A visit from Jean and Kurt!!!!

Before showing the photos of the trip, I have decided to be a true blogger by creating a bullet list of the highlights of having Kurt and Jean around:

• Jean kept telling us that "Everybody likes sausage, but nobody wants to see how it's made!" This came up in a variety of situations -- and I'm not sure I ever really understood the implications.
• I probably saw about 400 Mick Jagger impersonations from the Mike, Jean and Kurt over the last week. They challenged each other to do their "best Jagger" at random times and locations across the east coast. This is a family that loves their Rolling Stones, I guess!
• I'll spare you the details, but there where some great, classic, Kurt pun jokes involving Idaho Spuds, and the Megalodon jaws (pictured below with the other Aquarium pics) just to name a few.
• We watched a lot of really bad movies together. Nothing brings families together like Science Fiction and Horror B-Movies.
• Mike and I wondered what would be the one thing about our life in Winchester that would most surprise his parents. It turned out to be spray butter.
• Jean and Kurt headed down to Shenandoah National Park one day when both Mike and I had to go to school. They came back laughing at the accent of the folks down there in the town Front Royal -- which the natives call "Front Roll." For some reason the interaction with the locals here brought out Kurt's Oklahoman accent pretty strongly. It was funny.
• Jean and Kurt went shopping at our little walking mall here in Winchester, and they made friends with all of the salespeople in a way I've never seen before. We now have a close personal relationship with Eugene, the artist selling his paintings, and especially with Phil, the shoe guy. It's a Francis talent!

These are the cozy, cluttered conditions that Jean and Kurt moved into for a week. They're such good sports! They slept every night on this blow up mattress in our living room and shared the one tiny bathroom with us... and you know what? It was great. As Jean said "I think we cohabitated pretty well!" What good vacation doesn't start with a classy breakfast buffet? Right? Kurt saw this Shoney's on the way into town and kept bringing it up until finally we all decided that we would just have to wake up one morning and go see for ourselves if it could live up to the St. George Shoney's legend. A large pony-tailed man in a gray tank top ahead of us in line grossed us all out and left Kurt disappointed with the experience. Sad day! After spending a day wandering around Winchester and seeing the sights here, we headed into the big city. We went to the Smithsonian, the National Holocaust Museum, and then to the monuments at the National Mall. (Notice how often Mike and I are eating something in these pictures. Man, we are pigs.) Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we mostly just hung around the house, the walking mall, and... of course... the Walmarts. Once we got Mike all to ourselves we headed to Baltimore to see the National Aquarium. Then out on the town for some sampling of the food: Tapas and Cheesecake. We kept seeing interesting restaurants around the Inner Harbor. I think we ate at four different places within an hour or so. It was awesome! Why not?! After Baltimore we headed into DC again. We went to the temple and then drove around old town Alexandria. The next morning they had to head out to the airport. Before they took off, however, we wanted the world to know about the cool alter-egos that these two had while driving their rented Dodge Charger. Check out Jean's face in the first picture. Too funny. Then we had to say our sad goodbyes.

Thanks for coming Jean and Kurt!!!!