Family and a Museum

Anna Lee is fortunate to have two cousins living in the general DC area.  We drove to Philadelphia to visit with Barbara and Bob.  While the men and Cheryl headed over to Night Kitchen, a fantastic bakery, Barbara and Anna Lee caught up on lives, books and politics.

 They also compared common Costco purchases.  If you want to know more, ask.  After a delicious crabcake dinner, we planned for getting together on our next trip East.

A couple of days later, we headed to Virginia to enjoy lunch and family talk with Conne and Mark.  Conne is an excellent videographer and showed us the videos of her talented family.

 We also got to see some of their grandson’s bar mitzvah.  Again, we made plans for getting together later in the year.

About the museum.  PBS had an excellent documentary about Jews in the US military called GI Jews.   The Natl. Museum of American Jewish Military History is small but interesting.

The head of the museum was the source for much of the information in the PBS show.  The issue of the banning and discrimination faced by Jews who want to serve their country is presented along with examples of the service given by many new immigrants to America.  There are displays of many personal effects from Jewish veteran vets.  A wall is filled with medals and information about those honored for their heroism including several who received the Congressional Medal of Honor.

This ark was made by a Chinese soldier who saved the life of Chaplain Morris Gordon.  Gordon  used it in Burma during WWII.

This camouflage yarmelka was used for High Holiday services in Da Nang.

The Chapel is small but has beautiful stained glass windows.

This portable ark and altar fit in a medical department foot locker that belonged to Chaplain Martin Weitz who used it in the South Pacific during WWII.  The back is covered by a silk parachute from a Japanese pilot.  The Ten Commandments are from an aluminum remnant from a Japanese Zero.  Japanese and American 105 mm shells are used to make the candlesticks. 

Birthday Days

Hard to believe that Bennett is six.  He and Zadie began the party preparations by filling the pinata.

Bennett decided it would be a costume-welcome party and went as his alter ego, Spiderman.

Friends and family came to the park to play

learn to make special pictures,

to wish happy birthday

enjoy luscious cake, beat the pinata.

and collect candy

On Tuesday, Bennett celebrated his actual birthday.  He certainly got a lot of wonderful gifts.
Some for pure play,

some for intellectual challenge

some to wear

and this one to improve his ball skills.

Back in DC

As mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we are now in DC enjoying family time and museums.  We flew out on Anna Lee’s birthday and there was a cake to celebrate.

The next morning we went to our first museum of the trip, the Smithsonian American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery.  Of course, we wanted to see the Obama’s portraits which are as dramatic as expected.

A docent was giving the background of the Presidential paintings.  He explained that Clinton’s
 painting was done by an artist who is in a wheelchair and has limited use of his hands.  He also suffers from, stereoblindness, an inability to see three-dimensional faces.  Like most artists, he was able to paint from a photograph.  Photographs of Clinton’s picture show the technique the artist used.

The exhibit of silhouettes by Kristi Malkoff, who lives in Moscow, is amazing.

 This profile is made of letters and numbers, situated so the light casts this shadow.

This shadow is cast from cuts in a piece cardboard or styrofoam.

The newly acquired painting of Henrietta Lacks is a tribute to a woman whose cells have been used in 10,000 medical patents.  She died of cancer years ago but her harvested cells continue to reproduce.  Artist Kadir Nelson used the shape of cellular structures for the pattern of the dress.  The missing buttons represent cells taken without permission.  The background is of “Flowers of Life” representing immortality for the decades of research done with her “immortal” cells.

This one is included to make us ladies feel comfortable with our bodies.

We later picked Bennett up for his swimming lessons.  His teacher is excellent, stern with a sense of warmth, and the children respond well to her instruction.

No RV

We are changing our travel locomotion.  We sold the RV a couple of weeks ago.  The new owners are very excited and we know they will enjoy their adventures as we did.  Now we will travel via car and plane.  We will also enjoy the lifestyle of being home which we have discovered can be very busy, bridge, mah jongg, plays, concerts, luncheons, dinners and, mostly, friends.

Our first venture out for this year was a walk of nostalgia.  We went back to the neighborhood where we lived and raised our children, Carmichael.   The old homestead had not changed much but the trees are bigger.

Our family spent a lot of time in Ancil Hoffman Park, a block from our home.  To enjoy the park and capture good memories, we took a volkswalk through the even better park, new trails and places for picnics.

We forgot to take a camera but we did have our phones, so please picture for yourself the American River flowing rapidly, deer, turkey and geese proving the area belongs to them and wandering trails providing escape from suburbia

The following week, we ventured up north of Nevada City to Ananda or Crystal Hermitage, a spiritual retreat that follows the traditions of Paramhansa Yogananda.  Fortunately for the public, this tradition includes the planting of beautiful gardens.  We arrived just at the end of the peak tulip season, when the flowers still retained their brilliant color.  This time we had cameras.

 We will still be traveling out of town and hope you will continue to go with us.  Next stop DC next week.