Shut down, shmut down!

I cannot fathom that it has been above a month since my pilgrimage to California! Crazier still, it's been over a year since I left the quiet town of Rice Lake, Wisconsin, for the excitement of Chicago, Illinois. This time last year, I'd completed my ACTS training trip and was immersed in my TEFL class - winning $25 for my awesome Lord of the Rings Halloween costume. What a year it has been! It's curious to look back at one's self and hardly recognize the person there! I do believe, if ever there were a year that changed me the most, this would perhaps take the prize (or at least tie with my freshman year of college)! Anyways, we'll save all that sentimental, retrospecting schmuck for the New Year...
This past month has been busy - not the kind of busy which demands running about helter-skelter like a mad person with little regard for life or person, but rather the busy which engulfs a person so quietly that one hardly notices the minutes slipping by. The days have been filled but not full. Quiet hours spent in God's Word, sweet days reclaiming the lost closeness with my sisters, inspiring moments studying America's past, evenings and weekends involved with the church's young people, odd jobs, new friends, and blood-boiling politics are what come to mind when I recall the events of the last month.

Enjoying the beautiful autumn in Wisconsin hayride style!

Also, I've been back on the field - touring America's historic high points. I had two trips (back to back) to the Historic Triangle (Jamestown, Williamsburg, & Yorktown), D.C., & Gettysburg. The first trip being right in the middle of the government shutdown made for an interesting time! As a rule, our trips are planned out pretty nearly to the minute; but that trip was more like make-it-up-as-we-go because we never knew whether or not anything in D.C. would be open! In spite of the obvious being closed, we did squeeze in some novel events: the group met their Senator, Al Franken of Minnesota, in the Hart Building; we sat in on a case being argued at the Supreme Court; we "broke in" to the MLK & FDR memorials; and they got to experience Yorktown which had not been originally scheduled but replaced some museum or such. So, all in all it was a successful trip! ...though...the kids were the most sugar crazed kids I've EVER met in my life! I should have known when at the first meal they all stuck their cotton candy in the chocolate fondue fountain at Golden Coral! *sigh* - it only got worse!!

My group assisting in the canon demonstration at Yorktown

My group with their senator, Al Franken

Anna giving the Gettysburg Address at the National Cemetery (it was closed on 10/16)

My day "off" (between groups) was anything but! I had a rental car (I'd driven from D.C. to Richmond the night before), a new friend (the new sales rep from the home office was sent East to get a feel for what we do on tours), and an interesting capital city teeming with history to explore. So we set off - a misty morning at St. John's church, a free tour of the Richmond Capitol, a drive through the romantic Hollywood Cemetery, and Brunswick stew at Padow's deli made for a rather excellent day!

St. John's Church (actually took the pic last year on my training trip)

The next week I had a group from southern California (my fav:). By then Washington was open for business, so our itinerary was pretty much routine. Our time in Williamsburg began with a teacher-lead ghost tour! :) I got a kick out of the dramatized tales of tortured pets, star-crossed lovers, & a slave's curse: tales told in the dark of the night by two jet-lagged teachers on Duke of Gloucester Street.
Really, the whole trip went pretty smoothly (especially in light of the fact that the group has a past of multiple emergency trips during their time on the East Coast).
One day, however, didn't go quite as planned. With close to 45 minutes on our schedule for a stop at the White House - just a photo stop really - I figured, we'd have time to see both the South and the North side  *if the group walked fast. Well, two things were not in my favor for that plan: #1 Californians don't walk fast (or as they liked to remind me "nobody walks in L.A.")!! #2 Due to...Heaven knows what, the usual  streets around the White House were blocked off - so our walk was increased by a good 8 blocks or so (not to mention we couldn't even get close to the WH on the North side because some protest was going on...) So, at that point, in theory, our walking to Ford's Theater for our scheduled ranger talk would be faster than walking all the way back to the bus and it driving us there. With 20 some minutes to get from 15th & H to 10th & F it was going to be close. I set a brisk pace and for the first time all week, my group almost kept up! But with a couple of blocks to go and only a few minutes left, one of the dads - missing his morning runs - offered to dash ahead to hold the gates! So off he ran! But as it was, with his adrenaline racing and a sketchy idea of where to go, he ran right past the visitors center and we actually beat him! Well, we made it! However, sitting in comfy chairs in a warm theater listening to a rather monotone lecture after just having walked 15 blocks or so... uh, not the best plan for staying awake!

Lincoln's box at Ford's Theatre 

Later that day, the organizer and I had a brilliant plan for keeping the group occupied before dinner, since he & I both thought 2 hours was a bit much for souvenir shopping: we were going to take them up the bell tower of the Old Post Office. However, once we had gotten our group through security at the OPO, we realized that the tower had closed (technically it was still open for another 15 minutes, but the elevator had stopped running people to the top!) What to do!? We only had 30 minutes to kill, so we just chilled. They were warm there and could sit, so they were happy! And then, the jokes started - not the kids, the teachers! :) After 28 minutes or so, they started numbering off into teacher groups: that's when it happened. I don't know what possessed me really; I was rather in awe of the expansive yet nearly empty building, the group was distracted, and a song was in my head. The acoustics were enticing and mesmerizing as I thoughtlessly began singing the National Anthem. Somewhere around "oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave," I heard an eruption of laughter and a chorus of "Corrie!" They'd finished counting and apparently had been waiting for my cue to leave; however, I was miles away standing on stage before a electrified crowd of proud American's in the Old Post Office on Pennsylvania Ave as my song rose to the heights of one of the tallest buildings in D.C.: each word growing stronger as I reflected on the splendor of our Nation and her capital city... My group never let me live that moment down! :)

Inside the Old Post Office (thanks, Google)

Sweet view from the median on Pennsylvania Ave in front of the Old Post Office

Glorious sunrise at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

Beautiful night at the reopened Lincoln Memorial!