Things to See, Places to Go

1. Standing next to the behemoth Saturn V Rockets from Apollo 17, I crane my neck to take in their size. I lean in close and notice the welds. There are little globs of melted metal, welded by man to form row upon row, thousands of times over, that piece together the shell of each rocket. I am in awe of what puny man is capable of.
1.a. In the span of one life, man went from airplanes made of canvas stretched over wooden frames, seemingly held together with spit and glue, to manned rockets landing on the moon?! Those welds on the rockets make me think of spit and glue. Tess commented that in the future, we will think these rockets to be pretty crude as well.
2. The Freer Gallery of Asian Art was refreshingly cool and quiet, even meditative. Every room held beautiful, ancient works of art. Large, narrative scrolls depicting life in China over 1000 years ago were laid out under glass. Drawings from 500AD were so minute in detail that the faces of the men depicted  showed the softness of their facial hair. Simply amazing.
3. A few blocks along, we stopped for a cold drink and to rest our feet. We happened upon Happy Hour : ) We added flash fried artichoke hearts and brushetta tapas to our order and stayed a while.
4. It's a beautifully warm evening. We stroll the blocks of downtown Washington D.C. and admire the old architecture.We are spending this first evening of summer not with fireflies and crickets near the fields of home, but on warm city sidewalks with food joints bursting at the seams with people. Store front windows are bright with apparel from all the nicest companies and people mill about everywhere. We will be back to our country home soon enough and for now this is a really fun change of pace.
4.a. Our pizza was another magnificent work of art. It was a deep dish crust filled with portabella mushrooms, onions, peppers, kalamata olives, mozzarella and sauce.