Rain and lots of it! I am so thankful that we went to DC last week because many of the places we went to are closed and this poor child could have been Samantha:

“I just wanted to hear about stuff about America that I haven’t heard in my history books,” 10-year-old Loria Hawn, of Laurinsburg, N.C., said with disappointment outside the locked National Museum of American History.

The National Archives _ where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution are safe under glass _ was shut down because the moat surrounding the building on Pennsylvania Avenue had flooded, spokeswoman Susan Cooper said. All records and national treasures were “safe and dry,” she said.

The archives will remain closed Tuesday, just days before the Fourth of July weekend.

Flooding also closed IRS headquarters, the Commerce Department and the Justice Department, but the federal government as a whole remained in business.

The National Gallery of Art shut down because of a weather-related steam outage. The gallery uses steam to maintain the proper environment to preserve its priceless collections, a museum spokeswoman said. But the artworks were reported to be in no danger.

The National Zoo was closed to cars because of flooding in the parking lot but was open to pedestrians. Then it shut down entirely in the afternoon.

(Link via Drudge Report)