Memorial Day

Greetings all!

Memorial Day for us was split between Arlington National Cemetery and the National Memorial Day Parade.

We started the day taking Uber to Arlington National Cemetery. The traffic going into the cemetery was really backed up, so the driver, very smartly, dropped us off at the end of the bridge rather than getting stuck in traffic. We hoofed it into the cemetery and up the hill to the amphitheater and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. There was a long line with several switchbacks waiting to get through security at the top of the hill, but it moved steadily. Once inside, we headed to the amphitheater. I had originally thought we would stay out and watch the laying of the wreath at the tomb, but most people seemed to be inside, so we went along. When we entered, there were not many seats left,
but we found good ones in the back row straight back from the dais. The amphitheater was lined with American flags including several giant ones behind the podium.

We really didn't know what to expect and somehow did not get a program when we entered. Will asked to borrow a program from the guy sitting in front of us. He opened it up and was completely surprised to find out that President Obama was going to be speaking! We had know idea! We were so excited.

The guy we borrowed the program from had a photo and memorial on the back of his shirt, I assume of his son. His son was born one year after my son, Zachary, and died in 2007. I can't even imagine.

While waiting for the ceremony to start, the Army Band played marches and patriotic songs, so good. Then, the colors were presented with representatives from a variety of groups marching in, each with an American Flag an a flag representing their group.

A 21 gun salute signaled the arrival of President Obama in the cemetery. He first went to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for the laying of the wreath. We could hear the playing of TAPS from where we were in the amphitheater. The President along with other dignitaries then entered the amphitheater. We got to sing the Star Spangled Banner with the President, listened to the dignitaries, then President Obama. He gave a thoughtful, moving speech honoring our veterans and told several personal stories of veterans who had recently died. One wife and 10-month-old baby were in attendance and were introduced to a standing ovation. Getting to see and hear the President more than made up for not getting White House tour tickets and getting rained out of the concert!


Once the audience was dismissed, we worked our way around to the front of the amphitheater to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We got a good spot to watch the changing of the guard and the laying of wreaths from a variety of organization. Two school-aged children, presented a wreath made out of cut-out red, white and blue paper hands.

On hour hike back down the hill, we made a stop at the graves of President John F. Kennedy & Jacqueline Bovier Kennedy Onasis.
The memorial was covered with small flags and flowers from the many people who came to pay their respect at the Eternal Flame.

We decide to hike back to town since the traffic was so bad. We got back in time to grab a bite to eat and find a good spot to watch the Memorial Day Parade on Constitution Avenue. The parade was made up of a wide variety of military groups and a huge selection of high school bands. I had a great spot for photos right across from the Washington Memorial.

Unfortunately, about a third of the way through the parade, someone through something over the fence at
the White House, only a few blocks away. This shut everything down. Emergency vehicles were everywhere.We sat and waited about an hour before the parade started again. It is billed as the biggest Memorial Day parade in the country. I have no doubt it's true! We stayed 'til the end! :)

We grabbed some ice cream and headed back to the hotel to rest before dinner. We found a little Chinese place not to far from the hotel and had a pretty good meal, then headed back to put or feet up for the evening. Haven't done this much walking in a LONG time!

Tomorrow is a tour of the Capitol and Supreme Court! With all the excitement of Memorial Day, we had almost forgot!


See you tomorrow night!
Rich & Will

Great Day - Rainy Night

Hey Everyone!

Today was hot and humid, which turned to thunderstorms tonight. We still had a great day. After a bite to eat at the hotel, we headed back to the mall area to see the things we had seen last night during the day. There were a lot more people, of course, but it was still great.

Our first stop was the Vietnam Memorial again. People everywhere paying their respects. But the moment that moved me the most, was a hearing two different young fathers explaining to their young boys how significant the memorial was, that all the people had died, and how to behave. In a day and age when we are so use to children running amok in public places, it was moving to hear these young fathers taking responsibility and teaching their children. I actually teared up as I walked by the one pictured here. 

We revisited the Lincoln Memorial and the Reflecting Pool, then headed over to see the Korean War Memorial, another moving memorial. We discovered a flag display in the lawn that was really something. Each little flag in the grass had a photo of a vet attached to a cutout of the state they were from. It appeared to have been done by school children. So cool. 

After a water break, we headed over to the Memorial Bridge to take in the Rolling Thunder motorcycle ride and demonstration. The motorcycles went on for hours! It was incredible. We heard estimates ranging from 50,000 to 350,000 riders. Absolutely amazing showing. 

After a bite for lunch, we took in the Smithsonian American History Museum. It was nice to get out of the heat and into air conditioning. The American History Museum has a wide range of exhibits. Everything from food to presidents. We got to see Dorothy's ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz, Archie Bunker's chair, and Michelle Obama's (and other First Ladies) inaugural gown. Probably the coolest exhibit was the Star Spangled Banner. I had no idea that it was so huge or that a lot of it was cut off as souvenirs for friends before it was given to the Smithsonian. Unfortunately, it was the only exhibit where they did not allow photography.

We headed toward the Capitol Building for the concert next, but it started to rain on our way there. But it was just sprinkling, so we kept going. By the time we arrived, it was pouring. Without ponchos, hats, or any kind of rain gear, and no end in site to the rain, we decided it was a bit foolish to sit out on the lawn for 3 hours waiting for the concert. Uber rates had been jacked up 2.5 times because of the demand for cars, so we started walking. Sigh...what a walk! About 20 blocks in the pouring rain. When we finally arrived at our room, our keys wouldn't work. Will went to the front desk only to find we had been checked out of our room! The issue was rectified fairly quickly, thank goodness. We got into our room and found everything still there. Whew! 

Just finishing watching the Memorial Day Concert in our room, on TV, nice and dry. :) Tomorrow, is Memorial Day and we're hoping to get to Arlington Cemetery in the morning, then back for the parade in the afternoon. This city knows how to celebrate our veterans!

Today's favorite quote, heard from a young man hawking water, "Don't let dehydration ruin your vacation!"

Cheers all!

Rich & Will

What a night!

We made it! Our flights to PDX and to DC went without a hitch and were over all very smooth. I had a 42-year-old guy sitting next to me on the flight to DC who had never flown before! It was kind of fun taking in the whole process from his point of view. He did really well, considering it was his first.

Once in DC, we did another first, we took an Uber car to our hotel! What a great system. Much cheaper than a taxi and the driver was friendlier. It actually felt safer than a taxi to me. Kind of weird to hop out of the car and not pay the driver anything directly. Will definitely use Uber again.


Our hotel is walking distance to the national mall and our room is beautiful. Thanks to our Marriott timeshare points!

As soon as we settled in, we headed off to explore. We headed to the White House first. There were throngs of people everywhere...one of the busiest weeks of the year in our nation's capital. It was interesting to us that MANY of the people around us were foreigners, seemingly more than there were Americans.

After a yummy hamburger and delicious chocolate milkshake for dinner, we headed toward the mall. It was getting dark, which was perfect as we wanted our first view of the monuments to be at night when they were lit up. Walking down the mall, the Washington Monument began looming in the distance. What an incredible feat of architecture. Unfortunately, it is not open at night to go to the top. From the base, there are gorgeous views of the Capitol Building and Lincoln Memorial in opposite directions.

Next we headed down the mall toward the Lincoln Memorial. It is deceptively close looking, but it is quite a walk. Even though I had seen it before (Will had not), it was still just as moving. Now that I know I am distantly related to Honest Abe, it has even more significance for me. There were people everywhere, but Abe just sat calmly taking it all in. The view from the top of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial back toward the Washington Monument is breath taking, seeing the obelisk reflected in the reflecting pool.

On our way back to the hotel, we walked by the Vietnam Memorial. There
were wreaths lining the walk way and personal memorabilia lined the wall itself. The names seemed to stretch forever. It really got to me, what a tragic loss of life. We were able to find the name of a POW that Will wore on a POW bracelet when he was in high school. Seemed surreal to him to connect the bracelet to a real person.

A fifteen minute walk back to our hotel and we are exhausted. Even though we were on a plane most of the day, my FitBit still registered 14,500 steps!! So off to bed as soon as I post this. Tomorrow is the concert on the West Lawn of the Capitol Building, can't wait! And of course, more exploring!

Hope your Memorial Day weekend is off to a great start!

Our bags are packed...

We're all packed and ready to go! We fly out early morning to PDX then straight to Ronald Reagan International Airport. We plan on taking our first Uber ride from the airport to the hotel. Can't wait to start exploring DC. Hopefully, the weather holds for the Memorial Day Concert on the west lawn of the Capitol on Sunday. Check it out on TV, you may see us! Stay tuned for photos and blow-by-blow blog entries!
Ciao!
Rich & Will

Another one checked off the bucket list!

Hey, Everyone!

Years ago, when Will and I went to London & Paris, I started a blog of our trip to share with everyone. (It's still posted here!) It was a fun process, even if I did get to bed very late some nights. Of course, we can share directly on Facebook, but a blog keeps everything together in one place. I didn't think many people were reading the blog, but when we returned, we got all kinds of positive comments and remarks about it. In addition, when I did our London photo book, I was able to copy and paste the blog entries into the photo book. What a great way to relive the memories.

So, at the end of May, we are heading to Washington DC, a trip that has been on our bucket list for a long time. I have been once, as a chaperon with some of my students, but Will has never been. We'll spend Memorial Day weekend there getting to see the big parade and the concert on the lawn of the capitol building. We have arranged for a tour of the Capitol Building as well as the Supreme Court. We're keeping our fingers crossed for tickets for a White House tour! We are both quite patriotic, so are very excited. 

At the end of the week, on Friday, we're going to drive north to Gettysburg, then on over to the Philadelphia area to visit my cousins, the Hoelzle family. We'll then fly home on Sunday out of Philadelphia.

I'll be blogging along the way and posting photos. If anyone has any tips or "have tos" for us, restaurants, sites, etc., please let us know.

Cheers!
Rich & Will

The Rest of the Story...

So this was NOT a photo we expected to take on our European vacation.

Our itinerary called for us to fly from Paris to London, London to Seattle, and Seattle to Medford. Our flight from Paris was delayed about 30 minutes. While still in the air, a flight attendant came to our seats to inform us that we had missed our London connection. (I have to admit that British Airways attention was amazing. We have never received service like this on an American airline.) The flight attendant assured us that they would take care of us and told us that an agent would meet us at the gate in London.

When we landed in London, the same flight attendant escorted us off the plane and connected us with an agent who sent us to a rebooking desk. We were quickly rebooked on a flight from London to Las Vegas with a connection to San Francisco then Medford.

Ahh...all was good. We were actually scheduled to arrive home 10 minutes before our original flights!

We had to run to our gate in London, only to find that they had two long lines for boarding, one for women and children, one for men. Everyone was frisked and carry-ons were searched. We had already been through the traditional security check! This delayed the flight a little, so when we landed in Vegas, went through customs, and retrieved our luggage, we had to run to the domestic terminal. We arrived at the United desk and tried to check-in at the kiosk, but were too late. Our flight was closed. Deja vu! We returned to the British Airways desk in the international terminal. They rebooked us for the next day, reserved a hotel room for us (and paid for it) and ordered a shuttle. The service was amazing.

After being up for 24 hours straight, things weren't all bad. We got a good night's sleep (nope, no casinos - too exhausted) and were up for the 8:00 AM flight to San Francisco. All went smoothly and we were home by noon on Saturday.

A week later, we were pretty much readjusted to pacific daylight savings time, sorting through 3,000 photos and video, and loving our memories of a fabulous European adventure.

...and now, you know, the rest of the story.

We'll always have Paris.

Dear Friends,



This is our last blog entry for Paris. So sad. It has been a fantastic adventure. There is so much to see that we have not seen, we know we’ll be back. Most of the fountains were still off for the winter and the gardens didn’t have much greenery or flowers. It was amazing how much some of the trees leafed out while we here this week. In a few weeks, there will be green everywhere, another reason to return.

The French sure know how to serve a continental breakfast. We went to a café we had not been to before and were surprised by what they called a continental breakfast. It came with two fried eggs, half a grapefruit, croissant, baguette, fresh squeezed orange juice and coffee. I guess it depends what continent you’re on. We were stuffed.

After breakfast we spent the morning at the Pompidou Center of Modern Art. There were some works that were not quite our cup of tea, but it was definitely interesting. We then spent some time exploring the area around the Pompidou while we waited for Nikita and Katrin (Nikita’s boss from last summer in Medford) to arrive. Katrin was coming in from St. Petersburg, Russia, and Nikita was meeting her in Paris for the day before they headed back to Rouen. We had lunch with them, fondue again (yum!), in Little Athens, and then headed up to Montmarte via the Metro.
The weather was gorgeous at Montmarte and there were people everywhere. The many steps heading up to Sacre Couer were lined with people just enjoying the sun and the entertainers. We toured around looking at the art work and small shops and shot more photos. Katrin and Nitita had to catch a train to Rouen, about 5:00 PM. It was so good to see them, it was hard to say goodbye. We have really missed Nikita. Who knows when we’ll be able to connect again. We walked around Montmarte some more, had a delicious gelato, and then headed back to the hotel to rest the feet a bit before heading to dinner.

A French Italian dinner hit the spot tonight with a gelato chaser and a walk around the town before returning to our room to pack (ugh!). Over dinner we talked about our observations and surprises for our first visit to France…here are some of the things we came up with.

• Cafés are everywhere. Almost all of them are open for breakfast lunch and dinner. Seating is very tight and you often are sitting shoulder to shoulder with someone you don’t know. In France, no big deal. No one freaks out about their personal space. Also, when sitting outdoors in a café, people are typically sitting side-by-side facing the street, the ultimate people watching spot.
• A basket of sliced baguettes are served at every meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner regardless of the cuisine being served. Mansy French dishes come with frites (french fries), at least in the cafés. Many dishes, including some pizza, are served with a fried egg on top. Crepe stands are everywhere – come on America, let’s get with the program!
• The French don’t serve lattes and mochas, unless it’s at Starbucks. In French cafés it’s café crème, which is coffee with steamed milk.
• In restaurants, the server brings a handheld credit card machine to your table. Your credit card never leaves your sight. Awesome idea that really needs to take hold in the States. Tipping is not expected in France and there is no spot for it on the credit card receipt…interesting.
• It’s not uncommon for men and women to share a restroom, once again in France, no big deal.
• In Paris, more French speak English, and sometimes quite well, than we were lead to believe. Most were also willing to speak English. Katrin commented today that when she was learning French, she purposely did not come to Paris because the Parisians were all too willing to jump into English when she was struggling with the language.
• It’s common for people to NOT pick up after their dog. This is quite nasty on the city sidewalks.
• Men aren’t afraid to wear color. We saw lots of purple and lavender, as well as red. Women do wear real fur in France, but not excessively. Almost everyone, men and women, wear scarves both for warmth and fashion. (Rich had to buy two, himself.)

I’m sure there are many more things that will come to mind as we travel home. Although this is our last blog from Europe, we hope that we will continue to have more opportunities to travel. With opening a restaurant, things will change for the next year, but hopefully we’ll be back on the road again soon.

To all of you who faithfully read our blog every day, merci beaucoup. We are so pleased that we were able to share this special time with our special friends and family.

Au revoir! We’ll see you at home soon.

Love,
Rich & Will