Smithsonian

Yesterday we DID make it to the Smithsonian museums. You can imagine a massive sweep at the centre of Washington from Capitol Hill (the seat of government), through the mall which is massive to the Washington memorial and on again in a line through reflecting pools, World War II memorial to the Lincolm memorial. The mall, which runs for several street blocks and is a street block wide at least, is skirted on either side by the Smithsonian museums - each subject has its own building - starting with a castle, which housed the original Smithsonian. One building is devoted to American culture (here you can see Seinfeld's puffy shirt/ Dorothy of the Wizard of Oz's red shoes/ the dresses worn by the First Ladies at the Presidents' Inaugurations throughout history/ the flag which draped the Pentagon to hide the damage of 9/11/ Prince's yellow gold guitar and on and on - floor and floor of it). Then there is the Natural History Museum, the Sculpture museum, Air and Space Museum, Art Gallery, the Postal museum and a number of others. In this huge mall there is a merry-go-round, an ice skating rink in winter, beautiful flower gardens and food courts, PLUS thousands of people of all ages, some on bikes, skates...school expeditions, tourists... It was a great day, but we did not do it justice. We will have to go again. Also possibly on display there now are Ray's distance glasses. He lost them.

We also have hit the shopping centers - mind-boggling, especially when you try to convert American dollars to Australian, and realise that the bargain is not really so. All is well here. The kids are on holiday today. We went this morning to the school to see Nathan in a passion play. He was Simon the Cyrene. It was very good and he played his part well. No other news - notably about babies. Much love, Mum