Mr. Payne goes to Washington

**Click on the photo album to see the captions for the pictures.** Not all pictures have captions, but many of them do.

This past week I traveled to Washington DC for a business trip. I was able to take one evening to walk around the National Mall. I left my hotel with my camera in hand and didn't stop walking for over 2 hours. The weather was perfect. I couldn't have asked for a better day.

As I walked I was able to visit three war memorials. I started with the World War II Memorial. As I walked around the memorial I tried to get pictures that represented Grandpa Wally's (Cari's grandpa) service to our country during WW II. He served in the Marine Corps in the Pacific. The next memorial was the Korean War memorial. After that was the Vietnam Wall. I traveled to DC as a teenager and I still remember the first time that I saw the Wall. Although the Vietnam War was over by the time I was born, it is such a powerful memorial. What makes it so powerful is viewing all of the names of fallen soldiers. The saying "All Gave Some, Some Gave All" is posted at the Wall. The message is even more powerful when you see all of the names, and the cards, flowers, etc. that people leave at the wall.

I also had an opportunity to visit the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. I didn't realize how steep the steps were to the Lincoln Memorial! After walking for over an hour it was a bit of a challenge. The Washington Monument is just amazing. It's so tall and in the center of everything.

My photo album also includes a couple of work related pictures, just to give you an idea of what we do at a large trade show.

As I was waiting in the terminal at Washington National airport to catch my flight home, an airport representative announced that a group of WW II veterans was going to be getting off a plane and they asked that everyone in the terminal acknowledge them as they got off. It was really cool. As the veterans got off the plane (there had to be at least 3 dozen) the entire terminal stood and clapped as they all walked, or were pushed in a wheelchair, into the terminal. This went on for at least 5 minutes. It was a neat thing to experience.

Being from a small town in the Midwest I don't experience big city traffic very often. I lived in Minneapolis/St. Paul for a few years, but I have never seen driving like what I saw in DC (after talking to a co-worker from the East coast I found that DC is nothing compared to New York and Boston). I heard more car horns in the 5 minutes that it took me to walk to the convention center, than I have heard in the last year. That is not an exaggeration. People use there car horns more than they use their brakes!

Enjoy the pictures.

PS: And if my mom is reading this, I know that you like pictures with people in them and not just things that you can get from a post card. I was by myself on my walk so all you'll see are buildings and no people. Sorry. But I did get a nice shot of the Ronald Reagan building for you.


Chris

Shorts in April

It is a beautiful 72 degrees right now and the Payne's have been able to enjoy a lot of time outside. Levi gets to ride his bike around the block; Josiah gets to wear his bike helmet around the yard (for some reason he really likes to wear it); Chris, Samuel and Levi get to play football (make sure you watch the video, Levi has a very good arm); and everyone gets to enjoy the great weather.

Chris

Yo-Yo Levi

During our recent visit to Nana and Papa Payne's, Levi got really interested in yo-yo's. While we were there Papa gave him a few pointers on how to use a yo-yo. Papa will be glad to know that Levi has started to get in a rhythm with his yo-yo. We even had a contest to see who could yo-yo the longest between me and Levi. We did a two out of three competition and I just barely beat him. Enjoy the video.

Chris


PS: Samuel is pretty funny in the background as well.

Easter Weekend 2009

Here's some pictures and a video from Easter weekend.

Chris

From Easter Weekend

"Spring" Break

Unlike most families who head to tropical locations for Spring Break we decided to go to the great Northland for a few days. We were able to celebrate two birthdays and enjoy a few days away. During "Spring" Break we experienced snow, freezing rain and temperatures that never made it into the 50's.