Kathryn, Sonja, Jonny, Suze, Abigail, and I on our way down to see Samuel in Washington...
We were pretty happy to see him on Friday!
Sonja, Kathryn, Sam, Suzanne....at the Washington Monument.
Abigail, Sam, Jon...Sam is a walking encyclopedia of history facts, especially about WWII.
He would start explaining things, and other people would stop to listen too.
At the Korean War memorial...
Jon at the Smithsonian Vietnam display....
Smithsonian: 1964 Ford Mustang. Jon liked it okay:)
The view from our hotel....
The silliness that went on in our hotel room! Jon is like a little puppy with Sam, and Sam gives Jon the time of day. These boys jumped on the bed, they watched cartoons, ate snacks in the beds...
Our visit was somber, too. Visiting those memorials was sad enough, but there were groups of veterens there. Sam liked to shake their hands and meet them, thank them, ask them where they fought.
This man insisted on getting out of his wheelchair to properly honor the display from the Pacific. His tears made us cry too. Sam thanked him, and we heard him say he fought at Okinawa. 
Seeing these guys gaze at the monuments, lost in thought, with tears on their cheeks, was just unbelievably sobering. I was honestly shocked at how amazing the WWII display was, it blew me away. I had thought I was going along just to make Sam happy, but is was really something else.
We really enjoyed our time with Sam. We went to a grocery store I had never been in...Harris Teeter...
I am a grocery store geek. We had to pay to park there, in the city at the grocery store! It's all about parking down there!Besides seeing the war memorials and the Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, we went to the Smithsonian, and...the mall. A shopping mall. Sam had to get special wood hangers to keep his Old Guard uniform pristine, so we went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond. (he doesn't have a car down there). We went to the mall, ate at the foodcourt (not me, I had a coffee and a pumpkin cookie from the grocery store). We never did get to Arlington, Sam said he wasn't dressed nice enough, and we simply ran out of time...it was time to head home, back to New York....
Saying goodbye is never easy.
2 comments:
I've been to that mall. I activated my cell phone at the Verizon store on the top floor?
I will walk to the Mcdonalds in the mall rather than paying $9 for a burger, fries and drink at the Dominicks in the Pentagon basement. That is the only restaurant open on the weekends in the 5 sided asylum. Weekdays, you have many options. We have 2 Mcd's, a panda express, KFC/pizzahut expresss, Baskin Robbins, Dunkin Donuts, etc. There is also a strip mall inside the building with many stores, a post office, a few banks, etc.
Thank you, Sam, for serving! Thank you, Della, for raising a son who is serving the country! May God continue to bless America--and Finland, where our family currently 'temporarily' (5+ years now) resides.
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