Amy's 25 now. She is officially an adult according to State Farm. She got a card from me, a sight-seeing trip to DC from the Mazda, and a set of BBC nature DVD's from Amazon.

It was predictably busy with tourists around the war memorials, this being Memorial Day weekend. We watched grizzled veterans in biker garb sniffling in their own private remembrance, high-schoolers loud and oblivious to the horrors human beings have heaped upon one another in the last few hundred years, Oriental tourists using their large purses as bumpers, Marine One land and take off, and ducks race the length of the Reflecting Pool. We decided the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History is not nearly as up-to-date or as well-stocked as the one in NYC, and that the Holocaust Museum is particularly moving. We also decided that we need to visit DC again to see more of the museums.

It is my hope and prayer that there is never again a need to add another War Memorial to the current US collection scattered around the steps of the Capitol. I thank all service members who have given themselves to give the rest of us a Freedom which is in short supply in a large part of the world; may we manage to maintain that hard-earned freedom with diplomacy and peace in lieu of aggression and war.