First off, Evelin is still pregnant; the baby seems to like life in utero and is in no rush to see the cherry blossoms.
We, however, decided to head out earlyish this morning to see how things looked at the Tidal Basin. On the way out the door, I thought to check the National Cherry Blossom Festival website only to discover that the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile had started about five minutes before we were heading out the door. We decided to test our luck and head down there anyway ... which meant changing destinations as every road into West Potomac Park was blocked and there didn't seem to be any parking within an acceptable walking distance, considering Evelin's condition.
After seeing the blooms by car, we headed over the river toward Gravelly Point. Since Celeste likes planes (and trains and buses, oh does she love buses ...) I've long figured a trip to Gravelly Point would be good one for her. The park is basically at the end of the runway for National Airport (DCA), so you can stand there and watch the jets land and takeoff right over your head.
When we got out of the T.R.U.C.K., Celeste seemed interested. She watched the first few planes fly overhead, tracking them as they banked above the Potomac to avoid the no-fly zones over various Federal buildings. But after about the fifth or sixth plane, she started getting anxious. She buried her head into my shoulder and started crying "No No No No."
Part of it, I think, is that we'd kept talking about going to "the park" but Gravelly Point doesn't have any swings, slides, or anything else that counts as a park for Celeste. But I also think it was the type of plane that bugged her. The first few were, I think, DC-9s or MD-80s. The one that put her off planes — and even when we finally got home, she was not wanting to talk about planes with the sort of zeal she usually does — was an Airbus 320, I think, a bigger plane that must have had a more threatening roar/grumble to its engines.
After leaving Gravelly Point, we headed home to Celeste's everyday park, where she really enjoyed swinging while Evelin blew bubbles at her.
Hopefully, she will regain some of her enthusiasm for planes soon enough, because I do like taking little trips to the College Park Airport Museum with her ...
Thinking of Celeste and planes, last night she made good use of a homonym (intentionally or not). Celeste had made it clear she wanted some yoghurt, so Evelin asked if she wanted it with blueberries or if she wanted it plain. Celeste signed back PLANE.
Technorati tags: airplane cherry blossom
2 comments:
I hope that line in Japanese is referring to the size of the Airbus ...
You're right about the A320s; United seems to have a lot of them in their fleet and they seem to be the plane I end up on most often (except for my misadventure to Dallas, which had me on some little Embraer thing). Maybe it's just how United has them configured, but the A320s always seem uncomfortable. I guess it's unreasonable to expect them to fly 777s on every route, innit?
Yeah, I think the 777s are real fuel hogs, too, so they've pared back the routes that used them (just the 12-hour flights, like you said). The last one I was on was back in 2001 (I think) when we flew from D.C. to San Diego for a wedding.
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