USA road trip, Post 4: Mr Byrd (and Mrs) go to Washington

Late Friday night, Anna and I rolled into Woodbridge, Virginia to my second cousin Liesl's place. She had valiantly stayed up to wait for her late arriving guests, so we were greeted by Liesl and the furry white cuteness that is their dog Lizzie (Ken had to work Saturday, so had been sent off to bed). I hadn't seen Liesl for nearly six years, so it was great to catch up again.

On Saturday we headed in to Washington, D.C. (District of Columbia), to have a look at some of the famous Smithsonian Institute museums. We started at the National Air and Space Museum. The space section had a lot in common with what we had seen at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, so we spent most of our time in "Air". They have some awesome exhibits chronicling the history of human flight. There were masses of original aircraft, from pre-Wright brothers gliders, right though to the currently bleeding-edge stealth UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) bombers... the aircraft had its engine intake welded shut, as the insides are still highly classified!



There were also some really interesting displays about the development of commercial air travel. It was quite amusing to see some of the original requirements to become an airline stewardess. I'm pretty sure Anna didn't actually meet ANY of the requirements. I must admit, economy class in the old days looked a lot more comfy (and more expensive) than now!



After spending quite a while at Air and Space, we headed over to the American Museum of Natural History. We didn't have much time there, so after a look through the Ocean section, Liesl showed us her favourite exhibit: Minerals and Gemstones. Here, amongst a lot of fantastic looking crystals, gemstones and mineralogical oddities, we got to see the famous Hope diamond - all 45.52 carats. There was also a huge sheet of naturally occurring copper metal, and a chunk of extra-terrestrial meteor iron. Then it was home to try to catch up on some sleep.



On Sunday, we got the chance to have Special Meetings in Winchester, Virginia. We caught a lift up with Peter and Marissa - it was great to get to a Specials and meet up with some more of our friends. Afterwards we spent some time at Peter and Marissa's place and had tea at a local restaurant.


On Monday we headed back into Washington with Ken and Liesl, to meet up with Nathan (an old school friend of Anna's) and his family, and have a look at some of the monuments on the National Mall. It was, quite literally, freezing cold. The high wind also meant that our first monument-of-call, the Washington Monument, was closed to visitors. It was still great to see the huge obelisk up close though.



From there, we headed down through the World War II memorial, with lots of murals and a semi-frozen pool. We then kept going down to the Lincoln Memorial, with its huge seated statue of one of the USA's most famous presidents. Inscribed inside the memorial are two of Lincoln's most famous speeches: the Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address. Both quite moving, and overwhelmingly impressive for a man who only did Year 2 at school, and taught himself grammar from a book!



At this point, even those hardy souls who had braved the chill wind thus far were starting to feel it. So we headed back up the Mall toward the warmth of the Natural History Museum. We also went past the White House on the way, and saw the National Christmas Tree.



Once again, we didn't have too much time at the museum, but we got to have a look through the Dinosaur/Fossil section, and a quick look through the Mammal/Insect section. Anna seemed to have an unusual fascination with the mouse skeleton! After that we had a quick dash home for an exciting evening appointment...!