CHERRY BLOSSOM TIME

We visited Washington, DC, last weekend in spite of the Cherry Blossom Festival.  Crowded it was but we had a wedding to witness.

 

     To get to it you had to squeeze past the Cherry Blossom Parade and the adjacent festival. The tiny pink flowers  were all over making slender trees look like bunched up cotton candy.

   I found it interesting to see them intermingled with flotsam in the Tidal Basin.

 

You had to get up at sunrise too avoid the masses.   Where there were 4000 tourists in front of the White House on Saturday afternoon, in Sunday morning there were were just the two of us.  

   I thought we might see the President stepping out in his bathrobe to fetch the paper.  If he did, I was prepared to wave and say "Hello!".     

  We did not see him.  Michelle her husband were probably sleeping in.

      Francesca and I stopped by the Viet Nam Memorial to say hello to three old friends, Bucky, Bruce, and Ron.

   By 8 there were flower fans all  over the basin area surrounded by statues and cherry trees.

   

 Here are a few other things we saw in Washington,

Jellyfish fossils found in Kansas, some 30-inches long.

The Moa we grabbed from Easter Island in 1886.

One of the planes my father flew (in the 40's) for Eastern Airlines.

What it will look like when the world ends,

 The river we must cross, before it ends, to find salvation,

 What our states look like on TV, and
Hawaii and Alaska were there too, off to the side.  St Croix was not included because it is only a territory.

What might be the interior of my brain.

 The art above was photographed at the Smithsonian Museum of America Art.

                                                  __________________________





Alice in Cherryland

WHITE HOUSE, RED BIKE

    This morning we rented bikes and zoomed around our nation's capitol.   With it's wide open spaces, it's a great place for this. 24 hours for seven bucks.  We dodged tourists, traffic and cherry blossums to see the sights.
   









 




But the reason we were there  was Ruy's wedding!  Francesca's son had the good sense to propose to the wonderful Meagan Berg. Family and friends gathered to celebrate
their union. 
    It was perfect with the reception held in a dimly-lit bar that had great beer, good music, and two dusty bocce ball courts. 


   

Yesterday we wandered about. The sun was so intense many people had to cover up.


 
Others didn't.


                          Figure at the Museum of American Art


 
I took a few other pictures.  I'll show them  in the days ahead. 

                        __________

                                      Too cheap to Segway

WORKING STIFFS

Here are a few photos from the collection, people playing their part in our nation's economy.
     

      Liz selling her rocks

 Museum guard protecting pre-columbian statue of Bart Simpson.

         Hat maker

Pumelo Salesman

Peach Sorter










and, a

Lottery Promoter  posing in Gillespie, Illinois  (The marketing arm of the Illinois State Lottery took this but my college  

 

buddy, Mike -who at this moment a few days ago was Bill and Diana's best friend- sent it my way)
                                      ______________

GO WILD SATURDAY NIGHT

    Key Biscayne's Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center is a fabulous place.
 For 29 years this oceanside gem has taught thousands of us -and our kids- about the natural world. On Saturday night you can have a great time and help raise funds for the Center's important work.
   The nature center is having its second annual dinner and dance, "The Full Moon Wild & Scenic Beach Affair".  It will be held in historic Virginia Key Beach Park, just north of the Biscayne Nature Center.

   Dozens of us have contributed items for the auction.   Want to relax on a Borneo beach, weekend at the Trump's, or ride on Richard Branson's Space Plane?  
     Truth be told, I have no idea what is being offered 'cept for a few Grove Guy creations I'm sending their way. They include,

This fine fish


        (T-shirt available at www.MangoRepublic.org)

  The palace guard helmet that I wore in our school's version of "The Wizard of Oz" (paper mache) and,


 


this soon-to-be-famous painting, "King Mango with His New Best Friend, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz".

     It's always a fun affair.  

 Here's the invitation,

                            

Tickets are $75 ($65 for Biscayne Nature Center members).     Call   305-361-6767 or go to
www.BiscayneNatureCenter.Org .

   Have a good time for a good cause this Saturday night.
                               ________



            

INKED FOR LIFE

      Our Oregon friend,  Sue Korpela,visited us recently. As she loves to read (and is in the publishing business)  she had her library card tattooed on her arm. 







Sue had hoped it would make

checking out books easier. Unfortunately, the library scanners can't quite read the tiny lines.


FOREVER IN FLESH

      Last Friday five of us flew to Atlanta for my niece's wedding.  

   Sitting next to me was a large man with tattooed arms. It looked like people had signed them with a Sharpie and later they were inked in permanently.
    


When I asked "Cleveland Steve" about his arm art he told me he had done just that.  Here are the autographs of the punk band, New Found Glory.
    I asked him if he wanted me to sign his arm (I used to play bass in The Nematoads).  He thought I was kidding.
FOREVER IN STONE






   Our motel was next to a giant rock which had three Civil War generals carved into its side. Staring up at it I realized someone had tattooed Stone Mountain. 
  


FOREVER IN LOVE

     Emily and Eric got married next to the Yellow River as the sun sparkled on tiny budding leaves.

   We hope their union will give them years of joy and that it will last  longer than Cleveland Steve's tattoos.


                       

Last Chapter, St. Croix

  There were so many amazing things to photograph on the island.  I filled my camera's card in four days.  Let me show you a few more shots before I move on...

 

 Pull Point as seen through a calabash tree. 
 The gourds grow as big as 18 inches before they are cut, dried and used as containers.




At the farmers market 

 
we bought

                                                                                          Francesca, Peter, and Martha

 fish,

   $7 a pound





 peppers,





and sorrel to make tea.

 Guard walking through Christiansted

  local athletes honored

We took turns collecting shells and paddleboarding.Through the super-clear water we watched sea turtles munching on the grass below.

Throughout the island you still see the effects of 1989's Hurricane Hugo.

 Sailing is very popular in the Virgin Islands.  There's plenty of wind
and incredible places to drop anchor.

One evening we sailed into the sunset aboard Lightheart.

 We turned  south into Christiansted Harbor and hugged the shore east until we were home.  Along the way we saw Kiki and her Firedancers performing on Buccaneer Beach.




The next day we explored St. Croix's botanical garden built on the ruins of an 18th century sugar plantation.   We also encountered

the largest seed in the world (about 15 inches high).  It is the product of the Coca de Mer palm tree.

           Francesca and Martha in the garden's rain forest




We went diving for conch.  In 25
feet of water you could grab an armfull.

  Peter showed us how to extract them.

You whack the shell with a hammer, poke in a knife to cut what
attaches the animal to the shell

then pull them out.



That evening Martha prepared her famous
conch fritters.   Eating them created two

Lazy girls

Divers pass swimmers in 
Cane Bay.  150 yards further out
is the The Wall where the water's 
depth goes from 13 feet to 
13,000.
  Its hard to imagine what its like
two miles below.  I guess these rubber-suited guys were eager to find out.

 The bones of a mangrove tree

 And finally, a visit to The Yellow Fort.

                 

 Until the next adventure,
G                       _______