Burnout

Washington DC (see the picture)
N 38 52.736 W 077 01.507

I think we're all worn out being tourists. Exhaustion has been compounded by the oppressive heat and humidity for the past few days. Poor Libby has been especially hard hit. She was tired out to begin with from last weekend's long jaunt through the Arboretum with Jenny.

I thought about leaving DC early. However, there's no wind either, and motoring down the Potomac in this weather would be equally uncomfortable. We need to get to a place where we can jump overboard and swim to cool ourselves off.

Yesterday, I could see that Libby was in a downward spiral. She was just laying flat on the bunk in the boat, too hot to move, and too tired to sleep. The heat kept her up the night before, so she was sleep deprived. She didn't want to eat or drink. As we headed toward afternoon when the heat inside the boat would really get bad, I could see that I had to step in and save her from herself.

I forced Libby to get up and go out, despite our protests. I took her uptown to a movie. That did the trick. Sitting in the deliciously cool movie theater and watching Wall-E put a smile on her face. After the movie we went to the nearby library, and from there to a museum. Finally, not wanting to return to the boat before the cool of evening, I took her to a formal lecture.

It turns out that going to lecture was an excellent choice. The title of the lecture was "Herblock: Drawn From Memory." It was about the famous Washington Post cartoonist Herb Block. The panel was very distinguished. Roger Wilkins, Hanyes Johnson, and Tony Auth were the panelists, Pulitzer Prize winners all. These men are very intelligent and very articulate. They gave us 90 minutes of very stimulating talk. We were very glad that we went.

By the way, it is evident that DC is a very culturally rich city. One can hardly avoid it. It was also evident from the panel and from the audience questions that Libby and I are in the heartland for political liberals. If there are any conservatives in town (other than at Fox News) they are hardly evident.