vacation Thursday, June 12th

Thursday (6/12) we left our hotel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

to find breakfast, then got back on the trolley

 

heading to the Smithsonian museums... but first we got a tour of embassy row... there were 170 embassies and I swear our trolley guide mentioned and pointed out every single one!!  We hit the air and space museum, where Michael and I rode a simulator

 

to launch the international space station.  All I have to say about that is….astronauts must have balls of steel…and I mean it.  Sitting in that cockpit…just waiting for untold amounts of thrust to launch you into space…I would definitely have a heart attack!  It was bad enough in the simulator!!!  They had lots stuff from the space program along with exhibits:

 

We walked through a sculpture garden on the way to the American history museum, and Michael immediately recognized this:

 

He said “this HAS to be a Calder piece…it looks very similar to the stegosaurus in Hartford!   Once we got to the next musem, we saw lots of the inaugural gowns (sorry, guess it's the glass that made so many of them blurry),

this was Michelle Obama's from second inaugural

this was Nancy Reagan's; she was the size of a pencil!

 

how we listen to our 'tunes' through the years:

 

Dorothy's ruby slippers (on the yellow brick road of course J):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AND JULIA CHILD’s KITCHEN!!! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, I remember watching her when she first started out on TV…I loved everything she did and I’m sure she contributed to my love of collecting recipes!!  We also saw the flag that flew over Fort McHenry, which inspired Francis Scot Key to write the Star Spangled Banner…the flag was HUGE!  The flag has fifteen horizontal red and white stripes, as well as fifteen white stars in the blue field. The two additional stars and stripes, approved by the United States Congress's Flag Act of 1794, represent Vermont and Kentucky's entrance into the Union.  At the time, the practice of adding stripes (in addition to stars) with the induction of a new state had not yet been discontinued.  The flag measured 30 feet by 42 feet!!!

Back at our hotel (exhausted again…must be all of that walking all day!),  we got cleaned up and took a walk for pizza for dinner.  We were watching TV in the evening and saw HOLLYWOOD GAME NIGHT…which was a cute and fun show…we’ll definitely tape it when we get home.