Washington DC

Washington D.C.   

Ethan and I just returned from a week in Washington D.C..
I was there for my final Theatre for Young Audiences (see.tyausa.org) meeting as President.
Because Ethan was studying American history this year, David and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to take him to our nation's capital.

 Wednesday May 17th
 Ethan and I arrived in Washington DC and Jackie Sanders and her sweet children Lucy, Charlie, and Henry picked us up from the airport.

 
After dropping off a fellow air-travel passenger at his Pakistani embassy (long story), we went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.
Ethan loved every minute!

   
We visited an interactive butterfly exhibit and saw the Hope diamond.
  

 Ethan's favorite exhibit was the Titanaboa. A dinosaur-aged snake that was presumably 48 feet long and weighed 2500 lbs.. It was found deep underground in a Columbian coal mine in a layer of earth dated approximately  65 million years old.

 After the Natural History museum, Jackie dropped us off at the Halocast museum. Ethan's 5th grade class is studying the Holocaust and this museum really helped us both learn more about the terrible events of that time. (Sadly, it reminded me of the feeling I felt when I visited Dachau, Germany. There is an empty, sad spirit there.) The most graphic images were a room full of shoes that were stolen from people who eventually were executed and a room full of hair that was shorn from other victims. The atrocities are incomprehensible.

Later that night we meet up again with Jackie and also Jeff for dinner In charming Georgetown.

Afterward,  they treated us to famous Georgetown cupcakes.

Delish! I've had a lot of cupcakes and these top my list.

They were the right size with the best frosting...not too sweet.

By the time we got to the Sander's house we had been traveling for 24 hours. Ethan and I were so tired that we feel asleep on the couch. :) When we finally made it to our beds we slept like logs.