Each day we spend in DC seems to be even more enjoyable than the last!
It was a bit drizzly today, but that didn't dampen our spirits as we headed out from the hotel this morning, intent on reaching the first goal of the day: the National Air and Space Museum. The cooler weather was n fact a welcome change from the stifling heat of the previous weekend. Once again the metro provided easy passage for us, and I can't think how I will return to Kansas City without the ability to drop down below the city and pop back up again a few minutes later almost exactly where I want to be. Truly, DC has a model of public transportation efficiency that should be the guide for other cities around the nation... except, perhaps, the perpetually frozen escalators ;-)
The Air and Space Museum, which had featured heavily in the movie we'd seen just last night, proved to be just as fascinating as the other three Smithsonian museums we had toured prior. Aircraft of every kind lined the floors, walls, and ceilings... my favorite sections being the World War I and World War II exhibits; those were truly intrepid days of flight, although the future-looking "Orient Express" aerospace place exhibit was very cool as well. Much of this museum reminded me of the Boeing museum that I and a two friends had toured out in Seattle a couple of years ago... more immense, perhaps, but without the SR-71 Blackbird on display. Not that there weren't plenty of other equally awesome sights to be seen, like SpaceShip One, or the Apollo II command module, or the Lunar Lander... and that's just in the foyer! I actually took so many pictures in this museum that I ran through both camera batteries I had with me, and had to conserve for later sights and switch to my phone cameras for casual pictures. Yes, I am definitely a shutterbug.
After soaking in all the aerodynamic forms of past and present that we could handle, and grabbing a quick lunch in the museum food court (McDonalds, and halfway decent at that) before heading toward the Capitol Building. Along the way we popped briefly into the new National Museum of American Indians, which is a very architecturally stylish building, and saw a fine selection of canoes from various native cultures. Upon approaching the Capitol Building, we spotted the great glass arboretum of the National Botanical Gardens, and even though we hadn't planned on visiting it, since it was on the way we gave it a thorough tour as well. The jungle room featured a high overhead walkway, quite awesome to explore, and we found a number of odd-shaped flora I personally never knew existed... cacti that appeared literally to be a large mass of cat tails, a tree that seemed composed of a million tiny little leaves all clustered in rows, and Gina found a flowering plant within called "Regina Red" which brought much hilarity with its similarity to her own name.
After having our fill of the gardens, we made our way over to the Capitol Reflecting Pool and marveled at the monument to Grant located at its edge, before heading straight toward the Capitol Building itself. We were able to get right up to the steps, which were barricaded, but the front courtyard and its magnificent view of the grand columned structure was close enough. The architecture of this building was simply amazing up-close, and at last, the three of us could truly say we had visited our nation's capitol.
Next on our list of sights to see was the National Archives, which we approached after getting directions from a nice Capitol policeman, and wound up at the rear of the building. Along the way though, we encountered the United States Court House, a statue of Meade, the Canadian embassy, and the Federal Trade Commission. Doing our own walking tour was proving to be quite advantageous in uncovering areas we hadn't planned on! Once we finally got to the front of the National Archives, we discovered a line stretching from the entrance to the sidewalk, but we'd made it this far, and settled in to wait for our turn at the interior.
A half hour later, it was most definitely worth it! The National Archives has far fewer exhibits than any of the other Smithsonian buildings we'd seen, but the authenticity and grandeur of the exhibits more than accounted for making this one of the most amazing locations to visit in DC. The culmination of our tour of the Archives was the Rotunda, a huge mural-flanked dome beneath which lay those great documents of our American history, in authentic historic repose: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. I have never been much of an American history buff or even felt a great sense of patriotism most times, but standing a mere foot away from the ink and parchment embodying the resolute words of men from such a time long ago, carried a great gravity to itself and left me in awe of where I was and what I was seeing. Truly, the National Archives was the penultimate experience at the Smithsonian.
Feeling quite accomplished in our sightseeing already, we raced off to the last of the day's planned locations: the Iwo Jima Memorial. I had been told by my friend David Chesher that while in DC, if possible, I should see the US Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon. I had checked earlier online and found something hinting that they held a regular drill in front of the Iwo Jima Memorial every Tuesday at 7PM, thus we were hoping to get there in time to see it. On our way, we passed by the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building, and through the Navy Memorial; two more locations we had seen but had not expected to find!
We took the metro from L'Enfante Plaza down past Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon to the Rosslyn Station, where Gina got jilted by a bus driver who either didn't see and hear her banging on the door or didn't care. We finally got someone's attention to ask for the quickest route to the memorial, and after some garbled directions, finally spotted signs that led us toward our goal. We walked all four or five blocks from the station, getting to the memorial park just before 7PM... unfortunately, after checking online again to verify what I'd read earlier, I was disappointed to learn that the platoon was in France this week. France? On Memorial Day weekend? Oh well. The monument itself was quite a sight, one of the largest bronze statues we'd seen on our trip yet, and I felt quite satisfied in the day's activities.
I am sure Brad wished we'd taken it a bit slower on our hike to Iwo Jima however, and I have to thank him for being such a trooper as I go haring off to look at this or that interesting thing ;-) Which I did again shortly after, spying a large towering structure not far from the monument, and while Brad rested Gina and I hiked just a bit further and discovered the Netherlands Carillon tower, commemorating the liberation of the Netherlands during World War II. The hill where it stood also had a particularly nice view of the National Mall in the distance, blurred by mist, and we could see all the area between the Washington Monument and the Museum of Natural History.
Our cameras and energy spent, we hiked back to the metro station and headed to DuPont Circle for dinner and a return to the hotel. Tomorrow is the start of the conference for Brad and I, and we are switching hotels so need to be up a bit earlier to gather everything together and drag our luggage through the metro again. We finished up the day with a very excellent meal of sushi at a restaurant near DuPont Circle called Thai Chef, whose Volcano Rolls are exquisite.
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Pictures Taken: 745 and 1 video
Fallout 3 Locations Found: Capitol Building, National Archives
Fallout 3 Items Found: Transmitter Dish, Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights, Emancipation Proclamation
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