Late posting from last weekend ....

It has been a busy week so I did not get a chance to update everyone on last weekend. It was a busy weekend as well. On Saturday myself and Tika went to DC to work on her AP History project. She is working on it with two other class mates and she needed to do some video that would basically be "News story-like" on some of the top events of the 2000's. So off we went.

We started at the new Pentagon Memorial where she did a brief piece on 9/11. Neither of us had been there before so it was a nice opportunity to see the memorial itself. It was also tough in some regards as we saw the name of someone born the same year Tika was born and then realized that not only was she lost but also her Dad and step-mom. We then drove up to Arlington where we did a brief piece on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Not the most cheery start of the work but it had a flow. We did have a challenge filming in Arlington as planes would take off every 60-90 seconds out of National Airport and fly overhead - but we managed.

Back in the car and across the river where we filmed a piece in front of the Federal Reserve on the financial crises of the decade, the tech-bust and the recent recession; a piece in front of the White House on the Obama election and finally off to Capitol Hill where we filmed a piece on the changing landscape in the Legislative branch.

I had a lot of fun. Tika was very professional when filming and we had a great time just talking about the different aspects of politics, things going on and school.

On Sunday myself, Kris and Sam picked up some food and headed to River Bend park for a hike down to Great Falls. It was a good day for it, not too hot and not raining for a change. The trail was a bit wet but not too bad. It was obvious from the Potomac that we have had LOTS of rain. As you can see in the pic - the water was pretty fierce.

We did get to see some wildlife. On the way down there were two beautiful deer on one of the peninsulas near the falls. They were hidden in the woods but we got a very good look at them. On the way back we saw this Salamander, or I should say Kris saw this Salamander (myself and Sam walked right by it). Kris is great on the detailed stuff. We had a great hike, got a little muddy, but it was fun and the girls did not complain too much about the few miles we hiked.

I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend. I will get out for a bike ride tomorrow morning down to Lake Accotink and then have a relaxing afternoon. Sunday morning will be breakfast with the girls as they have a graduation ceremony to go to in the afternoon. One of our family friends has their son graduating from High School - Congratulations Cole.

Have a GREAT weekend.

.... cu

PS Go RED WINGS!!!!!!!