Alexandria, VA at Christmas time 12-10

Rod had a Academy meeting in Alexandria at the beginning of December. I had heard how beautiful this little town is at this time of year, so I went along. I had the best time. The bear trees where all decorated with tiny white lights, all the lamp posts had garland wrapped around them and the weather was crisp and sun shiny every day. Perfect!

Walking along the quaint streets, I often stop and talk with the locals...fun! There was to be a Scottish parade on Saturday morning, then the boats are decorated for Christmas and parade down the Potomac River for all to see. How exciting! I caught a glimpse of the morning parade and have "never" seen so many men in skirts before, really! Sooo many different colored plaid skirts, with hairy legs and tattoos showing below it. Really funny : } I had to watch where I was going to keep from stumbling from starring : }

Later that night, right on the dock, we had dinner at this restaurant so we could watch the parade of decorated boats sail by.

Can you see the manger scene, followed by one of the Kings on his camel, then another King walking [3 different boats]

There's Santa and his sleigh and reindeer

So beautiful and colorful

We took the trolley back to the hotel afterwards.

I do a different self tour when I'm there. This one was to one of the oldest churches in Alexandria. It's where President Washington actually attended. Since then, "every" president has come at least once to visit except Clinton, Nixon and Obama. The white corner stones are the original stones!

The sanctuary. The 2 gold large plaques are the original ones placed in the church when it was built. One is The Our Father and the other is The Ten Commandments. Note where all those people are sitting!!

This is that box! Where the President and his family would sit every single Sunday. I sat in the spot where Eleanor Roosevelt sat..cool!

Each block of seats is bought by parishioners. It was their way of making sure enough money came into the church to make ends meet. So each family went into the same box each week. The Presidents block is the only one with 2 numbers on the entrance doors. As they had initially numbered each block, the president ended up with number 59 and that upset everyone because it was an odd number. Un-thought of back then! So they added number 60 to his block of seats and everyone was happy with the even number : }

There was no heat in the church back then, so people were allowed to bring small dogs to sit on their laps to keep them warm, hence "lap dogs" came into existence! This lasted until one dog was taken up to the altar with a lady who wanted to receive communion. The priest dropped the host accidently, the dog ate it and from that point on, dogs were band from church : } Love these tidbits of info!! : }

This is the original chandelier that hung back then. It still only holds candles for light.

These are the grounds outside the church. Just a small cemetery, but the dates on the head stones is what intrigued me. Some dated back to 1807!

One evening the Academy staff took all the executive committee out for dinner, or so we thought. We all boarded a bus and ended up at a golf range. They had reserved 10 tee off boxes for all of the drs. with private golf lessons. COOL!! It was so much fun. While the drs. were "trying" to swing a club, food and drinks were brought out. Great evening! : } This is Dr. David Kennedy. One of dad's very close friends, who also goes scuba diving with us.

Dad getting some private tips on his swing

And boy did those tips work!!