We got up Wednesday morning and packed. We left the house around 9:30 for the airport. On the way we stopped at McDonald’s for a quick breakfast. Our flight was at noon to Washington D. C. I started reading the book “Twilight” on the plane. It is good and easy to read. By the time we got to Dulles Airport, got our luggage and a car, we hit going home traffic. Thank goodness that we took the GPS. We drove to Alexandria to the Sheraton Hotel & Suites. By the time we got into our room, we had 20 minutes to change and get downstairs for our taxi. We made it. My hair and make-up didn’t look as nice as I’d wanted, but no one knew me so it didn’t matter. My dress was beautiful and my shoes were horrible—they hurt. Oh yes, the pantyhose that I bought weren’t pantyhose, but a tummy toner so I just wore my trouser socks—my dress was floor length so they didn’t show. Anyway, our taxi was waiting outside for us and took us to the Alexandria Pier on the Potomac River to catch the Dandy Restaurant Cruise Ship for a dinner and dance cruise for Strategic Thought’s black tie/holiday formal Christmas party. We just got there in time. The cruise left about five minutes after we boarded. The food was excellent (Prime Rib), the company was a little tipsy, and the scenery was nice. I didn’t dance any because my shoes were NOT comfortable and my sore foot was hurting. One of Bob’s coworkers asked him to dance a fast dance. When the evening was over we ordered a taxi back to our hotel. It was a really nice suite with bedroom and living room (we had rushed so fast before that we hadn’t even noticed the room). BUT they charged $18 a day to park your car in their garage and $12 a day to use the internet.
Thursday we checked out. Breakfast was not included with our room. The auxiliary electric wasn’t working on our rental car so we returned it to the Regan Airport and got another car. Then we went to the Arlington Cemetery and parked the car. We then got on a double decker tourist bus. We got off at the Lincoln Memorial and walked around to see the 
WWII Memorial, Korean Memorial, 
Vietnam Memorial, and the Washington Monument.
We finally found a place to eat—2 hotdogs for $6 each! After we ate, we got back on the tourist bus and continued on the tour around Washington. We did stop and got off at Union Station. There were a bunch of other places that we could have gotten off and walked around, but didn’t—maybe next time if I don’t have a sore foot. We found out that the reason that Washington D.C.’s buildings aren’t taller is because there is a law that regulates the height of a building depending on the width of the street that it is located on. Finally we went back to the Arlington Cemetery. The whole tour was really interesting. It was dark and drizzly by then so we drove to the Dulles Airport area and got a room at the Holiday Inn—free parking and free internet and the room was about $100 less per night. We went and ate at O’Malley’s Sports Pub then went back to our room to get warm. It was really cold. We watched “When Weather Changed History” on TV about the Dust Bowl of the 30’s. Stephenie called during the day to let us know that they took Nathan to the hospital by ambulance because he was having trouble breathing. They had him on oxygen, but by the time they got to the hospital, he was better. They kept him for a couple hours then let him go home. We haven’t heard from her since.
Bob goofed and slept in on Friday. He hurried and got cleaned up then walked me to the dining room for breakfast. He went on to work. After I ate, I went back to our room, worked on Relief Society stuff, read in my book “Twilight”, watched a little TV and slept. It was good to be able to stay off my foot for a day. Bob got back to our room around 6pm. We found a Subway to eat at then went back to our room. I read on “Twilight” while Bob graded SMU final exams. I went to bed way before him.
From there we drove over to the temple. We went through the visitor center. They had a really nice Christmas collection of Nativity Scenes from different countries. 
Right in the middle of all them there was one from TEXAS. Also they had a really nice gallery of pictures of the life of Christ. I had never seen such amazing pictures. We then walked over to the temple. The reflection pond that used to be in front of it is no longer there—it was there in 1977 when I was there last. From there we drove into Washington DC. If someone was coming to the USA and only went to Washington DC, they wouldn’t get a very good representation of the USA and the way we live. Gas stations and restaurants are almost non-existent and the houses look more like in Europe. At least that’s what we found in Chevy Chase, Georgetown, and other little towns around DC. We then went back to Dulles International Airport and turned in our car. We got to the airport too early, but that is typical for Bob. I did a little work on my laptop then read in my book. The airport was really sparse and our airplane only had a little over 20 people on it. Bob thinks it is the economy. I read in my book all the way home. It was almost 9pm when we got back to Weatherford.
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