And April.

I flew again on Easter (April 5th). It was my third time, and it was right before my church's service at 5pm. Learned all about flaps and airspeed. It was so much fun, as always. I had just finished reading my friend's new book, Black Dove,White Raven, moments before heading off for my scheduled flight. I can't tell you how monstrously fun that was to go from book to air to church. There was this one passage (I just found it again! p. 319!)...

"I shoved the power on and my heart soared along with the plane."

...that's near the heart-wrenching ending, and my heart soared along with the character. Now it will be much easier to keep straight in my mind that you push the throttle IN for more power and pull it out for less, which is usually hard for me to do. Oh, my goodness, that book though. There was a bang in the beginning of tender feelings and love and loss, and the middle bogged me down a little with details, but the ending (or the last third) made me glued to it, desperate to know what happens. And it did not disappoint.

After a lovely time at church with a friend from the ship who visited for the first time, and with my small group friends at the Easter dinner afterwords (I brought a pie I made)... I took off for home to quickly pack my bag so I could head up to Washington D.C. As all this was so highly anticipated, driving until 11 or so at night was NOT a problem. I'm think it helped me be able to sleep when I got to my hotel. Boy, did I feel like I was 25 again! It was nearly as exciting!

First thing in the morning I drove to the back gate of Arlington National Cemetery through the fort (because I am special and have military id). At 0800, the guard opened the gate and I walked through the ceremonial entrance to the Tomb of the Unknowns. Besides the always-on-duty-guard, I WAS THE ONLY ONE THERE. It was too soon for the first tour bus to bring a load of tourists. Lord, that was a good moment. When the buses started coming, I took off, ascending the hill to Lee's Arlington House. On the way out, I saw the ceremonial guards of the Third Army with their horses and rifles... and a flag-draped casket. There was a service going on inside the chapel and all were waiting for it to conclude.

Drove back to the hotel and I caught the bus to the Metro rail that dumped me out a block or so from the Air & Space Museum in the National Mall so that I walked up one minute before it opened at 0959. Rather perfect planning and timing, if you ask me. :) So I first looked at the Wright Brothers exhibit, which was unparalleled, and then proceeded on to the other early pioneers. Spent two hours in that lovely building before heading across the Mall to the National Gallery, which I can only describe as a thousand pleasures. I'd turn the corner inside and be struck dumb with yet MORE great art. The last thing I saw was the Library of Congress, and that was because my feet were very tired and I needed to relax. It was a brilliantly sunny day, so by 2pm the sun was pounding on me as I trudged up and down and around the Mall.

Recharging briefly back at the hotel, I changed into my uniform for the evening, which happened to include a sweater and a skirt! How I laughed at myself! It was so warm out! But the sweater came in handy a few times... it felt rather nice as I ate outside in the shade at a restaurant across the street from the bookstore, and after everything was over, it felt Heavenly as I visited the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials all lit up in the blackness of the night.

Meeting Elizabeth was incredibly fun, and we were able to chat briefly before her presentation, and afterwords too for maybe 15-20 minutes as I maneuvered my way to the back of the book-signing line. It was so fun to be in a room full of CNV fans... but I was astonished that none of them mentioned what I was wearing! I surely would have! And I was so glad they all politely left after getting their books signed!

Next day I saw three things. First, drove in the main entrance of Arlington this time to look at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial... which I had not seen before. It was fabulous, and I'm thinking of submitting a little blurb about myself for their archives. Then I checked out the other Air & Space museum... the Udvar-Hazy Center near the Dulles airport... and was boggled. There were simply too many awesome planes for one building. It was sheer pleasure to look around everywhere. Lastly, before heading home, I stopped by Manassas National Battlefield (for the 2nd time - first time ten years ago). Wandered around taking pictures and sat down under a tree to listen to the birds, rest, and think about the war.

If this wasn't enough excitement, Saturday the 11th held out hope. Mom and Dad came to visit me at my new little apartment for just over three days. We didn't do a whole lot, besides going out to eat, watching the IMAX film Living in the Age of Airplanes at the museum in Hampton, TV shows on Netflix and Acorn at home, and Cinderella at the local Cinema Cafe. The best part though, was just sitting and chatting. And being able to have them stay at my place! But they were able to watch my team give honors at a funeral at the Veteran's Cemetery in Suffolk on Monday and they greatly enjoyed seeing what I've been doing in the Navy these last few months.

I also managed to read quite a bit... finished up the Jasper Fford book The Well of Lost Plots, re-read 30 Seconds Over Tokyo on the 73rd anniversary of the attack (April 18th), began Sarah Helm's book on Ravensbrück, started Agatha Christie's N or M? and blazed through A Little Princess like there was no tomorrow. I am sad that I didn't read that as a kid... I was usually put off by books because they always caused my older sisters to not want to play with me. Meg told me it was good... I just never bothered.

And concerts! April 23rd I went to the Virginia International Tattoo for the second time (previously in 2013), and greatly enjoyed the bagpipes and the bands. Last night, I saw the symphony perform 9 selections from Disney's 1940 & 2000 Fantasias live. They had a big screen overhead showing the shorts they were playing, and it was incredibly fun to laugh out loud at the symphony! One woman not far from me exclaimed "Oh, God!" quite loudly during a pause in the Dance of the Hours as the elephants were coming out. LOL!

Jw