Saturday we headed up to Silver Spring, MD to visit with Andrea, our maid of honor, and one of her little ones. It’s nice to realize how many friends we have in this area now that we’ve started counting them on our fingers and trying to contact and see them all.
We’ve been to Andrea’s place several times though and this time it was a kids’ play day. We walked to a local park and then walked to downtown Silver Spring.
Downtown Silver Spring has a fountain that kids can play in. Great fun for a scorcher of a day.
After we said goodbye to Andrea we headed to the bastion of Swedish coolness. Do the Swedes ever produce anything uncool? I can’t say I’m that big of a fan of severe minimalist design, but you have to admit, Ikea holds some pretty cool stuff. Most of it’s cheap too. I’ve dubbed it the cool people’s WalMart.
It’s where the überorganized people go to get their fix and where the underorganized people go to learn. Like I said, a little…no a lot on the minimalist, modern European design flavor, but it kind of starts to grow on you when you look at the prices.
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That was all in one day. Today we went to the National Mall (right by the Smithsonian Castle and Washington Monument) for the Folklife Festival. We listened to Welsh music and even danced a couple of Welsh jigs.
We listened to Latin American music while relaxing in front of the Washington Monument.
One of the neat things we saw in the Welsh area was this:
Please click on that so you can see it for all it’s worth. That’s the place name for a Welsh city. It means “St Mary’s church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio of the red cave”. Can you imagine introducing yourself? Hi, I’m Vicki and I live in St Mary’s church in the hollow of the white hazel near….oh forget it.
Believe it or not, we’ve actually heard of this place before. Back in Missouri our neighbors were Brits and John told us about this place one night; even looked in up online because Marie didn’t believe him.
Wow. I’m tired. We’ve done a lot this weekend. And I haven’t even mentioned yet the reptile show we went to on Thursday!
P.S. 33 more days!
Not So SAHM 
I’m Welsh…we’re all psychic did you know that?
Did ye know that I am Welsh, m’lady? And that the original Pirate of the Caribbean, the infamous Welshman Cap’n Morgan, is me great, great, great, (etc.) uncle? Argh!
Good heavens, you’re so BUSY! Sounds like you’re having a lot of fun, but I’m tired just reading about it! :hee:
BTW – I gave you a blog award over on mine:
http://www.motherhood-unscripted.com/?p=1837
I’ve got Welsh blood, too! Love the fest. And the name of the town, well … I guess that’s so they could readily identify foreigners! 🙂