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Boo Goes to Washington

March 15, 2015 by Ashley Hackshaw

Boo is on Spring Break. We headed north and east.

On the way: The Natural Bridge

Just the drive through the Shenandoah Valley was worth the trip:

We stayed with our friends Matt and Sarah in DC. Our first morning we took a walk to see the frozen Lake Barcroft where they live:

Our friend Sarah set up a time for Boo to go and make her own custom ice cream flavor with Susan, the owner of Moorenko’s Ice Cream. Boo chose strawberry, vanilla, and marshmallow. I dubbed it Count Straw Van Mallow. It sounds very prestigious right?

We learned a ton about ice cream from start to finish: prepping the machines, cleaning the machines, how the fat content of ice cream makes it taste better. (i.e. the 2 for $4 deals I’ve been purchasing explain why the ice cream tastes more like icy sugar).

We visited the Smithsonian and saw Julia Child’s kitchen, the ruby slippers, and the Star Spangled Banner. And this art installation, My Mother’s Altar, by Sandra Cisneros:

The National Monument:

The Lincoln Memorial. I could hear Brett pointing out how the entire memorial was marble and granite. No concrete.

The Vietnam Memorial. I love this photo of the reflection of her bowing her head.

Walked just about everywhere we could:

Our second day in Washington we woke up early and Matt took us to the Metro before he went to work. This was also a highlight for Boo:

Our first stop was the Holocaust Memorial Museum. I think that needs its own post though. I’ll save that for tomorrow. And I’ll tell you about another amazing place we went after that….it deserves it’s own post too.

The White House:

“Is anyone there?!”

Boo was pretty bummed our White House tour didn’t work out., but at least she got to see the outside of it. If I was President I’d take 15 minutes each week to sneak out of the bushes randomly and “BOO!” tourists. How awesome would that be? Anyway, after all of that we went to Arlington Cemetery to visit Brett’s Aunt Alma’s grave:

Later when we looked closely at the photos of Alma’s grave we saw these pink wispy lights over the cross. I’ve always wanted to capture an orb:

We visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We arrived at around 4:45 (the cemetery closes at 5pm) and I wasn’t sure if we would be able to see the change of the guard at 5pm, but they let us stay.

Later that night we went on a night time tour of all the monuments again:

The MLK Monument was probably one of my favorites. Boo thought it was strange that they didn’t put “I have a dream” on the side instead of “Out of a mountain of despair, a beacon of hope.”

Make a career of humanity, commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in. -Martin Luther King, Jr

The FDR Memorial:

The only memorial we didn’t actually go in was the Jefferson Memorial. They turned off the lights earlier than we thought and as we walked up to it Boo and I said at the exact same time: I’m not going in there. All I could see was this huge looming figure in the middle, and it didn’t look friendly at all. Actually his hair kind of made him look like a monster. Sorry President Jefferson.

Our last day in DC we visited the Library of Congress and the National Archives. Boo thought the Library needed more books. The detail was incredible…the mosaics just worth the visit:

And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything. I would not change it. -Shakespeare

Boo: Why are all the U’s written as V’s?

My brother: Make sure to find the President’s book of secrets.

It rained for most of the day but that was okay too. Sarah had enough umbrellas for everyone:

Thanks to our friends Sarah and Matt for being incredible tour guides…and hosting us for the time we were there. We’ll never forget it!

A Week of Paintings – Set 2

March 7, 2015 by Ashley Hackshaw

Another week of tiny paintings. Today is the start of Boo’s spring break so I’m taking a week off to enjoy that with her. I’m having fun each day trying to find things to paint:

Max’s chew toy:

A vintage paint by number Boo found at the thrift store:

Author of Jane Eyre:

The handle of a pair of scissors:

A cutie:

A feather:

Spock:

The Vultures

March 5, 2015 by Ashley Hackshaw

Just like a dream experience, whatever things I enjoy will become a memory. Whatever is past will not be seen again. -the Dalai Lama in Kundun

A few days ago I was walking Max up the street and noticed eight large vultures above us in the trees. Vultures don’t make any noise, they don’t have a voicebox, so you’d never notice them unless you looked up. I snatched Max up into my arms, thinking they might be eagles or hawks at first. Each must have been over 2.5 feet tall. Huge. But then I noticed the way that they were sitting, kind of hunched down, and that their heads were bare. Vultures. But these huge birds weren’t a threat, they were just probably hoping I’d keep walking and never look up.

One by one they slowly stood up and in their awkward, bumbling manner spread their large wings out and took off. I was so taken by them that I ended up in someone’s side yard trying to get a closer look. Although at first glance they might seem menacing, they are actually very gentle creatures. I’d never seen them up close before and I loved their whole demeanor.

I kept walking and saw two more closer to our house, one right above me again, just staring down from a tree just off the side of the road. He kind of reminded me of the umbrella vulture in Alice in Wonderland only he wasn’t glaring.

I love animal symbolism, and studying the spirits of animals. Like when a vulture crosses my path…how could that be anything but good? They never kill or hurt their own kind, and they clean up death from the landscape, they do the job that no one else wants to do. They are nature’s disease control. How great to know one’s purpose so clearly! And the Cherokees call them the Peace Eagles.

I re-watched the movie Kundun a while back and was reminded of the sky burial that Tibetan Buddhists use at death. The vultures scavenge the remains of the dead, giving them second life. There’s a powerful part in the book Last American Man where Eustace Conway’s horse Hobo breaks his leg and he shoots him and leaves the body for a year:

He left Hobo where he’d fallen. He wanted the vultures to eat him. He knew that the Native Americans believed vultures to be the sacred transport, the means by which a spirit is delivered from the earth up into the sky. So Eustace left Hobo there, where the birds could find him. Which means that, even today, whenever Eustace is working outside and sees vultures drifting in the air, he looks up and says hello, because he knows that’s where Hobo lives now.
–The Last American Man, Elizabeth Gilbert

(amazing book btw, I read it straight through and didn’t sleep for a night)

A year later Eustace went back for the vulture feathers, to collect them and to put them somewhere sacred.

Every time I see a vulture drifting in the air I say hello too. And thanks.

And as Whitman put it: What stranger miracles are there?