After only a couple of brief weeks back home in Iowa City (mostly spent frantically planning the rest of my trip), I headed to Washington, D.C. to work at the National Museum of Natural History again to study their collection of fossil casts and Eskimo, Mongolian, and Australian Aborigine skulls. Having spent time at the NMNH in 2007, it was great to go back and see everyone at the museum again.
Even better, since Kurt and Tara Lewis had recently moved there, I got to stay with some great friends during my time in the nation's capital, making my 3 weeks away from Tressa easier to handle. Thankfully, Tressa was able to come out and spend a weekend in D.C. and so we got some sight-seeing in as well as spending some quality time with Kurt, Tara, Olaiya, and Naomi. Having been to D.C. several times now, Tressa and I were less concerned with hitting the major attractions and instead focused on some of our favorite stops. Tressa, of course, had to visit the Corcoran gallery, her 
favorite art museum. I really wanted to see the American History Museum again since it had been recently renovated. As before, it displayed possibly my favorite historical statue: the original Washington Monument, a statue of George Washington wearing a toga. Tressa, however, was really excited about one of the new exhibits: a full scale reconstruction of Julia Child's kitchen (Tressa watches her show on PBS every Saturday morning).
