Eight years ago.

Eight years ago, Cheryl and I were living in Colonial Heights, VA, a bedroom community of Richmond and Ft. Lee. A sleepy southern city along I-95. In our two years living there, we survived Hurricane Floyd (out of power for 48 hours), got to know my cousin and his family better, and visited many, many Civil War sites. (Really, you can't go anywhere without stepping on a site). While we were living there, we visited D.C. a handful of times. In fact, Cheryl interned in the Surgeon General's Office for several months. She even got his autograph. So, eight years ago, no kids, just us, we went to D.C. to see George W's inaugural (ok, we really did not see his speech, to far away). We really wanted to see the parade. Silly us, you can't expect to stand behind the bleacher's and see the parade. Funny thing happened, after W and Dick went buy (I think I saw old baldy's head as he went buy), most people who were in the bleachers, left and we could see the parade. Really great (and the weather was mild). But being poor, we did not have tickets to the balls and parties. So, we wondered around Constitutional Blvd. and the Mall in general and just looked. Really went down the middle of the street. We were not crazy, the street was still closed off. After awhile, we got on the Metro and went back to our car and drove home. I really can't even remember where we ate at (unusual for me) or when we came home, but what I great time we had.