The continental United States has so much to offer!

Phew! Traveling takes a lot out of you... money, energy, patience with crying children. I'm sure you're all familiar. I came home yesterday from a weekend in DC visiting Lauren and Susan, (Steph and Mel were there, too). That city is really spectacular, so much history. It's overwhelming really. And its even more overwhelming to come home and have to study for your first PhysicsII test, ugh. It is very nice to be finally sitting still. One of my favorite parts of Haiti was the day we got to climb a mountain. I challenge you now to go to the tredmill and put it on the maximum incline...then, imagine that doubled. I felt like I was scaling the mountain, not walking up it. And don't think for a second that coming down was easier, your legs were exhausted and you had to use every amount of control you could to muster to keep yourself from not falling forward down the path. It was called the Citadel, at the bottom was the Fort of Christof, the self-proclaimed "King of the North" in the early 1800's. The one thing we learned was that he killed himself with a silver bullet, before the French had the chance. Above, that is the castle where he lived and we hiked up to the Fort he was attempting to build--he's buried somewhere in there, no one knows where. Kind of creepy, right? There were just mountains everywhere, they never ended. The view was breathtaking. The little make shift hut there jutted out of the mountain--imagine being the guard who stood watch there. Comfy accomidations! The unbelievable part is that all the bricks had to be carried up there, individually, and I'm pretty positive they didn't have the paved path back then. Hiking in a skirt was not my finest moment, either, but it felt so good to get to the top. The fort was massive, equipped with canons everywhere you looked! (We really freaked out our tour guide when we all opted to pick up canonballs. When was the last time you had a chance to pick up a canon ball from the 1800's...I thought so.) The details in everything were so intricate. Too bad they never got to use the fort, it wasn't even officially completed! Beth was our daredevil, walking to all the edges and looking down. Even our tour guide felt uneasy with how close she got, on the other hand, Anna and I stayed at least 15 feet away from any major edges. Please note in the picture below, that is as close as we could get to the edge of the fort. Check out the view behind us, and imagine the cliff down! I'm not a baby, I'm cautious. (yes, I am highly encouraging you to look at the view...not me, or my outfit in these pictures.) As you can tell, I am having a lot of trouble getting these pictures well organized on here. They pick where they want to go and I am apparently forced to type around them. There were so many pictures from up there, even though my camera died about 3/4ths of the way through. I felt like I was on top of the world, a world with an infinite amount of lessons to teach me. To think I've been home for two weeks already and its still so fresh on my mind! Maybe its the Malaria pills, but I hope the touch of Haiti doesn't wear off any time soon... Love from wherever in the US I happen to be this week...