ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER MUSEUM

Wednesday was bright and sunny. Predictions were that it would reach 73 degrees. We started the morning at the Metro stop.

Downtown, the station is underground. It reminded us of Moscow

because the escalator is so long to get back to street level.

The major difference being there are no statutes here in Washington.

Our focus today is the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

To get there we had to go through the gardens of the Smithsonian Castle.

It seems everything is in bloom here.

One of the features of this museum is a display of all the First Lady's Inaugural Gowns. This is the actual gown Michelle Obama wore. The others on display were the originals also. A surprise of a lighter note was the complete replication of Julia Child"s Kitchen. Every item was removed and relocated to the museum.

We were pleasantly surprised in the exhibit on transportation when we came across a diorama depicting Wallace Buick on Sandy Blvd. in Portland, Oregon.

The scene was from 1949 showing the sale of a new 1950 Buick to a couple who was coming up in the world. Even the street outside the window was accurate showing the Tik Tok restaurant.

From the older history aspect, there were originals of many historic events. This is the actual table and chairs that were used by Lee and Grant in the surrender at Appomattox to end the Civil War. We also saw Lincoln's Top hat and articles kept from the assassination. Again, we spent the entire day in one building. Again, we felt that there was nothing more we wanted to see when we finally decided to exit and catch the Metro home.