Scavenger Hunt - 3

It has been a wild and crazy last couple of weeks, but with lots of photo ops!

We went to D.C. for the weekend of June 29/30 to visit Sarah and celebrate her 23rd birthday.  D.C. is always good for scavenger hunt photos and this weekend did not disappoint:

#3 - The Capitol - how about the Capitol of the United States?  Up close and personal:

We had scheduled a tour of the Capitol. This is the wall inside, just above where you pick up your tour tickets:

Once inside, we got to see the Rotunda and the Hall of Statues and hear some fun facts.  But what was even more exciting for me, was later that evening we went to the movies to see "White House Down" (I can't understand why this movie is only getting 3 out of 5 stars in the ratings - I thought it was fantastic - drama, comedy, action - it had it all! And was way more engaging than World War Z.  IMHO).

Having just been inside the Rotunda, watching the scene where the bad guys blow it up was so much more real to us. and Crazy.

After the Capitol, we used the passageway over to the Library of Congress where I captured #14 a stained glass object:

One of six identical stained glass windows in the ceiling of this lobby area  AND

#14 a mosaic:

This was one of a series of three mosaics reading "Theology", "Law", and "Medicine".  Again, on the ceiling. From the distance it is hard to even see it as a mosaic, so here's a closer look:

I also caught #15 a police car:

It was mid-day and the sun was particularly harsh, so I'm definitely going to be on the look-out for a better shot for this one...

and #8, a tower:

Here is the Washington Monument, completely ensconced in 500 tons of aluminum scaffolding to enable repairs to damage caused in the August 2011 earthquake.  Apparently it is going to look like this for about a year while the repairs are being done.

July 4th was a quiet day around here.  Our girls took off to the shore, but we couldn't join them because Jay was on call.  So instead, we drove to Country Junction, billed as the "World's Largest General Store".  The interior has a "yellow brick road" pathway to guide you through the various sections of the store. They sell everything from groceries to furniture to puppies and chickens to home repair supplies.  If the Scavenger Hunt had included a pirate, I'd have been in luck, several life-size options there, including Johnny Depp himself.

I found # 20, a dinosaur:

I know you can't get any scale from this photo, but this guy was the size of a very large dog or small pony.

And # 7 a funny sign:

This one was a good play on the word "pour/poor" but what I thought was funny was that the word "judgment" was misspelled.

But I liked this one even better:

My apologies to anyone whose sensibilities are offended by the language, but this one really made me laugh out loud, right there in the store.  It is one of those retro-style signs on tin. I was tempted, but, no, I didn't actually purchase it.  In fact, all we purchased was some blueberries.

On the drive home I saw a large red metal dinosaur on a property on the side of the road - a sculpture that looked ridiculously out of place.  Unfortunately, no place to pull over and snap a shot.  And then, a billboard about Girl Scout cookies... in SPANISH???  We have no significant spanish-speaking population in this area, so that also struck me as odd and out-of-place. At some point I'll be in a place where I can actually take a photo when I see these things!

We capped off the evening with some television - knowing Sarah was attending, we were watching bits of the televised July 4th celebration from National Mall on PBS.  And we caught Sarah ON NATIONAL TELEVISION!!!  Jay and I were both pointing at the television and saying "oh my god!"  Rachel and Becca thought we were both insane (why don't they think this is a BIG deal???)

Sarah and her co-worker Chad are at 1:14, immediately after the shot of the Washington Monument. 

We didn't make it out to the Perkasie fireworks last night. Both of us were just way too tired after a day of house work.  Maybe next year...