Full day of action...

So it is 9:40pm, I just walked in the door, so this will have to be quick in order for me to get in bed and be asleep in a reasonable amount of time. Another amazing day in DC. This morning I got up and went down to the mall, and walked around the Air and Space Museum. This place is amazing. I have actually been to this museum before, when I was 17, some of you might remember being there with me, in the food court:

That is pretty much all I remember from that visit, so it was nice to see the rest of the museum. I took tons of pictures, but as you well know, the camera cord is not on the same coast as I am (it is now):




This first one is of one of the mirrors from Hubble. I thought about trying to get a picture of someone standing by it for a size reference, but it didn't happen. Anyway, in case you are wondering why it is not reflective, it never had the final reflective coat painted on because it was never used. I found this a lot at the air and space museum, stuff that was almost cool, but then was never used.

This is a special exhibit of the Wright Brothers plane. It was pretty cool, if you look carefully, the pilot is literally laying on top of the wings. Strange, I never thought about where the pilot was located in those really old planes.



These two pictures I just thought were cool, can't really remember what they were, but they must've been cool for some reason.



This is the model of the Apollo, um, 11, I think. I knew at the time, but it has been a while. Let's go with 11. It was right in front of the food court, so I feel like I might have seen it on the way in when I was younger.

Anyway, so then I met up with Matt, Lisa, and Isabel for a couple of hours. Isabel is about 18 months now, and she is adorable. Talking up a storm, she has a total personality, and she is a total ham. We walked around the sculpture garden, with Lisa, who is an artist and was loving it. Then we went to lunch at this total dive diner, which was a lot of fun. It was nice to see them, and I will post pictures of the cute little girl as soon as I can (here they are):




So, then the afternoon at work went by like lightening, and then we went over the Natioanl Museum of American Indian (or something like that), for a private after hours tour of one of the exhibits, and then a fancy reception and dinner. The tour was interesting, a little long, but fun. The reception was nothing short of a wedding reception. Wine, beer, sodas, and appetizers. So, I shmoozed, and then we had dinner, more shmoozing. I ate with a couple of other interns, this woman Heidi from the publsihing deapartment who is a riote, Steve, and then three board members. One from Walla Walla Washington (those of you that watch the Real World might recognize this as Tanya's home town, don't worry, I did not point this out to her), a guy from Carolina Biological Supply (Astrocamp main supplier of anything in Astrolab and elsewhere), and then a woman from Sweden who did something fancy I didn't catch. Anyway, a fancy salad, a salmon over risotto and a flan later, life was good. Oh, and I think probably four glasses of wine...they just keep filling up that glass, empty or not. It was fun to be all fancy, and it made me realize again how amazing this job is...again.

I also saw a great view of the sunset behind the Washington Memorial on the walk to the bus afterwards:
Again, I have the picture, will update this post with it eventually. The bus came ontime, and I even brought my book to keep me busy on the ride home. And now I will go and pass out, and be all ready to go to the board meeting in the morning. And then, the weekend...=)