7. Places in the US that Macrine and I had Resided/Visited-Modesto, California

The Modesto Arch

We resided in Modesto from 1969 to 1974. I was employed by Shell Development Company as an Analytical Research Chemist in Research Department of their Agricultural Division. We resided at the northern suburb of Modesto- a typical middle-income housing development in the early 1970's. Compared to Kansas City, Missouri, Modesto is a very small town at that time, although there was a private Country and Tennis Club, Sportmen Club of Stanislaus County known as SOS, that we enjoyed very much. We played tennis, eat at the country club restaurant and play party bridge at night. The kids enjoyed swimming during the day and we made a few good friends at the club.
Bridge Nights at Sportmen Club of Stanislaus County(SOS)

The highlights of our stay was when we met The Gallos during a tennis tournament. The Gallos were already millioners at that time since they owned the Gallo Winery, but were friendly to most of the members of the Club. The other highlight was that we became US citizens in Modesto. Our citizenship party was featured in the society column of the Modesto Bee, the local newspaper.
Central Valley Farm Land
The Modesto Metropolitan Area is a part of the Central Valley of California. The Central Valley (also known as The Valley) is a large, flat valley that dominates the central portion of the U.S., State of California. It is home to many of California's most productive agricultural efforts. The valley stretches approximately 450 miles (720 km) from northwest to southeast inland and parallel to the Pacific Ocean coast.

Its northern half is referred to as the Sacramento Valley, and its southern half as the San Joaquin Valley. The Sacramento valley receives about 20 inches of rain annually, but the San Joaquin is very dry, often semi-arid desert in many places. The two halves meet at the huge Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, a large expanse of interconnected canals, stream beds, sloughs, marshes and peat islands. The Central Valley encompasses around 42,000 square miles (110,000 km2), making it roughly the same size as the state of Tennessee. The Central Valley is the bread basket of the State producing fresh fruits, meat products, vegetables( fresh and canned) and rice and grains and other agricultural products. It is the most fertile agricultural region of the Pacific.

Counties commonly associated with the valley:

* North Sacramento Valley (Shasta, Tehama, Glenn, Butte, Colusa)
* Sacramento Metro (Sacramento, El Dorado, Sutter, Yuba, Yolo, Placer)
* North San Joaquin (San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced)
* South San Joaquin (Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare, Kern)

About 6.5 million people live in the Central Valley today, and it is the fastest growing region in California. There are 10 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) in the Central Valley. Below, they are listed by (MSA) population. The largest city is Fresno, followed by the state capital Sacramento, but the Sacramento area is the most populous region.

* Sacramento Metropolitan Area (2,136,604)
* Fresno Metropolitan Area (1,002,284)
* Bakersfield Metropolitan Area (827,173)
* Stockton Metropolitan Area (664,116)
* Modesto Metropolitan (505,505)
* Visalia Metropolitan Area (410,874)
* Merced Metropolitan Area (241,706)
* Chico Metropolitan Area (214,185)
* Redding Metropolitan Area (179,904)
* Yuba City Metropolitan Area (165,081)

Modesto is the county seat of Stanislaus County, California. With a population of approximately 211,156 as of April 2009, Modesto ranks as the 17th largest city in the state of California. Modesto is located in Northern California, 92 miles east of San Francisco, 68 miles south of the state capital of Sacramento and 66 miles west of Yosemite National Park. Modesto, a 29-time Tree City USA honoree, is surrounded by rich farmland, lending to a ranking for the county as 6th among all California counties in farm production. Led by milk, almonds, chickens, cattle, and walnuts, the county grossed nearly $2.5 billion in agricultural production in 2007.
The Gallo Art Center
Locally, Modesto is home to the critically acclaimed Gallo Center for the Arts, Prospect Theater Project, the Modesto Nuts (a Colorado Rockies MLB affiliate) and the Amgen Tour of California, which in 2009 saw cycling legend Lance Armstrong cross the finish line. The Xclamation Festival, X-Fest, has become the city’s largest entertainment and cultural gathering, recently celebrating its 10th year. The event in 2009 had an estimated 16,000 attendees enjoy music and food on the streets of downtown Modesto. Modesto also encompasses various cultural and social diverse schools, especially Modesto High School. MHS, being the oldest school of Modesto, embodies a rigorous academic and physical curriculum for students such as the International Baccalaureate program, AVID, and more.

In February 2010, the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which interviewed more than 353,000 participants and asked individuals to assess their jobs, finances, physical health, emotional state of mind and communities, ranked Modesto 161 out of the 162 cities surveyed. In December 2009, Forbes ranked Modesto 48th out of 100 among "Best Bang-for-the-Buck Cities;" according to Forbes. In this ranking, Modesto ranked 8th in housing affordability and travel time but also ranked 86th in job forecast growth and 99th in foreclosures. In variety of other past rankings, Modesto has scored in the top ten worst places to live due to its high cost of living, high unemployment, long commutes and high crime rate.

Note: This is No.7 (Part 1) of a series of articles on places that we have resided or visited in US since 1960 to the present.

6. Places in the US that Macrine and I had Resided/Visited-Pinole, California and Vicinity

The East Bay Satellite Map

We resided in the small city of Pinole from 1974 to 1990. Pinole is part of the area known as the inner East Bay. This is the town where all our children finished high school. Our oldest and youngest children obtained their Bachelor degrees at University of California in Berkeley. The other two obtained their Bachelor degrees at UC Davis and Sacramento State University. All of them went to Graduate or Law School after finishing their Bachelor Degrees. My oldest son went to Law School at UC Davis. My oldest daughter went to St Mary College for her Para Legal studies in Moraga. My youngest son took his Masters Degree at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My youngest daughter took her Masters degree at The University of Southern California in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
This was our first and last 2-story house (we prefer ranches or one story houses) in Ramona Street, Pinole in 1986.

I was employed first by Stauffer Chemical Company for 12 years and later by Chevron Chemical Company for 4 years in Richmond, California as an Analytical Chemist Research in the field of pesticides residues method development.
My Picture was Used by Stauffer Chemical for Press Relation Activities Locally and Nationally

Our Pinole years were wonderful and memorable since Macrine and I were fully involved with our local church charitable activities, University of the Philippines Alumni Association activities as well as with the activities of the Filipino-American community in the area.
Pinole and Surrounding Area

The East Bay is a part of the San Francisco Bay Area in California. Originally referring only to cities along the east side of the San Francisco and San Pablo bays, the conception of the East Bay has grown with the expansion of the Bay Area to include all of Alameda and Contra Costa counties. The East Bay contains an extremely wide range of people and communities, ranging from the older and poorer cities on the bay, through the wealthy suburbs along the I-680 corridor, all the way to the freshly built developments in the far east of the region. The region is linked primarily by highways, with the BART rail system also connecting the East Bay with San Francisco. Here's a video of Bart ride from East Bay to SFO under the TUBE.


History and Development

Although initial settlement interest focused on San Francisco due to its location controlling the Golden Gate strait and sea access to the bay, the coastal East Bay came to prominence in the middle of the nineteenth century as the part of the Bay Area most accessible by land from the east. The Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1868 with its western terminus at the newly constructed Oakland Long Wharf, and the new city of Oakland rapidly developed into a significant seaport. Today the Port of Oakland is the Bay Area's largest port and the fifth largest container shipping port in the United States.

In 1868, the University of California was formed from the private College of California and a new campus was built in what would become Berkeley. The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake saw a large number of refugees flee to the relatively undamaged East Bay, and the region continued to grow rapidly. As the East Bay grew, the push to connect it with a more permanent link than the transbay ferry service resulted in the completion of the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge in 1936.

The Bay Area saw further massive growth in the decades following World War II, with the population doubling between 1940 and 1960, and doubling again by 2000. The 1937 completion of the Caldecott Tunnel through the Berkeley Hills fueled growth further east, where there was still abundant land. Cities in the Diablo Valley, including Concord and Walnut Creek, saw their populations increase tenfold or more between 1950 and 1970. The addition of the BART commuter rail system in 1972 further encouraged development in increasingly far-flung regions of the East Bay. Today, the valleys east of the Berkeley hills are covered in largely affluent suburbs, where enclaves such as Alamo, Orinda, and Danville all have median household incomes over $100,000. Significant expansion continues in the far east reaches of the East Bay, where new developments such as the 2007 Dougherty Valley community are common.

The East Bay remains a somewhat vaguely defined region. The coastal cities, including Oakland, Berkeley, Fremont and Richmond, maintain an identity very separate from the inland areas and can be referred to as the "inner East Bay". In general, these cities tend to be poorer and more urban. The crime-plagued cities of Oakland and Richmond accounted for over half the violent crime and almost two-thirds of the region's murders in 2008, despite having only one-fifth of its population. In contrast, the so-called "outer East Bay," consisting of a stretch of inland valley from Livermore and Dublin north to Concord and Martinez is on average wealthier, newer, and more suburban than the coastal areas.

As development continues on the fringes of the East Bay, new areas are added to the definition of the East Bay, and of the Bay Area in general. In 1996, BART was extended from its terminus in Concord to a new station in Pittsburg, symbolically incorporating the newly expanded Delta communities of Pittsburg and Antioch into the Bay Area. A similar trend exists beyond the borders of Alameda County, as an increasingly large commuter population in Tracy begins to add its influence to the ever-expanding Bay Area.

Culture

The East Bay is the birthplace of many popular musical acts such as Creedence Clearwater Revival, Santana, Y&T, Operation Ivy, Digital Underground, Rancid, Green Day, Primus, NOFX, Tower of Power, The Pointer Sisters, The Dead Kennedys, MC Hammer, Tupac Shakur, Spice 1, Too Short, Tony! Toni! Toné!, en Vogue, Pete Escovedo, Keyshia Cole, and Mac Dre.

Symphonies, operas, and ballets include: Oakland East Bay Symphony, Oakland Ballet, Berkeley Opera, which typically stages only three productions in a season, and in a relatively small venue, but is attractive because of its innovative and accessible productions, sometimes using complete modern English libretto translations, or showing lesser known works by major composers. Another small opera company operates in Livermore. High quality small orchestras such as the California Symphony can be found in the larger suburban centers. Other more urban venues for music such as La Peña (Hispanic/Chicano music), Ashkenaz (World Music & Dance), and Freight and Salvage (folk music) provide specific cultural orientations not found in major venues and so continue to thrive, with many of these venues operated as cooperatives rather than as for-profit private endeavours.

The Oakland Museum of California offers quality permanent and touring exhibitions in a modern setting, with emphasis on artworks, photography, and artifacts related to California and its history, while the smaller Bedford Gallery hosts a number of exhibitions each year, usually exhibits related to themes of popular culture such as motorcycles or hot rods or keen social and political observations as expressed through sculpture, pottery, quilting, weaving, or photography. The Bedford Gallery is located in Walnut Creek's Lesher Center For the Arts, which is the usual venue for the California Symphony and the Diablo Light Opera among others.

The Chabot Space and Science Center is a modern science hall with interactive exhibits and both a planetarium and an IMAX dome theater. Tilden Regional Park is one of the oldest parks in the district with over 2,000 acres (8.1 km2) of wilderness. Highlights of Tilden Park features include an antique merry-go-round, Lake Anza, and the botanic garden. The East Bay is also home to the restaurant that established California cuisine, Chez Panisse. We have patronized this restaurant for a number of years while residing in Pinole.

Note: This is No.6 (Part 1) of a series of articles on places that we have resided or visited in US from 1960 to the present.

5. Places in the US that Macrine and I had Resided/Visited-Kansas City, Missouri and Its Suburbs

We resided in Platte Woods, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri from 1964 to 1969. This was the place where we purchased our first home here in US. Platte Woods is North of downtown Kansas City and close to the International Airport. At that time, the airport has not been built but was still on the planning stage. Platte Woods is adjacent to Lake Waukomis, another suburb as well as North Kansas City-a smaller town. Our favorite place to shop was in the Plaza Area and downtown Kansas City. Kansas City, Kansas is a much smaller town- a typical example of a mid western small city.
Our first home in Platte Woods, Missouri at Northwest Linden Road, in 1967

When we first move to Missouri from Chicago, we thought Kansas City was just a small cowboy town, but we were surprise to see skyscrapers, shopping malls and a sport stadium that could compare to Chicago. There were a couple of colleges and of course the University of Missouri, Kansas City branch and also the Midwest Research Institute that employed more than a hundred chemists, physicists and other natural scientists with Ph.D and master degrees. At that time, I was employed as as an Analytical Research Chemist for a private corporation, a subsidiary of Bayer Corporation, a German conglomerate. Here's a short video of the sights of Kansas City, Missouri, not Kansas City, Kansas.


Kansas City is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metro area in Missouri. It encompasses 318 square miles in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties. It is one of two county seats of Jackson County, the other being Independence, which is to the city's east. As of February 6, 2009, it was revealed that the US census had underestimated Kansas City's population, and re-released it to be 475,830, with a metro area of over two million. Kansas City was founded in 1838 as the "Town of Kansas" at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers and was incorporated in its present form in 1850. Situated opposite Kansas City, Kansas, the city was the location of several battles during the Civil War, including the Battle of Westport. The city is well known for its contributions to the musical styles of jazz and blues as well as to cuisine (Kansas City-style barbecue).

Downtown Kansas City at Night

Kansas City, Missouri, is often abbreviated as "KCMO", or simply "KC" (both abbreviations often refer to the metro area). It is officially nicknamed the City of Fountains. With over 200 fountains, the city claims to have the second most in the world, just behind Rome. The fountains at Kauffman Stadium, commissioned by original Kansas City Royals owner Ewing Kauffman, are the largest privately-funded fountains in the world. The city also has more boulevards than any city except Paris and has been called "Paris of the Plains." Residents are known as Kansas Citians. It is sometimes referred to colloquially as the Heart of America as it is near both the population center of the United States and the geographic center of the 48 contiguous states.

One of the more than 200 Fountains in the City

Note: This is No.5 ( Part 1) of a series of articles on places that we have resided or visited in the US from 1960 to the present.( #1. New York City, #2 Washington, DC, #3 Sacramento, CA, and #4, Chicago, Illinois)

4. Places in the US that Macrine and I had Resided/Visited-Chicago, Illinois and Its Suburbs

My family ( wife and 3 children at that time) resided in the Chicago area for four years from 1960 to 1964. We stayed at the University Of Illinois Medical Center Staff Apartments. During that time I was a part-time Instructor in Chemistry and at the same time pursuing my doctorate degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Illinois.
University of Illinois, College of Pharmacy, Medical Center-my part time employer during my graduate school years in Chicago.

My family favorite places at that time were the Lincoln Zoo and Lake Michigan. We also love the Chicago Art Institute and the downtown area department stores(Marshall Fields and Sears). On several occasions, we have been invited for Thanksgiving weekends in Danville & Springfield, Illinois and surrounding towns. On a couple of Christmas days we have been lucky to be invited at the home of the late Pat and Patty Crowley in Wheaton, Illinois as well as in the homes of the Dean and Faculty members of the College of Pharmacy.

The Crowleys were very active leaders of the Christian Family Movement(CFM) at that time. Our fours years in Chicago is synonymous to our involvement with CFM. The Christian Family Movement (also known as CFM) is a national movement of parish (neighborhood) small groups of families that meet in one another’s homes to reinforce Christian values and actively encourage other fellow Christian parents through active involvement with others. CFM groups contain five to seven families and the adults meet two nights each month in each others houses.

At meetings the members of CFM use many different programs provided by CFM USA Offices. Parents talk about what they have seen in their family or neighborhood and discuss these opinions on what they have seen through the life and teachings of Jesus. After these discussions they make plans on how they can act out the changes they talked about that will positively affect families in their community. The method used by CFM members is called the Observe/Judge/Act technique. Members say this method helps in such areas as “foster-parenting, prison ministry, refugee sponsorship, religious education and couple counseling.” Joseph Cardijn, the founder of the Young Christian Workers Movement in Belgium, was the first person to bring about the observe/judge/act technique (also known as the Jocist Method).
Simple Gifts-Pat and Patty Crowley
The Christian Family Movement had its first national seminar in June 1949 where it was represented by 59 delegates from 11 different cities. Pat and Patty Crowley were first elected to be the Executive Secretary Couple where they lead the movement for the next 20 years. CFM had become a nation-wide movement. This was shown through their first publication (ACT), its official recognition by the church, and the way that CFM groups from other cities were able to communicate with each other. The first CFM program was called For Happier Families and was dispersed to over 2,500 groups within the span of a year.

Here's a video tour of Chicago also known as the Windy City. I truly believe that in Winter time, the city is the coldest place in the earth because of the wind. After graduation, I vowed that I will never live in the Chicago area even if you gave me a million dollars because of the harsh winters and humid summers. Spring and Fall are the only time we love Chicago during the early 1960's. Enjoy this videos.

Chicago was founded in 1833, near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land following the Treaty of Chicago. The city became a major transportation and telecommunications hub in North America. Today, the city retains its status as a major hub, both for industry and infrastructure, with O'Hare International Airport being the second busiest airport in the world. In 2008, the city hosted 45.6 million domestic and overseas visitors.

The city is a center for business and finance and is listed as one of the world's top ten Global Financial Centers. The World Cities Study Group at Loughborough University rated Chicago as an "alpha world city" due to Chicago's important role in the global economic system. In a 2010 survey collaboration between Foreign Policy and A.T Kearney ranking the world's top global cities, Chicago ranked 6th behind Paris and Hong Kong and above Los Angeles and Singapore. The ranking assesses five dimensions: value of capital markets, diversity of human capital, international information resources, international cultural resources, and political influence.

Chicago is a stronghold of the Democratic Party and has been home to many influential politicians, including the current President of the United States, Barack Obama.

Globally recognized, Chicago has numerous nicknames, which reflect the impressions and opinions about historical and contemporary Chicago. The best known include: "Chi-town," "Windy City," "Second City," and the "City of Big Shoulders." Chicago has also been called "the most American of big cities."

Note: This is No.4 ( Part 1) of a series of articles of places that Macrine and I have resided or visited in the US since 1960 to the present ( New York City #1, Washington DC #2 and Sacramento #3)

3. Places in the US that Macrine and I had Resided/Visited-Sacramento, California and Its Suburbs

3. This is Number 3 of the series of places in the US that the David B Katague family had either resided or visited.*
My two Sisters ( Myrla and Agnes) and Brother-in-law ( Dennis) and ME in front of the Capitol. This photo was taken in the summer of 2009. Agnes and Dennis are from Maryland and Myrla is from Toronto, Canada

The California State Capitol sits in Sacramento, California, at the west end of Capitol Park. The grounds are framed by L Street to the north, N Street to the south, 10th Street to the west, and 15th Street to the east. The Capitol houses the California State Legislature and the Office of the Governor of California. The building was constructed in the Neoclassical architectural style between 1861 and 1874 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as of 1973.
Exterior
The building is based on the distant Capitol in Washington D.C. The west facade ends in projecting bays, and a portico projects from the center of the building. At the base of the portico, seven granite archways brace and support the porch above. Eight fluted Corinthian columns line the portico. A cornice supports the pediment above that depicts Minerva surrounded by Education, Justice, and Mining.
Above the flat roof with balustrade rise two drums supporting a dome. The first drum consists of a colonnade of Corinthian columns; the second, Corinthian pilasters. Large arched windows line the drum walls. The dome rises 220 feet, matching the dome of the U.S. Capitol. This dome supports a lantern with a smaller dome capped with a bright gold ball.
Interior

The California Senate Chamber seats its forty members in a large chamber room enveloped in red, which is a nod to the British House of Lords, also the upper house of a bicameral legislature. The Chamber is entered through a second floor corridor. The red carpeting has a Victorian-era design. From the coffered ceiling hangs an electric reproduction of the original gas chandelier. A hand-carved dais caps off a recessed bay framed by Corinthian columns.
The Latin phrase "Senatoris est civitatis libertatem tueri" ["It is the duty of a Senator to protect the liberty of the people"] lines the cornice. A portrait of George Washington by Jane Stuart, the daughter of Gilbert Stuart, looks down from the wall above. The State Seal hangs above.

Gilded Corinthian columns support the gallery above, and dark red curtains that can be drawn for privacy are tied back along the columns. High arched windows run along the bottom below rectangular pane windows. Behind the rostrum, there are two chairs with red velvet cushions, reserved for the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the Assembly, but are never used.

The California Assembly Chamber is located at the opposite end of the Senate. Like the Senate, its green tones are based on British House of Commons, the lower house. The dais rests along a wall shaped like an "E", with the central projection housing the rostrum. Along the cornice appears a quotation from Abraham Lincoln in Latin: legislatorum est justas leges condere ("It is the duty of legislators to pass just laws").

2001 Attack
On January 16, 2001, Michael Bowers, a semi-trailer truck driver with a criminal history, drove over a curb, up a short walk-way, and rammed his truck into the southern portico. The truck's fuel tank ignited, killing him and causing $15 million in damage to the Capitol.

If you are in the Sacramento area, a free tour of the capitol and it grounds is a good use of your time. Adjacent to the capitol is the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, A National Shrine, It is also a must see if you are Catholic.
Inside the Cathedral

*Note: The Eastern suburb of Sacramento is our current residence since 2002 after my retirement from the Food and Drug Administration. Sacramento is about 75 to 90 minutes from San Francisco depending on traffic. There are two Indian Casinos within 40 minutes from Downtown Sacramento, Thunder Valley in Lincoln and Red Hawk in Placerville.

2. Places in the US that Macrine and I had Resided/Visited-Washibgton DC and the Tristate Area Suburbss

2. The Tristate area is the name of the area which include all of Washington DC, Eastern Maryland and the Northern Virginia suburbs where most of the Federal employees worked or resided.


We have resided in the suburbs of Washington D.C.( Colesville, Maryland) for 12 years (1990-2002). Going to the National Mall from our residence via the Metro takes only about 30 minutes. The National Mall is an open-area national park in downtown Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States.

The National Mall is a unit of the National Park Service, and is administered by the National Mall and Memorial Parks unit. The term "National Mall" commonly includes areas that are officially part of West Potomac Park and Constitution Gardens to the west, and often is taken to refer to the entire area between the Lincoln Memorial and the United States Capitol, with the Washington Monument providing a division slightly west of the center. The National Mall receives approximately 24 million visitors each year.

The National Mall-Gets about 24 million visitors a Year

Washington, D.C. (pronounced /ˈwɒʃɪŋtən ˌdiːˈsiː/, WOSH-ing-tən DEE-SEE), formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790. Article One of the United States Constitution provides for a federal district, distinct from the states, to serve as the permanent national capital. The City of Washington was originally a separate municipality within the federal territory until an act of Congress in 1871 established a single, unified municipal government for the whole District. It is for this reason that the city, while legally named the District of Columbia, is known as Washington, D.C. The city shares its name with the U.S. state of Washington, which is located on the country's Pacific coast.

The city is located on the north bank of the Potomac River and is bordered by the states of Virginia to the southwest and Maryland to the other sides. The District has a resident population of 599,657; because of commuters from the surrounding suburbs, its population rises to over one million during the workweek. The Washington Metropolitan Area, of which the District is a part, has a population of 5.4 million, the eighth-largest metropolitan area in the country.

The centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are located in the District, as are many of the nation's monuments and museums. Washington, D.C. hosts 174 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organization of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). The headquarters of other institutions such as trade unions, lobbying groups, and professional associations are also located in the District.

The highlight of our stay in the Washington DC area is my employment with the Food and Drug Administration as Chemistry Team Leader for the Center Of New Drugs in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Winter scene in the front yard of our residence at Hammonton Rd.

This was the place where Macrine and I were the happiest because of our active involvement with the Filipino-American community.
Monuments of Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., is governed by a mayor and a 13-member city council. However, the United States Congress has supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. Residents of the District therefore have less self-governance than residents of the states. The District has a non-voting, at-large Congressional delegate, but no senators. D.C. residents could not vote in presidential elections until the ratification of the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1961.

Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin

My favorite time of the year in the DC area is spring time. The city is famous for it annual Cherry Blossom Festival. The National Cherry Blossom Festival is a spring celebration in Washington, D.C. commemorating the March 27, 1912, gift of Japanese cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo to the city of Washington. Mayor Ozaki donated the trees in an effort to enhance the growing friendship between the United States and Japan and also celebrate the continued close relationship between the two nations.

This article is No.2 (Part 1) series of articles of the places that we have resided and/or visited in the US since 1960 to the present. The New York City write up was No.1.