4th of July LIVE from DC with Kirsten Gum

After a few days on Long Island, we jumped back in the car for the 5 hour trip north to Lake George. The trip was easy and made even more enjoyable by our stop at a Bagel Boss location in Jericho, Long Island for snacks. Long Islanders just know how to do bagels. This place had everything... including a salad bar, bakery and hot entrees. Yum. We arrived the lake house at about 5pm and we were in charge of opening the house and preparing for the rest of the family arrivals. We were expecting 17 people... and it is just a lot of work to get all the beds prepared, the lawn cut and the bathrooms cleaned. This is the only bad part of being in a vacation home and not in a hotel. You still have chores! We were up at the lake a few days before I had to fly back to DC for a day to produce Travel Channel's live coverage of the fireworks show on the National Mall in Washington DC. I flew into BWI on July 3rd from Albany and within a few hours was back in the middle of chaos and jolted back into reality and out of my vacation mode. Ugg... I had to do my hair and makeup again! I met up with the crew when I got in for a script meeting and we then all went out for a nice dinner at Oceanaire only a block away from our hotel. Dinner was superb... I had my first bite of pickled herring (my Nana would be so proud) and we enjoyed really nice fish, a couple of nice bottles of wine and some yummy desserts! Exactly what we needed to get us prepared for the crazy day of LIVE programming we had ahead. The next morning, Kirsten and I were up at the crack of dawn and in the gym. We then met in her room for hair and makeup and wardrobe. We had to be on set at 10:30am... and it is always chaos on the day of air. The shoot was fabulous... we were positioned right next to the Washington Monument at 15th and Madison and just spent the day with the crowds assembling for the fireworks display scheduled for that night. Mother nature tried to rain on our parade... but, she held out and we turned out a near perfect show. I am now sitting back at BWI about to board a Southwest flight back to Albany to rejoin my vacation already in progress. I am without internet, phone, TV or cell phone for the next week. I know you will all miss my blogging... I'm sure you will get over it. Happy 4th... Travel On Lori