With the kids attending day camp, and Alexe ready to pack in some quality time with her mother, I hopped in the Volt and headed into DC to visit some friends.
After a visit to the Kennedy Center and lunch with a good friend at a cafe across the street, I caught up with John. After dinner at Two Amy's, I took John home to his girls.
A couple days of fun puttering, good food, great used book stores, and a couple visits down memory lane. This is Alexe and my first house together in Silver Spring. It didn't feel so small when we lived here. And there was a tree in the front yard. Our rent was $1,650.
This is the block I first lived on in DC, on the East side of Rock Creek Park. It was where my car window was broken and my stereo was stolen, where several people were shot the summer I lived here, and where there was nothing but row houses and dusty church yards with corner liquor stores. Apparently they ripped 80% of this down and built a Giant, a Target, and filled in the cracks with a few generic chain stores. Progress.
John and I said our goodbyes, he went off to a Ferrari thing, and I headed to Georgetown for breakfast and wondering time while I waited for the crew to drive into the city.
In the heart of Georgetown, in the backyard of the oldest house in the area, (open to the public,) there's a bench under the trees that is the perfect spot to crack open a book and waste some time.
Eventually I headed over to the Mall to the Peru festival thrown by the Smithsonian Institute. Alexe and company were caught in traffic, so I wandered around for a little while, watching the rope bridge construction...
Some dancing...
Before I parked myself on the top of a large rock on a street corner and watched the crowds for these two and their mother. I just don't feel right when my family isn't with me.
We explored some of the DC infrastructure while Alexe and Eliza and Sharon stood int he mile long line for the food vendors.
Then, while the ladies were still in line, we went to watch the young folks dancing. For most of this Caspian was on my shoulders, and Annaliese was in my arms taking pictures. They're getting heavy.
a.Eliza playing with her niece.
The festival was a little short on activities for the kids. Alexe went over to the graffiti art wall, and created a painting station for Caspian and some other kids.
The girls headed Eliza's apartment, and Caspian and I grabbed an ice cream cone, and ducked into the Air and Space museum.
The things people have invented, and risked their lives in...
We had a fun time racing through the exhibits, and then Caspian tried a disappearing act in the crowds for the second time, and our visit came to an abrupt end.
For our last evening in DC we all headed back to Two Amy's for the best pizza in America.
The next morning we packed up the Volt, and headed over to our favorite house in Chevy Chase where I lived for a couple years while waiting for Alexe to hurry up and graduate. Maya had left us a way into the house so we could wander through and wax nostalgic while the kids played on the zip line in the front yard.
We packed up again, headed over to the Swiss Embassy to finalize the kids' passports, and then pointed the little Volt North.
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