With limited time and a desire to do it ALL, we started our day early at The White House.

Margaret arranged our tour and we delighted in meandering the halls that the First Family meanders too.



The Library contains volumes of history, biography, fiction, and the sciences, all by American Authors. The furniture is American of the Federal period.
This is a great "Where are Denise & Steve?"
This is the oldest work of art that has been in the White House since its beginning (1800).

We loved how the carpets were rolled up to allow us to visit.

April showers might bring May flowers, but White House florists keep the executive mansion in bloom year round. Today the White House Chief Floral Designer and her staff have a flower shop in the basement of the mansion, beneath the North Portico. They create and maintain arrangements for display in the public and private rooms of the White House and design fabulous centerpieces for events of all kinds. There is hardly a table or mantel that goes unadorned—flowers have become central to the building’s décor.

After touring the White House, we headed to the National Mall.
From a distance, we were drawn to this monument. The Second Division Memorial is located in President's Park and commemorates those who died, while serving in the 2nd Infantry Division of the U. S. Army. The artist was James Earle Fraser. It was dedicated on July 18, 1936, by president Franklin D. Roosevelt.
First in War, First in Peace, First in the Hearts of his Countrymen. This amazing monument, built to honor George Washington, the United States' first president, is a 555-foot marble obelisk that towers over Washington, D.C.



I love the image of the Lincoln Memorial in the Reflection Pool.
Service, Sacrifice, Unity, and Victory Through stone architecture and bronze sculptures, the World War II Memorial recognizes the ways Americans served, honors those who fell, and recognizes the victory they achieved to restore freedom and end tyranny around the globe. I found it interesting that Iowa and California were right next to each other as my father, a WWII veteran, was from Iowa and concluded his Navy career in California.
The Capitol Building was one of the views from the Mall- spectacular.
Lee and Margaret are in front of the brand new National Museum of African American History and Culture. It is the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. It was established by Act of Congress in 2003, following decades of efforts to promote and highlight the contributions of African Americans. To date, the Museum has collected more than 36,000 artifacts and nearly 100,000 individuals have become charter members. The Museum opened to the public on September 24, 2016, as the 19th and newest museum of the Smithsonian Institution and tickets to go inside are impossible to get. This is the only way we could see it today.
Election Time was a great time to be here in D.C. The campaign propaganda is alive and well.





We ended our visit at the Smithsonian's American History Museum. With our limited time, we focused on the Food Exhibition and Julia Child, who I loved. Legendary cook and teacher Julia Child (1912–2004) had a tremendous impact on food and culinary history in America. Through her books and television series, which spanned forty years, she encouraged people to care about food and cooking. She inspired many Americans to conquer their fears of the unfamiliar and to expand their ideas about ingredients and flavors, tools and techniques, and meals in general.
This was Julia in her Paris apartment in 1948. She was 6'3" and this apartment shows her 'magnitude'.
In 1976 Julia Child wrote an essay for Architectural Digest about her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In it she called her kitchen "the beating heart and social center of the household ... both practical and beautiful, a working laboratory as well as a living and dining room." This this her actual American kitchen. It contains tools and equipment from the late 1940s, when Julia Child began her life in food, through to 2001, when she donated this kitchen to the Smithsonian Institution.
In the 1950s, public television programming consisted mainly of lectures, book discussions, science demonstrations, and classical music performances. Julia Child marched into this rarefied atmosphere in 1962, with a show based on her new book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. This is a great photo. In this playful moment, the TV show staff are spoofing the fiction that Julia did everything herself.

This section called "Resetting the Table" was a flashback for us. Between 1950 and 2000, Americans experienced immense changes in what and how they ate, and in how they thought and felt about food. Direct challenges to conventional diets and cooking styles came from immigrants, activists, and global travelers, and spread from local communities and restaurants to supermarkets and suburban backyards.

This photo, in an exhibit about chips, was a super cool flashback for me because I always enjoyed eating at Casa de Fritos when we went to Disneyland. 
After a full day in our Nation's Capital, we could have totally used a Power Nap. It was a great explore of D.C.