A few days to catch up on! Our last day in DC was both fun, and a disappointment. It rained from the previous night all the way through the day, postponing our baseball game until Sunday when we’ll making the second days trek of the two-day drive home, so that was the major bummer of the day. Poor John, he was so dejected about it, I didn’t think I’d be able to cheer him enough to make other, alternate plans! He just absolutely LOVES baseball, and to come all this way, having already purchased tickets, and it being the main reason we made the trip from PA to DC…well, it pretty much sucked that we didn’t get to see our MN Twins play the Nationals. Crap to that!
Because of the weather, we decided it prudent to plan indoor activities, and luckily for us, DC is a wonderful city to stay indoors! You could tour the museums here for months, seriously. They are just enormous and crammed with stuff. We first went to the Smithsonian Castle, as it was the first thing open. There was a display of photography from the Civil War, mostly of photographic methods of the time, and some very gruesome photos from the front. We then decided to go to the Air & Space Museum, the other one, because yes, there are two of those here. We have already toured this one on a previous trip, along with many of the other museums, but there’s always more to see! While there, we saw an IMAX viewing of The Dream is Alive, following astronauts on different expeditions and showing what life is like up in space. We also caught a really cool planetarium showing called A Journey to the Stars, narrated by Whoopi Goldberg. Starts to really blow your mind, watching how galaxies are born. I found myself thinking deep, thinky thoughts again, but I shan’t rave on about that again. As far as exhibits, we checked out mostly the space related stuff, rather than the airplanes, and they also had a really cool exhibit about navigation that was really neat.
We lunched at a little French-ish place in some office building, opting to venture into the rain to find food rather than line up at the McDonald’s trough filled with a zillion little germy children in the museum café. We had a relaxing time, then gearing up for more people-jostling, we made our way over the Museum of Natural History. My feet were wearing out more quickly with each step, so we alternated wandering around the sea creatures room and the gems displays with sitting every little way. Both exhibits were huge. Again, I cannot express how MUCH STUFF is jammed into these amazing museums!! I was very impressed with the gems, and found myself ogling the shiny things with as much awe as everyone around us. I do like things that sparkle ☺
The museums were great, though it was an angry sea of people in each one. I kept marveling (and perhaps not politely) about the population explosion on this planet. How can others not understand the population problem after just a day at the museum? Think of how many other museums there are, think about India, China, Tokyo, think about their museums, their city centers! There are simply too many feckin’ people on this planet. Just going to the restroom, sitting there listening to a thousand flushes roaring, dryers whizzing on and off with barely seconds between, the rushing of sinks. They must go though a crap-ton of water a day in those places. More than annoying, it made me a little bummy. Our environment, the one fit for human life, is disappearing…and we’re doing it to ourselves. The Earth don’t care, she’ll keep turning whether humans crawl on her skin or ants, dinos or roaches, beasts or alien life we can’t even fathom. Or nothing, but a vast, deserted globe that was once all kinds of beautiful. Sigh. More thinky thoughts.
As an alternate plan to the game, we went and saw Star Trek: Into Darkness (for the second time) at the IMAX theatre at the Natural History Museum. Great, great flick, and best in 3D. We had fun, and I’m glad John consented to the movie because otherwise we would have probably just went back to the hotel where I know he would have moped. Sometimes I’ll sense a gloom about him, and I’ll ask, “Are you doing okay?” and he’ll say, “The Twins lost”. It kind of makes me smile. Baseball is just his thing, and a good or bad game can kind of make or break his day. Not in a weird face- or chest-painter kind of way, but just in that, “Well that’s a big, fat, bummer!” kind of way. I felt really bad about it because he was so looking forward to it, and it would have been another tick off the list of stadiums to visit. We were hoping for at least a few innings to be played, that way we could tour the stadium, have a hot dog, and absorb the atmosphere. And when we left the movie, the damn weather had cleared up! They probably could have played a delayed game. Bastards.
We made our way back to the hotel, and I was too tired to shower all the museum germs off, instead just reading until I promptly fell asleep and didn’t rise til morning, not even to pee my usual six or seven times.
June 9, 2013
Rising early, having our final grub at The Americana, we checked out early and headed back to PA. When we got there, no one was home, but (odd as it is to us city slickers) the door was open, the TV was still on and little Oscar had commandeered the kitchen swivel chair. I searched for clues of teenagedom, and to my excitement, found it! A laptop with music stickers all over it, various bottles of nail polish on every surface, clothes strewn about and a make-up case left out on the vanity in the loo. ASHLEY!!!!!
I was getting worried I wouldn’t be able to see Ashley, and I would have been so bummed not to have seen her. I first met her when she was ten and she and Joan had come to visit Jan, early in her sickness. All the kids (John, Dave, Bill, Jenny & me) took Ashley to the Mall of America and had the best time going on rides, getting her a Build-A-Bear and bumming around like kids do. She was the cutest kid, with this charming little baby face and sweet dark eyes, sassy and impressionable. She loved ribbing the boys, and seemed to take to their humor immediately. I said then that if I could adopt her I would. Now she’s 16, and most of our communication is via Facebook where I read about her boredom, her boyfriends, broken hearts, piercings, tattoos, and various teenage woes. It’s funny how a kid can just capture your heart with fierce talons, like my niece, Fiona, does. I just adore these girls! It hurts when you think about them growing up, and yet, it’s exciting to see them grow, too. We didn’t have to wait too long before they returned, and Ashley seemed a bit shy, but all squee to see us. Pretty soon she was being her sassy self, and we all gabbed a bit, then loaded up in the truck to have a last lunch at the Roadkill Café. It was great to have more time for talking before having to endure the next umpteen hours trapped in the car with Jenny’s farting (that she shares with great pride).
Back at the trailer, we took a few family photos, (I got a silly one with Ashley holding a bottle of wine…in my hooligan style, I had offered her a sip before realizing she’s underage! Whoops, not a good influence!) Joan unloaded half of her novels and cookbooks on me and Jenny, gave us a gorgeous hummingbird table and a froggy mosquito repellant thingy for the balcony, two jugs of homemade wine from some years ago (that aged very well and tasted delicious!) and we shared a decadent dessert she’d made that was cream cheesey, cinnamony heaven! It was hard to say goodbye. I’m not good with goodbyes, and blessedly, Joan and Ashley were very quick, but earnest, with their hugs and we loaded up, waving to them as we pulled back onto the winding road.
The elusive hummingbird!
Here he is in the trees! Can you spot him?
Nothing much to relate about the long, wearisome drive home. We stayed at a Red Roof Inn as the day came to a brilliant, red-orange close, slept well and hit the pavement early. We made good time, and I avoided ALL liquids for the first couple of hours, and still had to pull over a couple-few times! Good lawrdy, I think I finally need to buck up and consent to seeing the urinary specialist, one of several medical appointments I’ve been avoiding like the black death. Joan even offered me one of her bladder pills before we left, I yapped about it so much! I was so tired and had to break down and put a Lipton tea bag in my water as one of my profound I-Haven’t-Had-Any-Coffee headaches came on, and I took a migraine pill (that also contains the miracle that is caffeine), and I felt much better. Being Sunday, the traffic was gloriously light, even in the Chicago area. John, with his mad-monkey navigational skills, found a way around all the scary Chicago-ness, or most of it. There’s no accounting for random nimrods on the road who cut people off like a close shave. Wisconsin, surprisingly, was a nightmare. It started raining, and it seemed that every Midwestern hunter and fishermen were on a rampage to make it home from their weekend carnage. As we approached Minnesota, our glorious state, the sun shone brightly, as if to smile upon our return.
And now we are back, soaking in all the furry-kitty love! Other than Vesta leaving us a travel-protest poop by the bathtub this morning, they have been purring and giving us “happy eyes” since we walked through the door ☺ It is a relief to be home. And now…laundry! Oh, and I'll be posting more photos, maybe even in older posts, because I couldn't upload the ones from my iPhone, so you can check back through the posts to see if there are any new ones. I'm going to try to do them tonight, but sometimes it takes so long, I might have to do some tomorrow, too.
Oh, and did I mention that we found some of the wine that the nudists make? Hell yeah, baby! We picked up four bottles of some delicious looking mead from the Four Quarters! Can't wait to crack into these babies!
Thanks for reading, all! Love & hugs!
R&J
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