Day 5, Even more out of the NIH

This morning Madison had her glucose tolerance test. As soon as that was over and she got to remove her blood pressure buddy, we headed out to DC.
Our first stop was the Smithsonian Castle, which is just the info center for all the Smithsonian museums. We picked up our new member welcome packet because they persuaded me to join at the Air and Space gift shop. The welcome packet is a map.
Then we headed to the Washington Monoment, where timed tickets for entry are free but limited. We arrived at about 1:00, the tickets were "sold out" at 7:30. So we stood back and admired the monument and headed to the White House.
The walk to the White House was long and hot. We stopped a few times to rest and we had a little bit of a breakdown, with Madison whining about the heat and me sick of hearing the whining. Eventually we got as close as we were able to get to the White House, and we took a picture or two before we heaed to the White House Visitor Center which is loceated in the nearby Commerce building.
The Visitor Center is actually quite nice, much more museum than gift shop. In fact, I don't recall that there were any souvenirs for sale at all. We watched a nice film and enjoyed the AC.
Then we walked a couple blocks back to the capitol mall. I should say that Washingon DC blocks are about three blocks long.
We had an asian dinner at the Smithsonian World Culture Festival, or something like that. Then we walked to the other side of the mall to the Museum of Natural History.
We saw the Hope diamond, which is nice, but it wasn't even close to the most impressive gem in the room. The gem and minerals exhibit was really neat. We also saw the Mammals exhibit, Early Civilizations, Human Ancestors where we got our pictures taken to see how we would look as Neandethals, Oceans, and Bones.
Then we went to the gift shop, because that is madison's favorite part- even though I told her that there wouldn't be souvenirs. She just likes to read the books, I think. Anyway, as we browsed, I saw on a table of jewelry and books a I am Not a Paper Cup, not in a box, a little dirty. I picked it uip and inspected it- no price tag on the bottom and although it was empty, I could tell it hadn't always been. This was a Lost Cup. But not for long. It is now a Found Cup.
Tomorrow we get the results of all her tests and the big picture. All her doctors will come to her room and we will have a big conference. We are considering going back to Washington, but it is sort of a hassle to leave the hospital and also, we are very, very sore.
I miss home and I am ready to be done here.