President's Day Follow-Up

So, it occurs to me that I never talked about our trip to DC last spring. President's Day seemed like an appropriate time for that. So, come with me...

Page's cousin is an Economist. He has his own institute.

His lovely wife gave us a tour of the building and all the photos they have hanging around the building from their world adventures. They were amazing. Almost as good as dinner... They took us to a "favorite". So favorite that the chef himself came to the door and walked us to our table. (Apparently they are there once or twice a week.) I sampled linguine with black truffles and have not stopped dreaming about it since. Oh, but we had to wait before going to dinner because Fred was being interviewed by Bloomberg. The TV network. His building has a studio right in it. We got to stand SILENTLY in the corner while he was interviewed about China's economy. He basically called them "ninnies" and then we got to read about it in the USA Today the next day. Just another day in the life of a fancy economist, I suppose. We opted to skip renting a car for the subway. It was very manageable and not all that scary. Well, except for this.

Look how big those escalators are. You almost couldn't see the top/bottom. And imagine our joy when we got to the stop and found that it was broken and we would have to use it as steps. Now I don't have a problem with stairs, but I do have my limits... We spent all the time we could at the Smithsonian. With so many choices, we had to be pretty particular as to where we went. If you are unaware, the museums are all FREE. I love that. And we could have spent a whole week just looking through these buildings. But, that wasn't possible so we picked and chose. We all agreed on the Space Museum.

You may not know that I would like to be an astronaut. As that will never happen, I live vicariously through those that are. What I love the most is that these are artifacts that REALLY traveled in space.

This rover really drove on the moon.

How cool is that? They also had an amazing Wright Brothers display. And I loved this collection box.

Look at all the different currencies and all the people they represent. Christopher's dad took in the History of the Car. Page checked out First Lady Dresses. Christopher and I waited in line for this.

And this.

And this.

And this.

Does anyone besides my brother recognize this? Archie Bunker's chair. We also saw THE flag that flew over Fort McHenry and was cause for the writing of The Star-Spangled Banner. It was awe-inspiring but under such protection that you can't take pictures. The Capitol building.

Only semi-group shot. (If you'll remember, I was a bit barfy for this trip and not my regular photographing self...) The Vietnam Memorial.

Sobering. So many names. So many people searching diligently for a name. I read in our newspaper this weekend that all the momentos that are left at the wall are treated as part of the memorial. They are picked up each evening with white gloves, documented - if not by name, by location - and added to the collection. I think that is really neat. The Korean Memorial.

This was one of our favorites. The Lincoln Memorial.

Along with a giant statute,

they have his speeches etched in the walls and it was interesting to observe all the different walks of people reading them. The Washington Monument.

There was a kite festival at the monument.

The weather was perfect and it seemed everyone was taking advantage of it.

Unfortunately, it also meant Christopher didn't get to go up in the monument. Should you go, note that they only give out so many tickets each day and you can request them in advance. We didn't know this. The next available day was weeks out. Oops. We also happened to hit the Cherry Blossom Festival.

They were beautiful! And this was one of my favorites.

I pushed for the zoo (also FREE) just so we could see him. He was pretty adamant that he only show us spectators his back.

Unfortunately for him, they had a video camera on the opposite wall for just this purpose.

I don't think he knew. I could have stayed and watched him all day. Animals amaze me. We also took in a Jazz concert at the Kennedy Center (the real reason we went on the trip in the first place.) But, no pictures, sorry. So, anyway, there was our vacation. It was busy but we so enjoyed our time away AND together.