back to the future

Today I took a day off during my DC trip to visit the Smithsonian. My first stop was the Air & Space Museum. It was exciting and also extremely sad. I spent a great deal of time in the US space program exhibits. They brought back a tremendous wealth of memories.

Dad was working under a NASA contract during the Gemini and Apollo programs. We lived in a small town (Friendswood) literally filled with rocket scientists. It was a sort-of Normal Rockwell painting of a town. I have many strong memories, which came flooding back as I looked at historical elements from that time.

The challenging element: it was one year ago that my dad passed away. Everywhere I looked today I saw bits of him.

Persian New Years

I then visited the Freer Galleries, which are also part of the Smithsonian. They have a good collection of international art, including art from the Middle East. Today they were celebrating Nowruz – the Persian New Year’s Celebration. They had examples of things shared during Nowruz, including food, sabzi (greens), gold fish, and dancing. It was a cool way to finish the end of the day.