WASHINGTON DC AND SPRING EQUALS CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL

Spring is beautiful anywhere, but
in Washington DC, there's
The Cherry Blossoms.

Unless you live nearby, It’s probably too late to get down to Washington, DC to see this year’s cherry blossoms in full bloom.  It’s a magnificent sight made even more memorable by the history of these Cherry Blossoms.  Encircling the Tidal Basin are pink blossoms so thick that visitors use them as backdrops to their photos.  If the day is calm, the trees and monuments reflect in the water, and you are surrounded by beauty.  It’s a wonderful experience.

The history of this special DC times begins in 1912 when the Mayor of Tokyo gifted the city of Washington DC with 3,000 cherry trees.  Imagine.  The gift was to signify the closeness between our two countries.  Despite some initial setbacks, then First Lady Helen Taft and the wife of the Japanese ambassador planted the first two trees at the north end of the Tidal Basin in West Potomac Park.  (https://www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org/about/history/)

Every year when the cherry blossoms are in bloom, there is the Cherry Blossom Festival.  The festivities this year are over this weekend when the blossoms have reached their glorious peak.  I wish we could go back.

The tidal basin is always a must-see venue in Washington DC.  The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Monument, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Monument, and the Jefferson Memorial are all located there.  Within your sight is also the Washington Monument, and, if you know, you also see the Curtis-Lee Mansion, Arlington House, across the river at Arlington Cemetery.

The beautiful Washington Monument 

A bit too early for full bloom
but gorgeous and enticing anyway

We were in Washington, DC the last weekend in March and spent a good part of a beautiful day, March 31^st, walking the 2.5 miles around the Tidal Basin, admiring the not-quite-at-their-peak beauty, revisiting some monuments and seeing another for the first time.  It was a calm day, and definitely not one where you want to be rushed.  Plenty of people but plenty of smiles.

We actually lucked out and found parking along the river, right across from Arlington National Cemetery.  In the distance we could see Arlington House, the Custis-Lee Mansion high up on the hill.  Kayakers were on the river as well as tour boats.  A perfect spring day.

That's Arlington House (Custis-Lee Mansion) high up on the hill.
Those tombstones on the side are part of Arlington National Cemetery.

Taking the path that first headed toward the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, we stopped so many times to take photographs—as did almost everyone else.  It is so beautiful.  People in paddleboats were out on the water, and around us were the sounds of many languages as visitors commented to each other.

The FDR Memorial consists of many structures.  Waterfalls.
Quotations that remind us of our duty to our country and of our country to
its citizens.
Each quotation gives one pause to stop and to think.

At the southern end of the FDR Memorial stands a gift, a pagoda dating back to the 1600s and weighing 3,800 pounds!  It, as the cherry trees, was a gift from Japan, from the Mayor of Yokohama, commemorating a peace treaty between our countries signed in 1854.  It has been in place since 1957. There's a sign giving The Pagoda's history as well as an explanation of  its symbolism.  

What I liked about it was its modest size set among the giant monuments yet demanding in a humble way, for visitors to stop, to read, and to think about the symbolism of the layers.  Apparently I was not the only one who felt this way, as I had to wait to get close to the sign.

Our next stop was the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.  We'd never seen this monument before as the last time we were up at Cherry Blossom time, this monument had not been built.  

It is magnificent.  Strong, with Dr. King's quotations on the walls.  As I stood looking upward to gaze at his profile, the Washington Monument rose in the distance, and I was struck by the importance of this place, of the importance of both men in founding something for this country and then working tirelessly to make their dreams become reality.  

This area was as crowded with people as the FDR Memorial had been.  Both men were persuasive and important speakers who inspired citizens to get through the rough times and strive to make lives better for all.  The connections, if one knows American history, were phenomenal.

Continuing our walk past groups of tourists, food trucks, and even people posing for wedding pictures, we rounded our way along the Tidal Basin until we reached what I would say is the hallmark of the monuments--The Jefferson Memorial.  There it stands, looking over the water, a noble and mighty structure beautifully designed.  The pink of the cherry trees and the curve of the path accented the whiteness of the building.  

From some angles, a visitor can look across the water and see the figure of Jefferson, tall and stalwart, looking out over the land.  Impressive.  Awesome.

If you cannot make this year's Cherry Blossom Festival, plan ahead and see if you can get down to Washington DC next year.  You’re in for a big Spring treat.

FRIDAY'S FOTO

Isn't this how we feel these days--
the Dog Days of Summer?

FRIDAY'S FOTO--FOR MEMORIAL DAY, 2015

For Memorial Day
A glimpse at the reflecting pool at the World War II Memorial in Washington DC
4,000 sculpted gold stars reflect in the water representing the 400,000 lives lost during WWII
A Gold Star represents a family's loss.

FRIDAY'S FOTO

The Lincoln Memorial as seen from
the World War II Memorial
In a cruel and senseless act, someone defaced the Lincoln Memorial this week
but that person cannot deface the importance of the man
or the words inscribed on that Memorial.

FRIDAY'S FOTO

One section of the magnificent World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington DC. 
Impressive all the time, it is simply stunning at night.

MURDER AT THE WASHINGTON TRIBUNE--A CAPITOL CRIME

Somehow it seems fitting that in this Third Age Traveler since I review Bill O’Reilly’s book, A Bold, Fresh Piece of Humanity, I open with Margaret Truman’s 2005 addition to her Capital Crime Series, Murder at the Washington Tribune.

If you’re familiar with Truman’s Washington, DC crime novels, you’ll note that their settings are real, and the characters are familiar types doing the kinds of things Margaret Truman knew. You recognize the political crowd and the police crowd, and you’ll recognize how “inside the beltway” her characters are. You also recognize the settings because Washington is such a vital city, she has no need to fabricate. It’s kind of thrilling to have been to the places or eaten in the restaurants or taken the tours she mentions.

In Murder at the Washington Tribune, however, Margaret Truman spins away. She creates a newspaper that doesn’t exist because she doesn’t want the unsavory characters in the novel to be attached and to stigmatize either the Washington Times or the Washington Post. She adds an author’s note to the novel which lambastes the real Washington Times as a right-wing daily (although she admits they have “some good journalists on their staff.) Guess that counteracts Bold Fresh…. LOL

Truman’s novels are always a good tour around DC. In this one, an aging journalist being elbowed out of the way by the young turks anxious to move ahead quickly, begins to bend his professional journalism creed to sensationalize an investigation. The crime is murder, and as lies sometimes do, his lie snowballs and “things done cannot be undone.” To add to his problems, he is offered an early retirement incentive. That does no good for his sagging ego. Additionally, his daughter is an up and coming TV news reporter, and he finds himself in competition with her. If Truman has not complicated the plot sufficiently, throw in a missing relative, a discreet affair, and a few clues that create boondoggles for those trying to solve the crime.

Margaret Truman’s Capital Crime novels include murders committed on Capital Hill, the Kennedy Center, the FBI, the Supreme Court, Embassy Row, Georgetown, the CIA, the Pentagon, and several other famous DC areas. Her books often got mixed reviews, but they also became best sellers. I enjoy them and have read several. If you enjoy one, you will be back for more. She’s a great one to take on vacation.

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TRAVEL TIPS--GREAT DIRECTIONS FINDER!!!!

I’ve been using a great mapping program, HopStop.com. This is the perfect traveling companion. It will give you directions—walking, taxi (including estimated cost), mass transit, etc.—when you fill in your starting point and destination.

If you choose the “itinerary” option filling in several locations, it will map them all for you and give you a map of the tour you’ve created. Additionally, you can look at your tour and find out other attractions, restaurants, etc. along the way! Fantastic.

There’s a feature to view "user suggested itineraries" as well as other tours. Today I found a list of prime viewer spots for Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as well as an itinerary covering Museum Mile in NYC.

Not enough good news? You can use your cell phone or PDA to ask for and receive directions on the spot! Just look at the site and follow directions! (Ha Ha)

HopStop covers New York City, Boston, Chicago, the Metro North area (in Beta), New Jersey, Washington D.C., Long Island, and San Francisco. If you’re traveling to any of these cities, make sure you try HopStop and add the url to your favorites menu on your computer so you can come back time and again. It will make getting around so much easier--another way to make travel more enjoyable.

HopStop itinerary mapper "Map+program" "New+York" Chicago "San+Francisco" "Washington+D.C." "Long+Island" "Metro+North" Boston "travel+tips" travel "third+age" "third+age+traveler" seniors "senior+travel" maps cities "travel+aids" pda cell "cell+phone" text "text+messaging"

DC's CORCORAN GALLERY vs THE NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM

On the old Third Age Traveler website, I wrote about the Corcoran Gallery and its Banjo exhibit. One of the paintings on display was by Norman Rockwell, depicting an African-American man playing the banjo to the utter delight of a young white boy using sticks to beat an accompanying rhythm on the floor. It was an interesting painting disturbingly interpreted as racist by the exhibition’s curators, and it piqued our interest in Rockwell’s view of Americana. So here in the Berkshires, Rob and I were going to check it out ourselves.

Rockwell’s history hardly reveals racist tendencies. In fact, he left a position with a major magazine because it only allowed African-Americans depicted in servile positions. Rockwell’s strong civil rights drawings showed an opposite view. Seeing some of these famous illustrations in the exhibit reminded me of their strength when I first saw them many years ago.

Additionally, a recurring motif in Rockwell’s work is the older person sitting in a superior position to a younger person and instructing him in some way. Generally, Rockwell portrayed adults in relationships of instruction or closeness with younger people to demonstrate the importance of intergenerational relationships. This is the way we saw the illustration—the older man entertaining and teaching, much to the delight of the youngster who could not resist joining in the music. It was positive, not negative.

The curator of the museum concurred and showed us numerous examples of Rockwell’s social comments—all positive!

Our docent was a woman whose son had posed for Rockwell. She regaled us with anecdotes and insights we never would have heard elsewhere. Rockwell was a real citizen, using the townspeople as sitting models until he finally switched to photographs. She identified many of the people he depicted in his illustrations, and she knew them well. How often can one be treated to this kind of experience?

If the Rockwell exhibits had been the singular focus of the museum, that would have been enough, but there also was a National Geographic exhibit—illustrations detailing the process by which National Geographic retains illustrators as well as its intricate process of meticulously checking for accuracy before an illustration, whether a soon-to-be-unearthed ancient city or a possible new solar system in space, appears in its publication. Absolutely fascinating.

We lingered so long at these two exhibits, we didn’t have time to see the third exhibit—of another illustrator. We left with added knowledge and a tremendous appreciation and respect for Norman Rockwell and his fellow illustrators. This is a museum to which we will return.