Regardless of our political beliefs, it sure was nice to wake up this morning to the news that everything was OPEN! YAY!!! Our first stop: The Smithsonian Museums.
We went to the Air and SPace Museum first and only saw half of it - the airplane half. Brandon loves airplanes, in case you don’t know. He’s a commercial instrument pilot. So we spent a good amount of time looking at the airplanes and airplane history.
In particular, the information about stewardesses/flight attendants always humors me.
And this was a poster that the British government posted to help its citizens identify German airships (so take cover) vs. British airships (so don't worry).
It was awesome to see the airplanes ... a Messerschmidt 262 jet & ME 109, a Gruman Tiger, and one of my favorites, a Bleriot XI (My fellow Five in a Row friends might know the significance of this).
We got to see a fully simulated Airbus 320 take off and landing, although Brandon has experienced a real Airbus 320 landing on our trip to Canada many years ago pre-9/11. It was fun.
We then headed to the National Museum of American History. This place was great. We didn’t see all of it since this was our last day in DC and we wanted to see as much as we could in our short 1 day that everything was finally open. Some of my highlights were ...
Brandon pretending to give a speech as president ... here he is behind the podium:
And on TV. I love this (although I think he looks a bit like Homer Simpson here). It looks like he's really on TV giving a speech:
A cello built in 1701 by Stradivari:
Kermit D. Frog:
Who remembers working on one of these? I’m raising my hand!
Dorothy’s slippers:
The entrance to the Star Spangled Banner (no pictures of the inside as no photography is allowed). Seeing the HUGE original flag that inspired the wonderful poem that became our national anthem was awesome.
And my favorite:
Julia Child’s kitchen! I was so excited to see this, especially since the Smithsonian website said that this exhibition would be only through August 2013. I just love Julia. And this is the EXACT kitchen that she lived and worked in everyday, save the floor and ceiling (cause they couldn't really move those). Everything is exactly as it was. It’s funny watching home hunting shows and the people just have to have a huge gourmet kitchen. Yet Julia’s kitchen wasn’t some massive gourmet kitchen. It was a nice, normal kitchen and she was very talented. She was able to cook and do her shows from this very kitchen. They had a video running of many, many clips of her shows. I could've watched for hours!
Her cookbooks:
Afterward we headed to the National Archives. We wanted to see the Charters of Freedom, if we could before we left DC. And we did. And that was very awesome. The original Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights. Words cannot really explain how wonderful these were to view up close and in person. Awe-inspiring.
And this is how I remember DC:
It’s a lovely city. I love its energy and excitement. It's clean. And it's large, but there are no sky scrapers. I hope we can come back soon and bring the girls when everything is open (only remind me not to plan a trip when they are planning to vote on a budget!!). There is just so much here that we were not able to see.
Thanks for following our fun! Until next time ...
First!
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