More travels! Lots of photos ahead!

John and I took a field trip over Spring Break; Ralph had to go to school, poor guy! John and I visited my sister Laura, who held her own feet to the fire in order to finish the first draft of her research project so she could play with us. Hooray, Laura, you did it! (Seriously, Laura is awesome!)

Laura took us on the grand tour of Washington, D.C. We got off the Metro rail right at the Mall,

then walked to the Washington Monument

and the WWII Memorial

Honor Flight from Kansas, singing the National Anthem.

and the Korean War Memorial

and the Lincoln Monument

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here,
but it can never forget what they did here."

"Here you go, the Washington Monument!"
This is Laura's town!

and the Viet Nam War Memorial, including the Three Soldiers and the Women's Memorial. (No photos, it feels too personal, somehow.)

We enjoyed a lovely lunch at the National Gallery of Art, and spent hours looking at the collections there, including

Ginevra de' Bencithe only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas

Thinker on a Rock - 1997
Barry Flanagan

Yes, we're dressed alike. Sisters.
It wasn't intentional,
but neither of us could be bothered to change.

We didn't realize the NGA closes earlier than many other museums in D.C., so when we were being shooed out of the gift shop, we took the underground passage to the East Wing and dashed through a few of the modern art exhibits:

"Cakes" Wayne Thiebaud

Calder mobiles

An ice cream at the Smithsonian Natural History museum, and a quick look at the Hope diamond, then back to Laura's for dinner and lots of gabbing!

To be continued...