For a while, as March was doing its "lion-lamb" thing, I began to think that the first true harbringer of spring was going to be the painted toenails popping out of the flip-flops on the Metro. But it appears that Washington women have hysteresis, and weather warm enough for open toes in the fall is still too cold to break out the sandals for the spring. And so the blossoms beat the toenails.
While many had feared that the temperate weather of December and January, which caused the pink blossom cherries around the Smithsonian on the Mall to prematurely blossom during the Karney's visit, followed by the wicked storms of February might have confused the famous trees of Washington, the biologists said never to fear. And, right on schedule for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival of early April, DC burst into bloom.
It began last week of March with the magnolias. The old Smithsonian Castle gardens are ringed with them, just as is the fountain of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton that Marilyn and I used to love in spring. From the fourth floor windows of the Forrestal Building, with only occasional glances when I interacted with DP-1's chief of staff, I had not recognized them as magnolias and thought they were pink cherries. Only on Friday the 30th as I walked through the gardens on my way to dinner, and discovered they were already losing many of their petals, did I recognized my mistake.
That Friday evening was a great night. The weather was perfect, and Washington DC was showing itself as the second most beautiful city in the world (after Paris - leave it to the French to design a city). Marilyn had stolen Susie from school a few minutes early and, along with Elizebeth, they had gone to Georgetown to get Susie's hair done. We met up at Oyamel, a Mexican cocina on 7th serving lots of little foods - wonderful tacos, scallops, cactus salad, hearts of palm salad, etc. in sizes to share and with the most wonderful subtle flavors. I had eaten at their old location in Crystal City but by myself during a business trip a year ago, and had wanted to bring a "date" to share the food with when they reopened downtown. The ladies had looked extrememly "hot" walking glamorously down 7th from the Galleria Metro stop towards me, fashionably dressed and happy. As usual, getting to dinner early meant no waiting and a great meal, and we made it to the Ford's Theater with enough time. We saw a performance of the world's premiere engagement of "Meet John Doe," a new musical based on the old Frank Capra movie story. Very singable music, a couple of really good songs Marilyn will take back to College of Santa Fe with her, a terrific lead actress, perhaps one show-stopping-song-at-the-end short of a Tony Award for her when it makes Broadway. Marilyn really liked it and we all enjoyed it. Then home, bed, and the next morning...
cleaning. Lots of cleaning, for Baumgartner South was coming for a visit. I cooked chicken cacciatore in bulk for our coming visitors, which made the house have a nice smell. I also worked hard on our taxes, made complicated this year by the move, renting our house in Santa Fe, two states, a new car, switching financial institutions, etc. But I did get them done and electronically submitted before we left on spring break the following Wednesday.
Don, Kathy, Jessica, Lucas, Lance, Lauren Jean, and Kathy's folks Jean and Harley came to visit us and see New York City and the Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C. They flew into Islip on Long Island and started in New York City, and then traveled down to DC where eventually they would leave from Dulles. For family and friends I show some of their pictures without too much commentary.
They, of course, made the pilgrimage out to the Statue of Liberty. I have a similar picture of me and my sister on the Staten Island Ferry, in 1961, Cindy in a dress and me in a suit and tie. Times sure are different - thank god for the Beatles.
They had sandwiches and cheesecake at the Carnegie Deli, and saw Lion King that night.
On Saturday they toured around, especially in Central Park, getting a great picture done of the kids.
That night they took the train down to Union Station, and Marilyn and I picked them up and got them home on the Metro.
The next morning Marilyn did 5 shuttle trips out to Dulles Airport taking carfulls to and fro from the Steven Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum. The museum is part of the Smithsonian and thus free; the parking is $12, but she never parked and just kept dropping off and picking up.
I went out first with Don, Jessica, and Lucas. It is a HUGE T-shaped hanger, with a space shuttle (the "Enterprise" that was used for flights and landing tests but never outfitted for space), a Concorde, and many war and sport and record-setting airplanes. I loved the SR-71, the astronaut floating in space next to the shuttle, and the little glider that made it to over 49,000 feet. Kathy, Jean and Harley arrived next - Lucas and Lauren had decided to stay home and play with their cousins. After Marilyn had taken Susie to an afternoon party and run some errands, she came back and started bringing us home. Fortunately she had a book-on-CD to which she listened.
That afternoon after lunch we regrouped and headed to walk around the Tidal Basin and see the blossoms. It was an overcast day, but only the tiniest of sprinkles and the blossoms were great.
They don't have any smell, but we kept trying.
For the first time we got to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, which was pretty cool. Note the "I Hate War" blocks matching a saying on a wall but broken on the ground. Very symbolic place. Marilyn will love it when she takes Dad.
We did everything in the great circle: Jefferson, Lincoln, Korean, Vietnam, and WWII.
"He's got the whole, monument, in his hands."
Meanwhile, Marilyn had had to stay home, and late in the afternoon she went out to Dulles and got Susie's best friend from Santa Fe, Adrienne Newhall, who arrived to spend spring break with us. Adrienne had been due to arrive Friday night, but airline delays in the Midwest would have made her flight the "last" of the day and as an unaccompanied minor the airline would not take her. So the earliest she could come was Sunday.
When we got home we got pots of pasta going, heated up the cacciatore, made a salad and some garlic bread, and quickly had a feast for all going.
Don, Harley, and I were up by 5am and went downtown by 7:15 am and got into the Bureau of Printing and Engraving line and got tickets for everybody (except me) for the 10 am tour. But while we ran over to the Washington Monument line, when they opened for tickets a half-hour later we were too far back and they sold out. The rest of the people came later.
The tour of the "money factory" as they call it was fun. The view from there over the tidal basin as well as on the Mall provided Marilyn with her opportunity to take in the blossoms that she had missed the day before. Marilyn made and packed a picnic for everyone to eat under a beautiful tree on the Mall - I missed out by still being at my Executive Office Building meeting the rest of the morning. Then they did the movie at the White House Visitor Center.
While the adults went to the Holocaust Museum, Marilyn played with the kids on the Mall and then fed them junk food at the Natural History Museum. Everybody met up there and saw some sights. They went back the following day as well, I think, it being one of the best kid museums in town.
That night we made tacos and fajitas for all. We didn't let Don and Kathy eat out at any of Washington's restaurants, but made them eat in all the time. Of course, with 13 people we think this was a blessing both in time and healthy food!
The whole group including Susie and Adrienne toured the Capitol thanks to Senator Larry Craig of Idaho. I asked them to bring me back a potato, and they brought me a potato pin for my suit just as I remembered from my visits in 1972!
Marilyn and Elizebeth joined them and brought a picnic lunch again, and they saw the Botanical Gardens and then the Air and Space Museum (and the American History exhibit there). Don tried to take Lucas and Lauren to the Spy Museum, but the lines were too long in the late afternoon. The others went back to the Natural History Museum and saw the 3D lion movie.
Meanwhile, late in the day Adrienne got Marilyn and Susie to take her to Georgetown.
That evening was salmon and green beans and salad and sweet potatoes, which everyone gobbled straight down. We set up slide shows of the photos from the trip downloaded so far, and enjoyed watching that and the Cinderella DVD.
I had a visiting dignitary that I picked up at Dulles at 7am and took to breakfast, dropped the car off at the house and said good-bye to all, and took my guest downtown for his day of briefings. Jessica really wanted to see the "National Aquarium" (not the one in Baltimore necessarily, but the small one in the Commerce Department) and they had "forgotten" to do it during their "14th Street" day on Monday. So some of them went down on the Metro in the morning to see it. Meanwhile our three girls were taken out to "the mall" (aka Tyson's Corner Mall, not to be confused with "the Mall") with money and energy to spend it. Marilyn shuttled her brother's family out to Dulles and said good-bye, and we all got home about 3pm to pack.
We packed efficiently and were on the road a little after 4pm. Traffic was pretty light going out I-66, and the trees were beautiful in spring. We arrived at the Woodstone condos in Massanutten about dusk and moved in. The girls used the hot tub in our bedroom, and everybody tried the new facial mask stuff Susie got at the "Lush" store in Georgetown.
On Thursday the girls went to the Massanutten Water Park, a huge water park entirely under a glass roof so that even in the worst weather you can have a fun day in the water.
Then on Friday we drove over the Blue Ridge and down to Charlottesville to Jefferson's home Monticello. I got weirded out by the slave issue.
But the trees were beautiful. We had a 1950's like little buffet lunch at the old Mitchie Tavern near-by, did the movie in the visitor center, and headed north.
We connected with Adrienne's uncle Dave, who had driven out highway 29 from Falls Church, in Warrenton and said goodbye to her. (She left the car right at the climax of the book we were all listening to, and had to anxiously await a phone call report about how it all turned out.) We then drove, in the dark, back over the Blue Ridge and to our condo, as the snow began to fall.
---Cris
On our way back from Mannasutten Marilyn "forced" us all to go to Luray Caverns. We were so reluctant that we forgot the camera in the car. But it was really cool and we all enjoyed it very much, and had to buy postcards and scan them in for our scrapbook.