We flew "home" to my parents' place in McLean for the week of the kids' spring break. The kids and I took the Arcata-SFO flight and then a red-eye flight across the country, which went really smoothly, although we all needed naps that first day, after my poor Dad graciously picked us up at 5:30 a.m at Dulles upon arrival! Kelvin then joined us after finishing his conference in Austin.
Getting a stack of library books @ Dolley Madison
We had one day of very warm weather and then a lot of rain, prompting a good deal of indoors time.
The kids enjoyed playing on a "real" piano (the Petrof I practiced on a lot in high school).
Kelvin took the kids swimming at Spring Hill Rec center one afternoon, which sits across the street from the first elementary school I ever attended in the U.S.
Even Niall has picked up chess and held his own against Grandpa. There was also some rousing poker played!
Snuggles
Remy is doing well at 13!
We had John and Inara, my parents' best friends and my Godparents, over for dinner and celebrated John's 85th birthday, as we talked at length about us all getting older and them shifting residences, sad that their classic house on Pathfinder Lane will likely be razed soon by a developer. It's been years since we've seen them, but it was so good to reconnect in person, as they’re not very into digital communication!
Niall even serenaded John with "Happy Birthday" on the piano. Mom made a delicious chocolate cake.
We went on a morning hike at the Billy Goat Trail just across the Potomac River on the Maryland side with Laura and Sean (friends from college) and their daughter, Juliet.
Bluebells
Kelvin was impressed the sign included warnings in Vietnamese!
Another afternoon, we met Jesse, a friend I met during college while being a counselor at a local sports and technology camp at Great Falls (National) Park on the Virginia side.
The waterfalls were full with all the rain we'd had!
Niall was being a bit mischievous.
My parents were interested in showing the kids some local historical sites and we hit Mt. Vernon (George Washington's Plantation), located in Alexandria, VA, one morning. My Dad had taken Kelvin there years ago, but I believe it was my very first time!
We braved the cold outdoors (Iver soon regretted his choice of shorts!) and saw Washington's Tomb...
... as well as a memorial, on site of the informal slave cemetery, to the more-than-300 enslaved men and women who served Washington's family and guests in his mansion.
Helpful umbrellas!
The mile-wide Potomac from the VA side and a similar view as it was in the 18th century.
Springtime in VA includes blossoms.
We ended the tour being able to view just a few rooms (kitchen, living area) in the mansion due to ongoing repairs but did watch a "virtual tour" from the auditorium.
On our last day, we headed into D.C. on a rainy Friday to visit the
National Museum of African American History and Culture, a newer Smithsonian Museum which I hadn't visited before. While tickets were free as they are to all the Smithsonians, we had a timed entry, which skipped a long entry line. The kids were a little wild and less engaged than I hoped, but I enjoyed learning about the history of Blacks in America, from the bottom floor of the museum (which resembles the feel of being in the underbelly of a slave ship and discusses the history of the slave trade in the New World, on which this nation was built and prospered), to exhibits on the role of slaves in the early colonies (which was mixed—some fighting with Loyalists and some with Patriots) in the Revolutionary war, the bloody Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow era, the Civil Rights Struggle, and to the modern era and the historic election of our beloved Barack Obama. While on this trip, I finished a novel (Chris Bohjalian's
The Jackal's Mistress, set in northern Virginia during the late stages of the Civil War, and have had my interest in this sad era in our nation's history rekindled).
The museum had a lot of touching photos, memorabilia, and quotes and the exhibits were really well researched and well done. What a terrible scourge slavery and its aftermath has been to this country and this world!
We finished walking up a ramp with the words of Langston Hughes in his poem "I, Too":
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.
My trips to Virginia are complicated. Obviously, Virginia (including Richmond, where my alma mater is located) is the heart of the Confederacy, although the northern part of the state and DC metro area, where my parents live, is full of educated professionals and is very "Blue." I also spent many shy and awkward high school years being a band nerd locally, and haven't maintained any strong high school friendships so, other than my parents and godparents, there are not many people to make a point to "see" when I'm here. My twenty-fifth high school reunion was last year, and if I'd lived in driving distance, I may have attended, but I generally feel pretty disconnected from this part of the country and my past here--I'm a much different person than I was as a teenager, and in a much different stage of life. Coming “home” now is bittersweet, as, while they’re in excellent health, my parents are aging, and I don't know how many years (or good years) they have left (even though my dad may live forever due to his diet full of nuts and seeds), or if there will be other visits to our family townhome in McLean where we / they have lived (excepting their last overseas post in Denmark) since I started high school. However, it's been nice and nostalgic to show the kids some of my old stomping grounds when they're at ages they can remember and to have some quality grandparent time on the “other” coast.
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