Mum and Dad came to stay last week!
Their four day visit here was sandwiched between a 24-hr stay in New York and a 4-day visit to LA, so they're doing quite the whistlestop tour of the States!
It was so wonderful to see them, as I've never gone as long as 7+ months without seeing them. Unfortunately they brought the British weather with them and it was dreary and rainy for most of their stay, but we had a lovely time regardless (hopefully they did, too).
I went to meet them at Dulles airport on Thursday, which was quite the mission - Dulles is a nightmare to get to on public transport and if you ever come into DC on an internal flight, PLEASE fly to Reagan National Airport! I think it took longer for me, on foot, metro and bus to get to the airport than it did for them to fly down from NYC. And it didn't help that it was pouring with rain.
Anyway, I was (almost) too excited to notice, and met them with a big 'welcome to DC' sign, which they both managed to miss as they came out of the door, so I was reduced to yelling at them across the airport!
I won't blog too much about their visit, because I suspect that Mum and Dad account for at least 50% of the readers of this blog and the other 50% will've already heard about their visit from them or not be so interested.
it's Mum and Dad in DC!
Suffice to say, it was brilliant showing them our DC world and I even got to do some things I haven't done in the city before. For example, on their first night here, I took them to the National Cathedral for choral evensong, which was beautiful.
I hadn't been in the cathedral before and was amazed by how European it looks (though the lady on the information desk was at pains to tell us that it isn't based on any existing cathedral) - like a mix between Salisbury and Notre Dame.
Mum found it really moving that someone had built such a spectacular building to God so recently (it was finished in the early 90s) and I was moved too, but kind of thought - a bit like with the Lincoln Memorial appropriating a Grecian architectural style - that there's something a bit funny, almost fake, about transposing architectural styles from centuries ago to a different era. Hmm, I don't know. Still, the cathedral was amazing and the evensong was really beautiful - I'd like to go there for it more often.
While on a walk around the neighbourhood with Dad, I saw another Alaska numberplate but yet again didn't have my camera! Aaarrgghh.
On Friday, we 'did' the monuments (never before have I seen the top of the Washington Monument shrouded in mist!), then crawled around the National Gallery (actually I lurched from the sofa in one room to the sofa in the next, while Mum studied the paintings in close detail) before meeting up with Alison, Brewster, Patrick, Leanna and Emily for drinks, so that Mum and Dad could put faces to the names they hear often. They're all extremely parent-friendly and Mum came away with quite the crush on Brewster, while Dad was very impressed by how brainy our friends are. Well they're clever enough to be friends with us, so what do you expect?! Anne came over for dinner that night, which again was nice, to introduce Mum and Dad to someone who's a big part of our life here.
breakfast with Mum and Dad! Yeay!
It was beautifully sunny on Saturday so, because Mum was having trouble with her knee and couldn't walk too far, we put her in a taxi to go have a manicure in Georgetown, then Max and I took Dad to Georgetown the scenic route, through Dumbarton Oaks Park, which was lovely, if crazy-hot.
Our timing was perfect, and we met up with Mum just as she emerged from the beauty salon I got my manicure at that first time in Georgetown back in April, then pootled around Georgetown before having lunch at the trusty Nathans just as the heavens opened and it started pouring with rain.
I tried packing too much in yesterday, so it was a little stressful, especially with Mum's 
reluctance to walk very much. We were trying to get to Mount Vernon which, like Dulles airport, is quite tricky on public transport. However, it turned out to be a blessing when we missed our bus, because we nipped down to Alexandria instead, whizzed down the main street in a trolley, showed Mum and Dad the waterfront and then hopped back up the trolley, back to the metro just in time for the bus to Mount Vernon, a couple of stops along the metro line.
Mount Vernon was George Washington's home and is presented in the state it would've been in when he lived there. Unfortunately you can't just wander around the main house at your own pace - you have to queue up for a guided tour of each room. It was FREEZING in the queue, there was a really bitter wind, and the man in front of us even said he could smell snow - that he reckoned it'd snow on Tuesday (tomorrow), but I think that's a bit extreme.
When we finally got inside, the tour was really interesting and it was quite eery to see the bed where Washington died and stuff. It was also quite odd hearing an African American guide make frequent references to Washington's slaves.
We didn't spend too long wandering around the grounds, but it was quite cool to see the outhouses set up as they would've been back in the day.
Mum and Dad at Washington's pile
After a lishy but mildly fraught (air con and loud music issues) supper at Local 16, we went to the White House for a tour of the West Wing that Emily really kindly arranged, despite me saying she really didn't have to. It was Max's third visit! And the fourth tour Emily had done that night, so she was pooped, but it was fun to see it all again.
Mum and Dad at Obama's pile-to-be
Mum and Dad left early this morning to get to LA and it was so sad to see them go, because it felt so natural having them here and hanging out with them that I wish they could've stayed for longer. *sniff*
However, I didn't have the luxury of moping too much, as I had bedding to wash in time for our next visitor who arrived this evening! Our friend Mark is in town from New York, for a conference he's speaking at tomorrow, so he's staying for a couple of nights, which I thought might be a bit stressful, straight off the back of Mum and Dad's visit, but actually it's really nice to see him, especially as he expects nothing more of us than eating food and chilling out on the sofa!
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