Capital Funishment

A couple of weeks ago I went to a conference in D.C., and Joy and the kids came along for the ride. While I was learning about the latest in lipid-lowering strategies, the family studied espionage. While I heard about perioperative cardiac risk stratification, they learned about the history of the postal service. (Actually, more interesting than you might think!)

I walked about four blocks to the convention center and got coffee at a different place every morning. If you count two Starbucks locations and the Starbucks-owned Seattle's Best Coffee as different places. Memo to Starbucks: Seattle's Best Coffee is the most egregiously misnamed entity since Greenland.

In the afternoons we did stuff as a family. Of course, we did the Mall.


I've been to D.C. on three previous visits, and I've always wanted to go up in the obelisk. This time, we actually did it! As we were waiting in the queue to go in, a lovely German tourist asked the park ranger what there was to see in the monument. He answered very politely, but when she wandered away, I noticed him chuckling with a mixture of amusement and disgust.

"First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

[Caution! Link contains content not suitable for work nor the children staring at you from this photograph!]



We hiked the circuit from the Washington Monument to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to the Jefferson Memorial to the FDR Memorial to the Korean War Memorial to the Lincoln Memorial to the Vietnam Memorial and finally the WWII Memorial. Sebastian, our little boy who loves swords and guns and lasers, but hates violence, seemed especially interested in and moved by the meandering, park-like FDR Memorial. Soon after this photo was taken, he climbed up on some huge blocks bearing FDR's words "I hate war," and spontaneously broke into The Star Spangled Banner, hand on heart and all.


About the time we got to the Vietnam Memorial, it started to rain. Which is a little strange, because both times I've been there is has rained. Hmmmmm. But I did snap this quick photo of a rainbow ending at the Washington Monument.

The next day, we went panda hunting at the National Zoo.



After our panda feast, the kids stayed overnight with my sister Lisa, who generously carted us all around. We went to Mount Vernon with her on our last full day in D.C. There, we learned that the Father of our Country died of quinsy (coincidentally, our Malady of the Month).

Mount Vernon is lovely, especially the view from the veranda overlooking the Potomac. But the house is surprisingly small for a guy who was twelve stories high (see that "First in war..." link).


On the flights out and back, I got a good start on Joy's Christmas stocking. Lobachevsky's Die Frau has kindly offered to guide me through the turning of the heel. Obviously, she has seen me knit.