Warming up

Coming from California, us Karlssons are not used to wacky weather. Just last Monday we had half a foot of snow dumped on us overnight. Pretty miserable and sure we wouldn't make it to spring, we thought (and said) "We have nothing to look forward to." But Mother Nature threw us a bone by warming up the Northeast for 4 days and giving us a little spring preview. Here are some crocuses and giant snowdrops:

To celebrate Kerstin's birthday, we headed downtown to the US Botanical Garden last Friday. It's a wonderful 72-80 degrees inside, complete with a rainforest canopy.

The prehistoric plant exhibit, complete with newly hatched dinosaur.


Funny wiener cactus. Huh huh.


We also treated her to an outdoor picnic. See the Capitol in the background?


Then on Saturday we headed over to the National Arboretum for an orchid auction and to picnic with our friends the Grabows. We met them a few days after moving here in the best Vietnamese restuarant in the area, and we have been friends (and eating) ever since. Just a last minute change in the car:

Walking through the park to the picnic area. The columns are 18th century Corinthian style columns from the old US Capitol building.

Being a ham

Little Kinsley is 15 months old and was adopted from Vietnam. He is quite the looker :)

I love hanging out with the Grabows because Christine and I have the same taste in snacks. Here she busted out with a Korean snack mix that had tiny fried anchovies, and my favorite shrimp chips. Mattias doesn't really like my breath after I eat these...



The arboretum has the most amazing bonsai and penjing exhibit. Bonsai are Japanese little trees, while penjing are Chinese little trees, often with the roots draped over rocks and little ceramic figurines to create a scene. If ya don't know, now ya know!


The pictures don't really do them justice, but these trees were 2 feet tall at best and some of them were 200 years old!

Linus and Kinsley actually acknowledging each other:

I like to call this one the Karlsson bonsai- see how the trunk is brown and white and intertwined?


Lastly, on Sunday we took a 2.5mile hike around Arlington through its many greenbelts and bike paths. Linus' favorite was the swings, where I got these great pictures.



Now we need a weekend from our weekend!