For those of you like me, who wouldn’t know – this is a subway sign. A for real underground {at one point under-river} subway, not a sign for the sandwich place. I had never been to Washington DC, but I have wanted to go since I was 7 or 8. Which really has been a long time – like 30 years!  It’s just never been an option. I was super, super excited. The trip was just dad, Vince & I; it was really hard to leave Christine behind with mom, but she kept saying she didn’t want to do the mass walking we were going to be doing. We were gone a total of 5.5 days – two of those days were spent traveling.

I don’t remember where we were on that list, but if I remember correctly we were at the bottom – on our way to Woodley Park Zoo. We had just flown for f.o.r.e.v.e.r to get there. It was 12+ hours of straight travel, with 10+ hours in the air. {for those wondering – it is a long way from one end of our country to the other!} When we landed it was midnight for DC, but to our bodies it was only 8pm.  We did go pretty much straight to bed & slept until like 11:30 or 12 the next day – not part of the plan, but obviously our bodies needed it. We also left Alaska needing/wishing for coats & chilly to have 75* in DC. I thought we were going there in fall – boy was I surprised! It was hot and fall hadn’t started yet.

As I fell asleep, I remember anticipating seeing this….

and this….

Oh – it makes me so heart happy to scroll through my pictures and have these.  I didn’t do very well on documenting me there – I think there are 1.5 photos…. oh well, I guess I just need to go back. This time with both Vince & Christine, for more time. Blissful.  I do hope and pray someday this works out.

As wonderful as Alaska is – we don’t have much in the way of long-time history (our state is just 52 years old). The idea of 100’s of years old buildings is mind boggling to me. And they are still standing and fine. I want to spend more time seeing buildings and places, locations, I’ve read and heard about my whole life in history. Someday, please Lord, and could it be during either fall or in the height of spring. I could cry thinking about seeing cherry blossoms on trees or all the changing colors with fields. Lots of all of the above – old buildings; cherry blossoms (or any flowering tree for that matter); and the fall colors of the east coast – along with fields and covered wagons, might as well throw in a few barns too.  Hmmm….might need to go check out some of my Pinterest boards :-D!

{PS: I apologize now if you come to visit and everything looks/is weird.  I’m working on a new look, but I’m learning WordPress at the same time.  My goal is to have this figured out by the end of 31 Days. That is also why every watermark looks different. (I’m keeping the same in each post though) I’m trying to decide what I like….  If something doesn’t work – please drop me a note & let me know.  I doN’T know what I am doing!}

The post 31 Days {Reminiscing & Reflection} appeared first on Flowers&Rust Co..

Today I’m going to post about [Memories]. Even though these are all a year ago, as I went through the pictures I feel as if it just happened. I can see the sights in my mind, smell the air, feel the heat, and hear the sounds. I find it interesting how vivid memories can be [or how vague].

One year ago today, we were packed and ready to leave DC – our flight left at 7AM, or something equally awful. I just remember had to get up about 4AM to get ready, checked out, and take the subway back to the airport during the morning rush hour. Four days using the subway – I was getting used to it – but now we were going to be hauling our luggage & we’d be obvious again [back to the Alaska hick that I am…]  I couldn’t believe our time was already up. I was tired and exhausted. But I missed Christine so much!

Here are a few pictures to recap a bit of our trip:

First of all…this is the hotel where we stayed. It was amazing.beautiful.old.historical!

This hotel has hosted inaugural balls for each president from Roosevelt to Clinton. And it’s absolutely gorgeous! I knew that tiny bit of history and was excited to see it, I was a bit disappointed it had been obviously upgraded, but I suppose I should have expected that. After all, what is a public building without codes & regulations – right :-D? I do have to say – I am really, really thankful I did not know this before staying there. True or not/believe it or not – it would have creeped me out!  That article was written 14 days after we were there!! [Instead I wisely believed all sounds to be normal hotel sounds with water in the pipes.] I did love seeing the old heat registers.  So glad God blinded me to that knowledge prior, especially since there is about a 99.9% chance I’ll not have the opportunity to ever stay there again :-D.  There is another place – near Dupont Circle – closer to the Washington Monument/Capitol/everything else, I really want to stay.

60* outside? Not a problem! Vince did say it was cold getting in, but once he was in he enjoyed it. :-D.

At the end of hiking our-feet-off-two-days-a-row, Vince still wanted to go swimming. Each time I took him to the pool it was basically empty, even at night when it was so pretty.  I’m sure others thought we were nuts. But being Alaskan we’re used to that, using an outdoor pool is a novelty – especially in non-summer months. I sat at the edge and read.

Vince is totally laughing at/mocking me because I absolutely stink at any form of self-photography.

I totally can’t aim the camera….this is like the 10th or more picture – so, ya – this was supposed to be our picture with the Capitol in the background [use your imagination, you’ll see it :-D]

I was desperate enough to have documentation of me actually in DC I let Vince take a picture – and – I’m posting it here. Someday, Lord willing, I will be there again with both Vince & Christine and we’ll have lots of pictures of us all with historical buildings in the background/foreground. The bag I have over my shoulder is my Vera Bradley tote – it weighed about 25 lbs! At this point I was questioning my sanity for carrying it – but I didn’t know what to expect. I was glad to have it for the various trinkets we picked up – it sure beat carrying a plastic bag where the handle might break. But my shoulder & neck were so sore! We were on our way to take a tour of the Capitol, and right after taking these pictures found out we couldn’t go through because we both had water bottles.  We were so disappointed, we tried the next day – planning for the tour, waited in line to get in…just to get in and realize, we didn’t want to be there without Christine. She is the one who LOVES going through a Capitol building. So we visited the gift shop and left, to re-visit when we are all three back there.

 LOOK AT THAT SMILE! This is at the end of four+ hours in the Air & Space Smithsonian.

Makes my heart so happy to see & remember how pleased and excited he was to be there. Since it was just the two of us, he got to call the shots as to where we went, what we saw, how much we travelled and how much we just hung out at the hotel.

I was overwhelmed with just being in Washington DC and I knew we couldn’t do it all – not even close. So, while it was a no-brainer we’d for sure go through the Air & Space – [what he didn’t know until we got there was, we’d stay for as long as he wanted]; but he’d already studied and decided we’d do ‘just’ that one museum and go all over from end-to-end, no matter how many miles we walked. The second day we planned the night before and decided to buy tickets for a trolley to see the sights far apart, it was awesome & totally worth the money. NEXT time, we will buy the tickets ahead online & print them out.  We used a couple hours getting to the office to buy the tickets because we didn’t want to wait for the location by our hotel to open up. [and because we kind-of got lost, but yea for ‘around me’ on the iPhone!] But, I would have liked to do the three day pass and take it all in m.u.c.h s.l.o.w.e.r. Knowing we hope to get back to DC with Christine and then we can take it slower, she’s not a walker. We will see fewer attractions in one day’s time.

Christine would have been sooo bored within a few minutes of the Air & Space museum, but the longer we were there the more excited Vince got. It was an awesome experience for him, and for me as his mom to see his pleasure.

Phew! I’m tired remembering all these things. I want to go back and visit. In fall and in spring. Please, Lord? Someday?

The post 31 Days {Memories} appeared first on Flowers&Rust Co..