A Mother's Day Treat

I've been blessed with years of exciting Mother's Day celebrations.  One of my favorite memories was the year Marty and the kids gave me a shirt that Marty thought said "Surf Mama".

 I remember opening the package and pulling out the shirt, three kids (our youngest wasn't born yet) excitedly waiting with anticipation as I carefully unwrapped the paper on the box, looked at the front of the shirt and became quite confused as I read what was printed on it.

I mouthed the letters out loud.    S-U-R-F  M-A-N-I-A.  ????

Marty excitedly said, "SURF MAMA".

 I looked at the words again.  Surf Mama?  Nope.....

It definitely said, "Surf Mania".  Marty seemed quite surprised.  The kids thought it was great.  I have video footage of me actually wearing the shirt.....so a good time was had by all.

Unfortunately, this year my Mother's Day didn't involve time spent with any of my children.  But I wasn't sad about that, because I am so fortunate to enjoy them throughout the year.

And since I was in Takoma Park, in a lovely Bed & Breakfast, I had the luxury of simply walking down the stairs and having breakfast made for me.......no cooking, no cleaning up, no dog to worry about.  Just a lovely meal with entertaining conversation.  Quite a treat to be sure!


And, since we found ourselves just 4 miles from the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception National Shrine, what better place to celebrate Mother's Day Mass?

The mass was beautiful and, afterwards, all of the Mothers in the church received a special blessing and were presented a flower.

What a lovely gesture!

We spent some time walking through the various shrines in the church.  Each one was unique and absolutely beautiful.  Here are just a few.

Lithuania

Shrine to Our Lady of Czestochowa

Shrine to the Miraculous Medal

We had several hours of driving time ahead of us, so we left soon after Mass to face the crazy drivers on the beltway.  We were nearly home when we found ourselves in a sudden traffic jam.  We presumed that there had been some sort of accident, but then we noticed that there were groups of  people parked and sitting on the side of this major highway.

We knew they weren't waiting for us to arrive, although I was tempted to roll down the window, smile, and wave, just to see if I got some sort of reaction.  We were debating whether or not we should bail off the highway at the next exit, when I spotted a large number of Amish people along the side of the road.

Even the horses were hanging out, as you can see the buggy in the background here.

We never did quite determine what was happening, although I can attest to the fact that there were miles of vehicles going the opposite direction.....fire engines and tractor trailers, lights flashing, sirens peeling, horns blasting.

We realized that this caravan must have just been ahead of us, exited the highway,  re-entered on the opposite side,  and were now driving in a different direction.  And it went on for miles and miles, several highway exits, as a matter of fact.

I could kind of connect the Amish spectators with the John Deere semi's, or the milk trucks, but when I spotted Santa Claus on a firetruck.....I'll admit, I questioned just what in the world was going on here.

To be quite honest, I never bothered to find out what this special occasion involved after I arrived home, but it certainly was entertaining spotting so many people enjoying the day outside, waving at the passing vehicles.

Now, if you can fill me in on the connection between the Amish - Firetrucks - Santa - Tractor Trailers and miles of vehicles, I'll be more than happy to read your observations. I have the feeling that one you blog followers will be able to solve the mystery.

In the meantime, I hope that the moms out there had an equally exciting day, although I think it's going to be difficult to beat this kind of excitement.  But you never know....one of you just may surprise me.

Until next time........

A Fun Day in DC

The day began with rain, but we certainly didn't let that dampen our enthusiasm as we headed out from our lovely B&B in Takoma Park and on to the metro for the trip into Washington DC.  If there 's one thing that we've learned from our Scotland adventures it's to always bring a raincoat and carry an umbrella.

Today was the European Union Embassy Open House and, having thoroughly enjoyed the experience in the past, we decided that it would be fun to once again face the challenge of seeing how many embassy stamps we could muster on our brochure passport.

So, here are the highlights of our European adventure:

Lithuania was a delight.  It's one of the few embassies that opens its doors without treating each visitor as if one was a potential terrorist.

Treats included Lithuanian dark rye bread, herb cheese,  honey, and Lithuania beer, of which I did not partake.

 Poland, which actually borders Lithuania, was next door, but prior to entering, we needed to get past the gruff security personnel, go through a metal detector and have our bags searched.  The inconvenience was soon forgotten as we were each handed a red ticket in exchange for the Polish delicacies of a Pierogie, Kielbassa and sauerkraut along with a small glass of Polish Beer.

Do you know what Polish Beer tastes like?

Well, it tastes like..........Beer.

Which I do NOT care for,  but not to worry.....Marty was more than happy to help me out.

Across the street from Poland was the Spanish embassy.  The queue was even longer, because here we not only had to go through the metal detector, but we once again had to rid ourselves of anything electronic and hand our bags over to go through a separate scanner.

Once inside there were no free samples for tasting.  Plus there was this rather creepy mosaic on the wall.  Don't look too closely at that baby's face.

Latvia, like its fellow Baltic Country Lithuania, welcomed us without a search.  No free food, but there were some entertaining dancers outside and some lovely singers inside.

                              

Romania, just around the corner, was another easy entry.  No treats, but excellent costumed dancers performed outside.

We headed to Italy, but the line was 3 blocks long, so we just kept on walking until we reached the United Kingdom.  As I would have expected,  they were organized and made the searching of the bags quite simple.  No metal detectors, and we were greeted by a woman handing out some really cool UK bags.

 The line for the Residence was an hour long, so we chose to just view the gardens

 and had some fun visiting the many venues set up in tents.  

We headed to Belgium, but that line was at least an hour's wait.  So we continued on to the metro station and headed towards the Slovak and Austrian embassies.

On the way, I couldn't resist snapping the photo of this unusual structure in front of this house.

Just a few houses down the road, on the opposite side of the street, someone had a full size replica of a cow on the side porch.  The scenery certainly made the hike to the metro entertaining!

Once at the Slovak embassy we were NOT disappointed.   There was a Slovak folk group from Pittsburgh who had the crowds whooping and clapping during their awesome performance.  

We each sampled some halushki and met some very entertaining characters.

By now  it was 3:30, so we headed over to Austria, which is right next door.  The search was much easier and we were through the door in no time where we were greeted by a young girl handing us a white ticket for a free glass of Austrian wine.  Really, how could we refuse?

I know what you're thinking.......we look way too happy here.  But rest assured that the wine samples were just that......samples.   No harm to come from tasting, right?

After all, we didn't have any kids around with us to embarrass, so why not enjoy the moment?

And, as if this wasn't enough fun for one day, we were thrilled to be able to meet up with an old high school friend, Winthrop, and his very entertaining family for a few hours of camaraderie.  

As usually happens when one is having so much fun, the time slipped by way too quickly.  But we both were thrilled to have been able to reconnect with this special friend after so many years.

Really, a better time could not have been had!   It was the perfect ending to a perfect day.