Spring Break Overview

At the moment I am sitting by the pool enjoying the hotel's wireless internet, while my kids are enjoying the fact that no one else is swimming. They have the whole pool to themselves. And that treat, my friends, is almost as good as the access they've had to Cartoon Network while we've been on our vacation. (At home the extent of channel options comes down to an antennea on top of the television, so hotel TV has been fun for them over the past week.) I swam with them this morning and am opting for "dry" right now.

After driving through the night to Washington, D.C. last Thursday, we arrived in the District and got started on our tour. We were all tired that first day so after lunch we took a nap in the mall (Maybe we looked like bums, but I didn't care - I needed sleep!) and then we took a bike tour around the monuments and memorials. Here are a couple of pictures of the World War II and Jefferson Memorials.

We were in Washington, D.C. during the Cherry Blossom Festival. One of the highlights for us (especially the kids) was that on Saturday hundreds of people gathered throughout the mall, between the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument, to fly kites. It was so fun to watch the different kites - some simple and others fancy - and to see some very skilled people maneuver their kites through the sky. Of course some of them ended up in the trees.

After the weekend festivities, park personnel went to work setting the kites free. We happened to be in the mall at just the right time and my kids, being the charming children they are, asked for and were given these liberated toys. We spent the rest of that afternoon flying kites and playing catch in the mall. (Technically, Joshua and I really played "throw," since neither one of us did much catching at all!)

And for my new friend at IrrationalLove, who said she misses the cherry blossoms, here's a picture of my family under one of those gorgeous trees. They really are beautiful to see, and they're everywhere! Toward the end of our trip, on a breezy day, we enjoyed the way it was "snowing" cherry blossom petals. You can see them on the ground in this picture. When a good gust of wind came along it really did look like it was snowing. Except for the fact that so many other people had the same idea, this was a great time to visit Washington, D.C.

We kept busy - riding the Metro; visiting monuments, museums, memorials and special places of interest; touring the Capitol Building; explaining to the kids why it was OK for people to protest in front of the White House (and taking the opportunity to talk about respectfully disagreeing); and taking a long walk to and through the Zoo. D.C. was fun and now we're relaxing at a hotel (with a pool!) half-way-to-home.

Once we're back and settled, I'll post about my best memory from the trip - which had nothing to do with Washington, D.C. in particular, but everything to do with God's unconditional love!