China! (country 2 of 3)

Again, I tried as hard as I could to narrow down my photos from the China leg of my trip...but could only get it down to about 80. Enjoy!

Viet Nam Pics At Last (country 1 of 3)

Happy World Water Day!

Thirsty? Imagine having to walk four miles just to get a drink of water. That is how 1 in 6 people still live on this planet. To solve this crisis, it does not take rocket science, or discovering the cure for cancer, we know how to bring safe, clean drinking water to the masses. The Romans have been doing it for centuries. Developed countries have all but eliminated outbreaks such as cholera since the early 1900’s.

Organizations like Water For People are trying to do just this, by raising funds to help communities in the developing world build sustainable water systems, adequate sanitation, and provide hygiene education. Not only that, but they are going back and checking on the systems years later to ensure that they are still working properly.

Not a day goes by that I do not think about water, my use of it and how to reduce it, or how to help people get access to it. Through my day job - helping Americans improve their drinking water infrastructure, to volunteering with Water For People (has it really been almost 14 years since first joined the Chesapeake Committee??), I hope I am making my mark in this arena. I’m proud to say that since I’ve been volunteering with Water For People, the three different committees I have participated on and been chair or co-chair of, have probably raised over $200,000 in fundraisers! And with the ACE2011 Gala right around the corner, the DC Committee is poised to raise more from a single event than they have since they formed. If you are in the DC area, or coming to town for ACE2011 – visit our website to learn more about the Gala and get a ticket (http://www.waterforpeopledc.org).

So what does water mean to me? Not to be cliché, but water is life. Think about everything you eat, see, and do, it is all made possible because of water. Without it, you won’t live very long. When there is a natural disaster, like the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, water is the most important thing people need to survive. Even the nuclear meltdown occurred because the electricity went out and there was no water available to cool down the reactors.

I am thankful to live in a country where I can simply turn on the tap and have fresh, safe drinking water, and usually as much as I want of it. I cherish my 4-5 mile runs in the morning with friends, instead of having to go that far to fetch water for my family and carry back 40lbs of it on my head. I am glad I was able to go to school and get an education, instead of helping my mother collect water every day. Most people take these things for granted, but on this day…World Water Day…I just ask that you take a moment and think about water. What does it mean to you?

Happy World Water Day!! (http://www.worldwaterday.org/)

(special thanks to my friend Lori for inspiring me to write this blog post…her water/running blog this past year has been moving, thought provoking, and at times hilarious to read!)

The Swoosh

Last weekend I was in the neighborhood and in my car, so I was able to finally visit up close the "swoosh" (you have to imagine the hand gesture that goes with that)...aka the Air Force Memorial:
Washington Monument in the background:
Proof that I was there:

The Medal of Honor Recipients are engraved at one end:

And lastly, my favorite photo:
BTW - if you find yourself in the area...there's a great Ethiopian restaurant (Dama) just down the road...with awesome vegan pastries:)

And now for something completely different...

...lion cubs! Awww

Crowds viewing the 7 new lion cubs at the National Zoo:
Picture with the most lions:
Following the Mammas around:The cubs were very playful, just like domesticated kittens:
Proud Pappa:
Let's pounce on him:
However they chew on stuff like puppies:
Even Momma chews on things:Waiting for the bell to ring promptly at 1:30 to be let back inside:
(for my DC friends, the best time to view the cubs is from 12:30-1:30pm)

The zoo has other babies...although sometimes people forget. The day I was there was also the 1st bday for the Andean cubs:
Playing with their bday present:

And what's a trip to the zoo without visiting the miniature donkeys!

Day 12 - A Mosque, A Church, and A Synagogue

Our final day in Egypt, we visited the Mosque of ar-Rifai. Then we went to Old Cairo to see the oldest Christian Church in Egypt and the Ben Ezra Synagogue. Here is one of the beautiful windows at the mosque:
Highlight of the day...learning that even cats are allowed to come in and pray in a mosque:)As the sun set and the lights of Cairo turned on, I had to pack for my early departure the next morning (4:30 pickup at the hotel!)
More pics from our last day:

What a wonderful trip I had, and it was fun re-living it a year later to post about it here!

Day 11 - Egyptian Museum, Hard Rock, Cairo Tower

Back in Cairo, we spent the morning at the Egyptian Museum (shown below). Could have spent days there. Of course, no pictures allowed inside, but we saw more King Tut artifacts (that weren't still in the tomb or traveling around the U.S.), and many other impressive items. Different than museums in the U.S., nothing was labeled to explain what it was. Good thing we had an Egyptologist with us to tell us about certain items.
We had the afternoon to ourselves, so we headed to Cairo Tower, the highest point in Cairo. It's a radio tower with an observation deck with spectacular views of Cairo.
We walked there from our hotel, but roads were almost impossible to cross. Here's a pic I took as we ran across a multi-lane road:
Highlight of the day...No, not having lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, but seeing a poster in the lobby from the 930 Club's first show:
More photos:

Day 10 - Abu Simbel!

Here's the view from my room on the boat, what a way to wake up in the morning!
The night before was our last night on the boat. In the morning we drove through the desert to go to Abu Simbel. Here's the Nile 2 that the Egyptian government is constructing parallel to the real Nile River, to create new places to live for the every growing population:
Highlight of the day (and whole trip for me!)...Abu Simbel! I wrote a report about this temple in middle school and had wanted to visit it ever since. This is another one of the temples saved from being flooded by Lake Nassar, and the most famous. The temple was built into the side of a mountain, and when they moved it to a higher elevation, they moved the whole mountainside too. The inside was absolutely amazing...but of course, no photos.
That afternoon, we flew back to Cairo. Here's the view from our hotel room for the last few days in Egypt:More photos:

Day 9 - Kom Ombo, Aswan, Philae

Here's our boat:
On this day we started at Kom Ombo Temple. This is the only temple where crocodiles were depicted as gods. 60 crocodile mummies were found near this temple.
Once we reached Aswan, we visited a limestone quarry. This is were much of the building material for the temples/pyramids downstream came from. Here is an unfinished obelisk which they abandoned in place since it had a crack in it:
Later in the day, we went to the Temple of Philae in Aswan. This was one of 23 temples that were saved when the Aswan dams were constructed. It was taken apart, stored in a gigantic warehouse, a new island was built up to create higher ground, and then the entire temple site was reconstructed.
Bob Marley is popular everywhere!Highlight of the day...seeing the Aswan High dam, one of the engineering marvels of the world. When it was finished, it created Lake Nassar, the largest man-made lake in the world.
More photos here: