Siblings

 It was so fun to come home and spend time with Robert and Donna. They are both here, spending time with Mom and Dad.

Dad's not doing so hot these days. He's on hospice, and has been for about a week. He's weaker, there were many changes and I'm so grateful that they were here to assist Mom and  Dad. Dad's lift recliner chair broke a few days after we left, and he was moved to a hospital bed, so things REALLY are different now for both of them.

Today is Saturday the 28th and both have gone home. Janet came on Friday to get Robert. Both Robert and janet were here last weekend, Donna came about Tuesday, and today they all went home, in different directions.  They'll be back. We've chatted with David on the phone lots, too, to keep him in the loop. Janet just went through the loss of a parent as her Mother suddenly passed away two months ago. And David just lost Laura two years ago, so things are kind of tender for him, too.

I think knowing about our Heavenly Father's great Plan of Happiness makes all the difference in the WORLD.  How would one face the loss of loved ones if you didn't know you'd ever see them again? If you thought death was the end?  Well, it's not.  We still mourn and are sad because we will miss the earthly associations, but know we will be together again.

We all feel as though he's not long for this world, but we aren't the ones to decide. He's sure no comfortable or happy in his present state, however.

Grateful for loving siblings to love and support parents dear.

Tuesday night Dinner out

On Tuesday evening, after our bust of a bike ride to the zoo (NOT), Jonathan wanted to have Burger King for dinner, but we did not. So we compromised. We walked over to BK with him and watched him purchase his dinner, then we walked him back to the hotel room. Mike and I then walked across the street a block or so and ate at a fancy pasta place.

THE most expensive pasta we've ever eaten. It was yummy, but it was PASTA.  Sfoglina's was the name (I think) and it means a female master pasta maker. All the pasta is made in-house, very authentic. Not huge servings, very very tasty. But one of THE most expensive dinners we've ever bought.  Ever. It's up there with Ruth's Chris Steak House prices and we didn't even have any meat!  I had some fettucini and Mike had tortellini. Oh, I guess some of his pasta had some sausage in the filling, but not a lot.  Yes it was yummy, and yes the dessert chocolate cake was really REALLY good, and it was so nice of our waitress to throw in some vanilla/cherry gelato "Because you can't have cake without Ice Cream, right?" Um, yeah. i can. But it was good.  Just crazy expensive.  Oh well. It's vacation, right?  I'm just so glad that we didn't insist that Jonathan come with us because I doubt he would have liked it and . . . well, with it that expensive, we might have decided to leave. Maybe. 

Mike with the lovely bread (which did not come with the meal). Large spoon to use, but that's not how I can eat pasta. And it was just cheesy, not saucy. The warm rosemary bread was served with whipped riccotta cheese spread.   Apparently this restaurant has a sister restaurant in the DC area that has a Michelin rating (which has nothing to do with tires. ha)

So here's to yummy once-in-a-lifetime pasta made in-house and served authentically. Bon Apetite!

Traveling home. And more traveling.

 Wednesday the 25th of May was our long travel day home. We needed to get up early, pack, eat and get on our way by around 7 am or so.  Our hotel doesn't have breakfast (boo), but Burger King was right next door.  Very convenient.  We like BK breakfasts.  So we did that quickly, then grabbed our bags, checked out and headed down the street ( just 1.5 blocks) to the Metro station. Jonathan pointed out that we'd need to cross the street to the OTHER entrance to use an escalator to get down to the platform.  There were only stairs going down on our side of the street; stairs and escalators on the opposite. We feel quite adept at using the subway system here, and sometimes even buses! We knew where we were going (Reagan airport) ,      we had money on our cards with only a little bit to spare, so it was okay.  

When we got there, we should have just followed the crowd, but we took an elevator  DOWN and ended up way far away, but asked for directions, found a shuttle, go to where we needed to be in a very round-about way and walked straight to the security and gates.  Easy.  The next part? not so much.  

We flew Southwest and boarding is really different.  It's open seating, but we actually managed to find three seats together near the back. 

Our first stop was New Orleans.  It was NOT the flight I originally bought.  Both the flights I originally purchases were non-stop in and out of Salt Lake City. But they changed it. Twice. Then I changed it again and luckily they did not charge me.  When we got to New Orleans, our gate was really close and that was good. Only our gate said it was going to Las Vegas, NOT Salt Lake City. Turns out they added yet anohter stop to our flight and it wasn't mentioned anywhere in my correspondence with them. Crazy.  Plus, the weather was bad ( Pouring rain), so the plain circled a while waiting for a break in the weather making us late for our landing.  We had to change planes and didn't have much time at all. The outgoing flight to Vegas/SLC was only 2 minutes delayed and we had less than 10 minutes with which to de-plane, go potty, and get back in line to board.  Yikes. So we did our bathroom business in shifts and both Mike and I grabbed some snacky food for the plane ride since there was no time for lunch.

In Las Vegas, we didn't have to get off the plane. Their preparing is rather minimal. No cleaning, just flight attendants going down the rows brushing crumbs off the seats to the floor and making sure the armrests are down and seatbelts are on the seats. That's it.  I suppose they deep clean sometimes, but not for the 6 of us remaining aboard, or for the 200 who boarded the flight to Salt Lake City. 

With our delays and extra stop, instead of getting in to Salt Lake at 6:40 pm, we didn't get there until after 8 pm. Grrr.  Both Gail and Jonathan AND Mike and I had to still drive another 3 1/2 to 4 hours to our homes.

Gail picked us all up at the airport and took us to Kaylee and Nick's house. All the kids were up except Emily, so we got to say hi and goodnight to them, eat some yummy Lasagna and salad and rolls, then hop in our cars and drive home.

I'm glad Mike is perked up by caffeinated drinks. I'm NOT, apparently.  I mostly stayed awake for the first hour or so, but then conked out. Mike drove the whole way home and I dropped into bed at 1 am.

Robert and Donna are both staying at our house, tending to our Mom and Dad.  Dad was put on Hospice just before we left on our trip to DC and there were a lot of changes for Mom and Dad, and a marked decline to Dad's health, so I'm really glad they came. Janet has been down here, too, but went back to work during  the week.

No airport photos of our travels, no photos of the quick dinner at Nick and Kaylee's house. No photos of our late night drive home. I will say it took me until Saturday to finally unpack my suitcase.

Not the zoo, sadly

 We slept in this morning. We love vacations. :-)

Jonathan got to work on some homework, I got caught up on emails and texts and phone calls with various family members.

Jonathan and I wanted to go to the zoo today and leave Mike resting in the hotel room. His knee is kind of sore, and we have a long travel day tomorrow. Jonathan and I also wanted to do the bike rental thing. So the two of them were supposed to work out well together. Go find a bike rental, find trails through the greenway and bike to the zoo, enjoy the zoo in a drizzling rain with the umbrella that we have to share. It would have been nice. But it wasn't. :-(

Firstly, we had to hike quite a distance to find a bike docking station that had available bicycles. They were close ones to us, but none of them had more than one bike at them. We needed two. So we walked close to 30 minutes trying to navigate these crazy diagonal streets and my lack of directions. It all looked good on a map to me until I actually started on the streets. But, eventually we did find the bikes. Renting them out was no easy task, either. I had the ap and it was supposed to be simple. It wasn't... It's a good thing that TWO brains are better than one, however, So eventually we did get our bikes. It didn't work on the app, however. I had to use the kiosk and my credit card. We practiced on the bikes a little bit before heading out. It was all downhill, and a little steeper than I had imagined. We did find the street we wanted, but unfortunately Jonathan crashed his bike shortly into our trip. He was not badly damaged. He did get a good scrape on his knee, though, and we were both a little shaken up. I thought I had killed my grandson! But he was okay. He kept wanting to ride in the street, because it was a handrail on a stairway that snagged his handlebar causing him to crash.  However, the streets here are very narrow. There are very few bike Lanes, there is parking on the street, and the cars are close and fast. So sidewalks it was! Plus, I signed an agreement that we were both over 16. I think I lied a little.

The route we wanted to take was through a green belt, and it was supposed to be a gentle downhill path eventually getting to the zoo. But when we finally found the head of the trail, it turned out it was a hiking trail only with no bikes allowed. And besides that, it was also fenced off and temporarily closed! That was a big surprise. So the street we were on was a dead end, the rain was increasing, so we just headed back to the hotel area and Metro where the next closest bike docking station was and we walked back the one block to our hotel in the drizzling rain.

Sorry, no pictures of THAT  failed excursion.

Monday, May 23, DC MUSEUM

 After doing a load of laundry this morning at lisa's, we loaded up and she drove us to our hotel. We left our luggage there. She and Cindy drove back home. Cindy is leaving for Utah tomorrow. That is funny that we would come all the way to Washington DC and be able to visit with our Cedar City friend, Cindy williams. But I think we have done things like that before. :-)

Mike and Jonathan and I decided to spend the bulk of our day at the natural History museum. We are so funny. We do know how to navigate the Metro system, somewhat. But without a sense of direction underground, when we come out, it is difficult to know which way to go! And even in the Metro system underground it is difficult for us sometimes. Thank goodness we have Jonathan with us! He keeps us on the right track. One time we did get on the wrong train. It was actually the right train, just the wrong direction. All we had to do was get off at the next stop, cross over the tracks, and go the opposite direction. We'll get it figured out eventually.

The natural History museum is huge. We were able to see several of this sections all while getting lost and turned around. Mike opted out of the last section and rested. We also stopped for lunch there first. Lunch in a museum cafe. Probably not the most economical choice. But the food was enjoyable, and it was lunch time. And it's vacation. So we wandered around and saw lots and lots of stuff. I Hope diamond was nice. The stuffed elephant was huge. So was the models of sharks and whales and dinosaur skeletons, and many many gyms and metals and minerals. Interesting stuff.

After the museum, we headed to our hotel via the Metro again. We tried to stop in at the old post office to see that museum, but it was closed. The building had changed hands and changes were not in place quite yet.

Once we were checked into our hotel room, we settled in for a long winter's nap. No, not really. Haha but Mike and I really were tired. Jonathan was able to work on some of his school assignments while Mike and I rested. Lisa was a really nice hostess. She worked hard to get her basement area fixed up for us. And I know Cindy helped her a lot too. But it is nice to be able to use a toilet without having to navigate steps and stooping. 

Plus, even though we really did want a pool, it's not necessary! The weather is perfect today. There is a lovely breeze, there is overcast cloudiness, and the temperature has dropped 20°. We enjoyed it so much! It even sprinkled here in the city a little bit. After a rest in the hotel room, we walked across the street to an Italian pizzeria and split a delicious pizza. And Mike even bought us some dessert. :-)

Tomorrow, Jonathan and I may do bikes depending on the weather. And Mike will probably stay in the hotel and rest his legs and preparation for a long travel Day on wednesday.

We found this humorous.😄

Gems! All the colors of the rainbow.

 

Under the belly of the whale. A right whale.

 And the tail of the whale.

Relaxing Sunday

 We had to take two vehicles to Church this  Morning. Their meetings start at 9 am and it is a 30 minute drive to their meeting house in or near Savage Hill, MD.  Plus, thier 13 year old needed to be early so that he could help prepare for the Sacrament. There are 11 if us. Quite a formidable crowd.

Their ward is still meeting with seating in pews/rows being every-other-one, and all sacramental trays with individual pieces of bread in individual cups, and masked priesthood passing it to individuals. Our Rural Utah wards are back to sitting on every row and passing the trays to each other's and few folks wear masks anymore.

It was a nice meeting. Actually, MORE than nice. One talk was so spectacularly written and delivered that Cindy asked the presenter for a copy of it. Sister Daily gave a talk about how we are shaped and molded, but compared it to a Mr. Albtersteen  or someone like that, who grafted trees in the early 1900's. Something like that. It was really really good. Our relief Society lesson was also good. And then the afternoon at home was spent relaxing, playing games, eating, resting,... Just like a Sunday should be! We did plan for the following day activities, for me Mike and jonathan. And I did add an extra day on our hotel. I was hoping for a pool. But they did not have one. But they did have a room available, so I took it.

We also enjoyed a crash banging thunder and lightning storm at their house. It was allowed, bright, and a bit shocking. It was very wet, as well. Lisa mentioned that she used to, in her prayers, say that she was grateful for the rain. But anymore she doesn't say that. She notices at church when people say they are grateful for the rain showers. And she kind of just thinks, well you haven't lived here very long. It is a very wet area. It was mostly fun for us to see here and feel the rain and the moisture and the coolness, because we seldom see rain in our dry desert West that is in the midst of a very serious drought. Poor James went out and barbecued some chicken in that soggy soggy rain. AND, best of all, it COOLED the same extremely high temperatures!!!! Yay!!!! 

I had a  nice long visit with Lisa while the rest of the family was watching "Fiddler on the Roof" down in our sleeping area / Basement/ Cellar / Laundry/ Storage/ TV room.          Lisa and family will be coming to Utah in July and her Parents AND in-laws will be on Missions. So we invited them to stay with us. Seems fair, right?                                               

Saturday on the old town trolly

 After we kind of slept in, Mike, Jonathan and I grabbed some breakfast ( waffles!) And ordered an Uber, headed to our Metro stop and rode it down to the City Center area. 

We are rather comical. I have no interior compass or sense of direction, so Jonathan helped us out a lot. I can look at Google maps and love to use it for navigating, but if I'm on foot and North is the map orientation, my body just cannot make it work! 

This is how we go:

Haha

We ended up at the Trolly store in enough time to look at Souvenirs, cool off in the AC, walk around some buildings, get a cool lemonade ( me & Mike) or icy cold shake  (Jonathan) at the Hard Rock Cafe and then board our open-air Old Town Trolly. Which might have been nice on any other day BUT the hottest day of the year. Yowch. SO uncomfortable. 

The trollies don't do much of the "Hop on, Hop off" any more. One and a half hours of narrated driving tour with one stop at Lincoln memorial. We enjoyed it. The narrator was really nice. And comical.

St Patrick's Cathedral nearby our Trolly stop .

Near Ford's Theater. Plus I loved this old style architecture. French?

Jonny with a fancy shake. We NEEDED cold drinks.

We stopped to take photos at the Navy Memorial.

"Past is Prologue" statue is behind me, dogwood flower s next to me. In front of the National Archives(?)

Navy Memorial

Floor map in granite at Navy Memorial. Jonathan and I are standing on DC.

Navy Medicine plaque. Go Navy!

Onward to the Trolly tour.

Jonny got a good shot of the Capitol building from the bus.

After we stopped at the Lincoln Met, Mike strolled around the Korean War Memorial whiled Jonathan and I lounged on the cool grass in the shade.

That's the Washington Monument there in the background. The Mall and memorial s were crowded and filled with people.

Getting up the stairs to the Lincoln memorial was tricky-- we had to  hunt for a pathway through people sitting in the shade. Like I said-- it was HOT.

Here's a few shots of us at the Lincoln. I laid on the marble floor for 5 minutes, I was so hot.

Mike and I stood there and read Lincoln's entire second inaugural address, which is engraved on the North wall; Gettysburg address is on the south wall. It's really a lovely memorial.

It's hazy and far away, but the Washington Monument is reflected in the pool there.

We took some time at the WW II memorial to enjoy the cooling water. And Mike waited in the shade nearby on a bench. 

Fountains and more fountains.

And monuments. And HOT granite to walk on! Ouch! He put his shoes on quickly.

The goal was to have a "tiny" Johnny by the Utah pillar...

  Then a "medium" Johnny by the Wyoming pillar...

And a "biggest" Jonathan next to his present state of Nevada pillar.

And so we did!

This was such an incredibly HOT and humid day. We were miserable. We sought shade whenever and where ever we could. We tried to stay hydrated.

When the Trolly returned us to it's place, we had a late lunch at Chipotle.

When we returned to Lisa and James' home, they had some burgers and hot dogs for a cookout. 

Retired after a game of Canasta and a shower.

I think I had salty, gritty eyebrows from my heavy sweating during the day.

 Whew! We are looking forward to a restful Sabbath day.

Broken escalator at subway stop!

 So many stairs! Luckily, the long going- UP side worked., All except the last 20 or so to get to street level. But when we returned to that station, the long going-DOWN escalator was off so we had to walk down about three levels. It was long. I stopped to photograph Mike when we're were about halfway through the tunnel.

I wondered why my calves were sore this morning. Ha.

Lisa and one daughter are going on a "mud run" this morning (Saturday), Mike and Jonathan & I are sleeping in, and then heading back into DC for some more fun in the sun and heat. ;-) .

Jonathan's 13, Touring and Temple

 And Rachel is 15. Rachel Tanner, where we are staying.

Oh, today was so hot and humid.

Slept in.

French toast for breakfast, but after all the rest of the family ate and went to school.

Mike, Jonny and I called an Uber ride, went to the Silver Springs Metro stop, rode into town, took a bus to the National Cathedral. Took the guided tour.

Ate lunch at Pop Eyes Fried Chicken. Roasted in the heat the blazing  humidity. Ugh.

Hurried back to the Tanners house, cleaned up and changed clothes. Drive with Tanners in two cars to the Washington DC Temple open house. Lovely tour, very full, busy, crowded, kind of irreverent sadly. 

BUT, we found Jennifer Duke and her two boys there! That was a pleasant surprise. 

Then we went out to eat with Cindy and Lisa and James' family at a really great ribs place. Watched a movie upon our return.

Photos for your viewing pleasure.

First Metro ride for Jonny! We're on the red line.

It's one tenth of a mile from the front to the back. Gothic architecture. Gotta love it!

Then, on to the DC Temple open house.

And look who we found in the temple?!!! (Below)

Jennifer Duke and her two younger children, also on a tour. We had hoped to see her there, so we think it was meant to be with a little Heavenly help. Jen's husband passed away last year from cancer. She grew up in our ward in Cedar City and her Mom is still our neighbor and friend. She and Tandy are close. Very. A story for another day if you've not heard it before.

Jonny and me by the fountain.

Cindy and Mike.

We were dripping in sweat and were a little tempted to jump into the fountain.

It IS a lovely, large Temple. Lots of visitors were able to come and have questions answered. I'm glad I viewed the virtual open house videos because they were more reverent.

Then, back to Laurel. The two birthday kids celebrated with a nice meal out at a local restaurant ( BBQ! Yum)  and the rest of us enjoyed it, too. Thanks to Mike for treating us all.

We were a group of eleven, so we happily split up to accommodate so many and get a table without having called in advance. Above, Cindy Williams, Tracy(11?) , James, Cadence (7).

Birthday girl, Rachel (15) and Emily (5)

Alex(13), Jonathan (13), Lisa (39). ;-)