Washington DC in the spring…

We have just come back from visiting Greg, Fi and the girls in the US of A.

Normally we do not enjoy air travel, and although Sue still needed the valium to calm her nerves, she was not bothered with the no-smoking (still on the no-smoking wagon). We also found ourselves upgraded and sitting in bigger seats with more room and facilities. We weren't so lucky on the way back, suffering cattle class.

Fi picked us up from the airport and took us home (we were very impressed with the house. Jamie thought the living room alone was bigger than our place). Greg was still in NZ on business, and as it was evening, most of the girls were in bed, so we had a small chat and then it was off to sleep ourselves.

We had a great time mixing excursions into the city for doses of American culture with relaxing at home with the girls and local trips out and about.

We managed to see quite a lot of DC in out time there. We went in one day and saw the US Botanical Gardens and some of the National Gallery of Art (Jamie deciding to make his own way about much to our consternation), meeting up again to have a late lunch and head home. Sue and I also took a bus-tour around the sites, stopping to take photos of many of the Capitol's buildings and monuments, and to visit the awe inspiring Arlington National Cemetery.

Sue and I also went into town with the twins one day to visit the zoo, and another day with Bexi to visit the National Museum of Natural History (in the afternoon she stayed with Greg at his office while we looked around the Freer and Sakler Galleries.

One of our favorite views was all of the cherry trees in full bloom everywhere, beautiful.

In between times we went with Fi and the twins to a local garden. We also went shopping at the supermarket and the mall. Sue baked with Bexi. Jamie played computer games and basketball with the girls. We took the twins down to the nearby creek (and saw half a dozen deer and a woodpecker).

We watched a few of Greg and Fi's extensive DVD collection. We watched 'The man who new to little', with Bill Murray, and noticed that the Morris Dancers were the ones who my Uncle Terry plays for.

We had quite a few meals out, some for the whole family, and some for the grown-ups. We went out with the girls to the Outback, Australian themed (we sampled the Blooming Onion, listed as an Ab-Original!!). Sue was asked for ID when she ordered a beer, it made her night and had Jamie shaking his head. We also took the girls out to the Rainforest Cafe which is full of animatronic animals and tanks of tropical fishes. Greg and Fi took us out to McCormick's & Schmick's fish restaurant...

http://www.mccormickandschmicks.com/index.cfm

... a great place where we had our own snug styled booth and ate fantastic food.

Stephen and Scott came over for dinner one evening and we had a great time comparing the relative merits of UK, NZ and US society, and laughing at the mistakes made in the use of slang in each others countries.

Greg, Fi and the girls were all very well.

Alas the break was all too short and we soon had to face coming back to UK and work.