Well this was a first! See that picture above? See the last name? Yup, that is my last name. I cannot describe how awestruck it was to walk around the Smithsonian African American Museum, turn a corner, see a photo, read the description, and realize I shared a last name, an uncommon last name, with the person in the image. All. The. Feels. And just days before the Goree Family Reunion?! Stahp it! What in the Wakanda was happening?! I'll tell you what was happening: the ancestors, my ancestors, were telling me to get ready for the reunion to be a healing, joyful experience not to be taken for granted. And it was.
When we confirmed with momma the reunion was really happening, we wasted no time locking down our airfare with a combo of points and red-eye flights for the four of us. These were not direct flights, they were cheap flights! Which meant a layover or two. The layover happened to be in DC. Matt and I have been to DC together, and we've been on our own lots of times. But, the girls had never been! So we extended our layover, and spent the 4th of July in DC, spent a few days sightseeing, then continued on to Denver for the real reason for the trip. It was a wonderful week!
We are lucky and grateful that our kids like museums and like to travel with us. They are funny and I genuinely enjoy their company, their observations of the world around them as they experience it, their questions...I freakin love these little humans! This trip was no exception. What was hard though, was watching the gears in their little minds shift and work to make meaning of the multiple truths existing in the same spaces...
Walking down a street and seeing people asleep, hungry, talking to themselves, talking to us, gauging when it's safe to interact, or when it's safer to keep your head down and keep moving.
Going in and out of museums, reading about events and people and worlds that existed long before us, right before us, present day...and the brutality of humanity...and the beauty created by humanity...and wondering what stories remain untold and why some people are authors or are remembered while others are not.
The politics. The rhetoric. Representation. Civil Rights. What does it mean to be an american? How do laws get made? What happens when that law is unjust? How does change happen?
This trip was great, but it did not feel like a vacation. It was emotionally and mentally and spiritually exhausting. It was meaningful and deep and fulfilling. It caught me off guard, I don't know what exactly I was expecting. I'm still processing.
A huge spot of joy was seeing B-ridge! Full circle moment. She is amazing. And I still remember being her RA and going camping and she kept us all alive when she was the only one who could light a fire. I'm smiling and laughing at the memory. And now, she is at the heart of fighting for our democracy. Just. Wow.
Finally, y'all know, when Team Smith travels, we are going to find the food...all the food! So much food. I forget how much I miss food until I am around smells and flavors and spices from recipes written in languages revealed to me not with words but with tastes. And coffee!! (Sorry new england friends, dunks aint it). The middle eastern food trucks around the museums were not to be missed. And we had pho and vermicelli bowls at a spot near the capitol. The hotel had free breakfast and even that was great!
We will definitely need to return soon. What a gift for what we thought was going to be a simple layover, to turn into a destination all its own.
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