Blue Skies and National Parks - A Perfect Match

One of the best things about living so close to our nation's Capitol is all the free and available pristine, green, open space.  It's full of National parks, just begging to be used.  East Potomac Park, out on a peninsula jutting into the Potomac River, with stunning views of the City, the water and the runway at Reagan National Airport, is just such a park.  The playground there sits on a huge swath of grass-covered space, filled with shady, ancient, towering oak trees and surrounded by a low, chain-link fence for the protection and safety of the children playing within.  There are picnic tables and even a rest room, not the porta-john I was expecting to see.  The park, while immensely popular, is tucked away, like a lost secret, far enough from the City to forget it exists, yet close enough that you could pop over to the museums on the National Mall within a 5 minute drive. 

Saturday, my parents, Samantha and I braved the terrible, awful, disappointing 80-degree, dry, breezy, sunny, not-a-cloud-in-the-sky weather (awful, I know - I accept your pity) to picnic at the playground at East Potomac Park. 

 

 

Some proof that PT really works - Samantha has gotten so much braver this year with trying out different aspects of playground climbers.  This one was a little tricky, but she worked it out.  

 

"S" is for Sammi.  Or Sandwich... 

Gramma packed ice cream for dessert, 4 different flavors to choose from.  Samantha, being a vanilla/chocolate purist, snatched Gramma's vanilla and claimed it as her own. 

I'm not sure, but I suspect my mother has sold her soul (sorry, Mom...).  How is it that she can look about 30 years younger than she is?  Honestly, she doesn't look much older than she did when she had me at a tender, young age.  Craziness.