Well, it just goes to show that things rarely go as planned. If I thought I was going to have time to blog or even breathe in amongst the tightly packed schedule we had this weekend, I was sorely mistaken!
Our trip was fabulous but not relaxing. A 10 hour drive through the middle of the night on Friday, followed by a full day of walking up and down the National Mall area on Saturday and an early morning jaunt to the Smithsonian Annex at Dulles, before heading home another 10 hours, on Sunday...We're both thoroughly exhausted but we managed to see just about everything we wanted to. Albeit too briefly. Another, longer, trip must be planned in the future.
One thing is for sure though, I love this city. It is absolutely beautiful. Every building is immense and impressive. Every spare space is filled with greenery...it's all so lush and exotic looking. Of course, me being the lame dork that I am, I was pointing out or questioning each and every breed of shrub, tree and flower I could. Mikey so patiently humored me but I'm sure at some point he considered the possibility that at some point during the day, I was heading up into one of the Magnolia trees for a bark sample. But one thing is nagging at me and perhaps one of my kind readers can help me with it:
Does anyone know what kind of tree this is? It's gorgeous and absolutely everywhere, along the highways and on people's lawns, and it looks something like a cross between a Sumac and a Gooseberry tree, but I cannot identify it...
Anyone who can help will win my undying gratitude...and likely my consternation when I discover that I have no hope in hell of growing one this far north!
The first time I saw the White House, I stood at the iron fence at the south side and weeped like a little girl. Not this time, though. For reasons I could not fathom, this was as far as they were letting anyone get, to the Chosen One's place of residence...
Fencing and police, scattered across the grass, making sure the "common folk" kept their distance. We never bothered to trek around to the other side to see if we could get closer, because the police had either side cordoned off for a full block and frankly, if they were going to make it that difficult, I wasn't going to build a blister for it. Nothing like making the White House an "open" and "welcoming" place for "the people". Welcome to the age of Obama.
It was perfect weather and a near perfect day. My eternal gratitude is owed to the lovely young man who asked me for ID at the restaurant where we had dinner...if I could tell you how many years it's been since I was asked that...Perhaps he was just being kind. It was certainly much better than Mikey getting asked, by the gentleman behind the counter at the Air and Space Museum, if he remembered the moon landing...from 2 years before he was born...
And now that I've filled you in on our trip, I suppose the time has come for me to catch up on what you've been up to while we were gone. It's nice to see that at least you didn't burn the place down yet!
Don't quote me but I think those are cherry blossoms you took a pic of.
Posted by: Texas Canuck | June 30, 2009 at 07:29 PM
My guess was crepe myrtle-- but it is too early for the blossoms and the leaves don't look like crepe myrtle. When I have a chance, I'll check my tree and shrub encyclopedia.
Posted by: Cathy | July 01, 2009 at 06:01 PM
it is called a mimosa tree
Posted by: missred | July 04, 2009 at 09:08 AM
oh, and welcome to washington, dc ;)
Posted by: missred | July 04, 2009 at 09:09 AM
Mimosa, fragrant, attracts hummingbirds and butterfly.
Posted by: epador | July 04, 2009 at 09:11 PM