What A Day!

Well, from just before noon we were glued to the TV. Since Eler Beth is doing American History this six weeks, I decided that watching the inauguration would be her lesson for the day. And, amazingly, apart from the usual points of discussion one would expect when watching a Presidential Inauguration, we learned a lot of interesting, rather off-topic things as well.

For instance, the bayonets on the rifles carried by the Revolutionary War-costumed men in the parade caught my daughter's eye and she had questions about those. She had forgotten that Thomas has a bayonet, so we had to get that out and examine it and do some research on when they were first used and how they were used. Rather grim, perhaps, but history, nonetheless.



The Presidential Limousine didn't look like she thought a limousine should look ("There are only four doors!", said the girl who once won a trip to Pizza Hut in a stretch limousine with at least six doors, and enough room for 20 classmates to sit.). So we looked up the different types of limousines and discussed how "limousine" is a style and not a specific make of vehicle. And by the way, that was a 2009 GM/Cadillac limousine and is the first not to carry a specific model name. I recognized the emblem as being Cadillac, but had never seen that body style before either. We learned a lot about limousines today!

Then she wondered if there were any fish in the reflecting pool in front of the Washington Monument (and if so, can you fish there? Ha! She's her Daddy's girl, all right!). We found out how the pool is in very bad shape, along with most of that area, and often doesn't reflect anything because of algae and goose droppings.

Yes, it has been an historic day in more ways than one.