We started the day with some schoolwork before we headed downtown for lunch. We had been invited to lunch by April Pedersen, who is on the board of CIVIC. Shelly from CIVIC also joined us. We met up at a great vegan café called Java Green. The food was excellent!

Speaking of CIVIC Here we are with the CIVIC team during our visit to their offices the other day.

The last point on our must do list was the Lincoln Memorial. The weather was fantastic so we decided to walk down to the mall and the memorial.

This part of mall has many trees and a lake and was a great peaceful place to rest a bit and have an ice cream.

Slanted trees are about as comfortable as a reclining seat on a low-cost flight.

It’s a mighty memorial and we had another good opportunity to use Wikipedia to teach ourselves and the kids some history.

Lincoln, as most of you know, was the president who ruled during the civil war and was instrumental in the abolishment of slavery in the US. The memorial is also the place where Martin Luther King Jr held his famous “I have a dream” speech.

We strolled over to the Vietnam War Veterans Memorial Wall. It’s impressive to see all the names at once. It somehow gives you at least a small grasp of the tragedy of war. As I told the boys, all those named here were loved by someone. Some were fathers, most had parents waiting for them, many had siblings and/or a partner who lost someone very dear.

We then walked over the Arlington Memorial Bridge into Virginia to have a look at the Arlington National Cemetery. Planes were coming in towards the national airport straight over us as we walked over the bridge.

The cemetery is huge. There are over 300 000 graves and about 6900 funerals are held there every year. We walked over to the entrance area

and used the opportunity to have the whole family go to the restroom. When you travel with kids you always have to make sure to make regular restroom breaks. That is the golden rule of successful kid activity excursions, as any parent will know. If you wait until the kids have to go it will be too late and you will probably find yourself in some embarrassing and/or extremely unpractical setting.

After we had managed to herd all the cats, eh kids, in and out of the restrooms it was finally time to enter the cemetery. There was an elevator up to the entrance one level up, but it was not working. Strange. We went outside, only to find all the openings you can see on the photo above covered by very solid gates. It was 04:59pm and the cemetery was closing!

Excellent planning and organization once again! We walked defeated towards the nearby metro station. On our way we found that at some places we could get very close to the cemetery, So close that we could get the kids attention, talk about the place, and take some pictures through the fence.

On our way back we decided to spoil ourselves a bit and go back to the French restaurant we visited on our first night here. We were immediately recognized and given a very warm welcome. They even apologized for the long waiting time last time we were there. Once again we had an excellent French meal, this time served very rapidly. If you are in DC and like genuine French cuisine, this is the place to go:

Hélène has been packing around me while I have been writing this. We leave tomorrow morning.

Time to go to bed.

Eirik

—–

We had gotten a tip from Shelly at CIVIC that we should visit the National Museum of the American Indian. We removed the natural history museum from our to do list and headed downtown this morning.

The building is a work of art in its own right:

The museum was really impressive and gave a great presentation of the history, culture, contemporary life, philosophy and tradegy of the American Indians.

Nine out of ten American Indians died in the first century after European contact. The suffering and loss of cultures is difficult to grasp. It was clear that it had an impact on the boys as we worked our way through the history part of the museum.

There were lots of video screens and many stories were told by modern day American Indians. It was a fascinating place and we spent our whole day there.

The boys enjoyed the museum and were paying attention and sucking in information all the time. For Iseline, however, it went a bit over her head and she quickly got bored. At one point she said: “This is really boring, there are only Indian things in here, I want to go back.”

One highlight for her was videos of American Indian fairy tales. I sat down beside her and translated.

I found one fairy tale particularly interesting. It was about a girl who was lonely and went out into the world and found 7 big brothers. At the end they were attacked by a Bison, climbed up a tree, made it magically grow very high and then escaped by turning into stars and jumping into the sky. These stars are the 8 stars that make up the big dipper.

Very interesting, since the big dipper is made of 7 stars. One of them, however, Mizar (the second on the handle starting from the tip), has a companion called Alcor. These two stars are also called the horse and the rider. My guess is that the little sister is the star Alcor. Alcor can be seen with the naked eye if you have very good eyesight. Being able to see Alcor has been used as an eye test by many different cultures. It has been used as an eye chart in the sky by at least the Romans, the Babylonians, the Arabs, the good old English and also by native Americans. It is said that to be able to join the Roman army the eyesight test was the ability to see Alcor.

The interesting question I am asking myself after hearing that fairy tale is if Alcor shone more brightly a long time ago. Would it be natural to have such a fairy tale about a star that was not visible to everyone? Or was it just that much more visible when there was no background light pollution? If it was indeed easy to see, why would the Romans use it as an eye test? Maybe you didn’t need eagle vision to be a Roman soldier? That would greatly reduce the number of potential soldiers. At a time when glasses were not used it could simply have been a test to see if you had normal vision. It is tempting to believe that Alcor is dimmer now than it used to be, but I have no other sources than a native American fairy tale and my own brain.

Sorry.

It was a stark reminder of what we are doing to this earth to again see the American Indian philosophy and relationship to nature.

It reminded me of a comment from Hopi/Zuni Indians in Jared Diamonds fantastc book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: “We were here long before you came, and we expect still to be here long after you too are gone.”

At the entrance there is a great hall that stretches all the way to the top of the building. At one point a guy got out into the middle of the floor and started telling us about American Indian music and rhythm and then played on his drum and sang. The acoustics were mighty and he made the whole museum resonate with hypnotic rhythms.

The cafeteria was fantastic with lots of different dishes from different parts of the US. I had bison beef. Adrian had a hamburger and a cookie:

We were so fascinated by the museum that we forgot to take a lot of pictures. Here is one more, though:

In the end Iseline only wanted to be lifted and kept wanting to go home. It is difficult to adjust activities with the age difference between the kids and we need to find something more adapted to Iseline soon.

On the way home we took a brief walk in the zoo, which she enjoys. It’s handy to be just next to a great zoo with no entrance fee. We got to see this guy today:

It rained heavily today, but only while we were inside the museum. The temperature was very high, probably around 25 Celsius (close to 80F) and I walked around in shorts. Humidity was surely 100% and reminded me of Chattanooga, where we will be soon. The weather forecast says 12 C (close to 50F) for Friday, but we will be out of here by then.

See you around, folks!

Eirik

—–

Animaux vivants ou empaillés?

Nous étions prêts à notre heure habituelle, avec comme objectif pour la journée de visiter le musée d’histoire naturelle. Avant de passer la porte, on a regardé la météo et on s’est rendu compte que le temps prévu pour demain était de la pluie alors qu’aujourd’hui, il ne devait pas pleuvoir meme si le temps était bien couvert. Après une réunion au sommet des plus efficaces, on a donc décrèté de changer de programme et d’aller au zoo, dont la visite est quand même bien plus agréable par temps sec. On garde la visite du musée d’histoire naturelle pour demain.

Nous voilà donc partis pour le zoo. En passant devant 7/11, on ne s’est pas laissés tenter par leur offre de petit déjeuner très santé…

La traversée du passage protégé séparant l’entrée de notre immeuble et celle du zoo nous a demandé des efforts considérables, et après 5 minutes nous étions passés chez nos amis les animaux, ceux qui sont encore bien vivants ;).

Comme la plupart des formidables musées et attractions touristiques à Washington, l’entrée du zoo est gratuite. C’est bien agréable de ne pas avoir à payer jusqu’à 20 euros par personne pour y entrer. Hier il y avait des pleins cars de retraités au musée de l’aviation et de l’espace, et aujourd’hui de nombreux parents et grand-parents qui accompagnaient des jeunes enfants, ainsi que des enfants scolarisés en sortie de classe. Aucun doute que la gratuité encourage les gens de tous revenus à profiter de ces lieux très enrichissants. Vive la culture gratuite!

Le zoo de Washington est connu entre autre pour ses pandas, ses ours lippu (Baloo ans le film d’animation Disney Le Livre de la jungle), ses gorilles, chimpanzés et macaques, ses éléphants, ses lions, tigres et guépards, et de nombreux autres animaux.

Gabrielle, her er en liten hilsen fra din lille bjørn som fant en lekekamerat.

Le zoo est très spacieux et arboré, et de très nombreux panneaux expliquent la vie des animaux, s’ils sont menacés, quel impact les hommes ont sur leur environnement, etc.

Les couleurs d’automne habillent les nombreux arbres de la ville. Mais la température est bien agréable. On est loin de la neige et du gel d’Oslo, ce qui est bien appréciable.

Il n’est pas difficile de voir de qui nous descendons… On dirait Iseline qui boude dans un coin… L’ADN des gorilles est de 98% à 99% identique à celui de l’homme. Ils sont les parents vivants les plus proches de l’homme après le Bonobo et le Chimpanzé.

Les guépards sont toujours impressionants par leur grâce.

Nous avons beaucoup apprécié cette journée avec les animaux, et en avons profité pour faire quelques lecons de sciences naturelles sur place. A part les animaux, nous avons parlé de la rareté de l’eau potable, de la photosynthese, de l’intelligence et du langage,…

L’expérience ci-dessous consiste à fabriquer une figure avec des formes géometriques. La personne assise en face doit ensuite reproduire cette forme sans la voir, en suivant simplement les instructions de la premiere personne. A la fin, on compare les figures et on peut voir si le langage a été une aide ou un obstacle pour faire passer le message…

Dans le zoo il y a un passage protégé pour les orang outangs . Ils passent en fait en l’air, accrochés à des cables prévus pour les faire grimper comme dans la jungle. Le panneau a inspiré les enfants (Xing voulant dire cross-ing, c’est a dire passage ou croisement). Seraient-ils restés trop longtemps au zoo et redevenus des primates???

Demain, nous irons voir les dinosaures au musée d’histoire naturelle, mais cette sculpture de crâne de Tiranosaurus rex nous a impressionés.

Après 4h dans le zoo, nous avons retraversé la rue et réintegré nos quartiers où nous avons enchainé sur du travail scolaire, histoire de continuer dans notre élan. Ce soir, nous pouvons nous vanter d’avoir appris plein de choses et passé une bonne journée à l’extérieur dans un zoo magnifique.

Un petit clin d’oeil aux Brianconnais. Ces chiens de prairie de l’ouest américain ressemblent beaucoup aux marmottes de nos montagnes.

A la prochaine!

Hélène

The weather forecast had foreseen rain for today, so we decided it would be a good day for a museum. We got our car and headed for the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia.

The museum was like the Intrepid museum’s big brother. Viktor and Adrian were ecstatic when they found out that they had simulators here also. They did a fighter pilot simulation where they flew together. They kept doing 360 degree turns all the time and it was great listening to their “wheeeee” screams.

We saw a real Space Shuttle, the famous Enterprise which never got to fly in space.

We saw a Boeing 307 Stratoliner Clipper Flying Cloud. The first commercial airplane with a pressurized cabin:

They even had a concorde, as you can see in the background. Been there, done that.

They had a Boeing 707, the first commercial jetliner:

They also had the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the nuclear bomb over Hiroshima:

We spoke to the children about the horrors of the two nuclear weapons used in war and how they destroyed two cities.

Another SR-71 blackbird. This one set a speed record on its final flight. It was flown from Los Angeles to Washington DC in roughly 1 hour, 4 minutes and 19.89 seconds to become part of the museum:

The number of airplanes and space vessels on display was nothing short of overwhelming. Everything from the space shuttle to the very first motorized airplanes through to Gemini capsules and wodden self-assembled glider planes from the 1930s. Would you have flown in one of these?

There was also an IMAX theater where we saw the first movie to be recorded in the IMAX format. A movie about the history of aviation, made in 1976. Picture quality was extremely good. It was interesting to listen to the optimism of the future of space exploration being expressed back then. At that time, and I remember the spirit, everything was going in one direction. We would have a base on the moon soon and then we would conquer mars and go even further. Unfortunately things didn’t turn out that way and I think humanity is a little poorer because of it. Just a little bit of the money used on wars could have brought us a lot further in space.

In reference to yesterday’s comments about the challenges of getting healthy food here in the US: We were not allowed to bring food and drinks into the museum, and the cafeteria on site was a (drum roll) … Mc Donalds!

Around 4pm we were well filled up with chicken nuggets, fries, burgers and space and aviation history. We headed back to DC again and a session of school work for the kids.

The kids worked hard and after a late dinner they were allowed to see “Flushed Away” on the portable home cinema.

As promised, here is a little bit more about my cinema setup. The recent advances in miniaturization and pricing of portable speakers and projectors has made it possible to put a home cinema in your pocket for less than the cost of a low-end iPhone. Here is mine, packed away in the box my compact camera came in (pen added for scale):

An Optoma PK301projector coupled with a pair of iHome iHM79 speakers is a winning combination. The rest is cabling and the remote control for the projector. Here it is in action.

On this photo I’m powering it purely from battery packs. With batteries charged and a lightly colored wall I can do home cinema anywhere without mains electricity. The projector can be driven from an iPod Touch/iPhone or from a Mac/PC with VGA out.

Here is the result with an image size of about 70 inches diagonally.

The sound quality must be heard to be believed.

Backpacker with a home cinema. Cool, eh?

Eirik

—–

Not too long after the proverbial 11am time slot we managed to stick our necks out of the apartment. Having learnt a few lessons yesterday we let the car rest.

Today’s goal was the National Mall area, which is a monument lovers equivalent to a pub walk. The national institutions and monuments are so heavily concentrated that our tourist map had left several important ones out, to make room for highlighting the others.

We jumped on the subway and blended with the native population. Most obscure reading material observed in real life and actively being read by one of the natives: “The organic dog biscuit cookbook.” I kid you not.

We jumped off the subway at Union Station and Wikipedia told us about the train accident here in 1953. A runaway train crashed into the station and broke through the floor with the locomotive ending up in a storage room. Incredibly they built a temporary floor over the locomotive and reopened the station 3 days later so guests could arrive for the inauguration of president Eisenhower.

On our way to Capitol we snapped up some ice cream and passed by the supreme court and the library of congress:

Viktor wanted to know what the supreme court was and this gave a great opportunity to talk about democracy and the principle of separation of powers into an executive, a legislature and a judiciary.

We proceeded to the Capitol and after refreshing a bit with Wikipedia we spoke about the US model for the legislature with two different entities and a presidential veto. The model was challenged with many “what if” questions and we had a hard time defending democracy.

There were squirrels all around.

Walking down from the Capitol we got our first view of the mall:

We made our way slowly towards the Washington monument passing a number of small museums and other lesser buildings (irony alert). In the central area there was a science and engineering expo with lots of interesting booths.

We saw superconducting materials, cooled down by liquid nitrogen, levitate on top of a railway of very strong magnets. I tried to take a picture of one, but they were too fast. Here is the railway a split second after the superconductor has passed. Liquid nitrogen in the tubes in the background.

And here you can see production of a nanowire made from a polymer material using an electrode and 20000 volts:

Unfortunately the wire was so thin we couldn’t see it. The wires accumulate and form a microfiber tissue that has some cool characteristics. We saw demonstrated that it lets water vapor pass, but not water.

We had lunch on the lawn in the middle of the mall. We were short of food and I grabbed a burger at a food stand. Hélène wanted this documented to show the world that I eat junk food regularly:

Speaking about junk food, I’m starting to get a feel for what it must be like to get food when you live in the US these days. It is not pretty.

I spoke previously of my challenge with the big portions at restaurants here. That turns out to be only part of the picture for the nutritiously challenged in this country. It is extremely difficult to avoid sugar and fat unless you pay a lot of attention. We have bought our stuff in what seems like good quality supermarkets, but have been fooled time and time again.

We bought some chocolate chip cookies as a snack. They had 33% sugar in them! We got some innocent looking yoghurt: 17% sugar! We bought bread marked “All natural whole grain, 100% whole wheat” and For ultimate health”. The third ingredient is sugar. The bread contains 9% sugar! Can you believe that? We got some bagels that looked good. They were dripping with butter on the inside. The salami we bought had way more fat than we find at home. I now realize that the relatively large numbers of slim and fit people I see here must be working really hard to eat right.

Oops, sorry, carried away again.

On our way we passed by a guy who was juggling using a basketball, a tennis racket and a bowling ball. Very impressive:

When we reached the Washington Memorial the sun was in a very favorable position and I used a long time until I was moderately satisfied with this picture:

I did use a long time, something Hélène made me aware of without saying a single word.

We passed by the Treasury

on our way to the White House:

We were starting to get saturated on monuments and great buildings.

Last night I had managed to gather some energy to do research on the zoo just before going to bed. The event they had closed for turned out to be something called “Boo at the Zoo,” an annual Halloween party. And, they would hold another one today! I got us tickets online and our plan was to get some face paint during the day and use that to blend in with all the cool US kids in nice costumes. Despite heay use of the GPS app during the day we were never close to a toy store. It was getting late now and we switched to face paint search mode. We walked around for about an hour and searched multiple stores, often helped by someone who directed us to the next store were they surely had some. In the end we gave up and took an overpacked subway back.

In the street, just next to our apartment, we found our savior of the day in the form of a seller of chinese blinking plastic things.

We grabbed a few sandwiches for dinner again and hurried to the zoo. Iseline became a great bunny with her newly acquired ears, clothing of the right color and a bit of Hélène’s lipstick:

The boys were also pretty happy with their hats and blinking teeth (which you cannot see because of the flash). Note Viktor’s lipstick red nose. He scared everyone with his deep voice and the phrase “I am the dead clown!”

The zoo party was great and a good warmup for Halloween. There were many really cool decorations and lots of “treat stations.”





There were cemeteries with tombstones for extinct species, complete with death year:

After a couple of hours in the zoo the kids had half the candy in their bags and half in their stomachs. Viktor was happy with his catch

and Iselline was sleepy and ready to go to bed

NOT

All in all a good day and a nice contrast to yesterday.

Once again everyone is sleeping around me while I finish off the blogging. Good to be current again.

See you around, folks!

Eirik

—–

We are prepared to lose a day when crossing the date line, but hadn’t planned on losing one in Washington DC.

We were all tired after arriving late and had decided to not put on any alarms. We got up at around 10am. Hélène had a quick breakfast and went on a grocery shopping expedition while I kept the fort and looked after the kids. We had secured a few items at a 7/11 the night before and I made some scrambled eggs and bacon for myself and the kids. It was good to have an apartment again and be able to cook:

When we got Adrian’s iPod replaced at the Apple Store in New York they did not have the MacBook Air model we wanted. They had told me in the morning they would have plenty of all models available, When we came back in the evening they checked for the configuration I wanted and told me they unfortunately had sold all of those during the day because sales had been so good.

OK, better get one here in DC then. I found the closest Apple Store and called them. They told me they had many machines with the configuration I wanted and that there was no need to put one aside. There would be plenty if I arrived during the day. I made sure to double check that they indeed had the type I wanted.

I also started looking for parking. After last nights very tough search for a place to park it was starting to dawn on me that it might not have been the best move to get a rental car for the entire week. I had gotten a very good offer for a weekly rental online and it seemed better to have a car all the time than the hassle of getting one for part of the stay. Wrong thinking.

I managed to find a hotel with a public parking offer about 800 meters (half a mile) from where we are staying. I called them and they told me I could purchase parking for 6 days and come and go as I wanted. No problem.

Hélène came back around 12:30 and I left on an apple and parking expedition together with Iseline.

Whoa! Saturday in the center of Washington DC is not a place you want to take your car. I regretted not having taken the subway. We have always heard that the US infrastructure is made for using cars for transportation, and we thought we were doing what the natives do.

Once at the store I experienced a new parking nightmare. We circled and circled. I was well armed with my iPhone GPS App, but parkings were full! In the end we managed to find one a bit hidden in a shady looking small alley. The guy working there gave me a ticket through the window, telling me he would calculate the fee when I came back to pick up the car. He was horrified when I tried to continue driving to park the car. “No, sir, *I* park the car.” OK, another cultural thing, you just don’t give the car keys to a stranger in Norway, but here I had no choice.

Once at the Apple Store we found the place packed. The concept of the Apple Store is different from any other store I know. The employees wander about and there is no place to pay, instead they all have these fancy morphed iPhones that take a credit card. I guess they think it’s cool and casual. It works great when there are few customers, but this time it was not very great. Iseline was of course at a computer in an instant and found the games faster than you can say “behersker digitale verktøy” thus limiting my radius of action. I had to keep an eye on her in this chaos after all.

After a grueling half hour of trying to get someone’s attention I finally managed. The guy disappeared, came back, and said he was so sorry. They had sold out that model during the day.

I was not amused.

He helped me find the nearest other Apple store on a computer and hurried on to another customer. I called them up and was now very specific on all the model details and also insisted that they had to put one aside for me. The woman said they normally didn’t do that, but she would try her best. She took my name and I promised to be there as soon as I could. I had promised Iseline an ice-cream, but after explaining she accepted immediately . She said she was very happy we had to go to another store because then she could play longer on her iPod Touch in the back seat.

Back at the parking we had to stand in line to get our car back. It is inconceivable to me why they had chosen a model where the one guy working there parked and fetched every single car. Maybe this is why the parking was not full when we got there? At last we got the car and could once again indulge in packed streets with an infinite supply of red traffic lights and much honking.

It was getting close to 2:30pm.

Once we arrived at the Apple Store in Arlington, Virginia, we had the same parking problems. Parking in this area is a science of its own. There are lots of complicated signs with rules and hours everywhere. Everything seems extremely regulated and all guide books warn you that they are serious when they threaten with towing you away if you do not follow the rules. I ended up parking illegally in a spot only available for those with a parking permit for zone 6. Enough is enough. I told Iseline she couldn’t get ice cream here either, since we had to be quick.

By now I had the feeling of being caught in a spider’s web where my limbs were getting more and more entangled. I just want to buy a computer and get on with my life. Can that be too difficult?

We couldn’t find the Apple Store at the advertised location and Iseline really had to go the restroom. After some desperate back and forth I resorted to the last available option for a male: I asked someone. The store was a bit away from the avenue it got it’s address from. We hurried in and found the restroom.

Another packed store, another long wait.

When I finally found help the guy was very surprised to hear that I had a machine with that specific configuration set aside. He disappeared through a door and I waited.

Dam-ti-tam-ti-tam-ti-tam. I was getting used to this now.

He came back with a machine in his hands. YES!

He then told me that the memory amount I wanted was not available in any Apple Store anywhere, That specific configuration could only be purchased online. However he could offer me this brand new inferior machine…

Thank you, Apple.

We drove back and found the hotel with the parking. The guy in the booth at the parking lot told me there was no way I could pay for 6 days and come and go. His boss said the same thing. I told them I had spoken with someone this morning. They sent me to the reception. A security guard stopped me, saying I could not park outside the parking area. The fire trucks needed that space in case of a fire. He ended up accepting keeping my keys while I went inside. He would move the car if a fire started…

Inside there was a waiting line at the reception. Then the woman behind the counter said I could not park for so long if I was not a guest. I refused to back down. She fetched her boss. I explained. He told me they could not decide, only the parking company. He escorted me outside and spoke to one of the parking guys. They then fetched what seemed to be the big boss of the parking company. A serious man with a deep voice and a very nice suit.

“Of course we can do that, sir, would you like to pay with cash or a credit card?”

At last a reasonable man with a sense of business. It is fascinating and a bit sad to see how many people are unable to make their own rational decisions because they are bound by rules and the possible punishments for breaking them. It is also interesting to see how this varies from country to country. I’m pretty sure this kicking up the chain of command could not have happened in France. There someone would have found a solution fast and would probably even enjoy breaking the rules.

It is also fascinating to observe how here in the US they seem to answer you what they think you want to hear when you are on the phone, without checking if it matches reality. It seems that when the customer is not present and they cannot be blamed the solution is to say “Yes” to anything. Another cultural thing to get used to.

I had tried to reach Hélène several times during the day because I wanted us all to go to the national zoo, which is very close to our apartment. She never answered (she had left her phone while doing laundry).

Iseline and I were back around 4:45pm. The zoo closed at 6pm according to their website. We quickly swallowed some sandwiches and were at the gates to the zoo around 5:15. Nice littlle sign: The zoo closes at 4:30 today because of a special event. Fantastic, this was really our day.

We started to walk in the direction of a park we remembered from the map and which Sarah had recommended to us. Of course, since we only wanted to go to the zoo, we hadn’t brought the map. To make a long story short we ended up taking a wrong turn and made our way down a very steep hill between two roads without a pavement

only to find an area that was closed because it was a police training area. This was really our day. We went back to the apartment.

I got out my little portable home cinema kit and the kids watched Kung Fu Panda on the wall. The quality of the pico projector and the portable speakers are awesome. More about that later.

Once we got the kids to bed Hélène bought some DVDs on sale at our local 7/11 and we had a nice cinema evening with one of them, just the two of us.

I was too tired to blog when we had finished seeing the movie, it had been an exhausting day of achieving nothing.

Eirik

—–

Time to leave New York, a week has passed very fast. We had a flight at 1:27pm and could take it easy this morning.

Mandatory photo, Marius. Another CRJ900, boooooring.

After a short flight we landed in Washington DC. We are very happy with our backpacks and the weight of our gear so far. We are comfortably mobile, even when we carry everything, as we do here:

We fetched our rental car and drove into town and visited CIVIC (Campaign for Innocent Victims In Conflict), a small organization of hard working people that has managed to make a difference. CIVIC works on behalf of war victims by advocating that warring parties recognize and help the civilians they harm. CIVIC supports the principle that it is never acceptable for a warring party to ignore civilian suffering.

They have made some significant progress and we are very impressed by their work..

We were given a warm welcome and the kids were happy when halloween treats appeared.

Sarah Holewinski is leading CIVIC and is a very energetic and committed person. She zips around DC on this cool scooter:

Afterwards we found our way to the appartment we are renting. It turned out to be a nightmare to find parking. We ended up circling around for about half an hour until we found a spot about a kilometer (over half a mile) from the place. It was getting very late and we were hungry. Google Earth helped us find a French restaurant with good reviews not too far away. We ordered in French and were instantly in France; great meal and long waiting times:

New city! We are now nicely installed in the apartment and have a week ahead of us in DC.

See you around, folks!

Eirik

—–