Precious Freedom and Democracy

I spent Memorial Day weekend in Washington, DC and Virginia hanging out with my old man and his special lady Ann, a native of the beautiful state of Virginia. This is the Dogwood tree on the front walk of Ann's townhouse (and an homage to people with better cameras who take nicer photos of flowers and such: Noam, Rachel, Andy).

We started off our visit with lunch at Union Station, and then we took in some of our nation's treasures at the National Gallery:
Nothing against Rolling Thunder or anything, but we had a hard time with the idea of a group of veterans honoring George W. Bush on Memorial Day at this particular moment in our nation's history. So we headed away from the big city to Shenandoah National Park. This has nothing to do with the fact that my father in November bought a national parks annual pass, although we Leitermans find it hard to pass up a good deal. Here's the Shenandoah River (doesn't it make the Willie Nelson song just pop right into your head?):
And another view from the Skyline Drive of the Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge Mountains. Oooh, I can't say that enough. Shenandoah, Shenandoah, Shenandoah!