Washington, DC and the Museums - 6/6/2012
Sarah and I began our day of museum visits with a ride downtown on the metro. As we walked from the parking garage to the subway
station, I noticed a airplane flying overhead. It was mostly silver with blue on the front and had four engines. It was climbing into
the sky as if it had just taken off. I thought it was coming from the general direction of where I thought Andrews Air Force Base is
located. With all this in mind, I said to Sarah that I thought is was Air Force One. Once we were on the subway I looked up the
president's schedule for the day. Sure enough, he was scheduled to fly out at about that exact time. Once again, we had another
lucky chance to see the president fly over.
Once we arrived on the Mall, we toured the Museum of American History. We saw many great exhibits and artifacts. Dale Earnhardt's helmet,
the Oscar from Casablanca, the only video camera to have captured images of the first plane attack in New York City on September 11, 2001,
Kermit the Frog, Archie Bunker's chair, Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves and Dorothy's ruby slippers were just a few of the items we saw.
Two great exhibitions were "The First Ladies", which included two dozen dresses worn by former first ladies and "The American Presidency",
which included over 900 items. Seeing the Star-Spangled Banner was very moving and brought a tear to my eye.
Click here to see my pictures from the Museum of American History.
Then we walked next door to the Museum of Natural History. The museum featured scenes of animal, the National Gem Collection, the
Hope Diamond and mummies. The exhibit that featured the rescue of the Chilean miners was very touching. Seeing the letters written
by the miners' children really got me choked up.
Click to see my photos from the Museum of Natural History.
It was well into the afternoon and we were getting hungry. We ventured into the neighborhood just north of the museums filled with
government offices. We came across Pi Pizzeria on F Street. We had a great deep-dish pizza called the Kirkwood; mozzarella,
Italian meatballs of hormone-free pork and beef, red peppers and basil.
We walked back towards the area of the museums and noticed signs for Ford's Theater. It was just a short walk out of way. We
snapped a few pictures of the theater and the house across the street where Lincoln died. The sidewalks in the area were filled with
schoolchildren.
Next on our list was National Archives, but the line was out the door and onto the sidewalk. So we decided to skip it and move on to
see the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden across the street. The sculpture garden featured several large sculptures and a huge
fountain. There was a light rain falling, so Sarah and I took the time while the shower passed to relax on a park bench under one of the
numerous shade trees.
Click here to see my pictures from the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden.
As the afternoon drew late and the museums were about to close and with a large line still outside the the doors of the National Archive we
decided to head back to the subway and to our hotel for the evening. Near the entrance to the metro was the U.S. Navy Memorial. It
was another stroke of luck that we stumbled upon a military memorial on this particular day, June 6th - D-Day. Today was the 68th
anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy.
Click here to see all my photos of the U.S. Navy Memorial.
We rode the rush-hour metro back to the hotel for our final evening in Washington, DC. It was another good day of weather with perfect
temperatures and only one light, brief rain shower.
Tomorrow... National Air and Space Museum at Dulles and the long drive home.
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