Friday fun

L is having a great time at Disney. Here she is with her "mom" for the weekend, our friend, G.

L and her friend, R, the recent high school grad.

They had breakfast at the Beauty and the Beast Castle restaurant and some of their orders didn't come out on time so received refunds on three quick-service meals and got fast passes!

Meanwhile, in Chicago, Andy went to a steak lunch with the other bosses to celebrate Erik's 50th birthday because the Cubs game celebration just wasn't enough, I suppose.

New place in town

I went out with my friend, L, last night to Lake One, a new brewpub/restaurant in town. It's having it's soft opening so things are a bit chaotic. We walked around to see the whole restaurant - three levels with the top level being a very dark outdoor area.

The beer was good. Food was very limited. I had chicken wings and L had a burger. Food was good though - kind of expensive for bar food.

After our plates were cleared a server plopped this down on our table. We didn't order it and had no idea what it was. I pulled a couple almonds out of it and ate them and L tried the granola (?) part. We both decided we didn't like it and weren't going to eat it when the server came back and took it away. Guess it was someone else's order. Boy are they going to be disappointed they paid for that. A different server tried to give us someone else's drinks. As I said, there are a few kinks to work out before the grand opening.

School's out for summer

L was supposed to have her last finals today but she arranged with her teachers to take them early so she could catch an early flight with our friend/youth minister G to Disney World to meet up with her friends, R and E, and their dad. She slept over at G's house last night.

L celebrated the end of the year with her OPRF friends Monday (Memorial Day) while I was in DC. (Not sure the wisdom behind that since finals started the next day, but, hey, I wasn't here). L said she planned on having a bonfire so she and her friends could burn their projects and books they didn't enjoy. It's kind of become L's end-of-the-year tradition. It rained though so they couldn't have a fire but they had a nice feast.

Andy was a trooper and stood in the rain to grill sausages, hotdogs and hamburgers for L, B and L's eight friends. That's a lot of food and celebrating.

L even drove herself to get balloons for the party and bought a cake decorated like a hamburger. So nice that she's working and has her own money for the gatherings she loves to plan for her friends.

Day 5 in DC - Tues., May 28

Julie got to do sightseeing today so we headed back to the mall to visit the Library of Congress in the Jefferson Building.

The Gutenberg Bible is on display.

There's an observation deck where you can see into the Main Reading Room.

This is the dome in the Main Reading Room. We actually got to go in after getting our Library of Congress Reader Cards and were able to look around at the books.

We walked in a tunnel from the Library of Congress to the Capitol so we could visit the gift shop. There were lots of eighth-grade groups trying to get into the Capitol and it was really crowded.

Then we went to the U.S. Botanic Garden and toured inside ...

... and outside. Again, though, it was hot and humid. Temperatures were in the low 90s.

We even had time to stop for a margarita and appetizers before claiming our luggage at the hotel and taking the train to the airport for our 7:30 p.m. flight back to Chicago.

Guess this would have been a good opportunity at the airport to grab my own copy of the Mueller Report.

Day 4 in DC - Mon., May 27

Julie was at her convention sessions today so Allison and I were up early to get to the National Zoo to see the pandas. We were told there can be a long line if you don't get there early enough but we didn't have any problem seeing them. Once the pandas came outside they started chewing on bamboo. I suppose that was their breakfast. We also saw lions, monkeys, sand cats that reminded me of Muffles, elephants and prairie dogs.

After a quick lunch at McDonald's we took the train downtown to the National Portrait Gallery. This is the Death of Tecumseh statue.

The Michelle Obama portrait. Doesn't really look like her but I'm not an art aficionado.

The Presidents Gallery was so interesting. So many famous portraits. We were told there's usually a line to see Obama's portrait but the museum wasn't busy. I think everyone was out on the mall watching the Memorial Day Parade. (There was no portrait of Trump).

I liked this portrait of Clinton even though it was a bit abstract.

Reagan, the president throughout my high school and college years.

Carter. I remember having a mock election for him in fifth grade.

and Bush No. 2. He looks so relaxed.

Being from Illinois, it was exciting to see all the famous Lincoln portraits.

Washington had his own room for his portraits.

We saw a lot of cool paintings. It would be nice to explore the museum more some day. I sent a picture of the Bill and Melinda Gates portrait to E, saying her boss is in the Smithsonian. She replied that he's her boss at least eight times removed. Yeah, but still. I also saw portraits of Miss Manners and Ann Landers.

Not sure what this is called but it's interesting.

Taking some time to relax in the museum's courtyard. The blue hydrangeas were so vibrant.

Then it was time to visit the museum's gift shop. This mug is pretty funny (and sad) - our disappearing civil liberties.

Hmmm.

When we left the museum we watched part of the Memorial Day Parade. It was really hot outside.

We briefly walked through the Museum of Natural History and thought, since we're there, let's go see the hope diamond. Wow.

We went back to the hotel and all three of us went to dinner at a nearby Irish pub, Across the Pond.

Day 3 in DC - Sun., May 26

Allison took us to the National Cathedral for Sunday service because she had arranged to meet the church's bell-ringers and they said she could ring their bells after the service!

The service had a patriotic theme since it was almost Memorial Day. We left after the sermon (which was less than 15 minutes - yay!) to meet the bell-ringers. We think we took an elevator up about seven floors after climbing a floor of stairs and then climbed more stairs to get to where they ring the bells. They even took us up more stairs to see the bells themselves.

Allison ringing the bells.

While she was ringing bells, they told Julie and me that we could go out on the (tiny) balcony to see the best view of DC.

They were right. They told me the big white house in the middle of the picture is Vice President Pence's home.

We were really high up. We had no idea how high up we were. I found this on the church's website:

At 64 tons, the Cathedral’s 53-bell Kibbey Carillon is the third-heaviest in the world. The smallest bell weighs 17 pounds, and the heaviest weighs 12 tons and measures more than eight feet in diameter. ... Each of the carillon bells is connected by a taut steel cable to a clavier (keyboard), which is nestled in the tower 15 stories above the nave floor.

Fifteen stories? Holy cow. Glad I didn't realize that before we went up there.

Kind of hard to see in this picture, but the long shutters under the scaffolding are where the bells are. Below that is where the bell-ringers pull the ropes to ring the bells. If you look hard enough, you can see the tiny balcony where we were standing.

After Allison was done ringing the bells we spent time walking through the cathedral. There were so many rooms and different spaces. There was a lot of things we didn't see. Too bad stained glass doesn't photograph well because it was stunning.

This is the War Memorial Chapel built after World War II.

The entrance to the church's garden.

Julie had a convention-related dinner tonight so Allison and I had dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant.

After dinner we stopped by a Mexican restaurant to try their $7.99 Memorial Day special margaritas and Julie met us there before calling it a night and going back to the hotel.