May 13-16

This is a "catch-up" post because I have gotten behind! I recently started writing all of our outings on a calendar so I can remember. It is all becoming a blur! The week of May 11 we started off with a "school" day. Tuesday we re-visited Mount Vernon as Emily's blog post describes. Then Wednesday we went to the Ballston Common Mall. Now, you must realize that a shopping mall is really low on my list of places I want to visit, but I was a good mom and took Hayley and Emily to meet a church friend there.

We actually had a fun time. There are some amazing shopping malls here. My favorite is the National Mall, of course--I'm really not a good shopper.

Thursday I got a surprise message from my brother Dan. He was in DC and was done with his meetings for the day. We spontaneously made plans to meet him at the Museum of the American Indian because we hadn't been there yet and neither had he. The neatest thing about this museum is the building itself. It is all curves and open spaces. The outside has areas symbolic of nature and the Native American way of living with the land.

This is a statue of George Washington and some leaders of the tribes that he originally made treaties with.

South American gold working. Sadly the Spaniards melted most of the gold artistic treasures they took from the Natives and turned it into coins. They had very different ways of seeing the "value" of gold.

Brother Dan and me! After the museum we walked through some of the Smithsonian gardens and then went back to our apartment for dinner. The most fun of the evening was Dan treating us to ice cream. We bought ice cream, cones, and a scoop from the local grocery store (after seeing how much the ice cream shop charged for a single cone!) and ate ice cream cones outside. We got Dan safely off before a tremendous thunderstorm blew through!

Friday we made our first visit to the National Arboretum. We heard that the azaleas were amazing. They truly were--even after the thunderstorm!

Isn't this a great picture? Emily took it. Our favorite part of this place was a small pond that we discovered--full of frogs!

Saturday I had a real treat. Neil dropped me off at the Library of Congress all by myself! He took the kids to the Eastern Market where they enjoyed all of the sights and smells of a busy open marketplace. I enjoyed the leisure I had to explore the Library at my own pace. It has been over a month since I've gone anywhere by myself!

That evening we went to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to watch a free concert on the Millenial Stage. It was a jazz pianist/vocalist who was playing the music of Mary Lou Williams. Neil and I loved it--the kids gave mixed reviews. It was William's sacred or gospel jazz music. She wrote an entire jazz Mass which we heard a small portion of! I loved the Lord's Prayer too. It was very soulful and heartfelt.

This is the stage. There are free one hour concerts every night at 6pm. We will have to go back again!

On the way home from the concert we pulled over when we unexpectedly saw the Navy Memorial with the famous "Iwo Jima" statue. I love that you can see the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the Capitol dome on the left.