Wow, has it really been the extant of the whole summer since my last blahg? Time flies when you’re having fun. 
I don’t know how much fun I’ve had but I’ve been really busy and it looks like the fall is shaping up to be the same way. At least, my wife and children will not be at home in the fall to distract me from writing here. So this blahg is going to be a little different.
In my last blahg, I mentioned that our eldest daughter, Emily, since the beginning of May, has been serving as an Intern with the Digital Advocacy Research Group at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. At the end of June, we decided to drive down to Washington over Canada Day Weekend to see her. Canada Day was July 1st and it fell on a Sunday. We decided to leave Friday, June 30th and I want to tell you the whole trip was one experience after another.
We did not get away until after 4pm on Friday afternoon after my wife got home from School. We were delayed two hours in Ganonoque, Ontario as our GPS attempted to get us past a huge accident on the major highway. That’s as much time as I ever want to spend in Ganonoque again. It’s probably a nice town but creeping at a snail’s pace through the downtown core is not what tourism is all about. We didn’t get to Binghamton, New York and our hotel until 10:30 after our detour, border crossing, and stopping for dinner. It was a nice hotel but nothing to write home nor here about.
Saturday, we stopped in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania to do some shopping and someplace else I do not recall to have lunch. We didn’t get down to Washington until after 3pm. It was obvious that there were some problems in the area because many of the traffic lights were out and many tree limbs were down. We later learned that a major storm blew through the night before. In Canada, when you come across an intersection where the lights are out, we treat it as a four way stop. Apparently in Washington, you treat that scenario as an excuse to speed through the intersection and not give the cars from the other direction a chance to cross through. Our GPS only failed us once when we got to the street where our daughter lived and found it was closed off because power lines were down on the lower half of her street. We just took a side street and came it from a different direction. Luckily, the upper half of the street, where our daughter’s townhouse was situated, was not without power. That was a blessing because it was 101 degrees and she had air-conditioning. Luckier still, the air-conditioning in our van worked well the whole trip.
A few quick hugs later with our daughter and the use of her washroom and we were on our way to our hotel a few blocks from her home. When we got there, we noticed a makeshift sign that said that there was no power in the hotel. When I checked with the front desk, the manager explained that I could not stay there because of the power outage. It was a tricky communication thing between he and I because initially he told me I would not be charged for my stay there. I thought I was going to get to stay free but he was just trying to say I couldn’t stay there and my credit card used to book the room would not be billed. Using the GPS, we tried three other local hotels and found there was no room at the Inn.
We didn’t panic. We went to a mall and did some shopping and then went to an Ihop Restaurant for dinner and the use of their free WI-FI so we could find another hotel. We located one about 30 minutes outside of Washington and quickly booked it. With that resolved, we decided to go visit the Lincoln Memorial. When we finally got to the Lincoln Memorial it was dusk and the Lincoln Memorial was actually the Jefferson Memorial. It was still 100+ degrees and we were sweating but we enjoyed the Jefferson Memorial. We then drove around in circles for 30 minutes before finding the real Lincoln Memorial. The Lincoln Memorial was well worth the wait, the heat, and 30 minutes of circling and arguing trying to find a parking space.
After both Memorials we decided to drive to our hotel. Emily decided to stay with us and she had packed an overnight bag. By the time we stopped for gas and two other stops to try and find a public bathroom (which are scarce) we finally got to the hotel about 11:30. It was pitch black. Everything else around it was lit up but the hotel was dark. An inquiry at the front desk gave us the explanation that they had no power (why didn’t the online booking tell us that) and didn’t expect to have power until the next day. We were welcome to stay at the hotel but we’d have to use the stairs because there was no power for the elevator. We were so tired, we agreed and the night manager found us a room on the third floor so we wouldn’t have to walk up too many stairs. There were two queen sized beds in the room but that was the extant of the luxury. No power meant no air conditioning and the windows didn’t open. We were all exhausted from the walking around the memorials that we fell asleep despite it being 90+ degrees in the room. The next morning I had a quick shower because there was enough water in the lines for that. My son managed to get one in too although it was cold. My wife and daughters just wanted to go back to Emily’s place and shower there. I never did get a discount from that hotel and when I complained to their day manager, I was told they agreed to provide us with a room and did not guarantee power. Act of God or something. I didn’t catch his act but who would you get to open for him?
We managed to get back to Emily’s and while the girls took turns with the shower, Noah and I went off to a local McDonald’s to get breakfast for everyone. Most of us had some variation of Egg McMuffin but Abbie just wanted a Chocolate Chip Muffin. When I tried to order this through the McDonald’s drive-thru I encountered another language communication issue. The tinny voice at the other end of the receiver didn’t understand my request for the muffin and kept asking if I meant a McMuffin. She even said, I obviously wanted a Chocolate Chip Frappe. I don’t know who you get Frappe from Muffin but because it had Chocolate chips she assumed I didn’t know what I really wanted. I guess they don’t have have Chocolate Chip Muffins in Washington. When I tried to describe this type of pastry, they informed they had never heard of such a thing. Emily made Abbie a bagel back her place. Muffin people! Muffin! Have you never seen Seinfeld? Mufffin!
The remainder of that Sunday was spent walking around the Smithsonian and the outside front and back of the White House. It was now 104 degrees. We had lunch at a restaurant called Potbelly’s and then we took Emily home and started the drive back north to Canada. I was glad to be out of Washington. We stopped at a hotel in Wilkes-Barre that night and the air conditioning worked. The next day we drove home and were ecstatic to be back in our own Country. It’s true: Nice Place To Visit But I Wouldn’t Want To Live There. Emily flew home about two weeks ago after finishing her internship. She too, was tired of Washington.
I know this narrative has been rather short and bleak but I did take some nice video while in Washington. I want to end this part about Washington by posting those videos here. The quality is a little grainy because the conversion to Youtube type videos was to a lesser quality. Believe me, the originals look better.
Night time at the Jefferson Memorial (which I thought was the Lincoln Memorial) :
Night time at the real Lincoln Memorial:
Walking near the Washington Monument:
Part one of our trip inside The Smithsonian:
Part two of our trip inside The Smithsonian:
A nice man at the Smithsonian tells us about Lincoln’s Hat and other things that went on the night of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln:
Front and back views of The White House:
Driving near the Capitol Dome and The Canadian Embassy in Washington:
I will close on a more upbeat but disturbing note; to me anyway. The other night, I made a comment about our cat Frank lying about and living the life of riley. My children looked at me as if I was crazy and asked what I meant by the phrase: “The Life of Riley”. I couldn’t believe it. What have they learned in school all these years? Why didn’t they know the meaning of that phrase? It means to live the good life or an easy and pleasant life without much effort. My children explained that nobody uses that phrase and doubted it was still in common use. Again, I was flabbergasted. Besides being a popular radio show and later television show, the phrase has always been in common use by me. I was sure I was often heard to comment on someone living the life of Riley or the fact that I wasn’t living it. I know I wasn’t living it when we went to Washington.
What’s the world coming to? Are phrases dropping out of speech because we older people, and I don’t consider myself that old, have forgotten to pass them on? It worries me. In fifty years, will this phrase be all but gone? What about “Bob’s Your Uncle” or “So’s Your Old Man”? Is it to be goodbye to “You and the horse you rode in on”? Can I no longer get away with “Another one bites the dust”? Sure, expletives continue and many use them far too much. But if I drop an occasional “take the bull by the horns” will people look at me like I just spoke an offensive string of four letter words. Well, I say “What’s Up With That?” and “More Power To You” if you can get away with these colloquialisms. “My Hat’s Off To You” who keep these phrases alive and “Lead Me Up The Garden Path” to a better time when eyes weren’t cocked (there’s another) when I described something in a unique way. “Live and Let Live”, I say and “Live Long and Prosper!” Okay, I don’t think that last one will die out anytime soon. You tell ’em Spock!
Tags: False Ducks, Scott Henderson, The Life of Riley, Washington