Washington DC, Annapolis, and Baltimore

Many of you are probably wondering if we have given up on this thing called Blogging...but no! we have just been insanely busy this summer. First of all, our house has fallen apart. Since about April we have had dirty water (looks like mountain dew is coming out of our faucets). We have run out of propane, the septic tank exploded (totally awesome experience, didn't stink AT ALL!), and the final straw, we came home on Tuesday night and a water pipe broke, so the floor was covered in water. At any rate, we have found a nice new little house in the middle of town to move to. We have been frantically fighting with our landlord and getting ready to move. Hence, the blog has been neglected.

The other super fun thing we did was go to Washington DC at the end of July. Adam had some business back there, so Camille tagged along. We had a blast. We actually stayed in Annapolis, next to the Naval base. The big thing there is to eat blue crab...and because everyone there was so big into crabs, we to got a bad case of the crabs...on our heads. Adam is very lucky to have a couple of friends from when he was growing up and from law school that live in DC. They were kind enough to show us around. In this picture is Adam's friend Todd "the toad" Thorpe. They are both Law School graduates and were forced to get a picture in front of the Supreme Court Building. Adam said he was feeling very lawerly as he stood there. Note: please disregard the "crane of justice" in the background, they were doing some work.

What is a trip to DC without the cheezy pic in front of the White House. Adam was sure many passerbys would confuse him for Obama because of his good looks, so he tried to keep a low profile.

Quiz: Which one of these two structures is the real George Washington Monument? Adam also thought many passerbys would mistake him for the famous monument...he went to college?

There were so many amazing things we saw in DC, but we both absolutly loved every Smithsonian we went to. We guessed that we walked an average of 10 miles a day. We took lots of snacks and water to keep us going, but this last Smithosian we went to was a killer. It was a hot day, and the heat really sank its teeth into us. It practically swallowed us whole. Ok, those jokes were totally lame...wait...one more...Jaws of Justice...??

Nerd Alert!! Nerd Alert!! Camille's favorite highlight of the trip was a stop at the IRS. She was overwhelmed with happiness and was giddy. All she could talk about was taxes. If you look closely at the picture you will see her giant smile. As we were leaving she said, "Pinch me, I think I am in heaven!"

The perks of having friends in high places is that they hook you up. Adam's friend's wife is staffer for a congressman and she was able to get us a backdoor, all-access tour of the Capitol Building. And because we were VIP's we got to sit in Wyoming's Representative's office. She wasn't there, but hey, we made ourselves at home. She won't care...we are from Wyoming!!

Adam's good law school friend Geoff and his family, the Gunnersons also lived in DC and met us at the Nationals baseball game. It was free T-Shirt day, but we got stuck on the metro and didn't quite make it in time. It was a fun game, and Nationals even won, which they rarely do.

Back to our crab problem...Adam's conference went late one night and we didn't make it into DC. Instead we went to a little crab shack just off the Chesapeke Bay called Cantlers. They boast the best Blue Crab on the Bay, and they did not let us down. We didn't really know how to eat them, so we had to ask a waitress who quickly tore one apart. It was fun, but it sure took a long time to eat.

We also wanted to try the other local cuisine, so we order some clams and mussels. Camille did NOT like them one bit. Adam didn't mind them and said they were kind of like fish flavored gum (becuase they were so chewy).

One of the final days we visited Baltimore. It was pretty dirty and there were lots of people...which was annoying. However, not as annoying as listening to Adam say, "Apple core, Baltimore, who's your friend?" Anyway, that night we ate a seafood restaurant for one reason and one reason only...it was named after Adam. A.E. Phillips & Son. It was decent food that was a tad over priced. But, we thought it was cool because it was Adam's name. We tried to get some free stuff by using Adam's name...but we failed.

If you have watched the food network, you would recognize this building. It is the location of Ace of Cakes. We went out of the way while in Baltimore to see it. However, when we got there, they told us the windows are covered and no one can come in. So, we snapped a few pics from the street. Note: it was in the middle of the ghetto, and we thought we were going to be robbed at any moment.

On our final day we went to Mount Vernon: Home of George Washington. It was one of our favorite places of the trip. The only painful part of it was that we had to take a train, metro, and bus, lasting almost three hours, just to get there. It also didn't help that it was 95 degrees and super humid...Adam started melting. This is a picture in front of the visitor's center. The windows depict George's life...oh, and in case you were wondering his false teeth are made of lead, and he never cut down a cherry tree.

Our friends, the Gunnersons, came with us to visit George's house. We were super happy to see them and hang out once again becuase it had been almost two years since Adam and Geoff had graduated from law school. It was a great time, however, towards the end of the day the kids started to melt as well from the heat.

Adam and Kaylee decided to go back in time to the revolution. Kaylee's stick gun was a bit big for her, but she told Adam that she could kill him without any weapons...Adam decided to just let her be. Note: Adam's hat was not in his size.

Our last act in DC was to go to Rita's for some Gelato. The Gunnersons talked about this place all day long. They explained that the cup is filled slightly with frozen custard, then filled with Italian ice, then topped once again with frozen custard. It is filled with all things good!! Adam ignored his ice cream headaches and pounded every last drop of his Rita Gelato.