Trip to Washinton D.C. with James

This is Michael Here- James and I were able to have a trip just the two of us to Washington DC. It was my first time there and I have wanted to go ever since I can remember. Here is what we did!

Day 1
I won some roundtrip tickets from a private airport about 10 minutes from our house to Dulles.  Got to Dulles and took a taxi to the main terminal and caught the metrobus to DC. We arrived and walked to the hotel- google walking directions took us to dead end street at the top of a very long hill. It took us through a wilderness preserve without trails! The walk ended up being about two miles to the hotel.

After settling in we went first to the International Spy Museum. It was awesome. You go in and they 'brief' you and give you a cover for the rest of the trip through the museum. You stop at computer kiosks and they ask you questions about your cover. James and I passed. There was also a secition where you could spy from the ventilation shaft on the main gallery. There are signs everywhere that say that you may be being watched. They showed tons of real life spy gear and talked about famous spy operations and their consequences.

Then we went to the smithsonian national portrait gallery. It was very cool to see American artists. We only spent an hour and could have spent four.

Next we walked through the naval memorial and went to the national archives. There were no lines and we were able to breeze through security. One note on security- none of the main entrances are used anymore. They have beautiful bronze doors etc. but no one can use them. You have to go in side and back entrances and go through metal detectors and get your bags searched.
We went in and the room is huge. Tall marble columns surround you. There are brass cases that have the founding documents in them. The Declaration of Independence is there. So is the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. They are printed on sheepskin parchment and very faded. You can see the animal skin textures and the faded writing. It was a very reverent place. They guards said they no longer lower the documents into the ground but keep them up at all times. They just close it to the public when there are threats.


We then went back to the national mall and went oh the smithsonian castle. It is a Visitors center for all of the smithsonian museums. They are all free to visit but have short business hours 9 to 5:30 everyday except Christmas. We made a 30 minute trip into the air and space museum and  then went to eat  We then went on the metro to union station to visit Vittorios. It is a restaurant recommended by Hank for their delicious chicken salad sandwiches and gelato. I think it lived up to the hype! I will go back.

It was fun navigating the city by metro train. Very fast and easy to get around.
We then made our way back to the smithsonian station which is close to the washington monument. The monument is closed due to an earthquake that hit in August. It is much larger than it seems in pictures. I guess there is no frame of reference for size since there are no tall buildings around. We got as close,as we could. It was dark by this time and we decided to walk down to the Lincoln memorial. It is about a mile from the monument. On our way there we passed into the WWII memorial.

It was stark to see the granite columns and bronze wreaths in the dark as they were lit up. We found the Ohio column. We then passed through the Vietnam memorial. It was not lit up but you can see the long black granite wall with the names inscribed. The mall is under construction. The reflecting pool is being redone since it was leaking so bad. The center of the mall is filled with construction and dirt. We walked up to the Lincoln memorial. It was very quiet and not a lot of people at that late hour. The statue of Lincoln is lit up and is pure white. The stone of the structure is much darker.  On either side of the statue are galleries with speeches on the walls one side has the Gettysburg address. As we were standing there reading it a woman comes up and starts reading too. Then she comments- “they were so full of it. No one believed that.” I didn't believe what I was hearing. I asked if she knew what she was reading. She said she was not sure. Then I explained that it was written by Lincoln during the civil war and gives his view on equality and why they were in a war. It told her he totally believed it and we went to war to prove that belief. She said she was just rusty on her history and thanked me. It was great to see and ponder the sacrifices the memorials remind us of.
We were so tired by this time. As we were walking back to find the closest metro station we were approached by pedi taxi. It was a bicycle taxi. He gave us a ride and a short tour to our metro station. It was fun. The temp was about 58 F or a December evening it was perfect.



We caught a bus and were given bad directions on how to get back to our hotel. Since it was past the normal run times the schedules changed. We Waited an hour for a bus that should have come by every 15 minutes. We finally made it back at 10:30 exhausted! We went to Safeway to get breakfast for the next morning and went to bed.

Day 2
We got up and went right out. We had a reservation at 9 am for a tour of the Capitol building. Our shuttle was delayed and we got to the metro at full rush hour. The trains were packed and the platforms a madhouse. I was very worried I would lose James. I could see it happening in that kind if crowd. It was about 60 degrees but but everyone was dressed in heavy winter coats.  We were the only ones in shirtsleeves. We made it just on time to the Capitol.


There is a new visitors center that was built underground on the south side of the Capitol which is the front. We got in and went and took pictures in the lobby. We joined our tour and watched a a movie on the Capitol and it's construction. We then went on a guided tour with about 10 other people. We saw the old entrances the statuary, the rotunda and former house chamber. there is a trick to the acoustics that you can whisper in one area and hear it plainly across the room. We saw the statues from the states and talked about current politics. The speaker of the house is from Ohio and we talked about that. We had people from Australia, China, England, and several states. It was a lot of fun.

 We then at lunch at the Capitol cafeteria. We then went to the library of congress. It is connected by an underground tunnel. It was raining very hard by now so we used the convenient path.  It is very beautiful. We went to see the first world map that included the united states.  It was given to the us by a German businessman. James loved it.

The Supreme Court is next door and happened to be hearing oral arguments. We went and waited in line since they still had a few seats in the gallery to watch. We waited about 40 minutes in the pouring rain. We went in and were able to watch court in session. The case was on the confrontation clause. It is that an accused person can confront their accusers. The challenge was asserting a person who performs a lab test- comparing one sample of evidence to another( blood etc.) are actually accusers of the person on trial. They’re just comparing a sample and really can only attest to the fact that a test was done correctly or not and samples matched. I think it is just a ploy for accused to get off if the lab worker is not a good witness on the stand- (One of the justices mentioned that.) it seems some trying to call into question all evidences to get off on a technicality. Very interesting, we were in seats where we could come and go. We stayed 45 minutes. It was interesting to see the justices.  I know this is a very small part of their work but it was cool. Clarence Thomas was rocking back and forth rubbing his head. Other justices asked tons of questions and challenged the attorneys.

After lunch we went in the rain to ride the metrobus to the bureau of printing and engraving. We walked right into the last tour and saw where anyhow they print our paper currency. The whole process is very complicated and interesting to watch.
We went to the air and space museum again for a few hours. We went to all the galleries. James really like the 747 cockpit and we saw an IMAX movie on the 787.


I really liked the moon lander and galleries about the moon missions. James also liked the drones on display. There was a photography exhibit on jets that I thought was amazing.
Went back early since we were so tired and went out to eat in Georgetown near our hotel.

Day 3
We took our time in the morning. We rode the metrobus to near the Whitehouse and went to see it. There are tons of temporary fences and you can't get very close to it. It was still raining.

We then went to the American history museum. Our favorite part was the star spangled banner exhibit. It is a huge flag and they relate the story of how it was written. Then you go in a darkened room so the light won't degrade the flag more. And it is playing softly in the background. It is very touching to hear the music and see the flag Francis Scott key saw and was inspired.  After we went back to our hotel and made our way by metrobus to Dulles airport. We then went to the Steven F. Udvar Hazy Air and Apace museum. It is a companion to the museum on the mall but is much bigger and has many more planes. James loved the sr-71 blackbird.  It happened to be in the Transformers 2 movie. They had a display on that. I liked the concorde and the space shuttle enterprise.

It never went to space but was the atmospheric flight model and flew all the test flight and piggy backs for transportation.  We saw another IMAX movie on being a fighter pilot and went back to the airport. We flew on a private charter and had to get to that terminal. So we rode a rental car shuttle to across the street and crossed the street in the pouring rain. James was cold and soaked by the time we got there. Every one arrived early so we took off 45 minutes early! It was a great trip.