The BEST of the BEST!!!

Lee has been back to the Natl. Fire Academy several times. He has been participating in a 4 year program the last few years, where - when added to his Associates degree - it equals a Bachelors degree. He has to write a research paper every year. Last year his paper was 81 pages long. He was awarded "Paper of the Year" (for 2008) at this National Fire Academy in the Washington D.C. area!!! When he was presented the award they kept saying the people awarded were the "best of the best". They take all the 4.0 papers and choose one, and he was the lucky "chosen one". Here's my BEST guy all decked out in his dress uniform before the big awards banquet
At the Fire Academy by a monument raised for firefighters killed in the line of duty

In a brief acceptance speech. An intoxicated woman was talking to me so I didn't get to hear much of what he said - come to think of it that's probably why the meal tickets cost so much; alcohol of which we don't even drink - oh well. He received 2 very nice awards and a check for $100.00 - very nice!! That check covered "a portion" of the cost of the dinners for the banquet :)

Lee and his "girlfriend" (HR manager) Ingrid, who was there to support her boyfriend who also received an award, and her own graduation certificate from the program.

When our kids graduate we take a picture of them jumping for joy, so I couldn't resist doing the same for Lee - here's his attempt.

Since Kaisa's middle name is Joy, I had to snap a shot of her with her sign ;)

Next we went on to the Amish community. Here are some carts parked for their Sunday meeting. They have 3 types of carts; these family carts, a courting cart (2 seater/convertible type) and one for hauling things.

. . . more carts. The large cart is the one they use to transport the benches, hymn books and etc. that they use for church, since they take turns having church at their members homes. I bought a couple of books explaining all about the Amish - they were very interesting. They have church every other week - on the in between weeks they have a "friendship week", where they still get together and eat, or visit other (Amish) churches. Their Sundays are all day long by the time they prepare, have church for 3 hours, and have the meal afterwards.

Beautiful farms, and country for that matter.

Here was a parking lot full of black cars, vans and etc. They were ALL black!

Here's the church with the black cars all parked outside. I believe it was a Mennonite church, which is similar to the Amish but they obviously have differences since they drive cars.

This is a sign off the side of the street

More signs. My favorite is the "No Sunday Sales" part - it really IS like going back in time. I believe there's a lot of good to being Amish.

They have a lot of cemeteries outside of their churches. If you were Amish you'd better hope your headstone was NOT under the fence line - if it was, that meant you had sinned and the people were leaving it up to God to decide your fate - EEYIKES!!

This was our COOL rental car - the Dodge Avenger. Sunday was the only day we got to have Lee with us. He was busy with presentations, classes and such the rest of the time. We actually convinced him to skip Sunday so we could enjoy the Amish country together.

More carts. We saw several going down the streets but have heard that they ask not to be photographed so I wanted to honor that request and settled for carts, farms and signs.

Wouldn't you be proud to tell people where you lived? "~

The changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier

There were a couple of schools there on field trips who were able to present them with the wreath used, which I assume is quite an honor.

Here is an amphitheater behind all this - it's beautiful!!

A shot of the Arlington Cemetery

This headstone was in with the Officers section. One of my best friends last name is Grady so I couldn't resist taking this. Sunne (Grady) is quite the family history buff so I thought she may enjoy this - who knows? Maybe she's related to someone who fought in one of the wars?!

The grounds/flowers there were so pretty and well kept.

President Kennedy's grave site and the eternal flame

Beautiful blossoming cherry trees were everywhere

the sunset driving back to the motel

We also went to the Hershey Factory (4-18-09) - it was simply De-lishous!! They have a free tour of their factory, and then of COURSE a huge shop full of every kind of candy imaginable, and souvenirs to boot!

There were some cute cows singing away during part of the tour.

Kaisa pretending to take a bite out of a HUGE Hershey bar ($39.99)

Billy was SUPPOSED to be "kissing" the kiss, but he was too embarrassed!

After the gift shop, we took a tour on the trolley - it was very informative and fun.

This is the house where Mr. Hershey was born. He came back later to restore this house.

Later in his life when his wife learned she would never be able to have kids, they started a school/home for orphan boys (since most of the girls were adopted), which is still in operation today, except it's not so much for orphans anymore, just underpriveliged kids. Mr. Hershey had all the kids in his house/school memorize the 10 commandments, go to church every week, and work hard (milk cows, do chores and etc.) The house is huge and beautiful. The picture below is one of the light fixtures in the room where you enter.

We had a very long day traveling on Thursday. Here's Lee, Billy and Kaisa at Wendy's that night right before we checked into the motel (some how I got my pictures out of order, but don't want to have to start over).

Kaisa and Billy in front of the white house. This was actually the 17th.

Not a bad shack huh?At the Lincoln Memorial

This is what we loving referred to as the "Forest Gump" shot

I'm still not very good at posting videos so this one below is out of order (changing of the guard). Kaisa and Billy got a much better video, so if you get a chance look at their blog in a day or 2 to see if they've got theirs up yet.

All in all it was a fun trip. It's always nice to get a way for a day or 2. Thanks to Lee for getting his award so I felt the need to go :)