Washington

We are in Washington, D.C.! We had researched flights at the beginning of December but we never made any reservations. On Dec. 25th we decided to check the flights again and since they were very inexpensive and we found a good hotel too, we decided to come the next day. I didn't have much time to pack but we did ok. I did forget to put my medicine in the bag and I had to call Janie and ask for her help. As always, she was incredible nice and called the pharmacy for my prescription.

We arrived on the 26th and we have been having a lot of fun. We love this city and the weather has been nice. It is cold but not too bad. Carlos and Titi keep praying for snow but it is not that cold. The weather is similar to the time when we came in early spring. It is supposed to rain on Monday but we plan to spend the day inside museums so it is not a big deal. They loved the Museum of Natural History. They also went ice skating for the first time and they were sooo excited. Don had to hold both because I was not brave enough to try to do it but after a while they were able to skate a little on their own. They keep asking Don to bring them again. They have two places by the Mall, one next to the
White House and one at the sculpture garden by the National Gallery.

Today we went to the Holocaust Museum. The kids and I went to the kid's areas and then walked through the museum fast. Don stayed there until 3:30 p.m. Carlos and Titi had a lot of questions and at the same time they didn't get the whole story but it is ok. They are too young for that kind of museum. I took them to the Air and Space Museum and we saw some exhibits. Like always, it was busy.

When Don joined us we walked to the Botanical Garden and saw a beautiful exhibit of reproductions of all the famous buildings and monuments in DC. It was so nice, we loved the holiday decorations, the trains, the plants.

We were right by the Capitol and we saw people lining up to view President's Ford casket. We thought about getting on line but they told us it was going to be a long wait because the body was not there yet. We decided to leave but then saw on a tv that they body had just arrived at the Air Force airport and it was starting to make its way to the Capitol. We saw people waiting on a side street and decided to wait. We were able to walk to the side of the Capitol and we saw the hoarse and the motorcade arrive some 20 minutes later. It was pretty exciting. There were lots of TV cameras and so many police cars everywhere. They also gave us some hotchocolate to keep us warm. We decided to leave and then walked right to the place where the military was going to do the 21 gun salute. We were so lucky, we kept walking to the right places and had the front row view. It was pretty impressive, with the Capitol on the background.