Yes, of course.

Kristin, Dee and Gerrie, you were all right!

The weekend before Thanksgiving we went to Annapolis and DC. The leaves were beautiful. Really stunning.One of the reasons we took the trip was to attend the season's last home football game at the United States Naval Academy. I've been to a few games. They are always exciting and all the ceremony and tradition is quite motivational. This is the brigade of midshipmen (all the students at the academy) marching on to the field before the game.

It was the kids first game at the Academy. They had tons of fun. (The funnel cake and cotton candy might have been the highlights.) You can see we are sitting on the grass. Our tickets were for the "hill" area. Also a great spot for sliding down the hill while riding on a cardboard box. That may have been even better than the funnel cake and the cotton candy. --- Oh, and Navy's win, of course!Sunday morning we went to church at the National Cathedral. Wonderful. Here we are outside one of the main front doors. The sculpture above the door is called Creation of Night.The cathedral is one of my very favorite places. Such a magnificent door leading to the cathedral garden.We didn't leave the cathedral until after 2 pm. The service began at 11 am, then we took a tour, then we explored on our own a bit... then we were hungry! We went to a near-by Greek restaurant and ordered Flaming Cheese! So fancy and delicious.

By the time we finally reached the mall area, it was getting dark.

Benjamin doesn't look too impressed with Mr. Lincoln.He's a bit more enthusiastic here.We returned to see all the monuments in daylight on Monday. We had a great day racing around.I've never been to the FDR memorial. It's impressive. Claire loved FDR's little dog, Fala.
And the over to the Jefferson Memorial.Jeff and I were quite moved by this quote. And though Claire and Benjamin don't look particularly interested, I think they really enjoyed the trip. Claire has an amazing sense of her place in the world and what it means to understand where we live, where we come from and how it will affect our future.Oh, you couldn't actually read the quote in this picture?

"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors." Thomas Jefferson, 1810