Washington, D.C. 

Gallaudet University

Alex with his good friend, Jon.  They were old roommates at Gallaudet.  He recently hiked the Appalachian Trail and said he would love to help out with orphans in the future.  We hope he will!  

At Fairfax church givin' the presentation.  This is where Alex interred for a year and a half.  

Nice church family!  

Alexa with Jason/Jasmine Bard's adorable daughter!  

This is David Hinckley, one of the elders at Fairfax and Alex's old "boss".  

Potluck time!!!

With Cindi Cesone, who would later host us.  We stayed first with Nancy Rarus (the one with pugs) and then stayed with the Cesones.  

At the Cesones' home.  This is Dennis and Cindi's adorable daughter, Kayla.  She is 9 years old and very bright.  We would love for all of the orphans to grow up to be like her!  They were playing scrabble on iPad.  

Dennis, the man of the house!  Cookin' up some delicious brats.  

couldn't agree more.  

Nice drawing by Kayla!  

Father and Daughter.  

This picture was taken very early in the morning - just as Dennis was ready to go off to work and us off to Canada after our time at Fairfax.  We sure do miss them.  We had a lot of coffee, tea, and organic food!  

Somewhere near Erie.  It started to snow hard, but we persevered and the Lincoln took us through the storms.  

Buffalo!  No beautiful mountains or anything.  Just plain ol' Buffalo.  

The Canadian border!  Big difference from the Mexican border in San Diego.  It was sunny and hot there, but it's cold and snowy here.  Which one would you prefer to go through?  

More to discover!  What's beyond those pine trees, hmm?  Maybe a moose or a bear?  

Our car in its resting place.  It's carried us for well over 7,000 miles!  

Alexa making some relay calls.  No VP services in Canada!  Alexa is hissing at me for taking a candid picture of her.  

Right now, it's a Christmas break, as I am sure you all are having right now.  We will use this time to relax, recover from the road trip, and to spend time with Alexa's family.  What's up next is language lessons in Romanian and Ukrainian, and contacting people in Europe to make plans for our next big trip.  But right now, it's just restin' time!  :)  

One of the four bridges in Louisville, KY. It was a cold, cold but crisp morning and Alexa loves them :)

With Alexa liking her cold, cold and crisp mornings (yes, because she's from Canada) - Alex is warming himself up in the heat of the sun.

KENTUCKY! Home of the first KFC.

We were suddenly embraced by our wonderful hosts, Steve and Mandi Dye and their cute daughters, they also had a 6'7" son that we never had the chance to meet. We stayed with them the first night we were in Louisville. They served us lasagna and garlic breads. Our "dessert" was having people come over to meet with us from the church.

Steve and Mandi Dye, the first two on the left.  Am sure you can figure that out! 

Recognize this place? 

The famous Kentucky Derby.  Churchill Downs.  This place looked like a church or some kind of Las Vegas hotel.  The sculpture is of Barbaro, a famous horse that died in 2007 because he broke his leg.  His ashes is at the bottom of the sculpture.  Alexa thinks it's sad and that the leg could have been healed.  

University of Louisville Stadium.

Alexa and Mandi.

At the front of the Louisville Slugger Museum!  This was a HUGE bat.  Props to Mandi for getting this difficult shot!  She almost cramped her leg doing it.  

Alex holding a bat that was used by Mickey Mantle!  He had to use white gloves to keep the bat holy, we guess.  

Wanna proof?  Here it is! 

Babe Ruth!  He was resurrected in the museum.  He's looking at one of his homers.  

Inside the factory where they make the bats.  To the right of the guy in the blue shirt, you can see the wooden sticks piled up in a cart. 

The glove probably belonged to the same guy who owned that huge bat outside of the museum.  

Alex - "It's cold!"

  Alexa - "What are you talking about?  It's hot in Louisville!  I'm from Canada, remember?!"

Alex and the Metal Dude go way back.

The church that we were going to visit to present our mission trip were so generous that they gave us a room at Park Inn for two nights and included room service! 

Steve and Alex. The two jokers.  :)
(Yes, they often joked around and it was nice that they had each other for this purpose.)

At the Christmas dinner, they had a chili contest and this is the line! Pretty long, eh? 

Nothing but pure joy.

The Chilis! They were all good!

We had a neat room that looked like a warehouse but was decorated with Christmas stuff and lights. Very pretty.

Alexa enjoying herself.

Alex giving his presentation, can you guess what he's saying? Yup. :)
He introduced the presentation with a "Congratulations, you all are RICH!"

The christmas party started at 6:00pm and ended nearly midnight and guess whose car was left on the lot!

Asleep at the wheel, eh?! 

The Beauty of "Wild and Wonderful" West Virginia.

 Into Maryland.  Alex's birthplace and boyhood home.  

We pulled over at a scenic outlook in Maryland for our legs to stretch and hiked a 440 feet trail  to the view. Alexa was sad because the bears stayed in their caves.

Then we finally arrived at Nancy Rarus' house and she was ready to feed us with her famous taco. We immediately felt at home and her house was filled with christmas decorations and it was quite cozy!

Nancy with one of her "tongue-sticking" pug!

Yes, she has not one, not two but THREE of them. Their names are Adam, Eve then came Pugsley. :)