Happy Birthday, Andreas!

It's our last day in Kensington, spent exploring and celebrating Andreas' birthday. It was a monumental day, with a trip to "see the Man" (Lincoln), as well as the the Viet Nam and World War II Memorials.

Then we headed over to Georgetown, where I bought Andi two books: Steven Pinker's The Stuff of Thought, and E.H. Gombrich's A Little History of the World. Andreas bought Jesus' Son, by Denis Johnson, and Deb and Mike gave him I Am A Strange Loop, by Bloomington's own Douglas Hofstadter. Here is Andreas when we caught up to him reading Isaiah Berlin at Dean and DeLuca.

Now we are sitting by the fire, looking at the weather forecast, and feeling a bit of melancholy as our visit draws to a close.

On the Road Again

We piled into the van at the break of dawn and hit the road to Kensington, Maryland, with four teenagers, back packs, numerous laptops and hand-held devices. About twelve hours later we arrived at the home of our friends Mike, Deb, Dylan and Liam.

We saw snow in Pennsylvania, and what looked like hard, gray times in West Virginia. At a gas station there, we picked up this groovy cowgirl hat, modeled here by Lenni.

It was fun to be on the road again, traveling in a van with teenagers...talking with Dylan in the dark, and watching Savannah text her friends. And it's great to see our old friends again, here a few miles outside the beltway!