Every couple of steps, Meng puts the umbrella aside and holds up her camera to document this journey she's on.
Meng takes photographs of the eternal flame at the gravesite, Gen. Robert E. Lee's house on the hill and the storm shrouded view of the nation's capitol.
This chance to see the nation's capital for Meng and many of the others of the Hamilton-based Montana A Cappella Society happened because of a tree.
On Tuesday, the 17 performers will don their period garb and huddle together near the 78-foot, 144-year-old subalpine fir standing on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol building and add their voices to the celebration of the lighting of this year's Capitol Christmas Tree.
They'll join other Montanans who've made the journey to the Capitol to take part in this piece of history. Organizers are guessing there will be somewhere close to 100 who make the trip.
The tree was cut several weeks ago in the Bitterroot National Forest in an event that brought more than 600 people into the woods on a fine and sunny day.
After the tree left Hamilton, it took a 2,000-mile long circuitous route across Montana where thousands more in almost 20 different communities held parades and ceremonies in its honor.
In total, the tree traveled 4,200 miles in its three-week long journey across the country.
The Bitterroot tree is standing straight now on the West Lawn. Its branches are decorated with 5,000 ornaments handmade by Montanans and somewhere close to 10,000 energy-saving LED lights.
The official lighting ceremony is set for Tuesday, Dec. 2 at 3 p.m. MST.
U.S. Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester will be joined by U.S. House Rep. Denny Rehberg, Gov. Brian Schweitzer and U.S. House Rep. Nancy Pelosi.
Chris Gabrielsen, a fourth-grader from Havre, won a statewide drawing. He'll join Pelosi, the House speaker, in “flipping the switch” to light the tree for the first time after the Montana A Cappella Society sings the holiday favorites “Winter Wonderland” and “Let it Snow.”
“I can't even imagine what it's going to be like,” said Shelly Loranger, of Hamilton. “We've all worked so hard to get here ... it makes it all so exciting.”
For a year, members of the group have given up their Saturdays to sell baked goods at the local farmers market. They've hosted pancake feeds, sold raffle tickets and sang at all sorts of different venues.
“We've said all along that we were going to get to Washington, D.C., one cookie at a time,” said Don Matlock, Montana A Cappella Society's artistic director. “Right from the very beginning, we decided that everyone who wanted to go should be able to.”
That meant the group needed to raise close the $25,000 - no small feat in a small community like the Bitterroot Valley.
By the time it was over, the group had raised more than $19,000 in cash and a total of $30,000 counting in-kind donations.
“We found a lot of support for us in the Bitterroot,” Matlock said. “We feel like we are the Bitterroot's group. It's an honor to be representing them at this ceremony.”
The group had hardly landed in Washington, D.C., before it was singing at the first of the eight performances it had scheduled over three days.
And those performances won't likely be the only places their voices will fill the air.
On Sunday morning, before they arrived at the Robert E. Lee National Memorial for a scheduled performance, the group brought smiles to people milling through a motel lobby and others riding the Metro.
“This group loves to sing,” said Matlock. “They will sing literally anywhere at the drop of a hat.”
But this opportunity to sing on a national event is something that rarely comes along.
“I've never been to Washington, D.C., before,” Loranger said. “Last night when we were coming into the airport, I couldn't help but gasp when I saw the light shining on the Washington Monument.
“It almost seems like it's not real,” she said.
Staring out of window at Gen. Robert E. Lee's home above Arlington Cemetery, Loranger said she's been trying to imagine what the lighting ceremony will be like.
“Are they going to have a countdown? I know that a young boy from Havre is going to flip the switch, but I just don't know what to expect,” she said. “And that just makes it all the more exciting ... it's such a huge honor. We're all so happy to be able to be a part of it.”
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