Moments

The thing I love about travel is that there are always those special moments, where you just know you will remember them forever. For me, it’s not always the obvious moments, you know, like the fireworks over the harbor, or the tropical sunset. What is so special about these moments are not the sights or the sounds but it’s more about how it makes me feel. That’s what I remember.

Laura and I just got back from a whirlwind tour of Washington D.C., a place I have always very much wanted to visit. I am a big fan of that whole American Revolution thing and the brilliant people who gave birth to a free nation. There are two special moments that we shared in Washington. Simple moments, yet beautiful. I am not sure Laura even knows what the first one is, but she could probably guess the second one.

The trip started off kind of rough. You know how the airlines have a rule, at least one crying baby per flight. I’m convinced they have babies standing by at the ready, incase a flight should miraculously end up with out a cranky 1 year old. This flight had 6 babies, who looked like they had been deprived of sleep for 3 days. Before the flight, the stewardess went through the plane collecting those noise canceling headphones people now have. If they had to hear it, we all did.

Laura’s brother Don meet us at the gate, and gave us a night time tour of Old Town in Alexandria Virginia, complete with cobblestone streets and gas lamps. This was a harbinger of things to some. Don and his wife Lynn and family, made us feel so welcome, and were very accommodating on our trip. If they were not family, I would have slipped Don a Benjamin when he dropped us off at the airport. He would have refused it anyway.

The first unforgettable, was a tiny moment. Friday, all the adults had to work, so Don dropped Laura and me off close to the Capital end of the Mall. It was to be the start of our self guided tour for the day. Getting out of the SUV, we still had a block and a half to go to get to the Library of Congress, our first stop of the day. The beginning of that journey was exciting. It wasn’t a spectacular view that sticks in my head, although there would be many that I will remember, it was special because it was the beginning of what I knew would be a fun, exciting journey with Laura. It was the beauty of anticipation.

We spent the whole day going from the Library of Congress, to the Supreme Court building to the front of the Capital building, to the new American Indian Museum. After lunch we hit two of the better Smithsonians, the Air and Space Museum and the wonderful Natural History museum. Somewhere in there we stopped for Ice Cream at one of those carbon copy Ice Cream/souvenir stands that are rampant within the Mall. What a great day.

The next couple of days are a blur of monuments and museums as Don dropped us off at various places in the Mall and patiently waited for us to see the sights. When we where ready to go to the next stop, we would fire up a red flare and he would come pulling up. It pissed off DC security to no end, but it was effective.

One of the last momuments Laura and I saw was special. It was the Jefferson Memorial. We are both big fans of “TJ”; that’s what we like to call him. Thomas Jefferson’s elegant prose gave wings to the idea that became this country. An extremely well read man with a tremendous amount of knowledge who used the lessons from history to help create a country, that although far from perfect in the beginning, started with a blueprint to fix itself as it evolved. The man who wrote this:

“I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."

I can’t even explain it, but reading that made me feel…..hope.

The DC Photoshoot: http://sberringer.shutterfly.com