The Sparks went to Washington...: The Awakening

After lunch in Bugsy's Pizza, and a brief panic because Lyle couldn't find his mobile (which meant the car was packed and then unpacked, the cases unpacked and packed, and the house torn apart) we headed off to the airport. Once we had dropped everyone off (and filled the car with gas as we were running on fumes) we dropped into Tysons Galleria. Why has no-one mentioned how fabulous this place is to me? It is a mall which is chocca full of designer shops to salivate in! It has Chanel and Versace and the like...VERY nice to wander around, even if the prices aren't very pocket friendly!!

We dropped into Paul and Hils in the evening. Poor Hils has the lurgy and so wasn't up to coming out. We had a chat (and a gossip update) whilst she was propped up in bed, looking rather wan. The flu thing that is going round is rather horrid (as I know only too well) so bed was definitely the best place for Hils to be. We dragged Paul out for Thai food (well a man has to eat!) as we were craving something a little spicy.

We were up early on Sunday. There is a statue that you see on many of the photographers stalls in places like Eastern Market. Its called the Awakening and is of a giant emerging from the ground. It is usually depicted when its snowing, and looked really interesting. I happened to catch on the radio the other day, that it is being moved from Hains Point to somewhere in Prince George's county this week, so we thought that we should make an effort to go and see it. Unfortuntely, so did around half the population of DC! We had dropped in at Starbucks en-route, so we got there shortly before 10am...at the same time as two, count them, TWO coaches full of school kids!! There were so many people there that you could barely see the statue, let alone take artistic photos of it!! Thankfully the kids seemed to be on an intensive tour, so they were shipped out after 20 minutes, which just left the 400 families with small children. We did manage to glower at enough children to snatch a few shots of the various pieces when there weren't toddlers posing for Mommy and Daddy on them!

Stephen hadn't seen the Iwo Jima Marine Corps Memorial, so we headed there next. Do you want to guess who had got there before us? Yup....two bus loads of teenagers!! My heart sank, but thankfully we arrived towards the end of their alloted 20 minutes there. When its not overrun by people its a very moving sight. We were a little blue with cold after this, so after a brief interlude at Home Depot buying gardening tools we headed home for a heat.

Pat and Jude had us round for dinner last night. Hils was still feeling poorly so missed out again. Dins was delicious! Roast chicken, roast potatoes and blackberry and apple crumble for dessert. Scrummy!!!!! it was the first roast dinner we've had since we arrived here. We usually do something on a Sunday, so the tradition of making Sunday roast disappeared. I must re-instate it as an occassional treat - I had forgotten how delicious it could be!