Laurie's light travel travel tips

The summer's nearly over so I must scurry to get these last two posts to you. No, I haven't been back to Arlington Cemetery yet, and yes, I know I promised that visit a few blogs ago. I promise it will be the final blog Sept. 20! See, it's easy to get sidetracked in DC, to find new places to fall in love with you never expected would hit you so profoundly. That first happened at Lincoln Memorial, then the Air and Space Museum. Frankly, whenever I've seen the Potomac I've waxed poetic: it's stunning, and reminds me of the history I'm walking on every day, every hour. I urge visitors to Washington to make a bee-line for the National Portrait Gallery / Smithsonian American Art Museum (a name that confused me, because the museums are conjoined like an Oreo cookie.) Reasons are myriad, but if you hurry you'll catch the delicious John F. Kennedy exhibit of photos surrounding both his presidency and the campaign. I particularly delighted in the photos of Nixo...

I'm not at Arlington Cemetery. And it's more than a week after I promised readers I'd be back, and bring a report from these historic, hallowed grounds. I didn't lie; I got sidetracked. And it may be because I had a bad experience there when I first moved to the area. I had gotten lost, and my first off ramp was the street that led me to Arlington Cemetery. Heart racing, I gazed out at what - the Potomoc? The Lincoln Memorial? Breathless, I struggled to take it all in. Postcard-perfect, though I clearly was not; I was not ready, and I would return. So next time. ...So today I'll take you to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum , a place that brought out the eight-year-old boy in me. It reminded me of when I was, well, nearly 8 and Man was about to land on the moon. I raced back to my grandmother's house in Alice, Texas, despite the protestations of my nine-year-old friend Stephanie who seemed bored by it all. I remember lying down on my grandmother...