We love visitors! (continued)

Erin, we miss you already!

Albuquerquian-Erin came to visit us, and I think we wore her out, I hope her family isn't too resentful, but we walked her socks off. We toured the mall, we "oooh"-ed over Jeffersons draft of the Declaration of Independance (complete with cross hatches and margin writing), we "ahhh"-ed over the monuments at night. We drove out to Great Falls and tried not to fall in the water, because, the signs all warned, we would surely die if we did. ("If you fall in, you will die.") Fortunately, we didn't. We took her to the lily-pad garden, which happened to be on the same day that the great-great granddaughter of the original owner was visiting. Unfortunately, all the rain last week flooded the garden, so all of the pools had been overflowed from the Potomac, and were crammed with fish. These fish were none too happy about their new home, and were desperately trying to swim out over the flooded land bridges into neighboring pools to find a way out. Which created a great show for us as these big fish were half-exposed as they slithered like sea-monsters over the barely submerged land. It was pretty darn cool.

We went to the theatre, and saw Chita Rivera and George Hearn in "The Visit" at the Signature. Totally weird! There was a movie version made years ago with Ingrid Bergman that I would love to see, but it isn't available on DVD yet. Basically this poor gypsy leaves town, becomes supersupersuper rich, and returns when she is an old woman to exact some revenge. It is totally creepy and perverse, and while we all had plenty of problems with the plotline, we were always entertained. Plus, I mean, it's Chita Rivera! Throughout the show she was walking with a cane (her character had a wooden leg), and every so often would get this quiver in her legs. We were all sad that this amazing dancer was finally starting to feel her age - she is well into her 70s by now. But at the end of the show she runs out for her curtain call and is walking totally fine. Talk about good acting! Also in the audience was choreographer Ann Reinking (this was like the third preview performance) and it was fun watching her just beam during all the dance numbers. At one point a few lines got a little shaky, and poor Ann sunk so deep in her seat we could barely see her. It was quite funny. After she show we got to talk with Karen Murphy, who David did a National Tour with in "The Wizard of OZ" a few years ago (she was the Wicked Witch). She is a very funny lady, and as soon as this closes she is headed to LA to play the drunk in the new "9 to 5" musical. I can't wait to see that!

Let's see. We ate some super yummy food. We drove over to Annapolis for lunch one day, which is a very quaint town, and ate lunch in a tavern George Washington used to frequent, and I had some incredible crab cake. We took her to our favorite restaurant in Dupont Circle and she had the butternut squash ravioli and I had some parmesean encrusted grouper and, well, I forget what David had but it was equally delicious. Something with mushrooms probably.

My brother Kyle and his cutie-patootie girlfriend arrived after finishing up their semester internship at Disney World, and we took them all on a night-time visit to the major monuments which was a lot of fun. The highlight was the Korean War Memorial, which was incredibly effective at night. Oh, we also made fondue. And Erin brought us some fresh green chile and also some tortillas from Frontiers. You non-New Mexicans have no idea what that means, but pretend you moved somewhere that didn't have, say, sugar. And that you had to go an entire year without eating any sugar at all. And then at the end of a year someone brought you some fresh, pure, sugar straight from the cane fields in Hawaii. How much would you love that person? That is how we felt towards Erin when we were eating breakfast burritos. (She even brought extra, so I have more in the freezer!!!!!)

Yesterday we were all feeling a bit tired, so we went to a movie. Nothing impressive, we went straight for the mindless romantic comedy - "What Happens In Vegas". But it was just what our tired bodies needed. Plus, way funnier than we expected. Rob Cordry is much-missed at the Daily Show, but I hope he finds his path cause that boy cracks me up.

We got to watch a video of Erin doing a production of "Ruthless", which was quite hysterical. (Like I said before Erin. Never. Stop. Belting.) Made us miss our Albuquerque peeps even more. (Max, that was just...wrong. lol)

Last night we went to a cabaret to hear some locals sing. If you, like me, are of the South Park generation and think a beautiful woman in an evening gown using profanity is funny, YouTube Gilda Radner singing "Talk Dirty To The Animals". I was crying with laughter.

This morning I was faced with the difficult task of taking Erin back to the airport. ::frown:: When we got there my body even betrayed us and I drove right to the "arrivals" terminal and had to circle the airport again to go back to the "departure" gate. We miss you Erin! Luckily she promised to come visit us again when we are in Hawaii.

Kyle and Liz are still her for another few days, so I have some more sights to see. My dad arrives tomorrow night for another of his quick business visits. Then back to work on Thursday, so I might not have time to blog about them for a few days. I am pretty darn tired, but am having lots of fun. Fortunately the kids are sleeping in - it is 10:30 and they are still out of it, so I had some time to myself to write this. I bet if I start making pancakes it will wake them up, what do you think?