Fwd: Day 1 in DC

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Jason Evans" <jevansfp@gmail.com>
Date: Mar 23, 2015 8:38 AM
Subject: Day 1 in DC
To: "Susan Hardage" <grammy1124@msn.com>, "Sheila & Gary Evans" <garyandsheila@cableone.net>, "Mark Evans" <mevans@chkenergy.com>, "Becky Evans" <radrebecca@gmail.com>
Cc:

We left the hotel after breakfast and got our train passes and took the Metro to the closest station to the Washington National Zoo. The highlights there were a kiwi bird (Aaron's current favorite animal) and their new baby panda Bao Bao.   The Zoo is nice.  Not the best we've seen.  It is on a huge hill, so after hiking half a mile there from the closest Metro station and tackling the Zoo's hill, we realized we didn't want to we didn't to wear our feet too early in the trip, so we took a taxi (Uber, actually - called a driver from an app on my phone) to drive us a mile over to the US National Cathedral.  It was the first time I used that app and so it gave me a promo code for a discount that gave us the ride for free. 

The National Cathedral is immense. Amazing architecture.  Lots of beautiful stained glass windows.  Gargoyles all over the outside, including one that looks like Darth Vader.  There is a stained glass window that commemorates our exploration of space that has an actual moon rock set into it.  Becky and the boys are related to former WWII Secretary of State Cordell Hull who later founded the UN.  We found his tomb in the crypt.  We found his birthplace 2 Spring Breaks ago in Tennessee.  We stayed for the 4p Evensong choral performance in the main Cathedral nave.  With the high ceilings and organ it sounded heavenly in there.  Even Alex was impressed.  Aaron thought it was very peaceful and relaxing as the day caught up to him and he napped on my arm.

Our guidebook suggested a Tex Mex restaurant nearby, the Cactus Cantina, so we walked there for dinner.  Dinner was delicious, topped off by sopapillas (Becky), rainbow sherbet (Aaron), and tres leches cake (Alex and I).  During dinner, I knew I recognized someone sitting at the table next to us.  I got Becky to look and she did too, so we knew that it was either a celebrity or someone from Toledo.  Becky thought at first it was someone I knew from the medical field.  I knew that wasn't it, but she was close.  She recognized her and her husband sitting with her from the 2013 Survivor season.   Drs. Candice and John Cody.  Candice was actually on a total of 3 seasons of Survivor and we had seen them all.  I tweeted that we had seen them and they tweeted back that we should've said hi (we didn't want to bother them). After they left, I recognized the man that sat in her seat.  Becky thought I was pulling her leg when I said "Dick Cheney is in that seat now".  She finally turned around and her eyes got wide.  I took a picture of her and Aaron with him in a hat over Aaron's left shoulder.  Fun meal with 3 celebrity sightings!

We figured out the bus system well enough to get back to the train station to get to our hotel in Arlington.  We relaxed and played games until bedtime.  On Monday's agenda: US Botanic Gardens and the Library of Congress near Capitol Hill.

Jason 

The blog that Facebook killed

It is hard to believe that I haven't posted here in over 3 years.  A tragedy in my family cut me hard and made it hard to post regularly about the joys of raising our children with my wife.  The boys are fine.  I am getting better.  I got out of habit.  I started posting family photos on Facebook, which gave that sharing a wider audience.  People didn't have to check my blog, they could just log onto Facebook and check out my postings and those of all of their other friends.  I am back because it is a little easier to incorporate blogging into my day.  I have an iPad mini with a keyboard and just found the ?new blogger app that I am testing out right now.  Posts will definitely be less frequent.  I'll occasionally use twitter for random thoughts, Facebook for "Status updates" and save blog postings for more long form content.

A cool treat before a cool show

The gang enjoying snowcones (snowcups?) before last Wednesday's Weird Al concert at the Toledo Zoo.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Safe-T City Grad

Today Aaron graduated from 7 days of a children's safety course sponsored by the Toledo Police Department called Safe-T City. There he learned about street safety, fire safety, stranger safety, bus safety and dental safety. One of his teachers was Mrs. Reed from his school. On graduation day, he received his diploma from Police Chief Navarre.



-- Post From My iPod

Sandpiper Cruise

Tonight we met each other after a busy week of work, summer school classes, and Scout Day Camp downtown at the Promenade Park's Jefferson Street dock. Becky had called in an order of our favorite sandwiches from Panera and had picked them up for our dinner cruise.



Mark & Leslie got us a gift certificate to the Friday Sandpiper river cruise for Christmas last year, and tonight we finally cashed it in. We boarded right @ 5:45pm under threat of being left on the dock if we were late. Capt. Tony was our river boat pilot and Mary was our tour guide. The Sandpiper is a long flat boat with benches along the edges and up the middle.



Mary entertained us along the way with funny stories and pointing out sights along the river, like these clouds...




...and this heron.




A couple of times during the trip, the boys and I




-- Post From My iPod

Our Garden

Memorial Day weekend we put together a container garden made from 2 x 10's and some brackets. We filled with soil, threw in some seeds and sprouted plants and vowed to water it regularly.




I even built a rain barrel from a trash can and some spigots. We have herbs (including lots of basil), cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans, red & yellow peppers, carrots, and squash. The top layer of soil was Miracle Grow garden soil and it has really helped these plants take off.





-- Post From My iPod

Blogging from my iPod

Finally I found an iPod app that I can use to post blog posts whenever I can get a WiFi connection. It is called BlogPress. It also allows me to type in landscape mode with a wider keyboard. I'll try to do it with pictures next.


-- Post From My iPod

Picking Our Own Rubies

Today Becky treated the rest of us to a favorite childhood memory of hers. She found a pick-your-own strawberry field in nearby Holland, OH. We got a couple of flats and spent a hour or so bending, squatting and kneeling in a field.


As our prize for these efforts, we got to bring home several pounds of the cutest, but most delicious strawberries we'd ever had.


Strawberries from California are bred for sturdiness to survive shipping them across the country. These would not have survived that trip as they were delicate and packed with flavor.


The possibilities are making me drool. I'm going to pause now and eat some more.


-- Post From My iPod

Camping on the Field

Last night we went to watch the Mudhens beat the Rochester Redwings on a gorgeous night for baseball.





Before the game Becky and Alex put on their Scout uniforms and led off a parade through the infield.





Afterwards we watched a great fireworks display over the outfield wall. Then, after the non-Scout families left the stadium, we came back in with our camping gear. We watched the Detroit Redwings lose the Stanley Cup on the big screen, then they played the Disney movie "Bolt".





We had popcorn and hot chocolate during the movie woth another Scout from Alex's den and a long walk to the bathroom from our prime centerfield campsite.





They finally turned out the lights at 1AM, but played country songs to wake us up at 6:30.





We hauled our gear to the van and our tired backsides to a waffle house, where Aaron learned the joys of having bacon bits cooked into your waffle. As you might expect, we spent the rest of day resting up from our adventure - and planning next year's sleepover.


-- Post From My iPod

Biker Boys

Both boys have really started riding their bikes a lot lately.  Alex is going on a class camping trip at the end of May at a State Park at nearby South Bass Island.  They will be getting around the island on bikes, so he really needed to learn.  He had been reluctant to do so out of a fear of falling.  This trip however, made the fear of falling while learning to ride seem small in comparison to how he'd feel if he couldn't keep up with his friends on the trip.  Aaron's bike has training wheels still, but he loves riding his just as much.


I wanted to get a better picture of Alex, but he wouldn't sit still long enough, so I settled for this action shot.  We took advantage of the fact that many stores were closed on Easter to use their parking lot for biking practice.  We had been using small patches of pavement at our local park.  These patches weren't big enough to let them pick up some speed (which makes balancing easier) or to really practice steering.  A big empty parking lot was just the ticket, and soon they were cruising all over the lot.  There are some bigger parks within a short driving distance that'll be good for more practice, without having to wait for a major holiday.

October 2008 Blog Posts

I have no excuse.  I have several reasons, but no excuses for not keeping up to date with my blogging.  I finally completed October of last year and I plan to add more current content soon, while back-filling the dates I'm behind on.  Blogging used to be my only hobby, but I've picked up 3 new ones and left this one to dwindle and twist in the wind.  Catch up on all of October here, then stay tuned for more current posts.