We're back!

Wow, so we just had a whirlwind experience in D.C. It was wonderful, except for the part at the end. We had a 4:30 flight out of Reagan International, so we got there around 2:30 to allow for security and check-in and to have a late lunch (lunch was great, btw, as was all of food on this trip), only to have our flight inexplicably canceled at 4:00pm. They claimed weather (weather being the only excuse for canceling without compensating the customer in any way), but for this particular flight, that reason was unlikely. At any rate, the airline was totally unhelpful to its plane-load full of displaced customers, telling us that we could try to get on the next flight to Indy at 7:30 (which had 6 open spots) or wait until 6:45 am, but closing two of the lines available for such services right as we needed them. We got on a 6:00pm flight to NY (by calling while waiting in line), but that was canceled at 5:20 due to real storms in the NY area. Eventually we made it onto the 7:30 flight, but it turned out that they had a plane but no crew to fly it. So, we waited hour after hour (A was a trooper!), as they pushed back the flight time just as we would get to the boarding time. We finally got a crew from Burlington, VT and left D.C. at 1:30 in the morning. We got home and picked the boys up at 5:00am, and crashed until mid-morning. Not the best part of the trip!

The trip itself was awesome. On Sunday, we got to D.C. around 12pm, had a light lunch, and went to the Hirshorn Museum and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum -- which is currently housing a great exhibit called American Traditions (usually in its own space, but it's homeless while the space is being renovated). So, we saw the hat Lincoln was wearing when he was shot, a a piece of the script from The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy's red slippers, Ben Franklin's walking stick, and so much more. We walked around the Mall, and checked out the Washington Monument, and got a sighting of the landing of a D.C. VIP -- couldn't see who it was, but the helicopters landed and limos sped off to the White House. Pretty cool. Then we went to Hank's Oyster Bar for dinner -- seared scallops and fried oysters with yummy beer, seasoned fries, and cole slaw... Yum! A loved every minute of everything, particularly the escalators and the metro trains.

Monday, R had an all-day meeting at the Library of Congress, so we took the metro there and then went our separate ways. A and I took a tour of the library (very amazing) including the visiting exhibit of Japanese prints, walked around the Capital building and the Supreme Court building, and toured the Botanical Gardens. By this time we were ready for lunch (more than ready -- it was 95 degrees, and quite the walk), so A and I headed to the National Museum of the American Indian (celebrating all native peoples of the Western Hemisphere). They had an amazing cafeteria with food from all the major regions of the West. Hemisphere. We had chicken tamals and grilled veggies from South America, and a cranberry nut cookie from the Northwest, and herbal tea. There were so many things to try, but A was heavy and fell asleep, so I finished up and toured the museum while he slept on my shoulder. We saw many cool things, but my favorites were the native dresses and shoes from the 1800's, as well as the money, jewelry, and other artifacts from the 1400's to the 1900's.

We headed to the Mall to wait for R. A chased pigeons and drank lemonade until R joined us at 5:20. Then we went back to the hotel to change clothes (R was dressed up, and A and I were dripping in sweat), and went back out to see the Lincoln Memorial (did you know that the Reflecting Pool is covered with duck and goose pooh?). Long trek, but beautiful. We also walked around the White House (the Dwight D. Eisenhower building is HUGE). Next time we're in D.C., we'll take more comprehensive tours (R went through the White House about 20 years ago with his parents, but this was my first glimpse), but it was a nice taste of the city. Then we ate at a lovely Asian place (I had a shrimp Pad Thai, plum wine, and pineapple juice -- and about a gallon of water. Did I mention it was hot?). Then back to the hotel to rest. You can walk quite a bit in D.C., even with the trains.

On Tuesday (was that really only yesterday??), we had an expensive and average tasting breakfast at the hotel (quite disappointing), and then went to the Holocaust Museum. It's an amazing and humbling place. I know quite a lot about the Holocaust and of WWII, having concentrated in them for my undergrad degree, but there was so much there. Photographs, newspaper articles, personal diaries and quotes, artifacts, Nazi films of the camps and the research, bunks from the camps, one of the train cars that transported families to the camps, rocks that workers were forced to carry up and down a mountain until they died of exhaustion (literally), and so on. It wasn't easy to go through. To think that there are honestly people who deny that this happened, and that there are others who are perpetuating this kind of hate around the world is mind blowing. One of the moving films was one taken after the liberation of one of the camps -- German citizens were forced to tour the camp because of their complicity with the Nazis; well-dressed men and women walked through the buildings and the grounds, covering their faces with handkerchiefs and gasping at what they saw. A woman ran out of one of the buildings, a look of horror on her face.

One low point at the museum was a personal one. I was sitting outside the main exhibit area, in an area designated for resting, nursing A, when two women walked past. Bear in mind that I had just viewed horrifying Nazi research films, and was feeling vulnerable and angry. They walked past me, and actually gasped out loud and covered their mouths when they realized that I was breastfeeding A. They pointed me out to a couple of their friends, and shook their heads. I'll be honest -- if they had said anything, or stopped long enough for me to get up and talk to them, they would have gotten a serious piece of my mind. I was flabbergasted that they could be offended by my discreet nourishment of my child after having viewed what was to me the most offensive of human behaviour. Some people truly have no sense of perspective.

So, that, in a very large nutshell, was our D.C. trip. Now it's on to putting the house on the market, and planning our house-hunting trip. Whew!!