Day 12 - Washington DC Day 1

It took us some time to get from Fairfax VA to downtown DC, and when we stopped I had an urgent point of business - restroom! We dashed into the nearest building and voila, we found ourselves in the National Archives! Only the home of the Charters of Freedom! We couldn't take any photos inside, so here is Dwayne outside. It was pretty amazing. Every stitch of info for the last 300 years and more is stored in the National Archives. They even had a display with little kid's letters to the president. Of course, the big deal is the Charters of Freedom. In the rotunda they had the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Just outside the rotunda, they had one of the 4 remaining copies of the Magna Carta from the 13th century. There were many copies made at the time because they were sent out around the kingdom to let people know the new rules. These are powerful documents. The place was swarming with school kids, but still had a ton of gravitas. One school girl was too loud and giggly and received a lecture on the importance of freedom from one of the security guards. This was a stately black woman explaining to a young black girl that these things were important and why. I hope the girl will remember and won't be too embarrassed to remember it for the special moment it was.
After the National Archives, we strolled across the Capitol Mall to reach the National Air and Space Museum. This is the Smithsonian Castle on the left and the Washington Monument at center. This was taken from 7th Street.
This is the super cool space age sculpture that marks the National Air and Space Museum. I always love it how the space age is silver and sparkly.
Here it is reflected in the facade of the museum.
Here is Dwayne, happy as a little school girl. He was so excited! (BTW - he authorized this message.)
I was excited too! It's silver and sparkly!
Right as you come in the door - blammo - it's Gemini IV!
These capsules are small! Claustrophobia is not permitted! The Gemini IV marked the first space walk.


I liked this fanciful balloon model.

This represents the Apollo/Soyuz missions from the 70's.
A reproduction of the giant leap for mankind.
We were hungry mid-museum and ate at the McDonald's. I spoke with one of the managers. They have quite an operation and serve up to 8,000 people per day! There were 10 lanes for purchase and pick up.
These are some "Data Cards" and a navigation notebook from Gemini X. I thought it was so interesting. The "Data Cards" are basically check lists and typed notes. They looked like a technical grocery list. No ipads for these space cowboys!
These are some of the early airliners. Flight was very expensive and only the very wealthy used flight for travel for many years. Check out the advertising images.
Many of the early airliners looked a lot like rail cars inside.
Yum Yum! Nice linens too.
Not bad eh? I saw another picture from the late 60's where they were still serving meals from a tray table and would ask people what they wanted and scoop some on to their plate, like a buffet, but the stewardesses served the passengers.

This was another happy surprise for the day. We went to the bargain basement of the museum gift shop and BEHOLD - THE STARSHIP ENTERPRISE! (Instead of angels singing, imagine the high pitched and somehow moving yodeling from the opening credits.) This is the actual model that was used for the filming of the show. Dwayne was ecstatic!
Yay! I'm so glad we shopped!
Here is the Capitol Building from 5th.


Oh look! It's the Washington Monument behind those silly tourists!
This is the front of the National Gallery of Art. It's interesting that the public doesn't enter any of these buildings from the ginormous front doors. I'm guessing it's too difficult for security. All the entrances are on the sides. All of the National Museums are free, but they do scan you and your bags through security, somewhat like an airport.
The National Gallery of Art is stupendous. We saw signs posted that said we were not to take pictures of the art, but I saw lots of people doing so. I did take pictures of some of the architechtual elements. This is one of two rotundas.
These are the enormous marble columns that encircle the rotunda. All through DC, scale seems to be the critical expression for impression.
This is a lovely little garden rotunda at the other end. They were preparing for a beautiful event. I can't imagine what it was for, and couldn't get photos, but the flowers were beautiful!
The National Gallery of Art is two buildings joined by an underground concourse. This was really cool. The lights were programed to look like sunlight reflecting off of water.

One of the neatest things about visiting this museum is that I got to see so many of the works of art that I sold images of when I was at the Museum Company. As Madelyn left for Europe, she joked that she was going to do the Art's Greatest Hits Tour. Well, a whole lot of the world's greatest art is right here. I was especially excited to see all the Impressionists in person. At the store, we all became blase about these works because we saw them umpteen times every day. But, there is a reason people love them. They are quite beautiful and sometimes almost mystical. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that the oil painting reproductions we sold were actually pretty good likenesses.

Now, I like art. A lot. But this afternoon we joked, using phrases like "art fatigue" and "forced art death march." We got a little tired. We plan two days in DC, and I think one could easily spend a week. Sometimes it is hard to keep walking just to see as much as possible.
The museums all close around 5-5:30. We left and went in search of a snack. It turned out to be a beautiful day, but hot and humid. I kind felt sorry for all the folks in suits.
We found a nice place to eat - The District Chop House and Brewery. I had a steak salad.
Dwayne had a New York strip with mushrooms and white cheddar mashed potatoes. We also had some sweet and buttery cornbread.

We're still trying to figure out what we will prioritize tomorrow. We will definitely get an earlier start. We're staying in Landover Hills MD, not far from Fed Ex Field, home of the Washington Redskins. Poor Dwayne. Their museum and stadium gift shop are closed for the month of May for renovation. Doh!