Memorial Day Weekend in NJ

 No, this doesn't look like Memorial Day but I just got the photo from Nicole (Denny and Kathy's daughter) so thought I would include it.  A combined family from both Mike's and Nicole's first marriages plus a couple of their own!

So when we got to Marie's Thursday night, we could tell Bows (Eleanor's cat) did not look well.  He's basically stopped eating, has a tumor the size of a plum which is clearly causing him pain, is 17 years old and apparently has not been himself for several weeks.  Marie took him in after Eleanor died but he's ready to go too.  Tom and Marie took him to the vet and they very gently put him to sleep.  They said the staff was really wonderful.

 Tom and I spent Friday back at Eleanor's house going through stuff as they now have the house up for sale.  It still needs a lot of work so I may be making a trip back to do some painting.

 Some stuff we came across.....

 I'm going to get these pretty Lenox lamps.....

 After several hours of work I ran over to town to grab us some subs.  This Joe and John's place has been here for a long time but apparently there was a family spat and other Joe and John's or some versions there of are in other parts of town.....hence THIS is the original and only location!

Downtown Absecon

 Friday night while Tom and Marie were dealing with the cat, I stayed home to make dinner which Marie carefully set out.  Meatloaf, macaroni and cheese & stewed tomatoes.  Every ingredient in it's own little container, ready to be added.  I felt like I had my own cooking show.  She likes things just so and I didn't want to screw anything up.

The whole purpose of this trip was to take Eleanor's ashes out to the pier and throw them into the ocean.  So Tom and I got up early (Since we were meeting the family at 8 AM the next morning) to make sure we could actually get out there that early.  I dropped Tom off and he took a quick jaunt out while I idled on a side street.  The weather was cold and dreary so the usual kick off weekend for summer was kind of a bust.  Atlantic City is really struggling right now.  See, even Donald doesn't care if his sign looks old, broken and crappy.

 From there we headed over to Joe and Karen's to help them with things around their house.  Joe has started his new job in NC while Karen has stayed in NJ to finish getting the house ready for the market.  She was painting, stepped off the ladder and onto a paint can then fell and sprained her ankle something awful.  So while Tom and Joe moved furniture and took stuff to storage, I painted doors and trim while Karen wrapped things for packing.

Maggie and Marina wanting me to play rather than paint.

We got quite a bit done but planned to come back the next afternoon to finish up before heading home.  They bought us an awesome cheeseburger lunch that was delivered, but not until 3:00 so when Marie let us know Victor's fishing trip was postponed due to weather and he wanted us to join them for dinner we hesitated.  But after we got home, showered and re-set we decided to go and just have something lite.  Again, we were at the Crab Trap where they all know him and Tom and I both had a bowl of Crab Bisque.  OH MY GOSH.....so good!  Really, it was just perfect.

So, as is often the case with the Cowan family, firm planning is really non-existent.  So the next morning when we were supposed to be meeting, Dennis called and he had to show a boat to a customer who had come from NY.  Wasn't sure how long he was going to be so we got ahold of Joe just as he was heading to Atlantic City and postponed until later when Dennis was free.  So Marie went to the "building" (Victor's car museum) to hang out with the guys (they meet every morning for coffee and treats) and Tom and I went back to Joe and Karen's for more painting.  We finished the last bedroom and as it was getting late it was decided to postpone the distributing of the ashes for another day.  An upside to cremation I suppose.

We went back to Marie's and decided to burn all of Eleanor's old documents rather than have Marie have to shred them all at work.  The cast iron top of this stove fell off on Tom's toe which is now a very bright black and blue.  Ouch!  I sat and went over papers again to make sure we weren't burning anything important and pulling out anything that looked questionable.  I found one old plastic checking account book that had a $100 bill tucked inside so that was a good find!  It took a couple of hours so Marie grilled some hot dogs then Tom helped her plant some marigolds in her yard while I continued burning.

 We took off so we could stop by the Veteran's Cemetery where Tom's dad is buried on our way home.  Took us a while to find it and his headstone once we got there but we finally did it!  Finally rolled into DC around 10 PM smelling like we'd been camping.  Long Day!

Outstanding Civilian Service Awards

This Osprey landed at Ft. McNair the other day and Tom shot this photo.  It hovers and moves up and down like a helicopter.  Thought it was kind of cool!

That night Tom had to work at Ft. Myer for the Outstanding Civilian Service Awards.  It was also a shortened version of the Twilight Tattoo ceremony we had been to before.  The thing that was cool about this was the amount of school kids and tourists in attendance.

Air Force Memorial

Ft. Myer backs up against Arlington Cemetery.

               I would love to live on this street.  It's right on the base and the streets are just lovely.

The view of the city from Whipple Field 

Constantly amazed at those who give of their time and talents for our servicemen. The honorees  included marketing vice-president of New York Yankees (donation of time & resources and recognizing troops at games), Fisher House (provides comfort homes near military hospitals), Gary Sinise (improving morale, welfare and quality of life of soldiers with entertainment and visits), Got Your Back network (developed hugh support network of volunteers for service family members) and Ryan Blanck, gave up his private practice in prosthetics to work solely with injured servicemen and women. Developed a special brace (IDEO), waived the patent on it, and has dramatically improved their quality of life. Thanks to all these awesome folks!

 All the servicemen in the show were great about having photos taken with the kids and signing autographs.  It's like they were rockstars!

Too Much To Do!

I read that every Friday night from May through Aug, down by the river, there are free concerts so after my day long adventure in Georgetown I packed a small picnic and Tom and I took the Metro to the Navy Yards then walked over to the riverfront.  It was an R&B band that was really good so we relaxed with our water bottles, cheese, crackers, apples and See's Lollypops and enjoyed the gorgeous weather, the people watching and the atmosphere.

 We wandered around the Navy Yards where we could still hear the music then watched some of the spectators dancing to the music.

As it was wrapping up we started walking toward home but decided to stop at the Fairgrounds by the Nationals Ballpark to see what was going on there. It was the Truckeroo where all the food trucks from the area pull in and set up once a month.  There was live music and tons of people (much younger than us!) so we just wandered through to see what kind of food there was then headed home.

The next morning we got up and it was rainy and dreary.  We didn't know what we wanted to do so we  went for a swim (indoor) then headed to Union Station to try our luck at 600 million.  We're generally not gamblers but boy, you just have to dream.  

 We grabbed some lunch at Union Station then headed to the Postal Museum which is right next door.

I failed miserably at the "throw the mail in the right bin" game.

It was pretty interesting...lots of things about the Pony Express and the automation of the postal service over the years and we spent probably an hour poking around then decided to walk and see if we could find the National Asian Festival.

The rain stopped and we happened on the Japanese American Monument.

I've read a couple of books about Utah's Topaz and other Japanese internment camps.  Yeah, that wasn't our finest hour.

Then, there it was......another festival!

I'm sure the weather hurt attendance....having been in charge of stuff like this in the past, I kept thinking of the poor people who put hours and hours into planning and then are left at the mercy of the weather that particular day.  Still, people showed up with their umbrellas!

Had some Thai tea and Tom's favorite food in the world....sticky rice and mango.

Okay, this is something that is really bugging me about DC.  I don't know if it's just because of the sequester cut backs or if it's always like this but I don't find this a very attractive way to welcome folks to the nation's capital.  Every weekend is like this!

We came home and read & napped and decided to make a last minute call about attending Opera in the Outfield because the weather was so dicey.  5:15 PM we decided to give it a go and hope for seats under the upper levels in case it rained.

It was sponsored by M&M's so we both ended up with handfuls of goodies to go along with our dinner of (yet again) cheese, crackers and apples.....though Tom did feel compelled to have a stadium hotdog.  Got to relax, read and people watch while we waited for the 7 PM curtain as the show was live from The Kennedy Center.  It got a little chilly but I had packed blankets so between those and cuddling we were cozy.  Showboat was presented by the National Opera so as with any opera, the voices were amazing.....some of the acting...not so much.  Show was very good though, sound was awesome and the cast took their curtain calls in Nats baseball caps.  Pretty fun!  Walked home and fell into bed around 10.  And THAT was a very full (but fun) day!