Accident on M St.

Just as we were walking into Chipotle on M St., this car swerved all the way from the other side of the street and then onto the sidewalk.  We had been right where this car landed only moments before.

The Honda had hit this new Audi (still had a paper license plate) as part of the situation.  It looked like the Audi was trying to make a left turn onto Potomac St. and then changed her mind at the last second after realizing that Potomac St. is a one-way from the other direction.  Then the Honda had to dodge her from the last minute decision and ended up all the way over here.  It all happened in about 2 seconds!

Dumbarton Oaks

Walked around Dumbarton Oaks for the afternoon and saw some beautiful, bright roses.

Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, in Washington, DC, is an institute of Harvard University dedicated to supporting scholarship internationally in Byzantine, Garden and Landscape, and Pre-Columbian studies through fellowships, meetings, exhibitions, and publications. Located in Georgetown and bequeathed by Robert Woods Bliss and Mildred Barnes Bliss, Dumbarton Oaks welcomes scholars to consult its books, images, and objects, and the public to visit its garden, museum, and music room for lectures and concerts.

New York

view from Brooklyn Bridge Park

So I had plans to spend the weekend in New York but ended up spending less than 24 hours there due to the hurricane and the whole city shutting down.  In the morning I went to Brooklyn Bridge Park to meet a friend and then spent the afternoon doing the necessary shopping at Uniqlo with F.  Then F and I met DD for a walk in a nearby park that used to be elevated train tracks and has been fully converted to this really cool park.  Then we met G for dinner and margaritas at one of G's favorite burrito spots and after headed to Hoboken, NJ to meet up with F's friends and have a hurricane party (seriously!).  It was a fully packed day trying to see everyone I know (which naturally wasn't possible in that amount of time) in New York and then leaving early the next morning on a 5am train back to Manhattan to catch my 8am train back to DC.  Yeah, there was no sleeping until the train back to DC!

Bailey, CO

We stayed in the small, mountain town of Bailey, Colorado.  The air was fresh and there were so many cute animals everywhere.

deer in the backyard!

the town of Bailey

There isn't too much in downtown Bailey, which consists of about 5 buildings.  There was an awesome American diner though, called Cut Throat Cafe.

perfect American breakfast

We spent the day driving in the mountains seeing all the beautiful scenery.  We also saw all the family mountain cabins that have since been sold to new families.  One of the cabins was sold for the huge amount of $400 and now it's worth waaay more.  Oops.  We also learned the details of our Swedish history and how our ancestors came in 1895 to Rhode Island and then immediately went to Bailey, Colorado, which at that time, was just forest and had absolutely nothing there.  No one knows why and how they went to and found this place but they imagine that they must have known other Swedes here.

Denver, CO

We flew into Denver on Southwest.  The airline was nice but it was weird since there was no assigned seating.  My brother and I were the last on the flight (my fault).  It turned out that N was flying into the airport 10 minutes before we were flying out.  Our gates were also coincidentally right next to each other so I was waiting at her gate to try to say a quick hi.  I saw her plane come in and I could see it next to the gate and people were getting off the plane but then our flight was getting the final call and my brother dragged me to our plane.  So I missed seeing N by minutes!  It would have been so awesome....  So then on our flight we got the last pick of seats and I ended up next to some rude people who yelled at me and even used the f-word since my bag was slightly in their "area" under the seat.  I had moved the bag immediately, but wow, so intense and unnecessary to someone you just met.  I guess karma exists since then a few minutes into the flight they spilled soda everywhere on themselves but it completely missed me!  The couple were both soaking wet the whole flight.

Arriving in Denver, I couldn't help but notice that there is a "Tornado Shelter" in the airport...

Denver is a pretty city, no doubt about it.

We spent our first morning at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science looking at gems, rocks, dinosaur bones, and huge intricate dioramas that contained tiny, hidden gnomes as a joke by the artist.  We were all having fun looking for those little gnomes.

The gold looks cool.

The seals were awesome.

downtown Denver and a beautiful sky

hahaha!  for those mathy people...

Ray's Hell Burger

A trip home would not be complete without one of the legendary hell burgers from Ray's Hell Burger.  It was amazing as always.

Henna (part 3)

Here is the henna the next day.  It's getting darker as expected!

At this point I'm getting stopped all over in restaurants, at the supermarket, and more, where people are asking me about it.

First Meal in the US

We went out for dinner at one of my favorite spots for some very good sushi.  A great welcome home to the US.

Henna (part 2)

This was the henna right after all the mud stuff came off.  It was a light brown color which I was told was going to become darker in about a day.