Peter's Retort to Courtney's DC Trip Posting

"Peter's favorite part was Monticello and getting home."

So much can be conveyed in one sentence.

One would think, reading my sweet bride's blog, that I was the uber-grump on this trip whose only interest was in seeing Monticello and getting home. This is so very untrue and-- yes, I'll say it-- unfair. I was given several opportunities to not go on this trip. In fact, just days before we were to leave, Courtney and I had the Rand-McNally out looking at the difference in distance from Memphis to DC and from Memphis to Orlando. For the record, they are approximately the same.

And still I chose to drive to DC with my three precious girls and darling wife. It was not for any self-serving reasons, either-- I get to go to DC numerous times throughout the year and in all seasons. I was doing this for my sweet angel babies-- so that they would develop early in life an appreciation for their country's history. Just seeing the faintest glimmer, that spark of interest, that first bud on the flower that will one day be a shared obsessive-compulsive interest in all things American-- that is why I took them to Washington.

True, I am more than a little taken by Monticello. I find the combination of the paradoxical man (freedom coupled with slavery) with the perfectly symmetrical house an interesting disparity. And it only took us a couple of hours to go through the whole thing, so I don't want to hear any more about how out of the way it was or how the tickets were over priced.

So, to correct Courtney's assessment of my feelings on the trip let me also also add that I really liked Mt. Vernon, too.

Thank you.