Washington DC – Valerie's Voice

Week One in Virginia

We left Northfield a week before Thanksgiving to go visit our son and his family in Arlington, Virginia. On our way to the airport I realized I still had my slippers on! Fortunately, we were close enough to home so we had time to turn around and get my shoes! (I won’t mention the full cup of coffee I spilled all over my backpack at the airport.)

I guess I was excited. We were going to spend time with our son and his family. They are moving to India. We were happy to have some quality time to create more memories before they leave… and it was fun to take the grandchildren on adventures while mom and dad stayed home to work and pack! 😉

The nice apartment building where our son’s family has lived since January 2025.

This blog post will be a diary: a photo essay, with one, or maybe two, pictures per day to capture our first week. It was challenging to select the photos out of the hundreds I took!

A walk in the woods with Ezra. Still a touch of fall in the air.

Our first full day we dropped Zoey off for Portuguese lessons and Gary and I went for a long walk with Ezra. This is the day we made chocolate chip cookies which I blogged about a couple weeks ago.

We also “packed” Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes online. This is an outreach project by Samaritan’s Purse that delivers gift-filled shoeboxes to children in need worldwide.

For breakfast on Sunday morning our granddaughter, who especially likes to cook and bake, made waffles. Her brother made blueberry syrup.

Ezra had a play date scheduled for Sunday afternoon. Zoey and I made a mosaic candle holder from a craft kit.

On Monday, we walked the kids to school. We did so each morning, and we also picked them every afternoon. It’s a .8 mile round-trip walk.

…a beautiful building made with marble from Italy.

On our first Monday while Tim & Andrea worked/packed, Gary and I took the Metro to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Performing Arts. We walked down the Hall of Nations (flags from all countries) and the Hall of States (flags from all states). Minnesota’s new flag was on display. The Kennedy Center is a beautiful building, made of marble from Italy, with chandeliers from Sweden. We had a fantastic tour guide…all to ourselves.

A hall inside the Kennedy Arts Center, with beautiful crystal chandliers.

Tuesday morning Gary and I went to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. This is a somber, yet incredible, must-see museum.

Pictures of shoe piles and pictures of hair piles (from the victims) left a lasting impression. We also went through a special exhibit designed just for kids, which was very well done.

Tuesday afternoon, Zoey taught grandma how to make Flan!

The kids Thanksgiving break started on Wednesday. We took the grandkids to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center which is a Smithsonian Museum near Dulles airport (not to be confused with its companion museum, The National Air and Space Museum).

The Udvar-Hazy Center displays hundreds of air and space craft, including the Space Shuttle Discovery, a Concorde, and a Blackbird SR-71 (fastest manned jet).

The space shuttle Discovery was a sight to see. There were so many interesting aircraft in this museum. It was impressive, and a lot of fun.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner together. The kids and I made apple crisp to go along with the pumpkin pie.

Of course the kids were off school on Friday too, so Gary and I and the kids hopped on the Metro …

The Metro system is so easy to use and a great way to get around DC.

and took it to the National Gallery of Art.

I really liked this place.

I was immediately drawn to the first painting I saw in the museum. I envisioned myself in the painting…looking out over Lake Superior.

One really needs multiple visits to do justice to this art museum (I could say that of all of the museums), but this first time for me in the National Art Gallery was a lot of fun. We each chose an animal, color, and object to look for in the art works.

In the courtyard of the apartment building.

On Saturday, we walked through the Farmer’s Market near the apartment, took a short drive along the Potomac River, the kids showed off their skills on their hover boards, and we all went out for dinner at a Japanese restaurant.

*****

Night falls over Washington DC…

6:49 pm on November 24, 2025.
Views of the capitol, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and the Kennedy Performing Arts building (the large building with white lights on left side of photo) to name a few…

Anticipation Haikus

Anticipation -
Hope and joy held in the heart
Ready to burst forth.

The dawning of a new day… (Lake Superior sunrise March 2025)

Anticipation-
We’re going to Washington
To see the grandkids,

And see the parents-
We will check out museums 
Smell the cherry blooms. 

Reconnect again. 
Enjoying the company
Til’ it’s time to leave.

Anticipation-
Off to California 
To see the grandkids,

And see the parents-
We will check out the ocean
Smell the fresh breezes.

Reconnect again.
Enjoying the company
Til’ it’s time to leave.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today is set apart to honor the civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

He had much wisdom to share, but his overall message was unconditional love.

MLK statue at the memorial in Washington DC.

There were several inspiring quotes by MLK in marble at the memorial.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that.”

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. Tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

Passover and FiftyNorth

Last spring, we took a three week road trip to the east coast. One stop was in Washington DC to visit neighbors that used to live next door to us in Northfield. We happen to be in DC during Passover, and they happen to be Jewish, so they invited us to stay in their home and to partake in the Passover meal with them, along with five other people from their synagogue. We were delighted, and excited, to sit down and experience this Seder meal with our Jewish friends.

The cherry blossoms were in bloom in Washington DC.

We were offered Kippahs (caps) to wear, and spent the next five hours at the dinner table with our friends and five wonderful folks we had never met. We ate large amounts of food – most with symbolism attached. We read through prayers and texts, and sang songs that go along with the story of Passover in the Torah (and Old Testament). We enjoyed sweet fellowship while participating in a completely different religious experience than our own. It was wonderful.

Two friends participating in the Passover meal.

So, when the newsletter for FiftyNorth (previously Northfield Retirement Center) came out with its November offerings, one class in particular caught my attention: Jewish Holidays: Backgrounds and Traditions. Stacy Beckwith, a Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, and the Director of the Judaic Studies Program at Carleton College presented it. The class filled, with 25 people attending. The course was a general overview, and well done.

One of the slides from presentation… a picture of a Haggadah from the 14th century. Haggadah is the text book for the Seder meal.

This is the Haggadah we used at our friend’s house.

Another slide from her presentation showing a Seder plate for six symbolic foods.

Our hostess compiled a Seder plate – 6 symbolic foods which include shank bone of lamb, egg, vegetables, two types of bitter herbs and a sweet paste called haroset.

I have attended classes at FiftyNorth but was surprised when I drove into the parking lot for my class on a weekday afternoon, that the main parking lot was full. When I entered the FiftyNorth lobby it, too, was full of people, and there was a rather long line to check-in for all the different activities going on in the center.

FiftyNorth is a very vibrant place for Northfield seniors (seniors defined as age 50 and older, and North as in north – or in, higher than, age 50). It has a lot to offer including informational and fitness classes, a pool, workout equipment, rooms for bridge players or ping pong tournaments etc. In the lobby coffee is always available and tables are set up for puzzles, reading the newspaper, or just visiting. It is stimulating and invigorating place and a real gem for our small town, Northfield.

I was pleased to be in the bustling center this week, learning about Jewish traditions. I was among many others…there for so many different reasons. And that is a good thing.

A 3,000 Mile Road Trip

We traveled over 3,200 miles during our three-week road trip to the East Coast.

A fun photo taken in Ephrata, Pennsylvania.

I’m so thankful we have a comfortable car to drive and ride in, instead of a horse and buggy which we saw trotting all over Lancaster County when we visited my husband’s family in Amish country. Can you imagine?

Our trip took us to Colonial Williamsburg, Washington D.C., and Lancaster County Pennsylvania (with a stop in Indiana, Delaware and Kentucky.) There were many highlights: visiting friends and family and attending a family wedding in a restored barn, going to see Jesus at the Sight and Sound Theater, attending an Easter service in a welcoming church, participating in a Seder meal with our Jewish host and hostess, walking six miles from monument to monument in DC, touring the new Museum of the Bible in DC, seeing the cherry trees in bloom in DC, touring the Hagley Museum where gunpowder was made in Delaware, attending a glass instrument concert, walking throughout authentic Williamsburg, seeing Jamestown and Yorktown, hiking to find the wild ponies, enjoying spring flowers blooming, taking a detour on our way home to see the replica of Noah’s Ark in Kentucky.

Cherry trees in bloom in Washington D.C.

While waiting in the theater to see the awesome production of Jesus I thought to myself how blessed I am to be able to experience so many wonderful things. Our travels have been enriching times! I’ll be writing more details surrounding different events.

Easter at Trinity Lutheran Church in Rockville, Maryland. The pastor did his undergraduate studies at St. Olaf College, in our hometown.

We are grateful for our safe travels, and for the variety of experiences we enjoyed.