OK. Sorry about the lack of posts, but I *was* on vacation and we were pretty tired every night! I’m going to have to condense the trip more, since I’m now home and thrown back into “real” life with dirty laundry, a lawn begging to be mowed, a garden disappearing among weeds, a “Bred and Fed” show at the county fair with grandkids who have busy this week with their animals, and a burning desire to go hide at my cabin where all I can hear is the breeze in the trees, and maybe, an occasional elk.
To catch you up…
- Our first day here was spent at the Library of Congress and I had mentioned that, but only one photo posted and seriously, that was about the coolest tour we had! I had got us the standard timed entry tickets but had emailed and requested perhaps a little something more since we are National Medal Winners, you know. Goodness, gracious, our tour guide, Peter, outdid himself. An early copy of The Virginian was shown to us as well as Peggy Simpson Curry’s first book Wyoming’s first poet laureate). We stood in the center of the Reading Room and marveled. Did you know it’s almost tall enough to hold the Statue of Liberty? Then we went to the basement and back in the stacks searching for Wyoming history. Up down around and up up to overlook the Reading Room and then we were led back to the rooms where hundreds of tourists bustled around and we joined in. It deserves its own video.
- Rhonda left to go see her kids who live in Virginia and Karen and I took off to the Museum of the Bible to see the Dead Sea Scrolls. They had on display fragments of Isaiah, one of my favorite books, including Isaiah 1:17, 2:4(which everyone has heard of), and 6:8 (the spirit of the volunteer/hero/pioneer/disciple). I was not quite as moved as I thought I would be, because I couldn’t figure out if those specific verses were there, plus it was very dim light to protect the scrolls, and I struggled to see and my phone had died, though KJ took pics for me. In another place, they had the Megiddo Mosaic, the first archaeological find to be dedicated to “God Jesus Christ”. In the middle are two fish, fish being acquainted with Christianity. In general, I love mosaics, and I’m a big fan of Time Team whenever they find one! Then, tucked away in the corner of the mosaic, was a dedication… “Remember Primilla and Cyriaca and Dorothea, and lastly, Chreste.” There it was, an unexpected swelling of emotion… my mom’s first name, which she hated, was Dorotha. She would have loved to have seen the Museum of the Bible!
- Next day was the Spy Museum which I wrote about. We then jumped on the Hop On Hop Off Trolley and rode by the sights, though we had to pass on the Viet Nam Wall because it’s currently not a stop on the tour. We did stop at the National Museum of American History to see, First Ladies dresses, their White House dishes, Abraham Lincoln’s top hat, tons of other items and THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER! Again… very impressive! No photos allowed. And very low lighting… again, hard to see/read. And why in the Sam Hill do they not sell a 3×5 version of that flag???? Barring that it wouldn’t be 3×5 in its current condition…
- Anyway, Next came the National Geographic Museum of Exploration. Photographs on display of course, scientists doing research, cool activity rooms for kids, restaurants from across the world, and unfortunately, their big outside display projected on the walls was not working. That was a bummer, but a Big Thanks to C. H. for getting us the tickets!
More tomorrow!
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WOW!!! Many congrats and thanx for sharing your well deserved trip…cheers!