After hitting DC pretty hard last weekend, we took Monday off. Amy and the girls took a trip to the zoo on Tuesday. It was a very warm afternoon and they said the animals weren’t putting on much of a show. However, the admission price was free, so they didn’t mind:
I took Wednesday off, however, and we all made another full day of sight-seeing. We picked up some gallery passes to the Senate and the House of Representatives courtesy of our Indiana Representative Andre Carson:
Lunch outside the Capitol Building:
After lunch, we visited the Congressional galleries, but I couldn’t take any photos. We did witness a vote underway in the House and a speech about gun control in the Senate:
Next up was the Supreme Court building, the facade of which is apparently under renovation:
It was very cool to see those nine chairs. Ironically, this building smelled like a church.
Then we stopped next door at the Library of Congress:
This is Thomas Jefferson’s book collection that he sold to the Library of Congress after their own book collection was mostly destroyed by fire. This is a bad photo, but I was literally shooting from the hip (photography of this collection was not allowed; I had to be quick).
The Library of Congress is a stunningly beautiful building:
This is the Gutenberg Bible, one the first books to emerge from Johann Gutenberg’s printing press in 1455. One of the greatest inventions in human history, the printing press allowed the mass production and accessibility of accumulated human knowledge. This is one of the coolest artifacts I’ve seen on this entire trip.
It was amazing what a difference a couple days can make. The cherry trees were in full bloom, much fuller than what we saw the previous weekend:
There was a very cool barred owl that would swoop through our campground throughout the week. Amy was trying to lure him closer to the RV by playing owl sounds she found on YouTube:
Saturday was the beginning of another intense sight-seeing weekend, starting with George Washington’s Mount Vernon home:
Hey look, it’s me, from the future!:
The tombs of George and Martha Washington:
That afternoon, we visited the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum. It’s out by Dulles International Airport, yet it’s part of the Smithsonian system. Lots of amazing stuff there. I couldn’t believe I was standing under the Enola Gay, the airplane that dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Very sobering.
This is hardly a centerpiece of the museum, but seeing the spaceship prop used in “Close Encounters of the Third kind” brought back memories from another era of this trip. (We watched that movie after visiting Devils Tower — also part of that movie — back in July.)
The Space Shuttle Discovery:
Sunday morning started with a trip to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History:
As we should have expected, there is just so much fascinating stuff to absorb there. I really enjoyed all the exhibits on human origins.
We saw the Hope Diamond in all its 45+ carat glory:
Unfortunately, the only photo I have of our next stop — the National Archives — is this outside shot. Photography is strictly forbidden inside, and there are guards everywhere to make sure you comply. But it was otherwise a big highpoint seeing the Magna Carta of 1297, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence, up close and personal. To see these documents — the tangible manifestations of such grand ideas that have shaped our society — is quite amazing.
On to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum:
Emily, taking in Amelia Earhart’s iconic red Lockheed 5B Vega:
The pièce de résistance: the Wright Flyer. Amy and the girls (and me, via osmosis) did a lot of road-school studying of the Wright brothers during the weeks leading up to our stop at Kitty Hawk, so it was rather meaningful to behold their little invention that changed the world:
A lovely view of our capitol after a busy weekend:
Last stop for the day, the Smithsonian Museum of American History:
As with the other museums, there are approximately 1 billion things to see and learn about here. These are just a few things where I bothered to raise my camera and take a picture…we were all so tired by this point.
Here are the benches from the Woolworth’s store in Greensboro NC that is now the International Civil Rights Museum (we toured that back in November). Yet another moment where two eras of our trip have come together.
This little wood desk is where Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence:
Julia Child’s kitchen:
We got a kick out of this; it’s the placard by a display showing a family living out of a trailer, one of the pieces in the “America on the Move” exhibit about transportation. Carrie has been calling us “trailerites” ever since. :)
As I mentioned, we were exhausted both physically and mentally by the end of the weekend. One’s legs can only walk so far, and one’s mind can only absorb so much.
We packed up Monday and drove about an hour and half to a sleepy little campground somewhere in VA. I don’t even know what city I’m in and I don’t really care. There is nothing to do here, and we love it!
We’ve been taking it easy this week and catching up a bit on work and school. Washington DC has not seen the last of us, however. We’re gearing up for one last mission this weekend to see Ford’s Theater and the Holocaust Museum.