What better way to spend our weekend than by vacationing in DC like some country-livin' 
Saturday, we set out for the Newseum, which we've had on our dockets for two years now. I'm so glad we finally went. Below, the editor of my high school newspaper looks at an exhibit on the censorship of high school newspapers in the First Amendment wing. The soundtrack you can't hear? Neil singing "Keep on Rockin." I mean, what's not to like?
The only downsides we can identify about the Newseum: 1) It's pricey, but that money is obviously going toward maintaining a gorgeous space and cutting edge exhibitions. 2) There was nothing about supplemental journalistic reviews (Will Grimes and I felt underrepresented). Otherwise, it was jam-packed with artful displays, some even including PEOPLE WE KNOW (thanks, Mom and the NewsCorp-sponsored wing!). It was inspiring and modern and even has a Wolfgang Puck cafeteria. ;-)
We stayed within National Harbor, which Jordan, who visited us, lamented was a fake, contrived environment--but what human-made structure isn't? The most contrived part that we saw was Biosphere 3 -- the Gaylord Convention Center -- where I got tea Sunday morning. There was a stream running through! And a colonial village transplanted among the trees!
My built-environment enthusiasm belies our general enthusiasm for being somewhere progressive, Obama-totin', and ambitiously futuristic. Take, for instance, our morning at the Air & Space Museum.
Where Ben a) Touched a moon rock (while SpaceBear clamored with raised fists, "But what about the Swiss cheese??")
And b) found this tiny mention of Tenzing & Sir Edmund. We've gotta name those Siggs...
With all that talk of freeze-dried soup, transcontinental air service, and rocket propulsion telemetry, we worked up an appetite, which we quelled at the Smithsonian's beautiful National Museum of the American Indian's Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe. We had paspusa with queso fresco & loroco, pineapple aqua fresca, loco roasted corn with Chimayo chile and cotija. That was some fine Meso American nom-ing!
Fueled by the culinary delights of native regional lifeways, we hiked the length of the mall down through the National Gallery of Art's sculpture garden (where Ben met a furry/fury friend--you know them rodent tempers...) toward the newly renovated American History Museum.
They had a terrific, undocumented-by-my-photography wing devoted to science and technology, featuring a terrific exhibit linking the Manhattan Project's Hanford site to the development of post-war tract housing, DDT, and the pill. Of course, we also got the see Julia Child's kitchen (!!) and 17th century violins, too. (Musician's note: they were original, decorated Stradivarus!) It was refreshing to be amidst Culture and think big thoughts again.
Ben's ready to get back as soon as possible. It suits him to be surrounded by such majesty, doesn't it?
Although Ben's arms are not quite Michelle O. caliber, he's working on it.(*sigh*)
We'll be back soon, though it probably won't feel soon enough.
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