Off to Washington, DC tomorrow!!!

In just about 24 hours, it’ll be ‘wheels up’ as I and two friends depart for Washington, DC. It will be my first trip back in almost 21 years (I was there for a few days as part of an exchange program in August of 1985). My most vivid memory from that trip was the incredible heat and my constant review of the weather in the last few weeks indicates that it’s gotten no cooler. How they survived in Lincoln’s day, I’ll never know. The other recollection I have from the trip was that three days was entirely too short to take it all in.

We haven’t got a whole lot planned yet. Pancake breakfast at the Canadian Embassy to celebrate Canada Day on July 1; travelling to Gettysburg to watch a re-enactment of ‘Pickett’s Charge’ on July 3; and cramming in as many fireworks displays as we can find on the 4^th! To my mind, that’s how a trip should be: a few pre-planned events to give it structure, but otherwise it’s great to wake up in the morning and wonder what you’re going to do today!! I just love that kind of spontaneity!

And Washington is a city that engages me on so many levels. The political animal in me revels in the fact that it’s the global centre of power-politics. And my historian and US Civil War buff will also find lots to see and do at the Smithsonian and the collection of various monuments and historic sites in and around Washington. It will also be great to see Barb and Murray Smith again and join them on their quest for great cheap food in Washington. Somehow, I think that when it’s all over, I’m going to think that seven days was also too short in the end…

And one other thing about being in the US, where they largely ignore Canada (except for the Alberta-fest that will be underway while we’re there), is I hope to go at least a week without hearing Dalton ‘I don’t like nuclear power’ McGuinty saying something stupid. As Blackadder says, “The eyes are open, the mouth moves, but Mr. Brain has long since departed…”. A week of blissful silence from Ontario’s premier isn’t too much to ask for, is it?

I don’t yet know what access I’ll have to the internet during the trip. But I’m hopeful that I will be able to add some entries and photos while I’m there!

Washington, here I come!