Good bye New York/Good bye Washington

I wasn't able to post yesterday due to poor signal. 

We were not able to enjoy New York as we planned. We woke up to a steady rain with no end in sight. Since we would need to walk about 2 blocks to catch the bus to take us to Manhattan and once there the tour bus we bought tickets for didn't have a top and even if we just wanted to take in a show we needed to stand in line at 3:00 in the rain. So we packed our bags and headed out. We drove about an hour from Washington DC before we got a room. This morning we went into town and headed for the Smithsonian. We visited 7 of them. Our legs and feet were killing us. As Gary said " we did it all on a hot dog and ice cream bar". We found them very  interesting and could have spent another day looking around and still not seen all of it. There was  one with an a lot of Navy stuff. Gary was able to show me what he did when he was in the Navy.  They had a miniature aircraft carrier with all the details.We spent a lot of time reminiscing and it was nice to see close up what he did. 

I wanted to go to Arlington National Cemetery and see the changing of the guards. We were both so tired but decided to head out there anyway. We had not listed to the news all day and knew Senator Kennedy's funeral was today but had forgotten about it.  When we crossed the Memorial Bridge and headed down the street filled with people and the police directed us off an exit I knew we were just ahead of the funeral procession. And we were the last car they let through. So we parked on the grass and headed back to wait for him. First a few SUV's came flying by then we had to wait about a half hour for the  procession. They came by very slow and waved to us through the car windows. The only one we recognized  was John Kerry. So that made for an interesting day.

I guess it goes without saying but we were not able to go into the cemetery.

A side note for my brothers and sisters:

Joyce Hillbig called me yesterday to let me know Milford ( Lofton's brother)was not doing well and his time was short. She called back today to let me know he passed away this morning. She wanted us to know. The funeral will not be until next Saturday she didn't go into detail why. She will e-mail the information and I will forwarded it on to everyone.. 

Rosie (Milfords wife) is doing well along with Joyce and her father.