The silly things that matter most

We woke up and had a lovely morning on our sixth anniversary together. I busied myself with making breakfast and getting ready for a day out of the house... it was Sonia's first time being away for about eight hours... easy for her, hard for me ;-) What a blessing her papa is to me and to our whole family!!! He woke up, took care of the dog, of the overgrown lawn and played with Sonia strawberry short cake softballWe got a glove, a ball and a bat last night... Sonia and papa played and played and ran around making joyful memories of our special day.

By eleven we seemed to manage to get to Valerie's house... the smell of her home filled with whole-wheat, home-made-from-scratch-starting-with-grinding-wheat-berries waffles made me want to linger there longer but it was time to go...

"Don't get too excited because all the activities are a bit silly today," humbly noted Jeremy on the metro train to DC. The metro tracks are elevated and offer a beautiful Bird's eye view of Alexandria before diving into the ground on the DC side of the Potomac river. I kept thinking that Sonia would be thrilled to ride the train with us. She has been talking about papa ridding big choo choo everyday of the week. The ride was worth every penny and unlike New York subways was comfortable with Moscow style huge metro stations and escalators.

We walked pass the Embassy row on the way to our first destination... the Textile museum. With my recent sewing hobby looking at treasures of Amish quilters was a pure pleasure. Hand stitching and color take your breath away.The Road to Heaven movie about Amish communal way of living ended with words "Our way to Heaven is narrow, not broad, and it is not for everyone; there are other ways too but that is what we choose."

Then Jeremy took me to Corcoran Gallery of Art for a quick walk through and I ended up discovering John Singer Sargent, the pre-eminent American expatriate painter of the late 19th century. Not his main portrait works but landscapes especially French girl fishing captivated me; we shall go back and see "Sargent and the Sea" special exhibit that is coming up in September.

Drops of rain turned into a warm Southern thunder storm outside as we headed to old town Alexandria. Well, I am romantic and you can simply steal my heart with this sort of antique trolley ride through King street. Best of all it was free.

With an inside as good as an outside.

To the river! On the boat!

On this rainy afternoon we turned into the only passengers on the private historic tour of Potomac river and an old Town. Where does Santa spend his summers? That is right... here on the boat. The captain let me drive the boat.... to my complete horror... I even had to turn the whole thing around on the way back and was told not to run into other boats that wondered what on earth I was doing at the wheel. Gladly I gave up my river watching duty ;-)

Listening to Jamey Turner glass harp outside the Torpedo factory was a special treat on the way back. He tunes up each glass when it goes flat with more or less water and pardon the rain, the music is simply phenomenal. Once again I wished for Sonia to be with us!

We ended our day adventure with fine dining at Vermilion. Tasteful atmosphere, fresh local produce, soft shell crab and melting in the mouth halibut (while Jeremy experienced buffalo steak of the same qualities) left us with desire to come back to this paradise of good food, peace and quiet.

Oh, what a day!!! How grateful I am to have an eternal companion and how could he ever figure out a day like this? Can I add it didn't cost a fortune either; all including metro fare was under $50. It does help to have excellent planning skills, work hard (Jeremy's volunteering this summer paid for the meal at Vermilion) and be the most desirable and capable guy of making "silly" miracles ;-) I love you!!!! What a pleasure to spend a whole day with you!!!!

The lady who snapped this shot said... "Let there be as many happy days in your lives together as there are rain drops today..."

Oh, irresponsible parents! We were an hour late to get back. Thank you, Valerie and Graton for your patience, kindness to Sonia and we hope to return this favor! Thank you for keeping our Sonia safe and happy!!! Sonia did well the whole day and as usually kids do got super tired... I think I was a bit selfish for eight hours straight so for now we decided not to leave our two-year-old for a whole day. Oh, the joy of parenting!!!! Choices, choices, choices!!!