My very best friend, Irene, is lucky
enough to be able to travel the world for several months of each year. Her expeditions so far have taken her to some
exotic places…a cruise up the Rio Negro with a self caught piranha for lunch;
walking across the pristine snowy, vastness of Antarctica
counting the penguins; and, watching the sun rise over the Taj Mahal are all
now exciting memories for her.
Like most women, Irene is also fond of
good jewelry. There have been many
occasions we’ve had to stop and stare at some fabulous stuff in the windows of
expensive jewelry stores, usually just to drool and perhaps dream.
So it was some years ago, Irene came
to visit with us in Northern Virginia. Since this was her first time to the east
coast, it was incumbent upon me to show her all the ‘places of power’ in DC and
generally play tour guide.
We had a great time walking around all
the monuments on the Washington Mall while also pushing back tears at the
overpowering pull of the black granite wall of the Vietnam Memorial. We toured the Capitol and admired the White
House and we stared at the magnificence of the Supreme Court Building.
Of course, tours of the various
buildings of the Smithsonian were a definite must. We started with the Air & Space Museum. Between marveling at the fortitude of Lindbergh
to fly his flimsy Spirit of St. Louis into history and actually touching a rock
brought back from the moon, and then being able to climb into the seemingly
miniscule space capsule that brought the astronauts back to earth…it was an
exciting day.
But, by the time we had scoured all
over the American History Museum, seen Dorothy’s ruby slippers, the inaugural
ball gowns of many of the First Lady’s and even stood silent and in awe as the
original Stars and Stripes was revealed without its Perspex protective shield,
we were pooped and ready to return home.
As we exited the building and being a
good host, I asked Irene if she wanted to continue into the building next door;
The Natural History Museum.
‘What’s in there?’ she asked.
‘Don’t know. Rocks and stones, I guess,’ said dumb, dumb
me, really too tired to care at that stage.
Well, tired as we were we decided to
give the Natural History Museum
a big miss. And in so doing, two women
who could spend hours with their noses pressed to jewelry store windows, missed
out on seeing the Hope Diamond, some of the Crown Jewels (on loan from the UK),
many of Elizabeth Taylor’s diamond pins, tiaras, and necklaces and a history of
how diamonds are created.
Sometimes it is best if you find out
exactly what you’re going to miss out on before you give a place the flick,
isn’t it?
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| The Hope Diamond |
