That was the time that I got car sick in a taxi and threw up on the street and was just grateful I'd gotten the door open and didn't throw up in the taxi cause the driver would have been really mad!]  Fun Times!

At least I never rented a room in a brothel like two of my teammates did.  (I was always the conservative one.)

Mommas, don't let your babies grow up to be missionaries!