Buddy and I took a road trip to Washington to see the Cherry Blossoms.  I have been looking forward to this trip since last year.  I didn’t think I would ever be well enough to make such a trip.  We left on March 28th and returned home on April 2nd.  We had such a lovely time.  I hadn’t been to DC since 1998.  Nicole and I went the summer after Richard died.  Libby invited us to come and stay with her and she would help us about town.  Things haven’t changed.  The weather was just beautiful and warm.  It was a bit windy but that turned out to be a plus on Kite Flying Day on the Mall.

Our first stop was for lunch.  We had stopped at this restaurant last summer when we visited Jeannie and Peter.  It has such delicious food, we made sure we stopped here once again.

I had their fried oysters, green beans and their coleslaw.  It was just yummy!

For dessert we split their Better Than Sex chocolate cake.  It didn’t taste as good as it did the first time we had it.  Last time we thought it came in a second to sex.  This time it was nowhere near.  😉

Thursday morning found us in Chinatown.  Some people didn’t even know there was a Chin town in DC.  This is the beautiful Chinatown Friendship Archway that marks the entrance to the tiny Chinatown neighborhood.

Close up of the archway.

Another close up of archway.

One of many unique buildings.

Close up of the roof.

Another building.

While we were in Chinatown, we decided to have lunch.  What a delicious lunch.  The place was very small but it was crowded with people.  

This is a picture of our appetizer.  Veggie tempura.  Yummy!

After lunch we took the Metro over to the Smithsonian.

We went into the castle to get some information about the different exhibits.  My mistake.  I ended up purchasing the replica pearls worn by Jackie Kennedy Onassis. They are just beautiful.  They will look great with all my Magnolia Peal clothes.

Buddy inside the Smithsonian.

This fellow stands at the entrance to the building.

This fellow is not too far behind the elephant.  His eyes seemed to glow.

I know this is blurry, however, it was on a turn table and it was difficult for me to get a good shot.  It’s the famous Hope diamond.  It was blinding.

The next several pictures are amazing.  I took a movie and it looked like something Walt Disney would make.  The fish were unique and some even looked like Dorry.  I don’t think I really captured the beauty there was to behold.

 Outside crossing the Mall.

A lot of construction going on on the Mall.

This is a bike decked out for the Cherry Blossom Festival.

When we got back to our hotel we were exhausted.  We took a quick nap and then headed out to a wonderful Italian restaurant for dinner.  The restaurant was the Positano.  I ordered fresh clams over linguine and Buddy had a hankering for just spaghetti and meatballs.

My delicious meal.Buddy’s meal.This is a picture of our appetizer.  It was eggplant cosini.  It was very good.  After dinner we headed back to the hotel for a good night’s rest.  The next day was going to be a lot of standing.  It was kite flying on the Mall.  

There were hundreds of kites flying the entire length of the Mall.

 No kite eating trees.

You can tell the day is wearing me down.

More kites at the other end of the Mall.  There was still construction going on and the dust was awful.  At times it was difficult to breathe.

Lots of families turned out for this event.

Kites over the Capitol.

We watched this man struggle with is kite trying to get it up.

Almost up.

Success!!!!

Flowers at the Metro where we get off.

Still smiling after a very long day.

Blessings.