It is going to rain again

Yesterday was another day spent at the Smithsonian. (I don't tend to take many pictures inside a museum.) We visited the exhibits on the presidents and on the Nation At War. There was also a small exhibit on the gunboat "Philadelphia." This was a Revolutionary War gunboat that had been sunk by Cornwallis. It was found in 1925 and brought back up to the surface. The boat itself (and not a replica) was there. It was fascinating and gave a really good view of what life might have been like for the sailors on the gunboat. I know that the picture is not very clear, but you get the idea.)

The exhibit on presidents was good as far as it went. It focused on a few of the presidents but left out most of them. I would have enjoyed an exhibit showing the events of each president. (There was a long wall showing a picture of each president, with Obama being the last. There were a number of African Americans waiting in line to take a picture of the section showing Obama. My eyes teared up a little.)

The War section was interesting because you could walk from room to room and see how it all fit together chronologically. A lot of information on the various wars with the Indians. (I now understand more about the "Trail of Tears.") Part of what was interesting was what was not included. There was almost nothing on WWI or even the War of 1812. Lots on the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and WWII.

Usually when Bob and I go through the museums we go at our own pace but can find each other easily. During this exhibit I completely lost Bob. I was just finishing the Civil War and had not seen him for about half an hour. So I called him (Cell phones are wonderful.) I was amazed to hear that he was completely finished and waiting for me at the end. I walked out and brought him back to go through some of the more recent stuff with me. (There was stuff from WWII that I wanted to ask him about and there were actually pieces of the World Trade Center (more tears to the eyes)). The problem that Bob was having was the number of people there - it was more crowded than any of the other days. Even more bothersome, it was mostly kids - middle school and high school age - in large tour groups with very little adult supervision (UGH!) The kids would run around (making Bob lose his balance) get in front of you while you were reading an exhibit (I lost it with one kid), and they would yell at each other across the exhibit (Bob actually had to turn off his hearing aid because the noise was getting so bad.).

When we finished this museum (there were actually several more exhibits, but it was getting more and more crowded - this is spring break somewhere), we had planned on going to the Museum of Natural History. As we left the American History Museum there was a line a block long to go through security. The line in front of Natural History was not as long, but given the experience we had, we decided to forego any more museums. We both enjoy them, but not in the crowd. My guess is that they will be much worse today on Saturday (tomorrow is the Earth Day celebration so there will be lots of folks here for that.)

Walking past the Natural History Museum we saw a wonderful sculpture of a dinosauer - had to get a picture of that. There was also a street band playing on plastic garbage pails. They actually sounded pretty good. We took public transportation again- we are getting to be experts. On the bus part of the trip a couple got on that were also going to the campground (that is not unusual- the bus is usually packed with campground folks). But I was amazed at what this couple said and how different folks can be in their expectations and enjoyment. We got to talking about what we had done today. We said that we had gone to DC. They said that they had done it years ago and once you have seen the monuments, there was nothing more to see. I said that we had spent some time in the museums. She said that she had gone to the Smithsonian one day but it was with her mother and her mother got tired and besides, there was nothing much to see!!! I couldn't believe it. I could spent another week or even two here and not see it all. (Bob has even admitted that he is now hooked on museums (good museums)). I couldn't figure out why the couple was even here.

Bob made his most wonderful fantastic chili for dinner last night and we had a small Scrabble tournament. I won one game and Bob won one - it was a standoff.

This morning Bob is not feeling very well. I think that he is really tired and have sent him back to bed. We can spend the day doing laundry, trimming each other's hair, and just resting - the mall will be too busy anyway. Then back to the trek.