Birthday Tourii

About 16 years ago today i was feeling pretty lousy - i'd been sent home from my obgyn's office. He didnt think i'd deliver for a few days - it was a Thursday and the dr said why don't we see you on Monday - thinking if i made it through til then well then we'd induce. By April 4th, 1991 i was already 4 days past due.

Like i said i was feelin pretty crummy and the feeling didnt go away. By the time we decided to go to the hospital (a 45 minute drive) and had the person who was watching our son in place - well we barely made it in time. This kid was trying to be born on the drive to the hospital and she barely waited for the doctor to arrive. After all these years i still find it amazing the doctor took so long getting to the hospital. He lived around the corner - but I guess he didnt think i was really ready. Everyone was telling me to hold on - wait for the doctor - but my Lizziebelle. She didn't want any part of that. She appeared at about 11:40 pm. Thee most gorgeous little pink bundle there ever was. I'm getting all misty just thinking about it. Lizziebelle and i were talking just yesterday about her birth - and how the experience of bringing her and her brother into the world was unmatched. Nothing will ever surpass it - for her Dad and me.

OK... I'll stop now :-)

So today we are on spring break and seeing the birthday girl's week is pretty much spoken for (between eye dr. and orthodontist appointments and friend commitments) today was the day we decided we'd go into Washington, DC and take in the Cherry Blossoms and possibly a few of the memorials we wanted to see.

Yes - we are a wild family.

What can i say - we like this stuff.

Unfortunately Mother Nature had plans of her own.

Yesterday it was 81 degrees and glorious

Today was maybe 50 - cold and overcast and it had rained bigtime in DC overnite.

But we are troopers.

We made plans and we were stickin' to'em

We hit the Washington monument (didn't go in - just walked around it to get to the stuff on our list )

The World War II memorial. This is very impressive. When it was being planned and built we kept reading about it in the Washington Post. And it was better than I imagined. Just a beautiful, very meaningful memorial.

At the edge of it is water leading to the big reflecting pool

You know the Reflecting Pool

The big body of water in front of the Lincoln Memorial

Ok ... did you see Forest Gump?

Oh THAT body of water...

Okay so you can walk all along the reflecting pool up to the Lincoln Memorial which was our next stop. Here we are - Birthday Tourii at the Lincoln Memorial.

See the long distance between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln.

Think - sore tootsies.

No

Sore calves.

Before we did the Lincoln we walked over to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. This one always gets me pulling out my tissues. I wore a POW bracelet for years. Some years back we finally went to see this memorial for the first time. They have books set up so you can look up a name you want to find. It lists the location of the name on the wall as well as the birth date and date of death. For all the years i'd worn this man's bracelet i'd always assumed he'd returned home - but i never could find his name listed in the newspaper as troops returned home. Well i was devastated to find his name asterisked as MIA. So today i went looking for him and took a photo of his name on the wall. and i had a little cry. If you could just be there - see all the flowers and photos (laminated with a little write up by some loving family or friend) sitting up against it - well you couldn't help but cry. It is very moving. This photo is from a distance.

We moved on to the Korean War memorial which is also quite impressive - all these statues of soldiers walking. It is something to see. They are life sized. Just past the scope of this photo off to the right is a marble wall with etchings of photos from the time - all faces of people - soldiers, nurses - it is haunting.

Last but not least are the Cherry Blossoms. Quite a big deal here dontchaknow. Warnings on every newscast (presumably for tourii visiting the area? also for ma-roons who live here I suspect) that the National Park service begs you not to climb on them (duh - but people actually put their children in the trees to take photos! i kid you not) and certainly do not pick the blossoms off - You will be fined. (big fines - $500) We were walking along and i heard some woman say to her small boy - don't do that (i didnt see what he was doing) - the Park Ranger is gonna get you. I thought to myself don't give the Park Rangers a bad name. Be a parent. Tell them not to do it because they shouldn't for heavenssake! (Can you tell i have some Park Rangers in my family?)
So it was an exhausting day. We walked for probably 4 hours. I need a nap before cake and ice cream with my birthday girl.