A Tourist In My Own Town

Earlier this month a friend came to visit, and I got to be a tourist in my own town. First, we went to the zoo. No pictures there, I always take too many when I go, so I didn't even take my camera. But the next day we headed to the Capitol Visitors Center. I hadn't been yet. No photos allowed inside the museum part, so here are some of the outside.

Cool clouds:
Archives Building across the street:
Supreme Court next door:
Capitol from an angle you don't usually see:
Pretty sunset that day:

I don't know why, but I thought this sign was funny:
General Meade...I saw his grave in Philly just a few weeks earlier:
Newspapers outside the Newseum:
Most papers had the wikileaks on the cover...but the good ole Phoenix paper had Cyber Monday as its heading:
Of course nothing tops off a visit to DC other than vegan cupcakes from Sticky Fingers:
Mmmm, gotta go...need to make another run to Sticky Fingers!

Season Greetings...Makes Me Think of Gorillas?

I thought I'd share a neat story I came across the other day. As many of you who follow my blog know, I like to write about Rwanda from time to time. My trip there in 2007 has had a lasting impact on me.

While in Rwanda, on my one day off from the Water For People volunteer work I was there to do, I was able to see first hand the work that The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund does (and of course see the gorillas themselves too!). Not only do they help the endangered mountain gorillas, but also the people who live in the surrounding areas. This article (http://gorillafund.org/Page.aspx?pid=843&srctid=1&erid=30879) discusses two Rwandan women who worked their way up through the ranks to become respected scientists with The Fund. They also recently earned the distinction of being the only African women to take a leading role in the intense field operations of the mountain gorilla census in the Virungas (the mountain range where the gorillas live). Pretty cool that women have come such a long way in Rwanda. Did you know that they have the most women in parliament than any other African country?

Pictured below is one of the women trackers, Bernadette (photo courtesy of The Fund):

Here's a picture of the tracker for my group when I went to see the gorillas (I'm pretty sure he was the same tracker who took Anderson Cooper on his trek-if you happened to catch that TV special a few years ago):

The gorillas trackers live in this house below, which is supported by The Fund:

While I was there, I stayed with the manager of a health clinic that The Fund supported, to provide much needed services to a remote village on the outskirts of the Virungas. Pictured below is the house she lived in and graciously opened up to us for two nights:

Here is the health clinic and the long line of people waiting. The day we were there, there were 4 babies born!

And a blog about Rwanda and the gorillas wouldn't be complete without a few gorilla pictures. During the 2010 census mentioned above, they counted 480 gorillas, up over 25% from 380 counted in 2003! The family I visited had about 12 gorillas in it. Here are some of my fav pics I took:

And now a plug for The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund...this holiday season please consider adopting a cute gorilla seen here :)

Rally - October 30th

Last weekend, I went to the Rally to Keep Fear Alive (oh yeah, and the Rally Restore to Sanity...by default). Here's just a few pics, including some of my favorite signs.

Fueling up before the rally...the restaurants in Chinatown were hopping:

Crowds starting and we're not even to The Mall yet:

Mythbusters kicked it off (was hard to hear them where we were - but could see them on the jumbotron):
Crowd pics:

See all the people on the museum steps:

Cops on horseback patrolling the crowd:
Where's Waldo?

Guy climbing tree (he didn't make it):

Turf restoration area behind us:

They gave up and opened it up:

Here it is full of people:

Poor doggie, couldn't even read the signs:

Here are some of my favorite signs:"Slogans Suck""Pimp my gov""Never forget" (with a dinosaur on it)"The insane are people too""We were going to be in DC anyway""Give me apathy, or give me whatever..."It was impossible to meet up with anyone...so this sign was particularly funny to me - "I'm over here"
I think this was my favorite - "My Dad dragged me to DC just to hold this sign"
And there was even an actual double rainbow:
As the crowds started to leave early...we were able to move and actually see one of the jumbotrons pretty well. Stephen Colbert:
Jon Stewart:Kareem Abdul Jabbar:R2D2:
Mass exit up 7th Street: