Late Night Revelations . . . .

I'm going to take a break from my DC pictures to share a bit of the craziness of my mind. :)

 

Does anyone else, just before you fall asleep, have your imagination take you to strange and crazy places? Maybe it's just me . . .

 

Well one night a couple weeks ago I had one of these evenings. My imagination was going places that can only be described as (to borrow a phrase from Harry Potter) "Completely Mental"!! But in that moment of craziness I had a moment of clarity and truth hit me. In that moment I had the following realization:

 

"I have friends spread across this country who love me and have stood by me through my darkest days! I have family spread across this country who love me and have supported me no matter what! But most of all I have a God who loves me fuller and deeper than I can EVER imagine!

 

So you can knock me down, tear me down; make me feel bad about myself . . . . but in the end I will be STANDING because I am LOVED! I will SURVIVE because I am LOVED! I will not be conquered!"

DC Butterflies

While in DC we stopped at the Natural History Museum. Pretty facinating place. They had a butterfly exhibt among many others. A few of us decided to check out the butterflies. I don't normally shoot bugs . . . . butterflies. But I decided to give it a try.

 

While in the exhibit a butterfly landed on my head. Of course since I was there with my photography club, I immediately heard a few shutter's firing. If you want to check out the butterfly in my hair (which tickles), check out my friend Dale's blog.

Inside the National Cathedral

Our tour guide for our private tour of the Cathedral was amazing. Andy has such a passion for the Cathedral that showed through every story and fact he told us. In fact there were times I was so wrapped up in what he was saying I stopped taking pictures completely.

 

When we first stepped inside the Cathedral I was so wrapped up in taking pictures of the stained glass (which turned out to be harder than I thought), I didn't get many pictures of the details of the building. I guess I'll just have to go back someday.

 

If you'd like to see more of the inside of the building, check out my friend Jeff's blog as he took some fantastic photo's of the details of the Cathedral. :)

 The light coming in from the windows creates this beautiful color on the walls

 These two photo were taken from the balcony. They are the only shot's I took because Andy kept telling story after story about the people who's lives were changed just by visiting the church and who later became artists working for the church.

 To give you an idea of how high up we were for the above shot, look for the net in the photo of the main room from the balcony. As you can see in the above photo the net is right below the window.

 These guys were my favorite. If I remember right they are rebuilding the temple. But one of my favorite finds was when Andy pointed out the American influence in the stained glass . . . read the line below the bottom workman. :)

 Andy took us on a behind the scenes tour. The above photo is bottles of wine dated and signed by important leaders in the church over the years. Andy was very proud to have been asked to be one of the signing members of the last bottle on the shelf.

 I love the pattern on the floor from the light coming through the window.

These spiral stairs lead up to the bell tower. We did not get to see the bell tower on this trip . . . maybe next time. :)

 I had to throw this last picture in for my son. Dawson was fasinated with space and astronomy. He wanted to be an astrounat when he grew up. This widow depicts man's flight to the moon. In the middle of the red circle (the moon) is an actual moon rock.

National Cathedral - Gutter Tour

When our tour was set up we were asked if we'd like to take the gutter tour. Though we had no idea what that meant we all decided to go. What an amazing opportunity. We ended up on the top of the Cathedral in a narrow gutter. The view was spectacular!! The amount of detail on the top of the cathedral was amazing. This is a place where few people get to see, but the detail is the same as the highly populated areas.

 On the top photo if you look a little over half way down the spire you'll see that it rotated on its base a bit in the earthquake last year.

 Here you can see more earthquake damage. The third spire is missing its top. I would not have wanted to be on the ground when it landed.

                                  These guys just make me laugh :)

National Cathedral

While in DC we had the opportunity to visit the National Cathedral. It's an amazing place and I am going to need to visit there again someday. :) We arrived before the time our tour was scheduled so we wandered around the church. I spent a lot of time in the flower garden capturing water drops on the flowers.

 The scaffolding is to repair the damage from the earthquake DC had last year.

 I was fascinated by the fact that this was a Gothic cathedral, but it had some modern & American elements throughout the entire building. As you can see from the top photo one of the gargoyles is actually Darth Vader. The bottom photo is to show how high up he is.

                       The detail put into the catherdal is amazing

9/11 Memorial at the Pentagon

11 years ago I sat in shock as I stared at my TV. The unthinkable had happened. The families of the victims of 9/11 would never be the same. America would never be the same.

Last month I had the opportunity to visit the 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon. It's a beautiful place with a unique and simple design. The Pentagon Memorial website explains the design much better than I ever could.

Knowing the loss these families faced that day, I pray they and their loved ones will never be forgotten.