On Saturday we met up up with our friends Tamara, Pat and little Kierron who happen to be living right next to the Washington Zoo, which we therefore visited. Supposedly, its main attraction are a pair of pandas which were a gift from the Chinese government. Well, at least that's what one is lead to believe, looking at all the t-shirts, postcards, posters etc. When we were there, however, the pandas did what every other intelligent creature would do on a really hot day - hide somewhere in the shade. So no pandas for us. Still, we were lucky because they have orang utans who "commute" between their two habitats in the zoo via a 20 meter high rope that litterally goes across the pedestrian walkway without any safety nets. I wonder how they got that one past the "health & safety" guys...
On Sunday, we went with Lori, GraceAnn and Evan to the Air and Space Museum. The museum houses an amayzing collection of planes, rockets and other aircrafts. There is a lot of stuff about the earliest attempts to fly plus obviously lots from the various Apollo missions. Most fascinating though, I thought, was a leaflet from the 30's which answered some questions about commerical flying, including "what shall I wear when flying?" or "can I talk on the plane?"...
Yesterday we visited the home of George Washington, the first President of the US. It's called Mount Vernon and is located about 25 miles South of the city. A very interesting place, which is actually sponsored by the Ford Motor Company. George Washington was a most fascinating man, whose career included being a surveyor, judge, farmer, military leader ... and President. We also learned that he suffered from pretty much permanent toothache. One of the most intriguing exhibits at Mount Vernon was therefore his set of false teeth which was a rather elaborate construct made of cow teeth as well as elephant and walrus ivory.
The kids are continuing to attend the German School in Washington DC each morning. Fiona yesterday proudly announced that she had learned the PIZZA. On closer inspection it turns out to be a special type of back massage, including kneading, rolling, stretching, etc. Well, there we have it. Lucy was singled out to read aloud in her English class and she was complimented for her "proper" English pronouncation...
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