President Bush was fleeing the Beltway. He understands there's more to America than the partisan politics of Washington, DC.

We were fleeing the New Circle. We understand that to know your way forward, you must often take a step back.

So we sat on the beach, swam in the ocean, and caught (and then ate) an abundance of crabs. We also held meetings with important guests. There was an aide to a Senator, a couple animal rights activists, a union man, two big shot media types, and even an anthropologist.

We talked a lot about Lexington; about where we are and where we are going. We crafted important new initiatives which we'll be unveiling over the next few weeks.

But just like a normal non-working vacation our time at the beach was over too soon, too quickly. In eighteen hours we went from the Atlantic coast to Woodland Park, a couple hours sleep jammed in between. Suddenly we were back in Lexington, right smack in the center of an art fair and 20,000 fairgoers.

Thanks for The Lexington Art League we had prime real estate. We set up a gallery of our photos, handed out disposable cameras, and took pictures of all who were willing (and maybe a few that weren't -- view them in the galleries).

We talked to a steady stream of neighbors, Lexingtonians stopping by our spot in the blazing August sun, introducing themselves, sharing their stories.

The ocean was nice, vacation was great, but it's good to be home. We can work all we want on vacation but the real work, the hard work, must be done here in Lexington. Our year is dwindling down, the deadline approaches, we must stay the course. This is not an artificial timeline -- it is one year in the life of a city.