Washington

We arrived in Washington last night after two flights from Las Vegas. We started our day at 4am,catching our first flight to Los Angeles then a quick (45minutes) change over to our flight to Washington.  We came in to Washington Dulles airport which is quite a way out but considerably less expensive. Ian (hereafter referred to as an excellent travel agent!) had organised the transport via a bus which delivered us to our hotel which is just gorgeous. We arrived at 7pm, tired but really pleased we had started the day early as the traffic is pretty chaotic in the evening.
For my quilting friends, think William Morris and that is what it is. Tudor style and William Morris decorating and we love it. I'm looking at the drapes in the room and wondering if they would miss just one of the because I couldn't fit all of them in the case!
Anyway enough of the hotel! We were up and out at 10 this morning after a lovely breakfast in the dining room and hopped on the bus for which we have a two day ticket. We spent a good part of the day on the bus taking in the sights and changing bus routes to make the most of our hop on hop off opportunities. We finished the day with a visit to the American History Museum which was very interesting. One of the exhibits was about the First Lady's  and had a number of their inauguration gowns. Michelle Obama's gown was absolutely breathtaking. There were also some really interesting displays of American culinary history and a replica of Julia Childs kitchen and details of her influence.
Of course a horse drawn hand operated fire pump caught Ian's eye and there was also a lot of details of the Civil war which we found fascinating. Oh by the way a quilt started for a first son in 1920 and finished 20 years later as a full size quilt. Good to know there are others who take a long time to finish quilts!
Tomorrow we will be out earlier with a long list of places we marked out today.   We think Flat Norah has recovered sufficiently for an outing after we bought sticky tape for some minor repairs today so who knows where she will pop up!