Truly a March Madness

March started out with a pretty cool opportunity. Jim was invited to attend a screening of Full Metal Jacket at the Marine Corps Museum in Quantico. One of the stars of the film, Matthew Modine (Private Joker), had been given a camera while filming and the photos he took on the set have been made into an exhibit. In addition to viewing the photos and the film, Matthew Modine also sat for a Q & A afterwards. I had never seen the film before, which Jim couldn't believe, but I did know the major plot points so I wasn't totally in the dark. We felt that the movie has held up although I do think some  scenes could be cut down or out all together. Jim disagrees, vehemently.  He thinks this film is perfect. 

    

Lucy continues to improve her guitar-playing skills at Meridian High School, and she was selected to perform with others from her class in the talent show. This time she was playing bass on the "Island in the Sun" song by Weezer. When she told me the name of the song, I thought she said Islands in the Stream (by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton) and I was thinking to myself - that is an odd choice. HAHA! They killed it needless to say.

She also made the Varsity Soccer Team - Yay! Hopefully she will see more playing time than she did during volleyball season. The coach has her playing more of a midfield/wing position which she hasn't played since she was in middle school, so that might take some getting used to. I know she won't be having the same senior year of soccer that Lilly got in Japan, and that is disappointing but hopefully she can make the best of it and add some value to her team.

Ben also made the Baseball Team - JV this time. He is happy about this because it will give him the opportunity for more playing time.  He is excited for the upcoming season and hopefully will continue with his development in the sport.

We got in a quick visit with MC's family along with Mamama and Gaga during "Wellons birthday season." All in all we have 5 birthdays in Feb and March between the two local families - Madeline and Ben in February and Wrenn, David and me later on in March. David missed this particular gathering since he was out of town.

Tower Garden update time. Jim is hopeful that the cold weather is gone and he has moved his babies (seedlings) to the tower. Personally I think he is a little premature, but fingers crossed they make it.

A few months ago we had GRAND plans for spring break. Then reality set in and we realized that meeting up with Lilly in CO to ski and tour CU-Boulder (one of the Lucy's top choices) was just not in the cards. So we decided instead to head to Charleston, SC to link up with good friends AND stop in Swansboro (coming and going) to see my family! Lilly decided she didn't want to miss out on the fun and so we flew her into town too! She came in on the redeye and since the rest of us had signed up for a day of delivering mulch all around Falls Church, she was able to take a quick nap before we were off to NYC!

NYC! I know you are thinking I maybe mistyped since I just said we were heading to Charleston, SC for spring break. This side trip to NYC is just a warm up for the actual spring break trip. A pre-trip if you will. The girls have been wanting to go back to New York and since we are moving the summer - Yes, MOVING. We have basically no time to do a trip that will involve Lilly sooooo we just decided to do it the weekend before. This meant that Lilly came home a week before her actual spring break but since all her finals are able to be turned in online, she can do them anywhere! Lucky for us!! Right after our shift delivering mulch for the High School spring fund raiser, we jumped on the train and headed north to NYC! 

Our hotel is right off Times Square so of course it is beside several theaters of musicals I really want to see. The girls are not interested in this plan - AT ALL! Sigh.

    

When we made these plans I totally forgot that we would be staying in Times Square on St Patrick's day weekend 😬. This could potentially be a really bad idea. I was envisioning NYE type of crowds. It is also March, so there are several college basketball games going on for the Atlantic 10 Conference.  So while we were on the train up we should have been making dinner plans instead of doing homework/writing a final/reading a book. Oops! The girls were basically driving this trip, I was just along for the ride. Both of them had planned out what we were going to do and the places/stores/restaurants they wanted to hit. It wasn't until we were walking to our hotel that we noticed all the people walking around in green and the big Jameson's sign where they normally have the ball drop for NYE that we thought perhaps we might have a problem. 

The first couple of restaurants on the list had nothing available and we thought we might end up at the hotel restaurant when Lilly found a great Italian place just around the corner which could seat us at 8pm. While we were walking over we noticed that the SPE "ball" was going to drop at the same time as our reservation. Once we were seated, Lucy ran back to take a quick video of the spectacle. This may be as close as I ever get to being at Times Square when any ball drops so I appreciate her filming it. 

The next day Lilly had us walking down towards the train station to a really cool bagel place and a thrifting market. Afterwards we decided to walk a bit further to the High Line and the Chelsea Market. We then decided to push a bit more and walk around SoHo and since we were already meeting my nephew Will and his girlfriend Mella, we decided to just keep walking over the Brooklyn Bridge into Dumbo! So we walked all the way from midtown to Brooklyn. Will and Mella showed us their new place and then we went to one of their favorite spots for dinner. Afterwards, we hit up some  internet-famous candy store and we headed back to the hotel while they returned home. It was great getting to see them since up until Christmas, I hadn't seen either in a few years.     

We were scheduled for the noon train back to DC so we got up fairly early to head over to Central Park and check out the Castle and the lake and basically the park in general. Made a detour to see Sesame Street - the girls were a little let down. It really is just a street sign. I feel like NYC is missing the boat with this one. We also hit up the Library and a Japanese bookstore before collecting our bags and walking to the train station. We also hit up the bagel store (again) for lunch on the train. Delicious! All and all it was a very fast 20 hours of so. The girls are sold on living in NYC one day. So I guess I need to start making my list of things to do when Jim and I come back to visit.

Since we were in NYC for St Patrick's day, the leprechaun was a few days late in showing up at our house. He also didn't make as big of a mess as he usually does. So that is ok by me. 

        

Since both Lucy and Ben made a spring sports team and Lilly is in town a bonus week, of course we took her to see both her siblings play baseball and soccer. No matter that suddenly we were in the grips of a major cold front and it feels more like winter than spring. You can tell by this picture that Lilly was missing her warm Southern CA weather. Jim laughed at my face/neck gaiter when I put it on at halftime - but my face wasn't cold and his was - so HA HA HA to you Jim.

Before we left to go on our tour of Charleston, Lilly and I attempted to go to the Tidal Basin to check out the cherry trees. According to Jim it was PEAK. The first day we was an utter failure. We didn't make it out of the house early enough and we both had things to do early afternoon so our viewing window was too small. That day was the lesson in how NOT to drive into DC and see the cherry blossoms. The next day we got a much earlier start and drove to Crystal City to park the car and metro into DC to walk down to the Tidal Basin. That proved to be a much better plan. It was colder and windier than either of us would have liked, but the crowds were minimal and we got some excellent pictures. You may have heard that the Tidal Basin is set for some repairs over the next three years so this season will be the last without fences and barricades for a few years. It will also be the last for over 100 trees that the National Park Service will have to cut down because the trees are too close to the edge of the sinking sea wall. One such tree is one nicknamed Stumpy. Stumpy,  so named because of its lack of any real branches, yet always seemed to step up to the occasion and produce blooms anyway, became internet famous in 2020 when it was used as an example of perseverance. When we told Jim we had gone back down to the Tidal Basin the first question he asked was whether or not we had seen and/or taken a picture of Stumpy. At first I wondered if we would know which tree was Stumpy. There are a few trees that really don't look as nice as others. But trust me when I say this - you will know when you see it. First because it really does look stumpish AND there are lots of people taking pictures of it AND many have left memorial flowers on the sidewalk nearby as if to say you may be gone soon, but not forgotten.

    

    

    

    

Spring break finally arrived and we all piled in the car and headed to Swansboro. The kids were super excited to finally see the kittens. Mom had been feeding a stray cat for a few years and this fall he introduced us to his girlfriend who immediately decided she wasn't leaving. To cement her stay, she ended up having a litter of kittens in Mom's garage in February. Since then, the kids have been on an all out campaign to adopt one. Jim is the sole person in the family that is against this plan. But who did I find hanging out in the garage with the kittens time and time again - you guessed it! 

    

We left Swansboro the next day and drove down to Isle of Palms to hang out with Scott and Christy Greene. They recently moved to the Charleston area from KY and couldn't wait to show us around. Again, the weather wasn't the best, but it's SC in March so what do you expect.

We weren't the only visitors in Charleston for spring break. We linked up with Lucy's boyfriend who was staying in Hilton Head but was in Charleston with his parents for the day. While we were walking around the market we ran into his mother! So she joined our little party. We then proceeded to bump into good friends from Swansboro - Brooke and Steven Nyland who were in town for an event over in Beaufort! Crazy! During lunch, one of Ben's Falls Church friends walked over to say hello. It was hilarious - we wondered who we would run into next!

In addition to staying with the Greenes, we also had dinner with Jim's cousin Rene and Jim. They surprised me with a cake for my birthday! I am so lucky to be able to celebrate another birthday with everyone!  The trip to Charleston was just amazing from start to finish, we loved every minute. 

Sadly Jim had to fly back to DC early for work and with the weather turning to rain we decide to cut our stay a day short and head back to Swansboro for another love session with the kittens and my family!

Upon returning to Falls Church, we found that Jim had been at it again in the yard. This time he decided to install a fire pit circle in the backyard. He recently dug up a clothesline pole and planted a cherry tree in its place. The backyard is really coming together.

    

Another year of everyone being together for Easter! How exciting!! Sadly this was the first year the kids didn't do an egg hunt. Well that isn't really true, they actually put on one for their cousins Madeline and Wrenn when we had an Easter Brunch at the house. We also introduced the tradition of conk (confetti filled) eggs and Japanese ramune sodas! Sorry MC and David!!

        

After brunch, it was time to take Lilly to the airport - sigh. It hasn't gotten any easier watching her clear security by herself. We will be moving to San Diego in early June so we will see her at the end of the Spring Quarter, so that is something to look forward to at least!