JUN-C-7

THE SUMMER SOLSTICE—THE LONGEST DAY,

SHORTEST NIGHT, AND THE CONCLUSION OF A GOOD VISIT: 

THE GRAND TOUR OF DERWOOD AND DC FOR TOM AND SHERIE

 AND THEIR SIX KIDS, WITH RAINY DAY MUSEUM HOPPING

AND A CLEAN SWEEP OF THE IMAX NEW AND OLD MOVIES

June 21, 2003

Happy Solstice to you!

The other recent holiday in this past week was Father’s Day, which I was reminded of by Joe Aukward calling me while I was still enroute back from Haiti to invite me out to a Father’s Day Celebration.  It is interesting that Joe, Father of three, would congratulate me, whereas I, Father of two and grandfather of four, had not heard from any of the six, even after I picked up my mail and calls and emails upon return.

 I will try to arrange a run with Joe on Sunday morning if the perpetual deluges let up.   May was the wettest month on record since those records were kept—since 1815—then the first half of June had already set the June records before the month was half over, having rained hard fourteen out of the first fifteen days of the month

I have had one major presentation during the course of this week—at REI, the outdoor outfitters—on the subject of the Everest Trek and the summiting of Kala Patthar in Nepal.  I made it out to the Bailey’s Crossroads where I had last (and first) been in mid-February, wading down the snowed-in Derwood drive and came in by Metro for the only day that snowbound week.  From the Metro I was picked up to be carried to Bailey’s Crossroads for a presentation on the Lingshed Trek.  As unusual as the weather was at that time of our record snowfalls, the weather is again in record-setting territory.

Tom and Sherie probably do not realize how unique their first-time visit to Washington was when we could go out on the first day of summer in downtown DC and wear jackets in cool, if often wet, weather, without fainting from heat and humidity.  The crowds were kept thinned out by the deluge, so that there would be an almost easy walk into the National Air and Space Museum’s IMAX movies which made it possible for us to walk in at the next available movie showing, rather than buying a ticket for the fourth later show because all the interval shows were sold out.  We even got to drive downtown without being in gridlock and crawling forward in low gear.  We had made a break on our first day, since the weather held back most all of the tourons, and we had to retreat ourselves a few times during the first day’s list of sights to be seen, when we had to run back from the pandas in the zoo to get back into the Dodge Ram soaked by the continuing cloudburst.  But, today, the weather started cool and overcast and then opened up to a sunny afternoon, for our last gasp of the wringing out the last of the touring of all the DC Mall and the Derwood environs, before we came back for a hurried meal before their late take off –in a deluge, as per usual.

THE GRIFFIOENS’ DERWOOD AND DC VISIT

I stayed home on Thursday, and picked up the mail at the post office.  I had put in a note that announced I would be gone from July 17 to August 26, and the next two days, I noticed I received no mail.  I figured they had mis-read the July for June, which in fact they had.  By the time that mail hold is completed, I may not have a home to come back to since the “demo” phase should be under way.  The last visitors I would have would be the Griffioens’, so I had told them that there would not likely be any damage the kids could do that the heavy handed construction and demolition crew would do, and anything they consumed would not have to be packed away and stored—a perfect time for a half dozen kids to make the scene! I went through a number of chores, and had the Bronco washed and waxed, in the only hour it was not raining.  I then went for a run along the Needwood Bike Trail, and photoed a big buck in velvet standing in an opening in the dense jungle-like foliage along Rock Creek Park—looking like a Cretaceous Period lush green botanic explosion.  I also saw three snakes—no coincidence, since every burrow they might have is completely flooded out.  I photoed a couple of the more interesting ones.

Tom remarked about how green everything is, especially my grass, which I have tried to mow for the last week, but had not one hour when it was not soggy and heavily raining.  They had expected to arrive around one o’clock on Thursday, but got a late start out of the two rooms they had in a motel outside Cleveland.  When they arrived, the kids were all ready for a good outing since they had been cooped up in the Dodge Ram Van, so we walked the woods.  The streams are roaring and the deep green of the foliage is everywhere lush with ferns in the understory of the forest.  We saw deer and the skeletons of the winterkill Derwood deer.  The kids could swing on the tire swing and get dirty and excited all at the same time.   I grilled up some chicken and hot dogs on the charcoal grill and we had a picnic on the picnic table before we were driven indoors by the start of yet another rain.  We could then tour the indoor wonders of the Derwood cave with its menagerie in mounts.  The kids all got tucked in for what would have been an early start on the long day, but they slept through 8:30 in the morning, long after I had prepared the coffee and pancakes.  We packed up for a full day, despite the threatening skies.

By their request, we started out at the Zoo, and it began to rain as we arrived.  We scurried around from cheetahs to zebras and emus, until we saw the giant panda sleeping outdoors in full view.  We cut short our stay as the rain began pelting heavily.  We then took off for the place I figured we might be in doors all day—the Air and Space Museum.

We drove all around the big buildings of monumental Washington, so that I could point out each of the Departments of the government that all have heard of –like the IRS, the FBI, and all those great storied places like Watergate, the Hilton where Reagan was shot, the trysting places of several indiscretions.  It was raining so hard that we could only see a faint outline of the Jefferson across the Tidal Basin, and as I drove along the Potomac, they could hardly see Virginia, let alone the Arlington Cemetery I had pointed out.  So, I figured I would change tactics and go indoors.

  We made a dash for it despite the downpour, and got inside to walk around dripping wet in frigid A/C, but they got my private tour of the landmarks in space—and all could touch the moon.  I got tickets for the classic “To Fly” I had seen with Michael in its opening year, the Inaugural movie, voted the best IMAX movie of the decade.  And they all loved it—even if Sherrie had to close here eyes several times.  I have seen it a dozen times, but am still behind Michael (who had seen it some 23 times before being a teenager) whom I had always sent in with the others I would be touring in order to have me stand in line for the next performance’s tickets.  In this case the museum was remarkably light in traffic, although it did not appear to be so to the Griffioens.  I got tickets for the Planetarium for a tour of the galaxies.  In between we went through the aircraft carriers and jet planes and balloons.  The only exhibit we did not see is the Enola Gay exhibit which had caused such controversy when it first opened.  It has been taken down and the whole plane will now be on display in the new NASM exhibit at the Dulles Airport, along with the SR-40, which I had seen land there after its decommissioning, setting the cross US record transit in the last flight it made, as it had (in silence because if its Top Secret missions) on all its original missions which can now be revealed.

We then ducked across to the Natural History Museum to see the exhibits there, including, of course, the twelve ton Fekovi elephant which is the landmark of the museum.  But there is now a new IMAX theatre in the Natural History Museum also, so remember that since we will be coming back!  We walked over to the capital in the first break in the clouds, and posed in the Mall overlooking the big exhibits coming in—the Smithsonian annual Folklife Festival on the Mall, about to open on Monday.  With the Griffioens all waiting on the Mall at the Folklife Exhibit, I ran back to the van and drove it over to pick them up.  We then drove to Foggy Bottom and began a long walk as the evening opened up for the first time in the day, with a few rays of sun illuming the Mall.  I walked them through the Vietnam Memorial, then to the Lincoln Monument, then to the Korean Monument.  I walked the kids over to the FDR Memorial to guide them through it.  I took them around the Tidal Basin where I last was during the Cherry Blossom Festival in full bloom.  As I approached the Jefferson, there was a lot of ceremony going on at the Tidal Basin approach to it.  There were flags and candlelight processions and a lot of speeches delivered in Amharic—this was the “eternal remembrance of our martyrs” on the part of a very large Ethiopian crowd.  I showed them Mister Jefferson, and then had them rendezvous as I ran all the way back to the van and drove back to the pickup point.  I then drove out across the Potomac into Virginia so they could see the DC Mall from the opposite state and also look over both GWU and Georgetown.  By the time we got the kids home to Derwood after dark, they were already out for the night, and we were planning what could still be done on the last day of their visit.  After we had seen the big elephant in the Natural History museum and a number of the antelope and birds of Africa, they were quite surprised to see the pictures of the same kind of safari experience in Africa less than a month ago.

It was NOT an early start, and after breakfast, packing along a tourist support package, we drove down to DC, and I suggested that we park right next to GWUMC, so they could see my institution, and also have the experience of the first ride they would have on Metro.  Jinny was continually agitating to ride a bus, and now they would have the chance to ride the subway, so they all got their farecards and off we went.  We popped out on the Mall to the delight of the kids, getting doublemint gum from handouts.  We went into the Castle to see Mister James Smythson, and then toured the Haupt Garden and the African Art Museum. We then crossed the Mall, and went into the Natural History Museum.  This time we saw the Hope Diamond and the gems, as well as cultures of other parts—like the Chewe People of Malawi, I had just left.  We walked around until the time for our IMAX movie, which was a somewhat hoked up 3D audioanimatronic “T. Rex.”  This, of course, was a real kid-pleaser.

It was now after two o’clock and they had hoped to leave in late afternoon, so I brought them to the American History Museum, where long lines were forming as the sun came out for the first time and they got a chance to see the more usual Washington tourist crowds on the Mall.  I took the Metro back to pick up the van and drive over through a locked up traffic jam.  We stopped to buy FBI sweat shirts for Aubrey and Drew.  Then I drove them around Arlington Cemetery, DCA National Airport, the Marine Memorial, TR Island and on up George Washington Memorial Parkway to return to Derwood.  While they packed up rapidly, I grilled up hamburgers and hotdogs, and they took off well-fed and tinkled, if not rested.

I have a lot of re-grouping to do after the laundry and cleanup—since I must be packed up for every trip all year long, then start the packing process.  Monday there will be meetings to pick the appliances and particular slabs of granite gneiss for the kitchen and bath facilities, and another meting with the designers.  I had canceled the meeting with Dale on Wednesday morning since Ivan would not yet have the final architectural plans for that go-ahead.  This will now be re-scheduled on July 10, exactly a week before I take off for India to be gone the next six weeks, returning for only a couple of days before going on to Alaska for the moose hunt.

So “the old Derwood” has had its last visitors, before its long term transformation after which I expect it will have very many more.

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