Lily Sawyers Book Blog: Weds Brief- Mall Walking

It's that time of the week again. Time to flash. I got inspired by a trip I made last Sat to the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC. I went to have lunch with my nephew, he was in town, and then went on a Meetup later in the day. We went on a cruise down Washington Channel and saw plenty of cherry blossoms.

Here are this week's prompts:

“Come on, look at me."

“What about the…?”

“Do you know what you’re doing?”

“Just call me your wing man.”

“Oh, this should be good.”

“Be good or be good at it.”

“Please tell me you didn’t spend much on that thing.”

“We have to make up time somehow.”

or use a swimming pool in some way

or use: hammer, grass, tile

or plant flowers in a flower bed

or use have a character paint a room

or use: books, water hose, coal

or use: shoes, cereal, wine

or: resurrection

or have a gay Easter celebration

or "He died for our sins, you know. Doesn't mean you gotta keep sinning."

or "Moses parted the Red Sea a lot better than you part your hair, dude..."

or "Keep that up and all you'll have in your basket will be a rabbit turd!"

or: "One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small..."

Here is Tom and Ben's DC adventure

Mall Walking by Lily Sawyer

“Oh this is just insane.” Tom reached out and grabbed hold of Ben’s hand and held on tight as they made their way through the wall of people.

“Do you know what you’re doing?” he asked his husband. All he could see was the back of his head as Ben led the way down Independence Avenue. They were staying at a place near Union Station; they’d arrived there on Amtrak yesterday. They’d always wanted to see the Cherry Blossom Festival and here they were, at the last weekend of the event. The trip seemed like a good idea until they left their hotel after lunch. Well, they were tired from their trip, and they had breakfast sent up to their room, and then they got ‘busy’ after they fed each other crepes and whipped cream and all that other fun and yummy stuff.

“Come on, Tom, stop being a stick in the mud. You know this was the only time both of us could get off, so stop complaining and enjoy the sights. Take a look at the museums we pass, and tell me which ones you want to see while we’re here.”

They walked past the Capitol building, stopping long enough to have their picture taken in front of the steps and the dome. There was always someone to ask to take their picture. ,They walked past a park with cherry blossom trees.

“Hey, Ben, look. Cherry blossoms. We can stop now.” Tom pointed at the lovely blossoms that were blooming on a tree at a random park they came upon.

“Oh no, we’re going to the Tidal Basin. If it was only the cherry blossoms we were looking for, we could have stayed in Lancaster. There are cherry trees there, too.”

“There are?” Tom feigned ignorance. He knew that this trip was more than just seeing the trees. It was seeing them on the Tidal Basin, and the history of how the Japanese gifted the trees to the US. Tom looked up the cherry blossom festival on his IPhone and this is what the site said:

Each year, the National Cherry Blossom Festival commemorates the 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo to the city of Washington, DC. The gift and annual celebration honor the lasting friendship between the United States and Japan and the continued close relationship between the two countries.

They passed by the US Botanical Garden, the American Indian Museum, the back of the Air and Space Museum, the Smithsonian Castle, the African museum, and the Sackler, famous for its Asian art.

“Hey, isn’t there a tunnel connecting the Sackler to the Freer museum?” Tom asked. He had done some research about the various museums that make up the Smithsonian complex.

“I think so,” Ben said. He’d been to DC two times before, once on a school field trip. “We’ll have to put it on our list of things to do.”

They continued on their way.

“Hey, look, does that boat look like a duck?” Both men stopped at 12^th St for a traffic light, waiting to cross the street, and saw a vehicle that looked like a cross between a car and a boat. It said Duck Boat tours on the side, and people were waving at them. They waved back.

“We’ll have to check that out. Now come on.” Ben pulled Tom along and they walked down to the Tidal Basin. The crowd seemed to fan out in the open space. All along the perimeter of the water were gorgeous cherry blossoms as far as the eye could see. Ben took his cell phone out and started clicking away at the gorgeous scenery. Across the water was the Jefferson Memorial. It, too, was surrounded by the flowering trees. There were people in paddleboats sailing across the water.

“Want to do that?” Ben asked him.

“Maybe later, let’s just walk around.” They walked over to the Jefferson Memorial, hand in hand. It was breathtaking. At one point when you turned around, you could see the top of the Washington Monument jutting up just above the tree line.

“Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. Hey, Tom. Want to go on a Cherry Blossom cruise? They have one this afternoon around four. We could cruise along Washington Channel. I love being out on the water.” They’d walked over to the memorial and saw a brass band playing, and sat on the steps to enjoy the music. Tom leaned over and kissed Ben.

“I enjoy being anywhere with you, Ben.”

“Me too.” Ben kissed him back. They stayed like that, enjoying the blossoms, the Tidal Basin, music, and more importantly…each other.

TBC

My fellow authors