From Lincoln to Dorothy to last drop

The main blip is of the end of an extremely enjoyable meal at an Argentinian restaurant after a full day of outings.  Our original plan had been to see out of the 28oC heat and visit both the Museum of American History and the National Art Gallery.  We never made it to the second as the first was so full of fascinating objects and displays.  From George Washington's uniform and travelling chest to the hat Lincoln was wearing - first extra - when he went to the Ford Theatre where he was shot.

The second extra shows a pair of the red shoes (mismatched) used by Judy Garland in the Wizard of Oz. 

Elsewhere in the museum there were displays of inventions, Presidential items, the inauguration ballgown for First Ladies - dating back to Mary Lincoln and ending with Melania Trump (Jill Biden's should be appearing soon - apparently it can take 2 years from the request to the gown being displayed).  Then on to real life-sized trains, tramcars and automobiles and whaling canoes, a helicopter from the Vietnam War and a steel pillar from the 70th floor of the World Trade Centra after the attack in 2001.

There were also many displays about the wars undertaken from the civl war to Afghanistan vis the Cuba crisis and North Korea.  It put some of the atrocities being perpetrated in Ukraine into perspective and showed that the strategy being pursued by Putin is noting new,  It odes not diminish the horrors though.

Before heading back to the hotel and the meal I went to the National Vietnam Memorial to see the sobering catalogue of deaths from that conflict. All in the name of preserving democracy.  As is repeated often in America, and as is recorded at the Korean War Veterans Memorial which we visited the other day, freedom is not free.