Things To See and Learn in DC

We found ourselves at two of the museums that we had not gone to. One was the Air and Space Museum. Since some of you have been here, I will save you looking at pictures. Oh, I guess I only took a picture of the Wright Brother's plane. I was surprised that it is the actual plane with just new fabric.


Last week we found ourselves at the Museum of Natural History. One could spend a week there. This picture is familiar to some as I think this was in a movie.


There was a special exhibit on the excavation of the Jamestown Settlement and what they have learned from the bones and other findings. We didn't have much time to spend there but what we did see was very interesting. It is amazing how much more we now understand and can identify from bones.

Of course, we went through the butterfly house.


One decided to land on my arm. It stayed there until we were ready to leave. So an employee helped remove it.

This is an extinct shark's mouth. It is about three times the size of a great white. I'm glad that they are extinct.


We went into the mineral and crystal area of the museum. There we saw some beautiful crystals. I learned that even though some have the same chemical composition, they can be numerous shapes and colors. The color is due to an atom of a mineral being introduced. In this department they also were displaying the Hope diamond along with other jewelery that has been given to the museum. The Hope diamond has been reset for this showing.

You can view the other jewelry by clicking here.

If you click on each picture, it tells about the item: where the gems are from, who had the jewelry, etc. You will find earrings of Marie Antoinette, some that Napoleon gave to his wife, etc. The butterfly's sapphires are from Gem Mountain, near Philipsburg, MT, where we went with L and her family.

There were lots of other interesting things we saw and learned. If you find yourself in this area, this is one place I recommend seeing.

Project One in DC

One of the first things that we did after arriving at B and L's was to make a late evening dash to IKEA. They had been waiting for the truck to make a haul. We hurried through the store, gathering boxes and just finished before closing time. Then a few nights later, it was time to start the assembly.

Step one of first box: Open box, find instructions, sort pieces. Two supervise while one works.

Step two: Make sure that you both agree on how it is going together. (Note the boxes still waiting.)

Step three: Do lots of screwing in screws, and be sure to get them straight and all the way in.

Step four: Make sure that it all fits together.

Step five: Use team work to attach the last things.

TA-DA!!! A finished desk.

I won't bore you with pictures of the next assembly job. However, a few days later this was the finished project.

You might notice that L is sitting in front of another box of parts. This is the beginning of the third item that was put together yesterday. It was two boxes like the second project.

And this is the third and final project.

Now they just need to find their home in the bedroom. We were glad that we could be here to help.

Our Old Stomping Grounds

It was time to head north and see some of our other kids and grand kids.  So the trailer got stored and we took off in sunshine that then turned to rain.

We traveled through Charleston, West Virginia and had the opportunity to go by the first house that we lived in after we were married.  It took us awhile to locate it as the road system has changed with the interstate now going through there.  It had been located on the main highway out of Charleston to Ohio.  First we had to find the right "haller" to go up.  There have been a few changes to the front yard and there are now wood posts on the front porch where there had been metal.  Other than that, it doesn't look like many changes have been made.  Of course, it is a brick house so that stayed the same.  I wanted to take a picture of it, but my camera decided to go on the fritz.  So you will just have to imagine how it looked. 


From there we traveled east on a different road than what we have used before.  We got to do lots of up and downing.  Some were ten per cent grades.  We were glad that we weren't towing.  The trees are just starting to give a hint of showing their true colors.

While traveling through West Virginia, I made the realization that it really is the largest state.  It just needs to be ironed flat.  Look out Texas.