June 2009
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With Patty’s daughter (Jennifer), son-in-law (Louay) and two grandchildren (Noor and Adli) bound for Mali, Africa, we drove to their residence in Falls Church VA with three obvious goals in mind: help with their packout in any way possible, wish them Godspeed and retrieve our Camry, on loan to them for the past year.
After packout by professional movers, Jennifer and Louay were shocked to learn their household shipment was grossly overweight! To avoid hefty added charges, the shipment had to be “skinnied down” before they left town. By some miracle, they managed to do just that with a great deal of unanticipated, last-minute effort. Some boxes were off-loaded to friends and some were pulled out for later shipment through her work. In addition, our cars were packed to the gills with boxes to be shipped individually. Although we helped a bit with the manual labor, our greatest contribution to this herculean effort was watching the kids while mom and dad scurried all over town. Actually, it was a pleasant way for us to say goodbye to them. Noor and Adli may have the same parents but they are as different as night and day and, like all kids, they thrive on attention:
When the job was finally done and our ‘goodbyes’ tendered, we lumbered back to our hotel. Before driving home to PA, we opted for a Sunday in Washington DC on a splendid, sunny day. The Metro made the journey to the Mall quite pleasant and, in no time, we were sitting outside the Native American Indian Museum, our primary destination:
The architecture of this relatively new building is stunning, to say the least:
The cafe inside the museum is very pleasant and features native foods you surely won’t find at McDonald’s. After a morning snack in a nearly empty cafe, we enjoyed a tasty lunch hours later along with hundreds of other patrons:
On the side of the building opposite the Mall is a unique environment for picture-taking:
After hours of museum touring, we took in the U.S. Botanic Garden and wandered over to the Capitol Building for the view across its reflection pool:
Our visit to DC finished, all that remained was to return to our hotel by Metro. Next day, driving separately in two cars, we safely reached home.