Julia Child’s Kitchen, More At The Museum, Monuments By Moonlight, And A Fall

We had a tour scheduled this evening so we hung out until 10:00 a.m. and then headed out. We went back to National Museum of American History for the day. I was thrilled to see Julia Child’s display. It is actually her real kitchen! She donated the whole thing to this Smithsonian. All her cooking things and everything. It was fun to see how she laid out her kitchen and where she put things. I love how she and her husband loved each other. Beyond Julia Child’s display, the “Food” area sure made us hungry! It showed all sorts of history of foods. 

Another area talked about shipping containers. “How much stuff fits in a single container? 350 bicycles from Thailand, or 200 dishwashers and washing machines from Hong Kong, or 640 vacuum cleaners from Malaysia.” A sign, talking about ships said, “One thing we don’t do on a ship is use color that is at all yellowish green – you know, anything that will remind a traveler of the condition of his stomach.” Dorothy Marckwald, interior designer, S.S. United States. Now I am going to have to look around cruise ships at the colors. HA 

This museum, on the signs around each area, will post the sound that is playing in the background. How cool is that!?! For example, “sounds of the 1401 locomotive as it idles at the depot.” That is awesome for us who are deaf but heard sound before.

I took a picture of the floor plan of this place. I circled the part we saw today and sent it to the family text. You can see we like to take our time and learn all we can in a museum! This National Museum of American History is excellent. (It took us 3-1/2 days and 1 full day to get through it.)

We next went to Union Station where we were to meet for our tour. It is called Monuments By Moonlight and is by Trolley Tours. When we booked this tour, a month ago, Kevin asked them if there is a script of the words the tour guide uses. Since I am deaf, this is a great way for me to be able to know what is being talked about. Monique said to call her directly the day before our tour and she would get a script to the person for us. He called her yesterday and she said it was ready. This day she called him and confirmed the script was with Scott. Outside Union Station we talked to the guy with the tour compnay. He called several others and said the script went to the other starting place. But they had someone run it over to Union Station in time. Whew! (Kevin had told Monique where we were starting, she saw our booking info, and had confirmed yesterday and today that we were starting at Union Station.) I got the script and started reading it. It is 32 pages typed. I was told the tour guide, who was the driver, would pick what to share from this info and that makes sense to me. 

The sun was very low in the sky as we left. The driver was the tour guide. Her name tag and sign on the bus was Ms. Behavin. It took me some time to understand it and then I laughed out loud! She was a lot of fun.

Kevin and I were very glad we had been to these places in the day time. Neat to see in the evening but the tour moved fast, of course.

We got out to see the Korean War, Vietnam War, and Lincoln Memorials. 

Another place we stopped at was the United States Marine Corps Memorial. We got out. It was very dark. We walked toward the monument; it was dark so I wrongly assumed the path was level.

Next thing I know, my foot hits a step and I go flying! I landed on my left knee and oh it hurt. My left middle finger nail scrapped the step, too. My iPhone flew out of my hand. Kevin heard glass on concrete and thought my glasses broke. No, thankfully. I kept saying over and over, “Why don’t they have lights here?”! (The picture above is right about 15 minutes after I fell.) I am sure the rest of the tour was great but I really couldn’t concentrate on it. Update: my knee is fine now! 👍🏻

The next day, Day 7 in Washington, D.C. Knee is very bruised and painful. But I didn’t want it to stop us. The other day when we were walking around and heading to Old Ebbitt’s Grill, I saw a Zagg store. They are the company that make an excellent shield for the iPhone. So today, we took the bus, the train, and then walked – slowly – to Zagg store. We got right in and I was so thankful the crack and scrapes on my iPhone were only on the shield. The rubber bumper was all chewed up from the fall, too, so I get a new shield and bumper. It is gradual pink with the charger on the back. I like that because it looks cute around the Apple icon. HAHAHA (True) 

From there we walked back to National Museum of American History. 😃 I saw a beautiful quilt. It is called “Album Quilt, around 1887. This quilt was made by family and friends for Mary L. Matthews before she traveled to the Balkans, embarking on a 32-year career as a missionary and teacher. The patterns are typical for album quilts at the time – except the appliquéd square showing the Pythagorean Theorem (second row, center)”. There was also a quilt made out of Whig & William Henry Harrison campaign ribbons. 432 of them. We saw so much.

Another thing we saw was the gunboat named Philadelphia. In October 1776, Benedict Arnold and his troops fought against the British at Lake Champlain. The Philadelphia was sunk the 1st day. The troops lost the battle to the British. In 1935 the boat was recovered and the museum got it in 1964. In the picture, you can see the row of cannonballs. HA