Day1 -- 4/25/09
A 3:15am wake up call from Mom...zzzzzz! Ironically, the same time I was awakened in Italy to return home from my last trip. I'm grateful to have stayed overnight rather than try to get to their house that early in the morning. By the time I get going I missed breakfast. A bad thing as I don't do well without food like most people. However, in this case, perhaps a blessing considering my motion sickness. I came prepared this time. I hurriedly munched a couple of fruit/nut granola bars and some of my quilting Grandma's double chocolate cookies (they made granola bars for us too, YUM!)
Two young passengers provided entertainment all the way to Minneapolis. One enjoyed the company of my teddy bear briefly. Everyone had a sick free flight, hooray!
We met Mom's brother at Reagan and took a one stop Metro trip to Crystal City. Mom and sister got new hats as we exited the Metro station. Mom's bright pink "I Love DC" and sis' "Obama" watch cap.
Only a couple of wrong turns brought our friend of many years, recently moved to South Carolina, to join us for part of the trip.
A big dinner at McCormick and Schmick's celebrated our safe arrival and first night in DC. We then wandered the Mall as a thunderstorm picked up. The rain was light, but the lightening over the Washington Monument was spectacular.
Everyone crashed quickly once we got home.
Day 2 -- 4/26/09
Up early and on our way. We discovered that Kix on the east coast are really mini jaw breakers. Tomorrow oatmeal, haha. First to the Washington Monument to get our tickets for later in the day. By the time we got there the temperature was in the 80's and climbing. We walked to the Lincoln Memorial first where we were met by my uncle. His comment, "You guys'd never make it in the CIA. What a bunch of tourists!"
World War II, Vietnam and Korean Memorials are all powerful in their own way. Surrounding each is an oppressive peace similar to the American Cemetery at Normandy. Am I worthy of their sacrifice? Could I make such a sacrifice if called upon to do so? One cannot visit these memorials without seeing a reflection of oneself.
The Natural History museum provided much needed relief from the heat. Lunch is expensive, but we are tourists, not pilgrims this time. Rocks, water, critters and creatures abound, everything from woolly mammoths and sabre-tooth tigers to whales and lions. Plus a few I never met in my science books. Sorry, the dinosaurs don't move like Night at the Museum, but it's fun to remember T. Rex chasing the bone.
Nearby is the American History Museum. This year's big exhibit is the Star Spangled Banner of Ft. Sumter, cleaned and restored. Several feet are missing off the end along with a few odd patches where souvenirs had been removed over the years. The room is darkened to prevent further damage, but even in low light the size jumps at you 30x34 feet (it used to be 42 before the souvenirs were removed).
Kermit the Frog is still in attendance, along with Dorothy's shoes, Lincoln's top hat and the First Ladies' dress collection. I missed Indiana Jones' signature hat, jacket and whip along with Mr. Spock's uniform and tricorder.
My favorite corner is still science and innovations. I'm not so big a Lego fanatic as I used to be, but I rediscovered my enjoyment of them. Silly Putty and Kevlar are also among the innovations. Kevlar being very useful of course. We still have a fascination with Silly Putty, but why do we call it that?
Day 3 -- 4/27/09
Today is Capitol day. I thought it was Grandpa's birthday, but that's another story. We had a tour of the Capitol at 10am during which I found the plaque designating exactly where Lincoln's desk had been when he was in Congress. We also found both statues from Washington state. One is of Mother Joseph. She founded the hospital, opened the Academy and is buried at the cemetery in downtown Vancouver, named in her honor.
The House gallery was empty. The Senate was almost empty. One presenter and the person preparing to present as soon as the other finished. Too bad no one really seemed to be listening except the stenographer. I saw at least 3, but none at the same time. The person who appeared to be in charge kept texting during the presentation. I understand these things are interminable, but that seemed very rude.
Later we went to the Air and Space Museum. This is my favorite thus far, little did I know there's still a whole other building. Until I tried to find my way around the building in the Mall using the map of the other building. Silly me. I'm still waiting to try on a mock-up space suit. I'm guessing I'd be able to flail a bit, but not stand or walk in it. Several real space suits, American and Russian were on manequins behind glass. Nearby, capsules, satellites and rockets completed the 'Star Trek' look. In another room, the Wright Brother's aircraft and the Spirit of St. Louis show us far we've come. From wood and cloth to steel and computers, 30,000 feet to the moon and beyond. And I thought Europe, Japan and the east coast were a long ways from Washington state.
Day 4 -- 4/28/09
Started the day early with a walk to the White House. The street is so far from the house itself, with good reason of course, but you can't see it very well. We went on to Ford's Theater for the presentation. Knowledgable staff gave a detailed account of every move that night. It seems a miracle that Lincoln lived as long as he did that night. We stopped at a tourist shop to see about a DC hat. My old one is long since fallen apart. I use it for painting and yardwork now. Nothing struck me except the number of cops outside. One of the shop's doors was blocked off by police and several others lined the street. Suits with earwigs were everywhere and then came the presidential motorcade. I spotted President Obama's shadow waving from inside of one of the limosines. Mom was impressed, but my sister was jumping up and down flapping she was so excited.
My friend and I headed for the International Spy Museum next. Mom, Dad and sister went to the Postal Museum. It seemed apt since sister was just about postal after seeing the presidential motorcade. The spy museum is expensive, but considering my interest in James Bond, Man From UNCLE and other such things it was too good to pass up. The Bond car alone is worth it. Each person picks a legend, or fake identity for the tour. Along the way there are computer stations representing stops by policing entities, testing your identity. I only found one, but I was glad it was just a computer with multi-choice answers. Had a person asked me I'm sure I'd have given myself away, not a good thing in the spy world.
NEWSeum, just a short ways off, posts the front page of a paper from each of the 50 states. Today's news: Swine flu (we're still worried about it and it's mid-October) and the president's first 100 days in office.
We also swung by the National Archives looking over shoulders at the Declaration of Independence and other documents.
Yummy Italian place on 23rd street has too much good food! Thanks to my friend for buying dinner.
Day 5 -- 4/29/09
Visited Department of Forest Service to see Smokey. (Sis very excited.) It's a small place, set up log cabin style, cute and outdoorsy. Next we jumped to the Department of the Interior, they require ID for passes, but had a neat art exhibit including an artist from Blodgett, OR. Most exercising done to get into Engraving and Printing. Walk around 27 acres 3 times to find tickets and get to the proper entrance for the tour. Since the 12 print sets are the same, we saw 1 of them.
After lunch we returned to the Mall and spent 3 hours, almost finishing the American History Museum in the 'short tour'.
Uncle's friend had us for dinner. It's not Mom's, but I still love lasagna!
Day 6 -- 4/30/09
Following a late start and a few phone calls Dad and I adventured our way to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Take the metro to Roslyn, SA to Dulles and pick up the shuttle at Dulles, the alternative is a $15 parking ticket. I still get my brain twisted by the name, much less how to pronounce it so we refer to it as the other 2/3rds of the Air and Space Museum hiding in a hanger near the Dulles Airport. Actually, there's no way it could hide, the place is massive as evidenced by the picture of me near the Enterprise training shuttle. The shuttle takes most of the space vehicle section, but this is barely a corner of the building. Aircraft from the early days of flight, WWII military including Enola Gay, P-51 Mustang and a handful of German planes, early passenger planes up through the Concord, helicopters and other vertical flying machines, SR-71 Blackbird 'spy' plane, Russian MiGs, F-14 Tomcats, most everything in between and memorabilia. Dad didn't want his picture taken with the 150 Cessna, apparently that's the one he never made it out of as he tossed his cookies a few times in training. The F-14 was another story. He wanted that picture, even just standing beside it. He also liked the Bell Telephone set in a scale space capsule. My favorite besides the shuttle was a mail box painted like R2-D2 of Star Wars. The model of the mother ship from "Close Encounters" was also on hand.
This was my favorite day.
Day 7 -- 5/1/09
Today we took the bus to Mt. Vernon, George Washington's home. I've not been here since 1995 and the history wasn't so important then. It was a vacation. Washington married Martha, a widow with 2 children and raised both them and the grandchildren, but they had none together. The museum has new wax figures created from various busts, pictures and hair clippings noted as Washington's, and when they were taken, found at the Mt. Vernon estate. Washington's death mask has also been used. Guests are told that the wax figures are probably the closest anyone of our time will see of Washington. Having scanned the death mask and other known factors into a computer the historians use a program that ordinarily ages missing children to make them easier to locate. In reverse, this program takes Washington from his death back to his days as a young frontiersman when he surveyed new territory. He was a colonel in the British army at 23. Later when asked to lead the Colonial Army he accepted, but refused a salary.
His grain barn had a slotted floor. As the harvest came in, the wheat was placed on this floor and horses walked around this circular barn. The wheat fell through, but much of the chaff stayed on the upper floor. This method of separation was efficient in it's time.
Day 8 -- 5/2/09
Sis ill overnight... no fun! Mom and I went back to the Library of Congress to see if we could find the correct door. When you go through the right door the signs are all there! We found the reader card desk and I was able to get my reader card. I hope to use it before it expires in two years, but we didn't have time today. On the way back we stopped at Arlington to see JFK. We made a quick detour into the visitors center and watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Picked up Dad and Sis and caught the shuttle back to the airport. After checking our bags Uncle joined us for an hour before we did the security dance and back home.
My new workbench. Dad and I built it. We added a shelf, discovered that if we'd left the scrap on the end of the shelf supports they would have been long enough. We had to go back for more bolts anyways. Thankfully we still have a plug in drill, I used it to finish up when the battery died on the other one.
We also visited the main Air and Space Museum as well as American and Natural History Museums. Mt. Vernon has 3-4 wonderful wax figures of George Washington. They used a computer generated model based on measurements of his clothing, hair samples labeled at dated that were found on site and used his death mask and a bust to model his face. The forensic folks believe these models give our modern world the closest view of Washington since those who knew him.
