Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Spring Break DC Vacation, Day 6



This is what I did on Thursday morning. 
I went to watch the sunrise by the Cherry Blossoms.
Christopher woke me up at 5:30 with a fever, crying because he was coughing, wanting oils and cough medicine.  That's how pitiful he was, he even wanted the medicine.  
I had gone out for drinks the night before with my friend, and she asked if I was going to go downtown for the Flowers.  I had never been to Washington D.C. during Cherry Blossom Festival.  This was my first time. And it just happened that the flowers would be blooming during our visit, because the winter had been so mild.  I had though about going Thursday or Friday to avoid the weekend crowds. Truthfully though, I was the only one that cared about seeing the flowers.   Each of us was getting to do their own 1 thing, and the flowers were to be mine. But when Chris woke me up early, rather than go to back to bed, which I knew I'd have trouble doing, I got dressed, and drove downtown in the dark by myself, and found the Tidal Basin by the Jefferson Memorial, so I could watch and photograph the sunrise.  I knew we wouldn't get down there together, it's a good bit of walking around the basin. I was in a jacket, with gloves, and it was 29 degrees outside.  It was Crazy. I was Crazy.  But the whole thing was Crazy Awesome. 


I staked out a great spot where I could see the Jefferson Memorial, and the Capitol, with a view of Cherry Blossoms in every shot I took.  


The sun rises with Jefferson.
I couldn't tell exactly where the sun was going to rise, I didn't expect to see it Through the Memorial. 
Lisa and I used to call this the deodorant because of the rounded top. But hardly anyone uses round topped deodorant anymore, Chris didn't recognize it.   Still, this took my breath away when the sun rose. My Grandma knew the man who was the hand model for the statue of Jefferson, he lived next door.  She would tell that story over and over, every time we saw the Memorial.  I missed having around to tell us that same old story when I went down by myself.  I missed having my Dad around on this trip.  But he was in Iceland while we're in DC.  Our postcards must've passed each other. 


And then the sunlight hit the cherry blossoms, and they glowed.  
My Favorite. 


Gorgeous!  


After the sun hit the Jefferson Memorial, I began to walk around and explore a bit for different angles, and to find the sun. 


They were even more lovely when the sun hit.  


Let the sun rise.

The flowers glow with the Monument in the background.  
It's just so Beautiful.  


As the sun rose, the Cherry Blossoms showed off their lovely pink and white. 
This was the path less traveled by the FDR Memorial. 
This was a new monument to me, they were building it when I was here in 1997 with Eric. 


We're not allowed to pick any blossoms. So I didn't.  But I found one bloom on the ground, so I picked it up and pressed it in a map that I had in my purse.  That doesn't count, if it came off the tree naturally, right?!


The Washington Monument against the Cherry Blossoms,


I turn about 45 degrees, and see the Jefferson Monument through the Cherry Blossoms. 


Ready for a Cherry Blossom closeup!



I felt so lucky to be here.  Cold. But Lucky. 
It was so cold my fingers went numb, and I wasn't sure if my pictures were snapping. 


Sunrise Panorama of D.C. with Cherry Blossoms. 



Once I walked toward the sunlight, the flowers really started to pop. 
I still couldn't feel my hands, but I wanted to capture myself in the feeling of being surrounded by the beautiful Cherry Blossoms. 


Gorgeous.  
The original 3000 trees from Japan are over a hundred years old.  
But their babies are being planted all over D.C, and after WWII a number of cultivars were sent back in Japan to help repopulate their decimated supply. 
We had been able see cherry trees all over D.C. 
I kept asking Eric, think that's a cherry tree.  The odds are that it was! 

*All my Cherry Blossom photos from this morning's trip are unedited.  I figure I have years to mess around with them, but in the mean time I wanted to get the Blogging done while it was all fresh in my head.  They were so Beautiful in real life, I don't even need to edit.*

Meanwhile, after I came back to our Apartment, Chris was still feeling puny. 
So Eric took the littler boys to the Udvar-Hazy Smithsonian Air and Space Museum,
 I kept misnaming it.  Let's just call it Air and Space, Part Deux.  It's a chain of hangers out by the airport, big enough to house the few planes that are too big to fit in the Smithsonian Air and Space downtown.   While they were at the Space Museum, Chris watched cartoons, and I was so cold, I curled up under the covers and fell asleep. 

The next few pictures are from Eric.


Jake and Sam get a photograph down the bath. 
There's a black B-2 bomber right behind the boys.  And there's the Space Shuttle down the way over their heads.   The bomber was used in the most recent Transformers movie, which the boys didn't see.  But it was one of those Stealth Bombers, very very cool. 


The Space Shuttle Discovery. 
Note all the space damage.  How cool is that?!  It's amazing to see the tiny panels that make up the Space Shuttle, and how much of a beating they take.  This thing flew like 5 million miles in it's few years, and Eric can tell you more, but it's pretty flipping awesome.


The Space Shuttle is Huge. 
Honestly, I'm really jealous that they got to go see it.  
I got a nap.   So that's not too shabby either. 


Eric used the Panorama feature of his phone. 
It makes the center of the ship look a little rounded but it's the whole shuttle.  
The thing barely fit in one shot. 


Next to the hangers, is a viewing station. 
At the top, the kids could see planes taking off and landing at Dulles right next door. 
Let's pretend to tell the planes where to go! 

After their adventures, the little boys came home, and everyone napped again! 
I had been so cold earlier, bundling up under the covers was the only way for me. 
I got two naps on Thursday.  That's a Vacation right there! 

After naps, and supper, I talked the boys into one more drive. 


I wanted to see my Grandpa's house on Overlook Dr. 
It's in better shape than my Grandma's house.  Hers had been demolished.  



After our adventure, we came home, and finished the movie Trolls.  
When we don't have a ton of room for Family Movie Night, we make it work. 
How cute are these yahoos?!  

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