Checking off the sights

Well, this past week or so, John and I have made an effort to get out into Downtown D.C. We have a checklist of things we want to get to while we are in the area. Our first stop on Thursday was to watch the National Symphony orchestra play in the Kennedy Center. AMAZING. Both John and I had never heard an orchestra play so well (even the ones I have been in I am sad to admit!). We were especially impressed with how quiet an entire string section could get and also how many instruments the percussionists could play at one time. On Saturday, we ventured downtown (along with everyone else it seemed as parking was hard to find) to go to the National Geographic museum. I had heard it was like the natural history museum, only smaller. Wrong. If you have elementary age kids it's fun, otherwise, skip this one. We went to the National Cathedral after this and definitely recomend this one. It is beautiful and reminds of us the European cathedrals. The coolest parts I think are the windows...one which is dedicated to space exploration and actually has a moon rock in it. On Sunday, John was in the D.C. St. Patty's day parade. His captain complimented him on how well he did. On Monday, he took half a day off because he had to work on Sunday, and we went to the Eastern wing of the National Art gallery. This is the modern section. One of the main collections was by Jasper Johns. I can enjoy this section, but John prefers the Western gallery which holds much older pieces. Definitely worth the time to see as well. That's it from this edition of the Shirley guide to D.C.!