One Week Until West Virginia - But Boston First

It's just about one week until I leave for summer camp orientation in West Virginia for a week before heading out to Oregon. Its really sneaking up on us fast, but before I leave we head to Boston to see Shai & Shelby, the Triplets (& the Stein's) and a host of other fun people (non of whom read this blog as far as I know, although shout-out to you if you do).

This trip to Boston is part of my 4 week, 8 state journey (Missouri, Georgia [layover], Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia, DC [I know its a territory but it still counts], West Virginia, California [layover] and Oregon) that kicked off the weekend before with a brief trip to the StL. Evidently I really love flying, driving and layovers - who knew.

Before I conclude this blog, I thought I would take time to answer a frequently asked question about my summer internship . Everyone's first question when they find out about the position is "What will you be doing?"

To help answer that question, I thought it would be best to tell everyone what I won't be doing.

• I won't be going off the path to 'visit' a gyser (or the lake for that matter)

I will be an internal consultant working on the following topics (they still could change):

• Creating the Park's first ever business plan
• Prioritizing the Park's financial needs and then determining when, what order and for how much they should request in their federal budget & when/what order/$ amount they should work with the Friend's of Crater Lake non-profit org to fund.
• Working to help the Park to help focus its activities on achieving its core mission and strategies.

A Blast from the past & a blast into space

THE BLAST FROM THE PAST:
This past week, C & I have been joined by my old Wash U roommate Alan. It has been fun having him crash at our pad, while he attended a conference in town. As part of his visit, another Wash U friend (and former roommate of Alan's, but not mine...confusing, I know) crashed at our pad for a night. It's always good to reconnect with old friends (and cause new mayhem).

THE BLAST INTO SPACE:
The Smithsonian Museums on the Mall in DC are widely visited and home to may artifacts. The Air & Space Museum on the Mall, the most visited museum in DC, is home to many treasurers including the Wright Bros Plane.

But, the greatness of that museum's location leads to its greatest weakness - a tragic lack of size. Say for instance you want to see a super-top-secret plane - alas, not enough room. If you want to see the prototype space shuttle - definitely no room. Want to see the world's first passenger jet with a pressurized cabin - nope, too small a space. The first Concorde ever flown, an interesting collection of a kit aircraft, WWII vintage planes, a polaris missile or a 30 ft tall engine - no way Jose, there's just not enough space (no pun intended) to keep all of that stuff in the Mall's museum.

Solution: Open up the Udvar-Hazy Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in a newly constructed (& ginormous) hanger out at Dulles Airport.

And yup, I saw a SR71 Blackbird - The nation's first truly stealth aircraft & the plane that made Area 51 famous; the prototype of the space shuttle (called the Enterprise, oh silliness); the first Concorde; the world's first passenger jet with a pressurized cabin & all of the other stuff mentioned above.

Here are my pics - it was awesome & its number 2 on my: Nerdy Must Visit Sites DC list (behind the Library of Congress)

The SR71 Blackbird Spy Plane


M & the Blackbird


The Space C

M & the Space Shuttle (I'm only as big as the landing gear - no short jokes please)

The first commercial Concorde (Air France)

Home Alone...

It is quiet without M at home this weekend! I have managed to keep myself pretty busy though; birthday celebrations, girls day out, work, dinner with a friend and laundry on the 4th floor (I will be so grateful for the day I can do laundry in my own place)! This is good practice for me though for when M goes to Oregon for the summer. The summer itself is already getting pretty busy for me: a visit to Ohio for a friends wedding, a visit from mom and dad and a trip to see M in July! I also will go back to Ohio to visit my girls from OU where I will get to meet their latest additions to their families! So exciting! Life is good I must say and I am so grateful to have lululemon in my life - without it I might have had to go to Oregon with M for the summer! But, my girls and G (the only lulu boy) will keep me entertained all summer. The end of school is just around the corner - 18 full days and 2 half days left! Wahoo! I can not believe that 2 years have almost passed since we have been here! Craziness! If you want to visit, you better come soon!

Pics from last week and my weekend alone:

All I Need is a P A

That's right, all I need is a P A. No, not a bull horn, but the letters P & A.

I have an MP /MB (2/3 of the way to an MPP/MBA). Last Thursday I took my last final of the school year and handed in my last paper. It's always a weird transition to go from all-on for finals to summer vacation laziness - but I'm adapting and have been watching plenty of movies to make up for my studiousness during the school year (let me know if you have any suggestion to watch).

But in case you're wondering how C & M mark the end of M's school year...it's with a Day Date (a date during the day). The Day Date consisted of a morning of outlet shopping (good buys & stocking up for camp), an afternoon picnic at the Willowcroft winery (high in the rolling foothills) and an evening of roller derby excitement (it was the DC regional finals and our friends J & R really wanted someone to go with - plus the half-time act was Maryland's own World Champion Double Dutch Jump Rope team, who were incredible[action starts @ 1:45, but gets awesome 2/3 of the way through]. All and all it was a stupendeous Date Day full of activities that will need to be repeated again! Anyway, here are some pics from our winery picnic:

C & M atop the hillside - the view from the winery

Our wine, awaiting consumption - it was quite good - during our picnic lunch


C with the winery in the background (it was in a cute barn)

Summer Camp Update

C & I jokingly refer to my internship with the National Park Service as 'Summer Camp' (although we have yet to write my name in my underwear). We've been slowly amassing all sorts of odds and ends, because Crater Lake is fairly far from the normal luxuries of DC - namely food/groceries, cell towers, TV, radio and evening activities. Anyway, I got the email below from my future supervisor and found it so amusing I had to share; I highlighted the good points.

"I spent last week at Crater Lake ...

A few highlights:
Crater Lake is really gorgeous - it was buried in snow when I went (10 feet in the valley, 20 by the rim) (THAT'S A LOT SNOW) and apparently there will be places where there will be pockets of snow throughout the summer. I would definitely bring layers with you - the highs in the summer are in the 70s and the staff told me they average two days a year when they don't have snowfall somewhere in the park (Time to break out my Moon Boots)....

The housing is very nice (It's a tent!, Just kidding)- you do need to bring cooking equipment/dishes, bedding and towels but the units have washer/dryers, full size fridges, stoves, microwaves etc. There is no tv or radio reception. (No TV, No radio makes Homer do something something......) ... However, I would recommend bringing games, books, etc (I can tell you from personal experience, that I ran out of books and it was a little painful ... There is nothing near the park - no restaurants (other than the Concessioner run restaurants), no grocery stores, drug stores, etc, so make sure to buy what you need ! (I wonder what they'll say wehn they seem me buying 20 pounds of meat for the whole summer, all at once).

Your office will be in the Science and Learning Center - which is the historic supt's house - it's snowed in all winter so I only saw the second story (!) but it looks pretty cool (She only saw the 2nd floor... BECAUSE THERE WAS 10 FEET OF SNOW! The whole park's buried in snow...I hope I don't fall in) and is apparently really nice office space. The park staff was very nice and they're very excited about the business plan project - I think you'll really enjoy working with them.

T - 33 days and counting

A Night Under the Stars

"A Night Under the Stars" was the theme to either my Junior or Senior high school prom (the other year's theme was "A Night Amoung the Stars")... Thankfully this year's GPPI Policy Prom was not as cheesy, but we did pose for pictures still.

You may be asking yourself, "What is Policy Prom?" Policy Prom, like the name suggests is where the student's of Georgetown's Public Policy School get together all dressed in their Friday Night Finest and have a party at a bar - kind of like HS prom, only everyone's old enough to consume. There's dancing, merriment and all around fun.

C posing for a pre-prom photo


M posing in the little park by our apartment building


C peeking through the trees

C & M


C & M with our gtown friends Meera & Bobby

M w/Jeff ready for Senior (HS) prom


M & his high school prom date - what a looker