Special Mom’s blog

Living in the United States, finding a place you have traveled to beginning with the letter W is easy. According to my search on the internet, there are 88 cities and towns named Washington. This does not include counties and streets.

We visited Washington, DC, the capital city, when my special boy was just six years old. We carried him and the stroller. It was such a hard task. Nearly 18 years later, we did the task again. My Fitbit or my steps counter showed me that I had walked 21,000 steps, and my boy tagged along with me. We did not visit any museums. We just took pictures in front of all the memorials, the Capitol, and the White House. So, the Smithsonian museums again go on our bucket list of places to be visited. 

We stayed in Portland, Oregon, for just a few months. We did not visit many places. Just before packing ourselves and moving east, my husband told me we could drive to see an active volcano. Yes, Mt. St. Helens, in Washington State, is an active volcano. I was really thrilled by this visit. The drive was foggy, but I enjoyed it so much. We were there on May 18th, and it was the anniversary of the volcano having erupted in 1980. I remember more about this trip nearly 25 years ago than a trip to the Luray Caverns, Virginia, that we did just a decade ago. My special son was a baby, and I do not have many pictures. But the memory of it is still fresh.

The pictures are of my son now and then. Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month Tidbit. My son was a typically developing baby. He started showing anxiety and having meltdowns around 15 months of age. For us, autism was not something he was born with. The picture at St. Helens was taken when he was just a happy eight-month-old baby. Any baby picture for us is therefore very sentimental. 

So for the A-Z challenge in the month of April, W is for Washington.