OUR PERSONAL NO-FLY ZONE

The original plan was to fly today to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Owned by a pilot, we made arrangements with The Island Inn on Ocracoke Island. Ocracoke Island was recommended by other pilots as a naturally beautiful and quiet place to vacation – a contrast to DC. The people at the inn were so nice and very flexible about our arrival time/day. We planned to stay in town, rent bicycles to get back and forth to the airport and use the island as a peaceful base for exploring the east coast from the air. However, the weather kept us in DC. The slow moving storm that we passed over to get here caught up with us and hung over the area. Too bad Bruce did not yet have his IFR ticket.

As our hotel reservation was up, we had to move to another room to stay longer in the same hotel.  I asked why they were so full during the middle of the week, off-season and with no conventions in town.  They would not say.  However, I learned the magic words in the hotel business, "can I get a room at any price?"  With the higher rates, we moved to a floor with its own concierge services.  The hotel became flexible on our day-by-day reservation plans - looking for a break in the storm.  We hoped to fly out the next day.

A DAY WITH THE CHILDREN OF STRANGERS

We had no specific plans for more time in DC, so we went back to The Mall and the Smithsonian. My legs were sore from all the walking we did the previous day, so I insisted on taking the Metro to The Mall. Bruce acquiesced. Several of the museums we wanted to see were closed for renovations. Many we saw on our last trip to DC in 2000. Having no better inspiration, we went to the Natural History Museum and spent the day with many, many school kids. The teenagers from the Slotsy American Heritage tour group with their blue satin jackets tied around their waists were running amuck at Natural History.

I liked the dinosaurs. The Hope Diamond was very large, shiny and oddly enough, attracted hordes of children. I saw one of my favorite mammals, the Okapi, a forest dwelling relative of the giraffe.  While I enjoyed seeing the sizes of the actual animals in the stuffed mammal collection, I also felt strange and sad that they were killed to be here on display. I noticed on the sign for the white rhino that Teddy Roosevelt had "collected this specimen." I laughed at the irony of calling Teddy's legendary trophy hunting "collecting."   In the arctic section, I felt like a tasty seal for the polar bears forever peering down their hunting holes in the ice above my head.

In the section on the evolution of mammals, there was a display sign that read,

"Look here, see your oldest relative."

Under the sign, was a grandfather lunging with his claws out and teeth bared toward his granddaughter. His own daughter caught the pose on film. Behind the pillar sporting the sign was a life size representation of the first mammal from which all mammals, including humans, evolved. It was smaller than a squirrel and rodent-like.  It was better when we were descended from apes; now, it's rats.

In the geological science room - strangely devoid of children - I spent some time learning about tectonic plate movement and its effects.  Because the North American continent is moving west, the east coast mountains are being pushed westward.  From the air, the Appalachian Mountains sure looked bunched up by eastward pressure.  They are also very old mountains so they are smoother and more worn down than the Sierra-Nevada.

NOTHING LIKE A HOT CUP OF COFFEE

After The Mall, we took the Metro back and then walked into Georgetown for a nice seafood dinner.  On our way to the restaurant, we passed a homeless man standing on the bridge.  After we passed without giving him money, he called out, "Hey, that's O. K., but how about a hot cup of coffee next time?"  On our way back, we looked for him, but he was gone and a police officer was standing on the bridge.  Bet he wanted some coffee.