In August, Josh and I went on our long-awaited, much-planned trip to DC. We had wanted to go together basically the moment that we met, and were planning to go on our honeymoon, but the
Smithsonian Museum of American History has been undergoing renovation for the past few years (and what is a trip to DC without seeing the
Star Spangled Banner?) I know that by now this is old news, and many who read our blog (do people really read our blog?) may have already heard all about our trip, but I wanted to post some pictures and thoughts from my journal.
I'm going to organize this based on what we did each day and try to include pictures that didn't make it to our Facebook albums (along with pictures that did).
We stayed in a Best Western in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood, right next to George Washington University and these neat townhouses:
We walked down this street a few times a day. We got to be very familiar with it! We were also down the street from Embassy Row, which we drove past on our way to the temple.
These were my initial impressions (from my journal 8/19/09):
"Breathtaking (when we first drove into the city in the shuttle bus, I was speechless); the general inhabitants I've seen are are mostly younger than I expected (very few middle-aged white guys, though probably because Congress isn't in session); I expected to feel unsafe, but there are guards, police officers, and tourists
everywhere. It is ridiculously humid, which makes me exceptionally cranky-- I'm not sure I've sweated this much just walking down the street since Hawaii."
The Capitol
(disclaimer: I'm going to add new pictures later since some are no longer on this memory card)
From my journal:
"We started with a tour of the US Capitol at 9am. I couldn't sleep the night before [. . .], so I was in a crummy mood. It was the first experience Josh and I had with DC during the day in August, and it was really surprising to be soaking with sweat at 8:30am. When Josh had last been to DC in 1998 with a school trip, the Visitor's Center has not yet been constructed. It was awe-inspiring and I may have gotten a little teary-eyed during the introduction video (after they fixed the eardrum-splitting audio problems). Although we looked high and low, we could not find either of the two statues from Oregon! Josh took a million pictures of everything."
The new visitor's center!
Emancipation Hall, the main body of the Visitor's Center,
is in the background
Me with Lady Freedom, a replica of the statue on top
of the Capitol dome
A close-up of the Lady herself
The Apotheosis of Washington
If you read
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, this mural plays a part
The Statuary Room, where Congress used to meet, and which now houses two statues of notable people from each of the 50 states' histories (though not all statues are in this hall)
The above picture illustrates an issue I had the entire time (but mostly the first day) we were in DC. I wrote about it in my journal: "I thought I was going to fall apart yesterday because I wore new shoes that were supposed to be good for walking. At first they were okay, but as we walked more and stood up longer, my feet swelled and my toes were rubbed raw and blistery. [. . .] Thankfully, most museums have a plentiful array of benches from which to choose. Of course, my feet cause much complaint. Josh is handling me admirably well. I definitely married the right man!" After the first day, I wore sneakers. But we still walked A LOT! Josh says that, because of his mission, he can walk forever in any kind of heat, but I didn't go through that! In the above picture, I'm wearing the aforementioned shoes and sweating and just generally hating life.
The Library of Congress
From my journal:
"Then we took the air-conditioned underground tunnel to the Library of Congress where we saw the Gutenberg Bible and the first map that included 'America.' We even saw the Reading Room, though from a balcony and behind a glass. We also saw Jefferson's original contribution of books."
The lobby of the library (do libraries have lobbies?)
We also took a tour. When the docent asked, "What did Jefferson do?" I replied (like the wiseass musical-lover that I am), "He played the violin!" I think I made an enemy, but, seriously, what kind of a question is "What did Jefferson do?" The docent ignored me for the rest of the tour. (This was our first in a long string of docents and tour-leaders who asked stupid questions and receievd equally stupid answers in return from me).
The staircases had these cherubs, each celebrating an advancement
in areas such as farming and chemistry
The floors had all of the astrological figures.
Of course, I made Josh take a picture of mine-- Leo.
"We ate lunch at the US Capitol restaurant/cafeteria. It was interesting because there was the crowded main eating room with kids running around, then an overflow eating room about two feet away with maybe 20 or 30 tables, yet it was entirely empty except for an older couple and us. People had to walk past the overflow room to get to the food, yet 99% of the people chose the super crowded area. Josh said it was the mob mentality or lack of forethought, since the cash registers led into the main dining area."
It's weird what you notice when you don't have kids. I'm not sure why I included those thoughts about the cafeteria in my journal, except that now it's one of the most salient things for me about the Capitol.
The Supreme Court
Josh was extremely excited because Sonia Sotomayor
had just been elected as the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice
Josh geeked out at the fact that we were able to
peek our heads in the courtroom.
We poked around everywhere, and found our way to this back spiral staircase made from marble. Apparently each step is a separate piece, designed to pressure-fit into place. This picture really doesn't do it justice.
From my journal:
"After lunch we walked over to the Supreme Court building and saw the courtroom. We saw a diorama and a video in the basement (ground level? We had to climb what felt like about 100 stairs to get to the entrance).
"Then we took some pictures from the inauguration side of the Capitol, and then walked to the National Art Gallery, first in the East building because it was closer, but then we were told by a guard that the West building was better, so we walked over. [. . .] We did a mad dash through the paintings, then went to the temporary exhibit 'The Art of Power,' which was a collection of armor, weapons, and tapestries from Spain. Unfortunately we only got through 3/4ths of it before the museum closed."
