National Harbor Carousel

4/17/2017

We woke today to cloudy skies and rain. Although predicted for early morning, the rain had other ideas and stayed into the afternoon. While Jeff and Devon finished packing and preparing for their trip home to Idaho, I had Clark help me bring four loads of wash up to the marina's laundry facility.

I returned to the boat to find a very unhappy Devon who had just learned that their flight from Washington to Salt Lake City had been delayed by an hour leaving only a half hour between flights to make their connection to Boise. Sadly, as Devon looked at what options they might have should they miss the connection, she was alerted by the airline that their flight had been pushed back an additional hour. Now, for certain, they would not make their connection.

With the possibility of being stuck overnight in SLC with an infant and a three-year old, Devon called the airline and worked with them to book alternate flights connecting through Minneapolis. The good news, bad news story here was that we got to spend more time with them since the new flight left two hours later than their original booking. The bad news ... they would arrive in Boise at 1:00 a.m. ET. With the prospect of a long, late-ending flight, we all prayed that no other events would happen to further complicate their travels.

About the same time they finalized their travel plans to the best of their abilities, the rain ceased. With the gift of some additional family time, we decided to take Sierra to see the carousel that she hadbeen asking about since we arrived at National Harbor.

The first thing I saw when I exited our boat was the pirate ship that Clark helped dock the night before. When he said it was "right behind our boat", I did not know he meant literally right behind our boat!

Pirate Ship Relentless docked behind Sunset Delight

National Harbor has a lot of interesting artwork. For example, on our way to the carousel, we passed a mural at the harbor.

"Maryland's Bounty" Stained-glass Mosaic Mural at National Harbor

Knowing she was going to get a carousel ride, Sierra did not show any interest in revisiting "The Awakening" where she played the first day we arrived.

"The Awakening" -
depicting a distressed giant trying to free himself from the ground

The carousel costs $7.00 to ride; however, for that amount of money, the child gets unlimited rides for the day of the purchase. Sierra got her "Monday" tag and jumped onto the carousel with her required parent chaperone, Jeff. We lost track rather quickly of how many different birds, animals, and benches she tried out with a different one selected for each ride. She and Jeff must have been on the carousel for at least twelve rides making each ride ultimately cost less than a dollar a piece.

Carousel at National Harbor

Anyone watching could tell by the look on her face that Sierra loved the rides!

The Hummingbird 

Enjoying the Tiger ride

Giddy up Horsey

Elephant ride

Clark with Violet watching the show as Jeff and Sierra go by

Suddenly, as I watched Sierra and Jeff on the carousel, Clark walked by and thrust the camera into my hand as he went with Devon and Violet for a turn on the carousel. Adults cannot ride without a child but can ride for free with one. No charge for infants, so they all had a free turn.

Violet's turn!

Sierra decided to try the chair that Violet, Devon and Clark vacated.

All smiles! Who is having more fun I wonder!

 Since everyone else had enjoyed the carousel, and I was dying to have a turn as well, I jumped on. Fortunately, due to the earlier rains, fewer-than-usual people rode the carousel today.

Enjoying the Dragon

Twice around and I decided that I would disembark. Sierra decided that she wanted to visit the playground next door, so we all left the carousel to explore the slide for a while instead. Afterwards, Sierra went back on the carousel for two more rides before calling it a day.

Last night, Clark, Jeff, Devon and Sierra went to Ben and Jerry's for ice cream while I stayed on the boat with a sleeping Violet. As we walked past Ben and Jerry's earlier today, I smelled the waffle cones cooking and decided I too wanted ice cream. Without much coaxing, I got the whole crew to agree to stopping in for an ice cream treat.

I could not decide what I wanted, so I decided to go "all in" and selected two decadent flavors for my waffle cone. Then to "add insult to injury", I had them top the cone with chopped peanuts. Sooooo sinful, but sooooo delicious! After scoffing down their cones, Jeff and Devon took Violet back to the boat to finish packing. Happy to have even a little more time with our wonderful granddaughter, Clark and I took Sierra with us to tour the artwork of The American Way.

Strong man statue

Sierra finds the books of Frederick Douglass interesting

Evelyn meets President Lincoln

Sierra finds a 1926 Model T Ford

Ride-able Ducky

Not-so-ride-able Tortoise

Lifelike Animal Statues

Climb-able giant frog

Enjoying a chipmunk ride

Sitting on a Lady Bug

Checking out Louis Armstrong's Trumpet

Helping Marilyn hold down her dress

Checking out the Carved Elephants

And Observing a statue of a Naked Man Riding a Tortoise

As departure time approached, we concluded our exploration of the artwork and walked back to reconnect with Jeff, Devon, and Violet. On the way back, I carried Sierra in my arms and said my farewells. Unsolicited, she hugged me and gave me several sweet kisses. Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes! I sure do miss that girl when we are separated!

We found Jeff and Devon on their way to the parking garage. Clark was driving them, but I had to say my final good-byes to all as there was not enough room in the car for all of us to go to the airport. As I walked back to the boat, I decided that I needed to keep busy if I wanted to avoid shedding tears for the rest of the evening.

Keeping busy turned out not to be an issue as there were beds to convert back into sofas, cupboards to put back into normal order, and floors to be vacuumed. By the time Clark returned from his trip to the airport, the boat was mostly back to normal.

Although I fed Clark upon his return, I had no appetite, so the large quantity of ice cream I ate late afternoon became my dinner. Afterwards, we watched some television while I worked on blog updates.