Today Katherine was feeling well enough to rejoin the party (more or less), and besides, we had tickets to the Washington Monument! No missing out on that allowed!

We got a bit of a late start today but managed to get admitted to the Monument where for the first time, Rebecca set off concern on the part of some of the security. It seems at Christmas she was given a little credit card sized multi-tool with included knife, and stuck it into her wallet and forgot about it. Until now. The diligence of the Washington Monument X-Ray and guards caught it where half a dozen state capital guards and the over the top security at the national capital didn't catch it. Go figure. With that embarassment out of the way, we took the swift elevator ride to the top for magnificent views of the city. Each view out the observation windows had a comparable view from the 1940s next to it so you could see how the city had changed over time. On the ride down, they tstop the elevator at certian points to show through the windows the commemorative stones inserted on the inside of the shaft by various cities, nations, and service organizations during the monument's construction and refurbishment - very cool.

After exiting the monument we made our way toward the Air and Space Museum so we could finish seeing what we had started days earlier and to give Carrie a chance to see some. Before we made it there, Sarah showed an interest in the Hirshhorn Museum - a modern art venue, so we explored that some. Katherine was still weak from her bout with the virus over the past two days, so sat out most of this. The collection contained a surprising variety of "traditional" modern art, like Andy Warhol pieces, and some innovative ones like an installation by Yoko Ono that consisted of a video camera pointed at the sky and fed live into a TV monitor. Yep - sounds like something she'd do. Other pieces were much mroe avant garde, like an installation that could only be described as huge pairs of pantyhose filled with styrofoam packing balls.

Finally making it to the Air and Space Museum, the younger girls were VERY excited to show how people poop in space - they are still in awe over the CLEAR plastic bags that are used. Ewwwww. The museum is undergoing a small overhaul as some of the signature pieces like Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis are being refurbished and/or moved around to re-do the entrance to the museum as "Milestones of Flight", including Spaceship One - the first private vehicle to ascend beyond the atmosphere.

Looking for something additional to do that was NOT a typical museum, we headed for Ford's Theater and after a short wait were treated to the standard Ranger talk, in the theater, this time given by an older woman from Tennessee who, although long-winded, ended with the message that even as a southerner, she was glad to be born in the UNITED States, rather than what might or might not have existed had the rebellion succeeded. When Michael visited last summer, the ranger talk was followed by a trip into the basement museum, but that was not offered this time as we were all directed across the street to the Peterson House where Lincoln died and the accompanying museum in the neighboring building. Perhaps this year's ranger talked too long....

After this it was back to camp for the evening.