I am ashamed to say that last weekend was the first time that I got down to the Smithsonian to visit the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef. I was in town with family visiting lots of the touristy places that we never seem to get to unless someone is visiting. Isn’t it odd how that works? The reef is at the end of the Sant Ocean Hall on the main floor of the Smithsonian, just past my favorite – the giant squid. There are about five different reefs! I am so impressed with how many pieces our local community put together. I even saw a few familiar ones from our mini reef window display last summer. (and I did see a lot of your names on that list of contributors!) If you haven’t been over to see it yet, you have until April 24th. And when you do go visit, just hang around a bit and listen to the reactions from other visitors! That was the best part of the visit. I loved hearing how incredibly impressed non stitchers were with the effort made by our community.
I then headed off to the Capitol Building for a visit. Phil’s aunt had set up a tour with their local representative, which was 
much nicer than being part of the giant groups of tourists in matching sweatshirts. So, of course, I had knitting needles on me. As we walked up to the visitor’s center, right there on the list of banned items, was knitting needles! And not even at the end of the list…nope, it was tucked right between things like mace, knives and explosives, as if knitting needles are a deadly weapon. I decided that surely there must be some infamous case where someone was killed with a knitting needle…I found nothing. If you know of one, do share! At any rate, if you decide to visit the capitol, be sure to leave your needles at home…unless you have circular ones. They don’t actually know what they are and will let you through with no questions 😉