A Full Day at the Air and Space Museum

Today we went back to the ASM, arriving at 10:05 am. Not being a weekend, not being a Federal Holiday, it was much quieter and nicer. We spent the entire day at the museum, picking up all the exhibits we didn't see the previous two days. I don't think David noticed much but I'll tell ya what- Amelia Earhart was really cute.  She had this mischievous look that made me think she might've been a handful to her parents.  I don't know, of course, I'm just speculating.  She may have been the kind of daughter who always did the dishes, kept her room clean without being asked, and was asleep promptly at 9 pm.  I doubt it, though. I was surprised to see that she accomplished everything she did in just 13 years. That's pilot's license to disappearing. The exhibit said that she flew the gyroplane with only 15 minutes of instruction. Impressive. We watched another 3D movie, this one on the Hubble Telescope. I really didn't know much about the scope beforehand so it was an informative movie for me.

David in front of Apollo 13 capsule.

At lunch, a guy whom I've talked to online for years met us for (and bought us!) lunch- Charlie Bryant from Flatpick-L. We had a fun visit and it was great to finally meet in person after all these years online. The thing about online relationships, though, is that you have already talked about so many things that you can just continue right on with those discussions. It's also interesting in that, many times, we are biased toward a person because of the way they look or dress or wear their hair. But online, it's just pure discussion- what have you got to say? I don't know how many times I've talked guitars with “Chris” or “Claire” to find out that “Chris” was female and “Claire” was a guy. All I knew them as were people with things to say.

While waiting on Charlie, I wandered over to the "donation" box and was struck by how much foreign currency was in there.  I dunno, maybe the Smithsonian "salts" the box, but I saw currency from India, Korea, Arabian, and more, as well as a few dollars, too.

After exhausting the ASM, we headed back to the room. I got my daily Starbucks, we ate supper, did laundry, and now we're watching “Dirty Jobs” on the tube. It's been a relaxing day.

Tomorrow- Union Station DC and heading home!

We've been here for millions upon millions of years

We were going to try to get an early-ish start today and walk around to the Washington Monument before heading to the Natural History Museum. However, we are either mice or men and our best laid plans were to no avail as we laid in bed until pretty close to 9 am. We skipped breakfast and ate a Powerbar each, then headed out.

We went to another 3D IMAX at the Nat History museum, this one on the Grand Canyon and the water issues associated with it. It was a pretty good movie, but didn't use the 3D technology quite as well as the Flight movie did the other day. Still, it was fun. Afterward, we ate in the cafe. David had an all-beef hot dog and I had pulled pork with green bean casserole and cole slaw. It was very good and pretty pricey at $28 for the two of us!

After lunch we walked around the museum, but both David and I got tired of it pretty fast. For one thing, nearly every exhibit is a million years this, 25 million years here, 450 zillion years over there. They don't even say “an estimated” number of years, but just flop it out there like it's a fact. I mean talk about “shoving it down your throat”. In the Grand Canyon video, they showed rainfall degrading from the “average” since 1900. So, how exactly did they come up with that “average”? They've got data on rainfall since the 1800's? An average is derived from the data- it's not really used to play against the data. This is such a typical misuse of statistics in order to prove a “point” that may or may not be valid. Anyway, we got tired of this and moved next door to the American History Museum where we were pretty sure we weren't going to find anything over 300 years old.

David at the American History museum:

Washington Monument in the background:

Inside American History museum:

Sure 'nuff, there was a lot of fun stuff there. We saw the actual Star Spangled Banner (it's BIG!!!), an excellent display on “transportation”, a couple of Strad fiddles, a history of slavery, and so much more. Around about 3:30, though, we were both getting tired. It's very hard walking around these museums- stop and go, twist and turn, stand and shift. I mean walking is great. What we do here is tough. Little David is very slow, too. I've discovered that if I put heel to toe, very slowly, that's about his pace. But, he's doing his best. I had to carry him a couple of blocks on the way back to the hotel, though. He was just all out of energy. In the motel, we're just chilling by watching Discovery Channel. Since we don't get TV at home, this is kind of a treat in itself.

Back from supper, I'm fighting a headache, so I think I'll just get this posted and call it good. Tomorrow, the plan is to head back to Air/Space where we'll meet Flatpick-L friend Charlie Bryant sometime during the day. Stay tuned!

Church, The Fall of David, and American Indian Museum

Day 3 of the Amtrak Washington DC adventure.

Today, David wanted to go to church, so me and him visited Capitol Hills Baptist Church, home of Mark Dever. Dever is a well-known pastor and writer who I've heard speak at The Shepherd's Conference. We took a taxi up to the church, intending to walk back (1.4 miles).

Bible study was fun with just 8-10 of us sitting around discussing things. Afterward we went up to the balcony for the service. Lots of music, lots of prayer, and a pretty long sermon which I had some trouble hearing. Everything sounds “brittle” here and I've lost some bass. I've noticed this phenomenon when going to TN for Kaufman Kamp, too. But, I got thru it.

Unfortunately, on the way down from the balcony, David tripped on the stairs. He slid face-first and then somersaulted all the way down. He just has no strength or agility to stop himself. He got a pretty good sized scrape on the side of his head, a smaller scrape on the front, and a good bruise under his eye. His glasses, fortunately, were okay. I hauled him off to a corner to cry and of course there was a radiator there, so we both were roasting. That incident really took the wind out of his sails and instead of sticking around for refreshments and visiting, we had to go. I got him cleaned up a little in the bathroom and then we set off down Capitol Hill, very, very slowly. 

David is not very happy right now

David was not interested in much of anything, but we made it down off the Hill to the American Indian museum and there we found some food, including The Universal Kid's Meal of chicken strips and french fries. What the world did before chicken strips, I don't know. We chatted with two older ladies from Virginia and NYC who were very interested in the Amtrak experience. This gave David all the time he needed to work on The Universal Kid's Meal, and he does need a lot of time, eating molecules at a time like he does. But, after eating and drinking most of a flavored tea, he felt better. Oh, and on the way down the Hill, I made him eat ½ of a Clif bar. 

He's a little happier now

We toured the Indian Museum and by the end, he was doing okay again. It's an interesting and new museum and we enjoyed it. Afterward, we hit the Air/Space museum again and picked up a few small gifts. Back at the hotel for the evening, we're just relaxing and planning on Air/Space again tomorrow and then Natural History on Tues. Wednesday we head home!