I use a program called mutt for managing my email. A lot of the time, I want to download all of my messages and use mutt offline (for example, when I’m on the train commuting to work). In these cases, I also want to be able to queue email messages to send once I get back online. Even when I am online, sometimes the process of sending the message can take a while (with a large attachment, for example), and I don’t want mutt to freeze while the email is being sent.

Today was my last day of vacation. I flew back to Denver in the afternoon, and I am starting my job at The Trade Desk on Monday which is just two days away! But, that means that I had most of the morning to be in London. So, I decided to go over to Buckingham Palace and then to the British Museum.

Today we docked in Southampton, England. I disembarked as early as possible so that I could get in to London for as much of the day as possible. I did the “self disembark” which basically just meant that I had to carry my bag off the ship rather than have them take it for me. Mom is staying on the boat to go back the other direction to NYC.

Instead of giving you a day-by-day on what we did on the crossing (I was told that it is not a cruise because only lowly peasants would go on a cruise), I’m going to just talk about some of the highlights and make some observations about my time on board the Queen Mary 2. We didn’t stop in any ports, so it was just what we did on board.

Today we left Washington D.C. Mom and I went by train to New York City, while Hannah and dad headed back to Denver so that dad can get back to work and Hannah can do a summer class for her nursing training.

The ride to New York City was uneventful and easy. We got in a quiet car, which was nice and I was able to sleep for most of the trip. Once we got to New York, we had a bit of trouble getting out of the station. It was a subway and train station combined into one, and there were a ton of different exits. We ended up going out of one which we (really it was me) had to carry our bags up a few flights of stairs. When we got out to street level, we looked across and saw that the other side was a larger exit, and had an elevator. Oh well. At least we didn’t end up on the other side of Manhattan, which could have happened if we’d really screwed up and gone to the wrong exit.

I love airplanes, I love spacecraft, I love mechanical things that fly. Airplanes were one of my first and longest lasting obsessions (I’m not sure if my obsession with exhaust pipes started before or after airplanes… I was a weird kid.). Maybe my obsession with airplanes was due to the obscene amount of time I spent on them as a toddler and as a young child. For the two years that my dad worked in Indonesia, my mom and I went between there and the States every few months. I was a United Airlines Premier member when I was two. Regardless of where my obsession came from, I loved airplanes. My mom said she thought that I would be a pilot when I grew up (I am still seriously considering getting my pilot’s license, so maybe that will be true…).

Today we went to the Museum of the Bible. The museum houses many exhibits which explain the stories in the Bible, the Biblical manuscripts and their preservation and translation throughout the millennia, the impacts that the Bible has had on societies throughout history, and brings to life some of the stories and places described in the Bible.

I am going to mention just a few highlights of the museum.

Today we went to the American History Museum. I’m not going to really discuss the individual exhibits, rather I am going to describe my general thoughts on the overall theme of the museum.

The general theme of the museum was that America was founded on certain principles and ideals. However, throughout our history, we have not lived up to those ideals. The main example of this is the stain of slavery and the legacy of racism against black people in America. Despite our failures, we were a beacon of hope to many people around the globe world. To immigrants from war-ravaged lands, we offered refuge (we did this imperfectly, and did not accept as many as we probably should have at times). To the Allies in WWI, our forces turned the tide and helped bring an end to that terrible war war. In WWII, despite our late entry, we helped the allies liberate Europe, while simultaneously (nearly single-handedly) pushing back the terror of Imperial Japan.

We woke up fairly late today because we were quite tired after our long travel day yesterday. Our apartment is very close to a subway station which is a few stops from the National Mall, the big grassy area in front of the Capitol. Our destination for the day was the Holocaust Museum, a tribute to the genocide of the Jews by the Nazi regime before and during WWII.