Tired

I am really tired so I don't know how long, or how detailed this post will be. Hopefully Kerri will fill in the details I miss later. We had a whirlwind weekend. Friday we woke up really early to get on a bus for Valley Forge. Valley Forge is a really beautiful valley in SE Pennsylvania where the troops camped for the winter, and is generally considered a turning point in the war.

Our room and board was provided by the Freedom Foundation at Valley Forge. It wasn't anything special but it was adequate. After arriving in the morning, checking into our rooms, and finding human hair on the underside of Kerri's pillow, we toured the Valley with a really fun tour guide who was born in Alabama. It was cold and wet, and at one point all 50 of us huddled into a reconstructed barrack that was about 12 feet by 12 feet. It was cramped, and the roof leaked and not fun.

After the tour and dinner, Alexander Hamilton came to visit. It sounds a little hokey, and stupid, but it was actually quite fun and pretty interesting.

Saturday morning we went to Philadelphia for the day. We spent the morning at the Constitution Center and Independence Hall, and during the afternoon we had some free time to do some exploring by ourselves. Kerri and I went to the Reading Street Market which was really fun, it is a big farmers market, and we got ourselves some real Phillie Cheese Steaks. You know, the ones with steak, onion's and cheese whiz. Sounds gross I know, but in reality they are really good. We also saw the liberty bell, Betsy Ross's house where I got my picture taken with 4 drunk women who bought themselves fifes and 3 corner hats and were parading around the courtyard outside the house. We also saw a fun art gallery, Ben Franklin's grave, an old Quaker Church, and I don't remember what else. We didn't get to see what we really wanted to see, which was the Rodin Museum, and the Museum of Art, so we are going up again later this summer. These two museums were on the other end of town, so we ran out of time to see them.

Saturday night after being brought back to DC, Kerri's parents picked us up and took us up to Baltimore where we spent Mother's Day. It was nice to be with family, and we had a great big dinner with Kerri's parents, and aunt and uncle. It would have been nice to have stayed longer, but we had to get back to DC so I could go to work today.

Today at work was busy. the 5 other interns arrived today, and apparently 2 more come in June. Today I was termed the "senior" intern. I guess 2 weeks makes you a veteran out here. I showed the interns around and gave my first capitol tour, with another staff member with me to make sure I didn't make too many mistakes. After the tour, the staffer told me for someone who has only been on the job for 2 weeks I did pretty well. At the end of the day I got my assignment for the semester. I will be spending the summer doing research on health care policy. I am really excited, and happy that I don't have to do press stuff any more. One of the highlights of the day was when I found out that tomorrow afternoon I get to go to the White House to greet the President as he gets off of Marine 1. Of course, when I say greet it means I get to stand in a mass of people on the White House lawn as the President walks by, but that is still pretty cool, and probably a once in a lifetime opportunity.

So that is it in a big nutshell. I'll be sure to tell you about tomorrow sometime soon!