Hank – I woke at 6:25 am and at 6:30 I got two times passes for 10:30 at the Museum of African American History and Culture. But Kathy wasn’t feeling well so I went out on my own. I walked from the hotel and passed by the White House along the way. It was quiet there.

I can see why the museum uses timed passes. You start at the lowest level and flow up through three levels of exhibits. It begins with the slave trade and then passes through key events in US history: colonization, the Revolutionary War, the division and argument over free and slave states, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the formation of the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow laws, lynching, WWI, the resurgence of the KKK, WWII, the progress made in voting and civil rights, and more. It’s very interesting and educational. And as many can see today, we still have much work to do.

Next I went to the National Air and Space Museum. Wow, there is so much to see there as well. I remember the Gemini and Apollo programs as a child. (Once my two youngest kids, when they were young, were amazed to learn I was alive when we landed on the moon because that seemed like ancient history to them.)

After that I wandered through the National Gallery of Art. I’m more a fan of sculptures than paintings but the gallery doesn’t disappoint. By now it was afternoon and I was getting tired of being on my feet so I walked back to the hotel, stopping by a grocery store along the way to restock. Eating out every meal gets very expensive.