From one Mall...to the other

The Mall- starting at the Washington Monument and leading to the Capitol- is framed picturesquely by a lot of museums, all well worth visiting!






The other mall- Potomac Mills Mall- used to be a shoppers heavenly place on earth. Now, with so many shops closed down and so much junk in the stores, it is quite empty.
Sales all over the place, but hardly anyone who wants to buy. :((
It´s kinda sad to see, that the economy is not improving, even in a wealthy area like this, in a country, that always relied on people going out for shopping.
Also Springfield Mall was empty, even more shops closed down and hardly any customers.
I wonder, what´s happening to all those people, who did not earn a lot in the first place and got sacked...

The Air & Space Museum

Smashing! Not as scary as the RAF Museum in Hendon, UK, maybe because they don´t show you a bomber in special lights with the bomb doors open and the sound of dropping bombs...



I´ve been working on larger motors of trucks than this one- unbelievable, that this can keep a plane up in the air:)

Now, this is the usual, evolutionary problem: what to wear in the cockpit ?

The Spirit Of St.Louis- beautiful plane!



And now a wee bit of information I missed at school:
...I´ll be back! Next time at the Udvár-Hazy Exhibition at the airport.
Oh, and btw : a gazillion kids is applicable here, too! Can you imagine, how hard a time I had to NOT have them in the pix?*giggle*

The Hope Diamond

44,5 carats, worth $250- 300 millions, surrounded by rumours about his fait and the one´s, who owned it. The Hope diamond. Donated by Harry Winston ( "Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend) and kept in a high security cabinet.
Oops, I think I took the picture of the wrong diamond ;)))

Museum of Natural History.....

...just the right place to be for me as a bone phobic;)
You would think! DANKE TOBI! Thanx to Tobias, my phobia was gone in an instant.
I even thought about touching the T-Rex skeleton since you can walk by so closely.
But then I had visions of me being held in prison for having torn down the skeleton with one single finger tip, and I have to admit, that´s not my favorite place to be;)
Gazillion of kids, and an african elephant welcome you at the entrance of the museum- that´s as far as I would have gotten in former times.
And here it goes: and I have been there!:)
A hall filled with nothing else but bones- apart from another gazillion kids.
The triceratops was the first I found:
Just opposite of the T-Rex ( Mark Bolan and "Ride A White Swan" comes to mind ) :


..and face to face ( can you imagine the odour out off a real T-Rex´s mouth???) looking down on me.
"I drive a rolls royce 'cos it's good for my voice But you won't fool the children of the revolution" ...I just love it...I should listen to T-Rex more often, their lyrics sure would do me some good;))



Here´s my favorite dynosaur: Stegosaurus stenops...cute, isn´t he?

He looks the cuddliest of all dinosaurs- well, at least sort of;)


But I wouldn´t wanna mess with him: ( forgot his name) small but dangerous....

Some swimmosaurus:

And, here you can watch the archeologists at work:
But, there is much more to see at the Smithsonians, like this reef without water:
Or this gigantic, man made jellyfish:

McGwynn

McGwynn is such a lovely Weimaraner! Even though I have to admit, that I missed Bonzobaby, I had a great time with this cute four legged friend:)

Alexandria

Washington, here I come :)

McGwynn at his daily sunbath in the home office... what a lovely dog:)



Descending on Washington...
A wonderful opportunity, wonderful friends, and a weeks time- flying business class to Washington, being spoild rotten by a Do& Co chef. What more would one want?