Whew!

I think we must have walked for miles and miles today! Most of the long walk was entirely due to our spatial challenges in that most trips from one location to another had to be done twice -- first the wrong way, and then maybe another wrong way before finally getting the right way! Oh my goodness, we felt so stupid as we trudged along the sidewalk trying to remember if we'd been at that particular location before and having to go all the way to the intersection to see the name or number of the street. Once we found that, however, we often still didn't know which way to go to get to the next numbered street. I know I had north and south mixed up and Mary Ann is as bad as I am -- must be in the genes.

We stopped at AAA today to pick up some maps and tour books for the next part of the journey. We got off the bus early and surprisingly, found the office easily. We didn't know whether we would be able to get back before they closed in the afternoon, so we got what we needed and packed those heavy tour books around with us all day.

Museum #1 today was the Museum of Natural History. It was kind of fun for me to see up close the same animals we saw live at the zoo in Columbus. The museum had stuffed animals from all over the world -- very interesting, but their fur was all clean and neatly brushed -- quite unlike the real thing in Columbus and Peoria. We also saw skeletons of animals and could see how apparently unlike animals were really quite similar without their skins. Quite a large ocean display also -- made me think that Maddie and Chelsea would really enjoy seeing all the sea creatures. We went through a geology section, most of which was just too hard and too much, but we did see some beautiful gems and jewelry, including the Hope Diamond.

Mary Ann took a trip up the Washington Monument. I didn't go because I didn't want to be crowded into that elevator and besides, if I'm going to be up that high, I'd just as soon be in an airplane!

We ate hot dogs from a kiosk and headed for the Air and Space Museum next. As we entered, we heard a man explaining some things about the Appolo 9 command module so we listened in. That led to our joining the guided tour. We know now that if someone tours us around and explains things about the exhibits, we learn uch more. This tour guide was excellent, but we stood so long with only short walks from display to display that we became unbelievably tired. It's one thing to walk all day, but it's much more difficult to stand. In any case, we managed and followed the tour to its end some two hours later. We learned about airplanes that first carried the mail and we saw some of the first passenger planes. We saw the actual airplane flown by the Wright Brothers and heard the story of those historic times. We learned about some of the other early planes -- Fokkers and the plane flown by Ameilia Earhart. We were also taught about modern airplanes and saw the nose of a 747. The guide explained that it was just too huge to hope to get it all into the museum! The last part of the tour involved space and particularly, the moon landing program. That little vehicle that they used to actually land on the moon wasn't very big and to think that it was used as a "lifeboat" for Apollo 13 was amazing.

By this time, we were worn out, so we had to sit on the wall outside for a few minutes to give our legs a rest before we set out to catch the bus. Of course, we made numerous wrong turns, but found a great little coffee shop where we again sat down while we ate a bagel and jelly. We still had about 7 blocks to walk to catch our bus, so we hustled along being sure to keep the sun in our eyes so we could be sure we were walking west.

Our last bus ride was like the others -- pleasant and pretty efficient. We continue to be impressed with the courtesy and skill of the drivers. Interestingly, however, the steering wheels in the buses are very high -- about shoulder height for the drivers. We can't really see why they would be so high and we wonder how much control the drivers would have with the wheel so high. It reminded me of the high handlebars on some of the motorcycles I saw earlier in Sturgis.

We had tea and cookies again with the other guests -- an interesting group. It seems that this place is particularly attractive for students who come to study in DC but who do not yet have their accommodations finally arranged. It makes for good conversation.

We plan to leave after breakfast tomorrow. We don't really have to make a long trip since we have no deadlines for a few days and we thought we would wait to leave after the morning rush hour. We also plotted a route that is a bit longer than the one "GPS-Susan" chose for us, but one that looks easier and avoids the down town urban area. Rivers -- Potomac in this case -- can make for circuitous and complicated routes. So, we'll see what happens when we defy Susan!