Our last day in Washington – and
still so much to see! We would love to see even more places – eg
to go to the News and Media museum, the American History museum, and
the Natural History Museum (where we could have seen the ill-fated
“Hope” diamond – the largest diamond in the world, I think).
But there just isn't time to do everything we would like to do. So
we decide that our priorities for today are to visit the National Air
and Space Museum, which houses the original Apollo 11 capsule, and to
see the White House.
After breakfast we have some domestic
issues to sort out. I go to the hostel basement to do our laundry;
I'm grateful, Rose, for your tip to buy Tesco's own colour-catcher
sheets, to enable me to do one wash with whites and coloureds in
together, without the whites becoming discoloured. I haven't tried
yet tried to wash the trousers I dyed a vibrant shade of purple
before we came away! My very very pale old mauve trousers fitted me
beautifully, but showed the dirt so quickly – I'm hoping that the
new colour will mean I don't have to wash them so often. It costs me
$1 to wash the clothes, and $1 to dry them bone dry – brilliant!
The whole process takes about 1½
hours – impressive!
We
then phone “Insure and Go” to tell them about our stolen tablet.
They are extremely helpful, and tell us that now that we've
registered the claim, we don't have to worry about filling out the
claim form until we return home.
Lastly,
I need to phone “3”, as even though we know we have international
roaming for free on my phone, my “3” app won't let me check the
number of minutes, texts and download space I have left this month. I
find this a bit worrying, but I quickly get through to someone who
checks my remaining allowance for me, and assures me that my free
international roaming is in place. It still seems too good to be
true I guess. I am reassured and relieved.
The
cycle tour company from whom my tablet was stolen hasn't got back to
me. Perhaps their insurance won't allow them to admit liability, but
they said they would email me when they'd discussed what happened
with their management. We aren't impressed with their customer care.
We will email them, and give them an opportunity to reply, before we
put anything on Trip Advisor. We wonder if they believe us, that we
had a tablet in our rucksack?
It's
nearly lunchtime when we get off the bus near to the museums, and we
are hit by that kind of searing heat that makes you long to walk in a
patch of shade. If we find this hot, goodness knows what it'll be
like later in our trip as summer really sets in. As all the museums
(apart from the News & Media one) are free, we pop into the
American Indian Museum again for lunch, then make our way, just down
the road, to the huge Air and Space Museum.
This
museum turns out to be the highlight of our visit to Washington DC
for Reg; having been in the aero industry for much of his working
life, he is fascinated by everything he sees. I'm more interested in
the social history of aviation; how women got into flying (with
determination, it seems), and how African Americans had to fight
prejudice and had to campaign to be allowed to train as pilots in the
same way as white Americans could. Initially training to be military
pilots was segregated for African Americans. I'm also interested in
the role of American aircraft in World War 1& 2.
Reg
particularly enjoys The Wrights Brothers exhibition, and how they
developed the aeroplane; all the geeky technical stuff, which means
very little to me. After some time Reg is still hungry for more
information and viewing of exhibits etc, whereas I've had enough. He
leaves me by a seating area and goes off to look at some more things.
There are several seating areas around the museum, and strangely
enough, they are mainly occupied by women! (I wonder why?) On one of
the seats I notice a young Mum bottle-feeding twins; the one on her
arm, she is somehow feeding with the same hand, and with the other
hand she is holding a bottle up for the other twin, who is in a baby
seat next to her. We get chatting – the twins are about the same
age as our grandson Arlie (he was born on 7 Feb, they were born on
George's birthday – 11 Feb). They are however quite a bit smaller
than Arlie as they were premature. They are identical twins, and
both feeding lustily when I sit down next to the young Mum, and offer
to hold the bottle for the baby in the seat. This is the highlight of
my afternoon!
The
young woman's husband/partner returns and takes over the feeding; I
settle down to read my kindle. I get talking to some schoolboys who
want to know where I come from. It's nearly museum closing time, and
I'm really tired. Eventually Reg returns and is thrilled because a
schoolboy of about 12 came up to him, held up his camera and said,
“Do
you want to be in a selfie with me?”
Reg
realised that this meant, “ Would you like to be in a photo with
me?”
Reg
said he felt as though we were back in China, where people wanted to
be photgraphed with us all the time!
I'm
exhausted and feeling a bit grumpy, which Reg soon cottons on to. We
get the Metro to the White House, and take a couple of photos. There
is a police presence there, and also at least one policeman on the
roof of the White House. We get chatting to 2 “older” (but
probably younger than us!) Dutch women who tells us how beautiful
Holland is and why haven't we visited it yet when we live so close?
We
stop for food on the way home. As we reach the hostel, I say to Reg,
“I
haven't noticed this restaurant before.”
This
is a classic Lesley statement, as Reg reminds me that we ate there on
Sunday evening. It's just that we're approaching the hostel from a
different direction.
We're
both in bed by 9.00 pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment