Travels and a new bag!

Greetings from the East Coast and happy July 4th to all!

Shew, it is HOT and HUMID! People said that it wasn't quite so bad early in the week, but today, around the DC area, the heat has picked up. I can certainly feel it, being that the LA area experiences such low humidity. Fortunately, there is plenty of air-conditioning too, at least where we've been so far. We will be in Rhode Island at the end of this week, so I have no idea how the heat and humidity at a quaint beach town will play out.

In the meantime, a quick run-down of the trip:

We left at an ungodly hour on Tuesday morning, waking up at 3:45 am. The trip was painless, however, and we arrived in DC's Reagan Airport which was a great place to fly into - smaller than Dulles and it offered great views of the DC monuments. My first thought as we arrived in the DC-area was "Everything is so green!". I forget that it does rain in many places during the summer months.

On Wednesday, I actually took the train to Wilmington, DE. I must admit that I love, love, love traveling by train, and I would say that the lack of trains in CA (and the West in general) is one of the major flaws of the area when compared to the East Coast. The train experience takes me back to my 20's when I lived in Philly, had no car, and went almost everywhere that I wanted to go by train.

As for Wilmington, DE, I spent 3 days, more or less, sequestered in a Doubletree Hotel at a conference for my annual dose of professional development. The hotel was fairly nice, but it was in the most random place - on the side of some crazy highway with nothing much around it. The conference/workshop, however, delivered the goods! I learned so much and had so much to think about and chew over thanks to the information and the discussions that we had. Before leaving for Delaware, I felt totally disgruntled about this conference that was going to interrupt my summer experience. However, it was AWESOME! I feel that it gave me specific tools as I begin to manage adults next year, and it also raised my awareness about current trends and ideas in education. It was also fantastic to talk to different people about their experience/s and schools.

Now, I'm back in the DC area, doing a bit of touring and a lot of hanging out with family. We've been to the National Gallery and the Phillips Collection, and tonight we'll go to the Mall area and watch the fireworks. I loved visiting both the National Gallery and the Phillips Collection - it had been at least 11 years since I'd visited either one of those museums. I was also happy to introduce Michael and his family to the Phillips Collection - they'd never even heard of the museum, and it really is one of my favorite museums of all times and places. It has a fabulous collection of art but also offers an intimate experience that is SO different from the usual experience of a major museum.

Finally, I must talk about my BAG! I decided that a new bag was in order for the trip. As much as I love the Patagonia bag that I've used for everyday purposes the past 4 years or so, I wanted something that less "sporty". So, I invested in this Orla Kiely bag that I found on sale:

Michael's snarky comment was "That looks perfect! You can lose lots of things in there." I did not hear him complain a bit, however, when I carried his sunglasses, wallet and our bigger camera all in this bag, along with two books, my own sunglasses and my wallet. Who's laughing now?

So far, the bag has served me well, and I am completely happy with the investment!