More D.C. & Time with Family

We've made it back to our friend's house in Milwaukee, WI. After leaving D.C., we journeyed north to my Aunt's house in New Jersey, spend a day in the Big Apple, camped in Pennsylvania, and then drove and spent 2 nights in Chicago. We've covered a lot of ground. We've been so busy that I haven't had the energy to update the blog or to report on knitting progress. I'll do a quick recap of our remaining time in D.C. & happily report I've finished 2 knitting projects (TWO!!) with a third just a bind-off away. I hope to get some breathing room in the next day or so for a quick photo shoot & then some posts. Knitters, stay tuned!

Our last couple of days in D.C. were spent visiting the capitol and spending time with my sister. Since she lives so far away from Anchorage (which we hope she'll fix, soon!), it was a nice treat just to hang out with her. (Who knew I'd say such a thing - I can remember wicked arguments when we were growing up) :0)

After reading Dan Brown's book, The Lost Symbol, I really wanted to go & see the capitol rotunda. So our first stop was the capitol building. Both the House & Senate had adjourned for the day (flags were not flying over their respective buildings). The Capitol building is magnificent. When you enter you have an opportunity to visit a museum of types to understand the history of congress and learn more about the capitol itself. However, if you want to venture further into the building, you either have to wait in a very long line to obtain tickets, or have an "insider" (say, your congressman/woman) escort you. We were not prepared for either, so I had to be satisfied with the mock-up of the painting on the capitol's dome. Oh well - perhaps another time. FYI: The dome is made from iron and can expand/contract as much as 4 inches in extreme weather conditions. Wow!


Our next stop on our whirlwind tour was the National Botanical Gardens. Not a big hit with the kids, but very pretty. It was on the way to the focus of the days' visit: The Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum.


Again - the Smithsonian outdoes themselves with so much cool artifacts of our nation. I was overwhelmed. Highlights of the Air & Space Museum were the lunar module from Apollo 11 and the Wright Brothers first plane. I particularly liked their exhibit for Eastern Airlines (now defunct) requirements for being a flight attendant:

• Female (check!)
• At least 2 years of college or a nursing degree (check!)
• Between 5' 2" and 5' 6" (check - barely!)
• Single (oops...)
• Weigh somewhere between 100 and 135 lbs (pushing it...)
• Be of adequate proportions, somewhere below "Hollywood Standards" (their words, not mine)

So - looks like back in the60's and 70's I would not have been able to make a career as a flight attendant (an earlier aspiration of mine...) Wade figured that mostly businessmen were flying, so the airlines wanted to provide a little "eye candy" while they were on board.

Does this image look familiar?
After the air & space museum, we hightailed it over to the Natural History museum - setting for the "Night at the Museum, part II" movie. During the summer the Smithsonian museums stay open until 7:30, so we took advantage of the time. Of course, we didn't arrive here until 6:30 pm, so it was a true zip,zip,zip tour of the museum. The docents and security guards were great about ushering everyone out of the building so that we wouldn't have to spend the night with creatures such as:

Ahh!! What a tasty snack!

Okay - I'm actually posting from our campsite in Nebraska (The Good Life!) & Wade is anxious to get back on the road for another 600+ mile day. Our goal is to arrive in Sacramento the night of the 10th (happy birthday to me!) so that we'll be able to watch the final game of the World Cup (Go Netherlands!!) on Sunday morning. Hopefully I'll find some energy to really update this blog of our journey & adventures.

Until then.. Ciao & Happy Travels!