The Travels Continue

...And you thought we were done traveling. In fact the travel saga does continue despite the tardiness of my update. While we were in Europe, I think I forgot what busy lives we lead. I then discovered just how much busier I could get as a dissertation widow. I have had so much trouble finding the time to post on this blog!!

Just three short weeks after Scott and I returned to home-sweet-Iowa, Scott embarked on a second phase of dissertation research travel while I stayed home and "brought home the bacon," and pined for his return. His first stop in travel phase 2: three weeks in Washington DC at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. While he was gone, I moved in with some generous friends, the Steeles, to keep away the lonelies.

Fortunately, I was able to take a weekend off to go and visit him. For those of you who don't know, Scott and I spent our honeymoon in this beautiful and historic city, and this is not the first time we have re-visited. We love DC, and we now have a couple friends that live there. Scott was staying with some of our former Iowa City friends the Lewises, and I joined him there on my visit. It was great to see so many people that I missed so much...granted I missed Scott more than the others, but seeing the Lewises was fantastic all the same! I got to get reacquainted with Olaiya and Naomi, two of the most precious girls in the world. The Lewis family took us to their favorite burger joint, Five Guys. It was a fairly small and simple place, but they had made the best burger I've ever tasted! While we were eating I got the pleasure of telling knock-knock jokes with Olaiya...very funny! I taught her the interrupting cow joke. Pictured here is my little friend Naomi.

Scott and I really had only one day of sight seeing together in DC, and we certainly made the most of it by hitting our favorite sites. The last time we were in DC we didn't get to go the American History Museum because it was under renovation. This time we made a point to go and see the newly redone exhibits. We had a great time seeing one of our favorite items, the first idea for the Washington Monument...George Washington in a toga. I think this is the most halarious piece of history! I also think that whoever said "Maybe we should think of a different idea to imortalize one of the nations most important figures," was very wise in his decision making.

Some of the other highlights of the museum (pictured at the end) were, seeing the Julia Child exhibit. I love watching her old episodes on PBS on Saturday mornings, so getting to see her kitchen and learn some other things about her was really fun. I also got to see the musical instrument exhibit. Of course I had to have a picture of their old French horn that uses crooks instead of valves. I'm grateful to the guy who invented valves. Playing the French horn used to be somewhat inconvenient.

Sunday came all too quickly and I headed back to Iowa City. It was hard to say good-bye again, but the very next weekend he got to come home before he flew to his second stop in phase 2 of the "Grand Tour" -- New York City!

Julia and me

French horn and crooks