If It's Tuesday Night, We Must Be At Mr. Henry's

Last night was Tuesday....so we went to Mr. Henry's. When I mentioned Mr.Henry's last week, I got requests for how the kids look in their chairs.  So this is it!   I forgot to say that the other good thing about Mr. Henry's on Tuesday is that margaritas are $4. 

Other than that, Tuesday was a quiet day.  We went to Capitol Hill Arts Workshop to pay for two more sketching sessions for me with DC Sketchers, but we mostly just hung out at home.

On Monday, we went to the Museum of the American Indian, another Smithsonian Museum.  It was fun.  We saw a lot of small beautiful statues of animals and people, some of which were very old.  We also saw a movie.  The building itself is a pretty amazing sculpture.

Yards Park

The old Navy Yards are pretty near our Capitol Hill neighborhood.  The Yards have been turned into a community area with water play features for kids, a nice deck overlooking the Anacostia River, and a concert area with the river as background...it's sort of like Portland.  There's also a large covered area for events and grassy fields for play.  I took the picture above from the deck area and it shows how close the Park is to another favorite attraction---Nationals Stadium!  The baseball stadium is right there next door!

We went on Friday night.  There is a band every Friday night, with beer and wine sangria and other good stuff to eat, and a happy TGIF attitude in the air.  Louisa and I sat on the deck with Sophia while waiting for Griffin and Peter.  Here's my shot of Louisa:

Later, Louisa and Peter danced to a great band, with lots of "oldies.":

We had fun, and so we went again on Saturday for a community event that included free food, soda, and snocones.  There were toys for the kids, such as the one Griffin is playing with below.  You soak it in water and it splashes when you throw it.  Sophia is sitting on a kind of lily pad that is permanently installed.   The kids had a lot of fun playing in the water:

Good times at Yards Park.  Lots of pictures here.  I will want to know if there are too many and it slows things up. 

Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday

Things are getting a little busy, and now there's no time to post every day.

On Tuesday, Sophia and I had a little neighborhood outing with a trip to the post office to mail some paintings to Auntie Jen in California.  Then, we had a Metro ride to Harris Teeter, the local supermarket.  It was fun.  When you'r just almost four...everything is interesting and worth talking about.  Sophia loves to learn things, so we always have a topic of conversation.  Louisa picked us up and drove us home.  We had too much to carry on Metro. 

Griffin and his friends came home from the Tae Kwon Do Day Camp and hung out with us until it was time to go to Mr. Henry's for dinner.  Every Tuesday night is Kid's night at Mr. Henry's and lots of other families in the neighborhood participate.  A good time was had by all.  The kids watch a movie with kid-sized chairs lined up in for them in what would have been an upstairs bar area. The grownups get to talk with each other and catch up on neighborhood doings.

Wednesday was another Metro trip--this time to the Museum of Natural History, where we saw dinosaurs, the Hope Diamond, a reef with some fish that look like Nemo, lots of animals, and a live butterfly garden.  Here's Sophia in the garden:

We were pretty hungry by then and had some great crab soup and a not-so-great cheese sandwich in the museum cafe.  Before heading home on Metro, we had to catch a ride on the carousel.  Sophia had a beautiful blue horse.  After we were home, Griffin and his friends had a birthday celebration for his friend Jeremiah at Starbuck's and they invited Sophia.  Then, Sophia and Griffin had a play date with some other friends while the adults had a "grown-ups" only dinner at Ba Bay on Pennsylvania Ave.  I had chicken with lemon grass rice.  It was the best rice I have ever had.  I shared some with others at the table and everyone agreed!   Louisa's friend Chantel joined us for the dinner.  She and I stayed late while everyone else went home.  We had a great visit.

Thursday was supposed to be a trip by Circulator bus to the American Indian Museum.  Sophia and I got on the wrong bus, though, and had a bus driver who wasn't too helpful.  I need to do a little more on-line research.  We made the most of it, though, and went back and hung out in the neighborhood.  We had a quesadilla lunch at a Salvadoran restaurant on 8th St called "Las Placitas."  Then we came home to catch a favorite tv program, "Angelina Ballerina," and took it easy for the rest of the day.  Sophia has been taking ballet and really identifies with Angelina, who is a beautiful little mouse in a pink tutu, tights and ballet slippers.  What's not to love about that?

Monday, Monday

Monday was the last day of school for Sophia and Griffin.  Strange to have a half-day on a Monday, but it was a "make up" for a snow day in January.  Griffin actually went to Tae Kwan Do for a week-long camp.  I met Sophia at 12:30 after school and we went to the restaurant Hawk and Dove for lunch, which is always nice. 

We then did what Sophia really wanted to do--go to the "corner store" and get a treat. 

We did a little artwork, and then Griffin joined us.  He was exhausted from Tae Kwan Do.  Neither one of them wanted to go to the park or do anything active.  Griffin put on a movie that Sophia didn't like, but it didn't matter too much.  She just went to sleep on the sofa.  When the movie was over, I tried to get him interested in various things, but he was too tired.  He didn't even want to change channels on tv.  He ended up napping on the other sofa. 

It was a pretty calm day.  We did get in some popsicle eating on the front stoop before the naps. 

Things are coming together for my apartment. Last night, I was dealing with a tv that wouldn't work and no chairs to sit on to work on paintings, e-mails, and blogs (very important).   In addition, the bed collapsed when I got out of it this morning.  All those problems have now been addressed--tv is working (minus a channel I don'tcare about), and I have a chair.  The bed has been modified and will be completely re-done soon.  I can sleep on it now.  Have had plenty of time for art, e-mail, and blogs....so all is well.

First Day in the District of Columbia

I had busy first day in DC and so actually didn't get to make a post.  I arrived on time Saturday night in Baltimore.  There was a little problem with my pickup because my cell phone wasn't working....but we all got together in time to go out to dinner at a favorite place---Franklin's in Hyattsville, Maryland.   It has a great sign:

Franklin's is good family fun because there is a general store as well as the restaurant and brewery.  Fun for everyone, and good eats.

We headed for All Souls Unitarian Church Sunday morning in plenty of time for the service.  We didn't make it, though, because there was a triathalon going on in downtown Washington DC.  The action was between us and the church.   We were routed by the police in what became a circular pattern.  Seemed like a metaphor for government business!  When it was clear we would be very late, we gave up.  Louisa took Sophia to get a haircut, and Griffin, Peter and I did a little shopping. 

We then celebrated Father's Day with lunch at "Hop's" restaurant, complete with jokes about the Dr. Seuss favorite, Hop on Pop.

Peter, Griffin and I then went to a Washington Nationals baseball game while Louisa and Sophia went home to get ready for a party.  The Nationals were playing the Baltimore Orioles.  The baseball game was a sellout---the combination of Father's Day and the proximity of Baltimore, I guess..  We had to get "standing room only" tickets and learned there are specific areas for such tickets.  After about three innings, it rained and lots of people gave up.  We then found empty seats we liked and settled in to watch.  Well, the people holding those seats had actually left just to get food.  They came back and we just moved to some other seats.  The Nationals lost 7-4, but parts of the game were exciting.  The best part for Griffin is that he got to "run the bases" after the game.  Here's how he looked, cheered on by "Theodore Roosevelt" with "George Washington" in the background.

Came home, did some preliminary work on getting the downstairs apartment ready and then Louisa, Sophia and I went to a party.  It was great.  Lots of fans of Portland, Oregon.

Salt Lake City Airport

Greetings from the Salt Lake City Airport.  First stop on my Summer in Washington DC.  Carrie took me to the airport early this morning and so, far, so good.  I feel pretty comfortable here in Utah.  I flew out and back to this airport many times when Howard and I lived in Ogden. It's Saturday morning.  We spent many pleasant Saturday mornings around here. We had a great house, with views of the Wasatch Mountains and Great Salt Lake.  I think the elevation was about 3000'.  I could see the mountains from the kitchen window and Salt Lake from the family room.  I'd like to take a picture of those gorgeous mountains, but it's a little smoggy and they don't show very well today.  Instead, I learned a new trick and downloaded a picture from the Salt Lake City Airport website and included it in this post. 

Why were we living in Utah?  I was working at the Regional Office for the Forest Service--Intermountain Region.  I worked with a lot of great people there.   Although I was glad to move back to Oregon, I have a lot of good memories of Utah.  It is beautiful....with deserts, mountains, lakes, rivers and a wide variety of wildlife.