Gaa! I just found out that the edits to my kindle promos didn’t take! Argh! Just lost an entire day of promotional opportunity for Spilled Milk, and now tomorrow, a lot of places will be looking to see a free book from me, and it won’t be free! I hate that!
If anyone sees the free promo and isn’t able to download the book because it isn’t free FRIDAY when it’s supposed to be, please send me a note via this blog and I’ll get a copy to you.
Very disappointing, frankly. If Amazon isn’t going to accept edits to their promotions, then they shouldn’t make that option available. It doesn’t DO ANYTHING!
Okay, enough about that. Vacation. I’m on vacation.
Been doing a lot of walking this vacay. A LOT of WALKING. My feet have informed my legs that they quit and they’re not going out anymore. My thighs and calves have seconded the motion, and have informed the small of my back, who has agreed by planning a mutiny against the rest of me for taking them on this walking tour of our nation’s Capitol.
So far, we have visited Arlington National Cemetery, the monuments, the National Museum of Air and Space – which I’ve already discussed, the National Museum of Art, the National Museum of American History, the National Archives, the National Zoo, and the National Air and Space Udvar-Hazy Center.
Museum of Art was very interesting: I especially enjoyed the Monets. The American History museum was also quite compelling. The whole history of American Warfare is told there – quite fascinating and very moving. Saw also the transportation section (my youngest enjoyed the section on pirates), the history of electricity and steam. The food exhibit was just okay, though. Didn’t feel particularly organized – no real sense of how “eating” has changed in America. More like somebody dumped a lot of historical artifacts into a massive Cuisinart and just let her rip.
At the National Archives, I positively got chills reading the actual Constitution and the Bill of Rights – very cool to see the words actually written there in pen. I’d say the same for the Declaration, but frankly, it’s illegible at this point. Tragic.
Today we walked the Zoo. And that’s about all I can say for it. It wasn’t bad, but the Pittsburgh Zoo was better. The tiger cubs were cute, though. Most of the animals, unfortunately, were in hiding (likely due to the weather). Watched a gorilla throw up. That was very nearly the highlight. Fortunately, the tiger cubs saved the day.
After coming back and resting a bit, we went on to the Udvar-Hazy Center. The Enola Gay was moving. The Space Shuttle Discovery was inspiring. The mother ship from Close Encounters was amusing (yes, we found R2-D2, Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter, several planes, a graveyard, and a screen door on the mother ship. Didn’t see the VW van, though), and the SR-71 Blackbird was menacing. I have to admit, though, one of the coolest moments I had was recognizing a Focke-Wulf FW-190 from a distance. I remember making a model of that aircraft as a kid. To see one now up close and personal felt incredible.
Of course, it also occurred to me that we went from the Wright Brothers’ flyer at Kitty Hawk to Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon in sixty-six years. And even seeing the Space Shuttle, I realized this is technology that is some thirty years or so out of date. What could we as Americans, as people, do, if we set our minds to it in the next sixty-six years?
Tomorrow we’re going back to the city for one last visit. We’re hoping to hit the Post Office Tower (hehe), the White House (a walk around it), the Smithsonian Castle, the Library of Congress (my youngest wants to see it), and Ford’s Theater. It’s a lot of walking – whew! By the time we’re doing, I think I’m gonna need some new shoes.