Nine days, all in one posting

Okay, here we go, the big one. Where I attempt to purge the last nine days out of my head, and into type, so that whomever in blogland wants to read, laugh, and/or shudder at them can. . .
I decided to blog about the whole trip in one, long, ranty blog, because it just seemed better that way. So that tomorrow, I can go back to blogging as usual (I hope.)

Lets start in Washington, D.C. Actually, lets start in the Sarcamento airport, briefly. Just long enough to tell you that middle sister ordered my mother a double shot Cuervo Gold Margarita. And the bartender? Had a heavy hand with the tequila. My mom was giggly and very buzzed. A state that is NOT natural for her. It was most enjoyable. It took her 15 minutes to go to the bathroom, because the automatic toilets kept flushing her ass gasket down before she could sit on it, and she just stood there, giggling at it. That was the high point of the flight over.
I knew the DC aspect of the trip was going to be great when I saw the Bordeaux listed in the menu of our hotel restaurant. I love love love adore love love good Bordeaux, I am convinced that if I've had a previous life, it was as a Bordeaux guzzling can can girl in the streets of Paris, posing for all those broke ass artits. Who would of course pay me in Bordeaux. I probably died of liver failure by 25 in that life. But who cares!
Anyhow. DC was beautiful, and not just for the wine. The people of that city were incredibly friendly. We adopted this Algerian bel hop at the hotel, who always pointed us in the right direction for the day. The Smithsonian museum's are wonderful. I could spend days in them. I got to see Judy Garland's ruby slippers, the road sign from MASH, Prince's guitar, Carrie Bradshaw's computer, Abe Lincoln's hat, and multiple other strange things. Oh, and I saw the original Kermit the Frog. In real life, even. . .
The monuments are all over the city, not just the Mall. It seems like if you like someone, and you have the money to do it, you could put a monument to them in Washington, DC. I lost track after the first day of whom all we saw. Strangely enough, there is no major monument to World War I, though. There are two, smallish monuments to specific men who fought in that war, but nothing at all to honor those who were in it! It was kind of a glaring oversite, I thought. We saw the monuments by daytime, and by night time. They are beautiful. I was especially moved by the Korean War monument, it was my favorite. The Viet-nam wall was another case all in itself. You don't realize how long it is until you stand there, staring at those names. "Too many" was all we could say as we silently walked along its length, randomly touching names, and wondering what those boys could have become.
Arlington was beautiful. I did get "the look" from my mom for snickering at the eternal flame of JFK, and muttering the word "philanderer". I thought RFK's burial sight much more beautiful, and appopriate. Mom and I almost had a throw down at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, though. I was lined up for some great camera shots, and she gave me the elbow to move me out of the way so my sister could video. Hell with that! I was there, first! And who cares about video! I can buy that in the damn store! It was hot, I was grumpy, and she almost got killed on the spot. . .
We also went into the Capital building, we saw the White House (from a distance), but were very close to the lawn (wink) and Nancy and I became very familiar with the hotel bar, where they played great techno musak and we had a few- ahem- nightcaps every night before bed. We spent a few hours there the last night, watching the rain fall, whilst I drank some more wine, and she drank (gasp) Heinikin. We also managed to get Mom giggly again at this bar. We chanted "chug a lug" while she downed a gin and tonic, then she burped, LOUD. Another priceless memory. . .
We ate good in the city, too. It wasn't hard to find a good restaurant. I highly recommend DC as a tourist destination.
On to NYC. We did not hit the hotel lottery here. Mom got confused by the names and thought she was booking us in the Plaza. (As if. . . that would have cost THREE TIMES AS MUCH.) She booked us at the "Broadway Plaza". Sounds good, right? Uh, NO! It was at the far end of broadway, where the "100 % REAL HAIR!" shops are, and countless, milling people selling jewelry and other things live. But, it was clean, I will say that for it. No bar, no Bordeaux (sob, say it ain't so!), and the bathroom was like a postage stamp. But it was a place to sleep. Nancy and I had worn out Mom and middle sister so badly in Washington with the walking, that we paid for it in NYC. We took taxi's almost everywhere. Mom rode with her eyes closed the majority of the time. We only almost got killed about three times, I was counting. . .
Central Park is wonderful. We went through practically the whole park. It runs the gamit for things to do. The baseball fields, the "grand lawn", the stinky horse carriages. We rode in one, because middle sister had always wanted to do so. Nancy and I went and found 'Strawberry Fields' and the John Lennon memorial while Mom and middle sister lounged on a bench. Its right in front, near the Dakota, where he was shot. Yoko gave the park 1 million dollars to put it there. There is a homeless man, and his black lab who seem to 'live' there, and he goes out and gets flowers to put on it every day, and arranges Mardi-Gras beads around the 'Imagine' circle in the shape of the peace symbol. One of the purer moments I had in the city was giving a few dollars to this guy. I hope he uses it to feed his dog. It was the day we'd heard that Edmund died, it just seemed right, at the moment.
We went to the Metropolitan Museum, and to the museum of Natural History, and saw all the dinosaurs. Now I have to go watch 'Night in the museum." We saw the Lion King on Broadway, and that was way too much fun. We visited a few Irish pubs, drank some good, and not so good very dark brand name beer. We saw Ground Zero, the Wall Street Bull, the Apollo in Harlem, SoHo, Greenwich Village, and countless other places. We went out to Ellis Island, cruised by the Statue of Liberty, and, every other touristy thing we could think of. It was a long, nine days. I was more than ready to come home.
Of course, once we got back to JFK airport, our first flight was delayed for so long by weather, that we missed our connection in Dallas. Then, there was only room for three of us to get from Dallas to Sacramento on the next flight. Nancy ended up coming home two hours later than we did. But, we are all home, we all have our luggage, and so, it ends well.