a grand day out
I am pleased to report that I survived Mrs J - more or less unscathed. I only got a marginally hard time about my accent - apparently "speaking English" meant "speaking Alabamese," which is something else again (Best. Accent. Ever.), and I am blissfully unaware about the success of the banana bread, since she was under strict instructions not to look at it until after I'd gone, and J is under strict instructions not to tell me if she calls him and says she fed it to the birds.
Yesterday was a quite lovely day, although I am in pain from carrying a small child around the Metro (apparently everyone else wanted to go to DC yesterday too - earned my childcare colours carrying Evil Twin, the lighter of the two, around and effortlessly operating ticket barriers with kid in one hand and ticket in the other... I just discovered what hips are for...), and a car seat that weighed about twice as much as its occupant. Due to W working at 9 and our car rental pickup time being 8 (from the airport, i.e. three-quarters of the way to Delaware), J didn't have time to come back to Philly from the rental place to pick up the seats, so the two of us had to get the train out to the airport, carrying a seat each. I am assuming that being able to carry a car seat is a skill that only comes with biological relation to a small child. Our epic trip did attract some comedy moments, though - when we got on the shuttle bus from the airport to the rental office, the driver looked at us and said, "okay... where's the baby, and where's your luggage?" adding, "If you flew American, you can forget about getting either of them back." Tee hee. The car seat also proved invaluable for sitting in while waiting for a train at 7:30 in the morning, and the fact that I can still get my backside into a kiddies' booster seat was quite the self-esteem boost.
DC was truly wonderful. After lunch with J's mom we headed downtown, which took a horrible amount of time because she lives at the end of the line and everyone from the surrounding area was trying to get on at that station, so we ended up driving to a closer station and making our way from there. As well as the cherry blossoms, there was also a kite festival outside the Smithsonian, so as we came out of the Metro the sky above was filled with parrots and planes and sailing boats. I think I will just let the photos do the rest of the talking - we had checked out the peak time for the blossoms, but even then I had no idea they would be as amazing as they were. Walking around the Mall was like being in a pink and white snowstorm. We ended up doing nothing but walking and sitting among the trees, along with the five million others doing the same, all afternoon. I think my favourite thing about the whole day was being in the middle of the capital city of this big old money-and-power-obsessed country, and there were five million people out on the streets flying kites and looking at trees. Who said freedom isn't free???
Yesterday was a quite lovely day, although I am in pain from carrying a small child around the Metro (apparently everyone else wanted to go to DC yesterday too - earned my childcare colours carrying Evil Twin, the lighter of the two, around and effortlessly operating ticket barriers with kid in one hand and ticket in the other... I just discovered what hips are for...), and a car seat that weighed about twice as much as its occupant. Due to W working at 9 and our car rental pickup time being 8 (from the airport, i.e. three-quarters of the way to Delaware), J didn't have time to come back to Philly from the rental place to pick up the seats, so the two of us had to get the train out to the airport, carrying a seat each. I am assuming that being able to carry a car seat is a skill that only comes with biological relation to a small child. Our epic trip did attract some comedy moments, though - when we got on the shuttle bus from the airport to the rental office, the driver looked at us and said, "okay... where's the baby, and where's your luggage?" adding, "If you flew American, you can forget about getting either of them back." Tee hee. The car seat also proved invaluable for sitting in while waiting for a train at 7:30 in the morning, and the fact that I can still get my backside into a kiddies' booster seat was quite the self-esteem boost.
DC was truly wonderful. After lunch with J's mom we headed downtown, which took a horrible amount of time because she lives at the end of the line and everyone from the surrounding area was trying to get on at that station, so we ended up driving to a closer station and making our way from there. As well as the cherry blossoms, there was also a kite festival outside the Smithsonian, so as we came out of the Metro the sky above was filled with parrots and planes and sailing boats. I think I will just let the photos do the rest of the talking - we had checked out the peak time for the blossoms, but even then I had no idea they would be as amazing as they were. Walking around the Mall was like being in a pink and white snowstorm. We ended up doing nothing but walking and sitting among the trees, along with the five million others doing the same, all afternoon. I think my favourite thing about the whole day was being in the middle of the capital city of this big old money-and-power-obsessed country, and there were five million people out on the streets flying kites and looking at trees. Who said freedom isn't free???