August 30th or Church and Airplanes

Sunday

One of the downsides of traveling quite a ways to church (which I’ve never had to do since I’m a Utahn), is that you have to get up at 7:30 to make an 11:00 church meeting. And then, if you stay for ward choir afterwards, you don’t get home until 4:30. Church is really an all day affair. But, church was the highlight of my day today. My ward (the D.C. 2^nd ward) is one of the nicest singles wards I have ever been to, if not THE nicest. Everyone was very welcoming, energetic and interested in getting to know everyone. All of the talks given were well-prepared and lifted my spirits. They took everyone’s pictures, introduced everyone after Sacrament meeting, and we had a mix and mingle event instead of a Relief Society lesson. I met a lot of people and felt very at home. After church I stayed for ward choir and then caught a ride home with one of the ward members who has a car. It was so nice to see beautiful Maryland (where the church is) and NW D.C. above ground! Not that the gray cement outside of the metro windows isn’t interesting, but the old historic buildings in Georgetown and the beautiful trees in Maryland take the cake.

When we finally got back from a long day of church, a bunch of people went to go visit the National Zoological Garden, another great free event in the D.C. area, known for their giant pandas. I went with them, only to realize in the Metro station that we wouldn’t make it before the zoo closed (a lot of things close at 6:00 p.m.). So the group decided to wander around the mall. Since I did that yesterday, I decided to go back to the Barlow. I came back and rounded up some friends willing to take a chance and have an adventure with me. Andrea told me about a park just above the Reagan airport where people go to watch the planes take off or simply admire the beautiful D.C. cityscape. After not knowing if we would really make it in time, and almost aborting the mission when the metro train didn’t come for half an hour, we finally made it to the airport. We found the little path and made it to Gravelly Point just in time for the sunset. Success!! It was worth the effort. All eight of us crammed on to my little fleece blanket with stars and we chatted about life, planes, and some more life. We could see the Washington Monument and the Capitol building, and the park overlooked the Potomac river. We made it back to the Barlow center around 9:15 p.m.

Now, I am sitting at my desk, sucking on the giant pixie stik that the Comcast people gave me yesterday and listening to good music. Life is good.

Waiting for ward choir to start. Sierra looks angelic.

(We were sitting in the sun because the church has over active AC like the Barlow and all the Smithsonians.)

Despite many obstacles, we made it to Gravelly Point.

Before I figured out "sunset mode" on my camera.

After I figured out how to use the "sunset mode" on my camera. (The Washington Monument looks like Big Brother. Or the all-seeing eye from the Two Towers. We'll just generalize by saying some authoritarian symbol from a science fiction novel.)