Aug 2009 aa

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**** Please be aware, we've posted TWO installments of the blog at once ... so be sure to BEGIN with reading the previous entry! That's where all the interesting Pennsic photos are.



Sun 09 Aug 2009
This morning we packed up the tent, airbed and sleeping bags, and got a lift (thanks to Marcus' lady Marguerite) to the downtown Pittsburgh Greyhound bus station. The bus ride was long, and we finally got in about one and a half hours late! Thankfully our wonderful hostess was good enough to pick us (and all our baggage) up from the station and to her home a short drive away.

Above: here is our Washington hostess Kira, with one of her cats (named Lightning).

Mon 10 Aug 2009
Today, after getting some laundry going, we both set out for the Smithsonian national air & space museum. We pretty much spent the whole day wandering through it, Steve was like a big kid in a cool toy store!

Above: Here we are in front of the Apollo 11 capsule, which is sheathed in thick perspex.
Below: Steve in front of an X15.


Above: A 1969 manual (the index shown here) for all the stuff that could go wrong on their space journey - not a good read for the faint-hearted!
Below: Steve with a Cray-1, an old super-computer with it's own built-in xenon liquid cooling system.


Above: Steve and cool stuff in the air & space museum
Below: This model of our nearest neighbours is to scale. The painted yellow arc at left represents the sun. The little, dark blue sphere is Earth. Cool huh?


Tue 11 Aug 2009
Today we rendezvoused with Stanzi and Gabriel - that is to say, our very good friends Alex and Rachel. The first order of business, we visited the National Archives and saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Seems that the drafts were printed on paper, and once it was all finalised it was hand calligraphed on to parchment (ie, on skin/hide. Vellum is the same as parchment except it is specifially made from cow or calf).

Above: Inside the National Archives (Washington DC) here's a cool touch on the inside of the elevator doors - an engraved version of the declaration of independence.
Below: Steve, Rachel and Alex in the Rotunda, about to see the USA's most famous historical documents.


Next, we headed to the National Gallery to view their exhibition on Spanish royalty in the Renaissance - right up Rachel's alley! The architecture of the building itself was something else.


Next, we visited the American History Museum (which Jen quipped couldn't have much in it really?) which houses the original "star spangled banner", a fairly comprehensive display about Lincoln's life, a bunch of ACW stuff, and a variety of popular culture items, such as Kermit the frog, Oscar the grouch, Dorothy's red shoes, etc etc etc.

Next stop, the Washington Monument. You get truly splendid views from all around its base. Here's the view of Capitol Hill.


Above: view of the White House - this is as close as we got to it I'm afraid.
Below: Alex and Rachel 'holding' the Lincoln Memorial.



Above: Looking back from half-way to the Lincoln Memorial, back at the Washington Monument.
Below: Lincoln Memorial and Canadian geese!

On the way, we saw simply dozens of squirrels- which are of endless fascination to us Aussies. We also stopped in at the Vietnam Memorial Wall and found Rachel's second cousin's name engraved there.
Below: Us on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with the Washington Monument in the background.


Below: Inside, the tourists were battling the sweaty conditions to take a few holiday snaps.


After all this walking - and Rachel was a real trooper walking so far with a dreadful backache - we all got a taxi back to our starting point and had a leisurely sit-down goodbye at the local Starbucks.

Wed 12 Aug 2009
Gosh our feet are stupendously sore! So we decided to be slack and hang out at home (Kira's home) while she was off at work. We caught up on some sleep, browsed her library, and generally took it easy. We also re-packed in preparation for our travels homeward tomorrow. In the evening we shouted Kira dinner in thanks for putting us up. As it turns out, she was the Queen who knighted Elffin, and in turn he Laurelled her in Europe some years later. Cool!

Thu 13 Aug 2009
Kira was really sweet to drive and drop us off at the local airport (we with all our overweight baggage and all) and we soon touched down at JFK airport, New York. Jen was feeling very adventurous and decided we'd go into town. Well, even though it took us about 3 hours to reach the Metropolitan Museum (never ever take a short cut through central park) it was certainly more exciting than hanging around at an airport for 8 hours. Sore feet again meant a short taxi ride back to the metro station.


Anyway, our flight back to London was overnight.....

Fri 14 Aug 2009
..... and we were placed in a holding pattern for almost an hour. Really, what is it about Heathrow airport???!!!! Steve wished Jen a happy birthday while we were circling. Finally got home at about 11am, and started in straight away unpacking, putting things away, and getting the laundry on.
Steve's sister Julie, and her son Peter (Sophia's mum and little brother) have been staying over at our place for a week or so, and arrived home later on to greet us - and put their travel worn feet up.