Good Friday

1. Marshall and I just returned from 2.5 days away from home and children, leaving it all in the capable hands of my parents. Marshall planned a lovely trip to Washington, D.C. The cherry blossom festival is currently happening (my mother's pictures from last Saturday are here) and we spent Wednesday walking around the city, enjoying the following:

• The Folger Shakespeare Library - I positively drooled over the massive extent of their collection and remembered how much I loved to read and study Shakespeare. Ah, life before kids.
• Turner to Cezanne: Masterpieces from the Davies Collection, National Museum Wales at the Corcoran Gallery of Art - Loved the Turner pieces. We like Impressionism but prefer Pre-Raphaelite.
• Walked the Mall from the World War II Memorial past the Reflecting Pool to the Lincoln Memorial and on to the FDR Memorial then back to the Smithsonian to catch the Metro again. It was a looonnnngggg walk. Our feet still hurt.
• The Terra Cotta Warriors Exhibit at the National Geographic Museum - On the last possible day, at 8:30 in the evening when we were already tired from all of our hiking around town, but it was still amazingly cool. When my father saw the show in Atlanta, he took a few pictures before being told personal photography was not allowed. When he offered to erase the pictures, though, they said he could keep them.

2. We stayed in a B&B in Logan Circle at the Chester Arthur house and it was such a lovely place, Marshall took a few photos of the architecture. We highly recommend the place and the service. Just don't try to drive there late at night in a rain storm.

3. We spent Thursday morning lazing about the Chester Arthur house, resting out feet, and then drove up to Baltimore to see the aquarium again (we'd visited in 2003 before Alex's birth and really enjoyed ourselves) but it was such a gorgeous day that the place was full-up and they weren't allowing anyone else in. So we browsed in the Barnes & Noble across the street for a while (I have to be dragged out of bookstores) and then headed home.

4. The cold/flu/virus thing that had me in bed last Sunday is back today, so I'm lounging in my pajamas still and letting my parents and Marshall do all the work and shopping. I think I overdid it just a little bit tramping around D.C.

5. Bought lots of fun postcards in D.C. Look for them to come to a mailbox near you, soon.

6. So lovely to have my parents here visiting! My mother arrived from VA in Tuesday right before Marshall and I left. She was supposed to catch a transfer train from Philly to Cherry Hill but she missed her connection, so I got a hurried but excellent set of directions over the phone from my father-in-law and drove to 30th Street Station to get her myself!

7. We will have a big Easter feast at Leah's house on Sunday, although my father goes to the airport after church and will miss the dinner. But everyone else will be there and the kids will have an Easter egg hunt.

Jen @ Conversion Diary is taking Good Friday off. Happy Easter, y'all!