Washington DC

We are back from Washington DC with 500 pictures taken, lots of dirty clothes, tired feet, and a mind full of impressions. It was a wonderful trip, everything went perfectly and the weather cooperated. The only disappointment was Obama's absence from DC . I am reasonably sure he wanted to meet me, but his Presidential obligations got in the way.

Two observations of things that surprised me in the City proper. The first is how amazingly long the mall is from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial. It must be 30 blocks. With that ,the Mall needs a serious grass enhancement program. To be fair, there obviously are a lot of events on the lawns. They were just cleaning up from the Fourth of July and getting ready for a Folk Festival. So I imagine growing grass is a nightmare. We walked all 20 miles at least three times during the week, well at least it felt like it was that far.

The second surprise was how far the National Cathedral is from everything else. I always thought it was right down town, but it is high on a hill two or three miles from the rest of the impressive buildings. Everything else was as I had imagined. It does not take a lot of imagination as we see the Capitol every day on television, but seeing it in 3 dimension is such a thrill. And, OH my heavens, the history there!

The metro is interesting. We saw the longest escalator ever, and people run up and down all of the escalators. Those of us who use the escalators as a resting time have to stand to the right, or be flattened by the physically fit crowd. The most difficult part of the metro is buying tickets. After 20 minutes, three DC natives' advice, the metro helper's patience, and lots of money, we all bought our week passes. Every time we went on the metro, we saw groups of tourists starring quizzically at the ticket machines until some local came to help. As you enter the actual turn style, you place your hard won ticket in a slot and it is immediately sucked up. This startled and worried me as I thought I had lost my chance to ride before we ever started. The ticket does pop up in another place. (This became my favorite part of the subway ride.) I do not like being underground. I want to see the sun.

We loved seeing the White House. Being in those rooms is weird and surreal. I wish I could think of better adjectives. All of the rooms are a little smaller than I believed, but so wonderful to see.

The guides and security people were very nice and amusing. I am thinking they say so much of the same things, nothing is really new, but to us it was fun. One of the official men downstairs was asking another why the screen was up, as the Obamas were not "at home", so it is usually down then. To which another asked, "So, has anyone walked the first dog today?" Patty was relating this story to another fellow visitor upstairs when a security guard-guide heard her and said, "Don't you believe it. We do not take that dog out. We leave him upstairs with a big bowl of water, food and a wee pad," Sure they do. I wish we could have taken pictures. Just seeing all the portraits was worth the visit.

Two observations about the Archives. The Declaration of Independence is nearly faded to nothing. One of the people there said it is because it was taken around a lot in the old days, and no one thought to keep it out of sun light. The Constitution, really only written a few years later, is totally legible. The second surprise, I evidently did not listen closely in history classes, is that our First Amendment was actually the third one of the originally proposed. There were a lot of other interesting exhibits in the Archives. I got to listen to an actual recorded conversation between John Kennedy and the Governor of Alabama about an upcoming desegregation confrontation and whether Kennedy could count on the Alabama's local police, or whether he should call in the National Guard for protection. It was almost creepy and yet intriguing.

The Capitol is huge, of course, and impressive inside and out. Every state gets to have two statues on display in the Capitol building. States can replace one if they choose, but only two at a time will be kept on display. Missouri's are Thomas Hart Benton and one of the Blairs. Evidently, there has long been talk of sending Truman's statue to replace Blair. I would think. The Presidents get to be in the Rotunda, while every other State Statue may be any place in the building.

Mt Vernon needs a whole day to visit, we had three hours. It is not just the amazing house with 10 bedrooms, but the views, and the massive grounds. George Washington had 635 over night guests the year after he left the Presidency. It is no wonder he needed 10 bedrooms. I would have wanted to spend all my time just looking out at the Potomac.

We saw in the five days------ The Capitol and White House (inside and around),2500 statues, the Smithsonian's Castle, a number of the other Smithsonian's including the Zoo, and the Archives. We also saw the Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, WW II, Korean , and Vietnam Monuments and Memorials. We saw the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress, the National Cathedral, and the Old Post Office with bell tower. Then we saw the Potomac, Mt Vernon, Alexandria, George Town, Embassy Row and the Arlington National Cemetery. I think we did all we could possibly do in just five days. We walked somewhere between 25 and 275 miles and heard 3000 sirens (all the sirens seemed to be going nowhere for no reason.) I could not have imagined the whole week to have been any better then it was.