last trip of the summer ... the theme here woulda been heat, except it really wasn't as hot anywhere (in DC, orlando, OR scottsdale) as i expected/remembered. nonetheless, the return to hawaiian weather is sublime. you have no idea how it soothes the eyes to look at deep ocean blue.
well here we go:
WASHINGTON DC
kids, kids, & more kids. my hawaii kids were pretty cute ... though we didn't do as well as last year or the year before. aside from two days of presentations at NIH (which for me included naps of various lengths), we had a party on top of our hotel, went to the movies (where one of our kids laughed so hard in talladega nights he locked his jaw & had to go to the hospital), bowled at the naval medical center, visited the national zoo (the cheetah cubs i saw last year are now huuuuuuuuuuge), and went shopping at pentagon city. our last night there we had a banquet, and i spent about three hours dancing in heels (since chaperones couldn't leave till 1am) and then another hour chilling with the other chaperones. boo for no sleep...but yay for fun!
ORLANDO FL
deland, actually. i got there sunday afternoon after a really nauseous plane ride (due to those pesky cloud things). it took a really long time (and two tries) to land, and then an even longer time to get my luggage (but matt waited with me!). when i finally stepped out of the airport i felt like i'd walked into a sauna. luckily the rest of the week wasn't so hot (thanks in part to various passing thunderstorms). on the way back to the house we went to rubberneck at the orange city landfill fire, which was so big i'd seen it from the plane. it was crazy, and there were also 12 other cars rubberneckin along with us in this little deserted field. we went to three different springs (deleon, blue, and rock), went boating, played lots of hearts and spoons, had a dinner&movie night, played whiffleball, watched the sunrise from new smyrna beach, and saw the inaugural football game of lighthouse h.s. and i even went lawnmowin with matt, and held various snakes & tiny turtles! :) on saturday matt woke up at 4:30am to take mary & me to the airport. *muah*
LOS ANGELES CA
i was only here for two days. the afternoon i got in, we had a fiasco with united losing my luggage. during the time it was lost, we went shopping on rodeo drive, had dinner at sona (it was incredible), and walked around beverly hills some more, before we finally picked it up from a flight that arrived at 10pm. the next day we went to church, lunch, forest lawn, and glendale mall, then had dinner at our usual shanghainese food haunt for ema & uncle john's anniversary. monday morning we had an early breakfast at the athenaeum at caltech, then took our huge van on the road towards arizona!
SCOTTSDALE AZ
the drive took six hours. we stopped at a place called blythe along the way for mcdo & gas. as soon as we got to the fairmont in scottsdale, my cousins and i went to go swimming in the east pool (which had two slides and sports). even after swimming, at 5:30pm, it was sweltering. the weather the whole time we were there was upwards of 100, but actually it wasn't as bad as we thought, again because of a few thunderstorms. we ate at morton's the first night, and opened a round of presents. the next day we had a girls' day out at fashion square...we lunched at neiman's, and i bought a new bag and some gold katespade flats. in the afternoon we went riding at the trailhead ranch...i had a feisty horse named petey...and rode out around the nature reserve. it was gorgeous...we watched the sunset, and saw lots of little bunnies, birds, and a few diamondback rattlesnakes. after that we had dinner at a crazy-beautiful place called sassi (prosciutto! lamb ragu! pork shoulder slices! fried artichokes!) , and went straight back to bed. the next morning we packed up, had a long long lunch at the LV Bistro, and opened the last round of presents. we checked out, drove to old town scottsdale, and then hit the road from there.
