Go fly a kite!

If you ever were at the receiving end of that sentence, today was your day in Washington, with the national kite festival taking place downtown -- a tradition of the Cherry Blossoms festival.

I went down there, all excited at the prospect of a series of mind-blowing shots, expecting a profusion of colors, soaring kites of all manner and blip-portunities galore. But it wasn't to be: the sky was drab and grey, the kites all looked the same, and they were either flying at 2 feet above ground (which created all sorts of mayhem with entangled lines and unsuspecting passers-by being boinked on the head) or 100 feet in the air (where they looked minuscule and got lost in the clouds).

The kids had fun and were determined to get the pesky things in the air, completely undeterred by the vagaries of the wind. There were quite a few "helicoptering" parents -- anxious to do things 'just right' and who appropriated the gear from the kids: "look, look, it's flying" to which the now-bored kids responded "yeah, that's great, dad. Can we go home, now?" :)