An uneventful flight and a metro ride later sees me greeted by my vivacious cousin "Wooly-Jack" (aka Jacqueline or Jax), her gorgeous brood of three, Henry, Lucy and Charlie and an astoundingly solid wall of humidity. Heat I can deal with, but 90% humidity is a ridiculous assault on the body. I feel I've landed in the deep south, especially given the whitewashed houses with their picket fences, the constant sound of cicadas and the generally astounding green, lushness of the burbs that I have transported myself in to.
My first night I am easily lulled to sleep by the pitter-patter sound of raindrops on the roof. The largest earthquake that DC has ever experienced occurs at 5 that morning and doesn't even cause me to stir. Hows that for being dead to the world.
Diving into the 102`F heat and moisture I make my way to DC central to tackle the smorgasbord of free museums available for exploration. Being the book nerd that I am, I swim to the Library of Congress first. In so doing, I discover that the library itself is inaccessible to the public but the museum provides astounding coliseum-esq architecture to gawk at...
... a display of Carl Jung's Red Book, and innumerable underground passages that one can choose to get lost in. Seeing as I had already used about 2hrs wondering the multitude of bookless rooms, I decided getting lost wasn't really an option so instead I decided to befriend a squirrel...
... while admiring the Capital Building and its retinue of security guards before exploring the stark depths of the Holocaust Museum.
Feeling all educated out I jump on the metro and return back to the house with the three kids all under the age of 5. We play and frolic and that weekend, Jax (with her hubby Jeff crammed into the boot), myself and the three kids take on the Building Museum in town. Several hours are consumed with me building cubbies for the kids to climb in and promptly destroy, laughing all the while at their antics. Who knew that kids could be so cute in the midst of destruction. Here's Henry in all his glory...
The whole place was rather overwhelming really, with dinosaurs gallour, precious gems, innumerable stuffed animals, ancient Egyptian artefacts, a plethora of rocks from space, and a live and fully functioning bee hive (to name a few).
But moving along, one evening finds me releasing my inner child and promptly leaping about the front yard at 11 o'clock at night, trying to catch green luminescent fireflies. Feeling like an idiot but unable to remove the smile from my face when I successfully capture one, I proffer my spoils to Jeff who has been watching me in my lunacy, shaking his head in amusement. I then free the creature of my amusement to return to the air-conditioned sanctuary of the house to find I have been massacred by a dozen mosquitos. This being a daily occurrence since arriving I am unperturbed.
Other things of note while staying in DC include Jax's mouth watering cooking (I still owe you a cheesecake Jax!) and my new addiction to american mustard in a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich. I'm not gonna taste that for a while. Unfortunately the end of the week draws near and I make my final preparations for the more exotic and anxiety provoking leg of my world travels, my flight to South Africa. I procure a first aid kit, some warm gloves and begin taking my 7 weeks worth of malaria medication. Thus follows a sleepless night of worry before I depart on a 17 hour flight to Durban via Dakar of all places.
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