Day Fourteen - Washington D.C.

We barely made it out of the door before eight this morning, but we took the car down to Union Station and found parking. The street parking outside of Jen's building is only two hour parking during weekdays and work hours. While we were walking to the Metro in Union Station, Bryce called! :) It had been awhile, so it was fantastic to hear his voice (as it always is :) ). This trip is helping time fly by!

We finally caught the Metro downtown (we had to wait until I was off the phone, since I kept losing service everytime we tried to go underground), and made it up to the base of the Washington Monument. We thought we were late, but we managed to get tickets for noon. The tickets are free, but you have to have a timed one to be let in to ride the elevator to the top.

Jess' ankle was still hurting, so we walked down to the CVS Pharmacy that we had seen last night to pick up a brace and some sports tape. On our way back, we headed into the Ronald Regan Building (through security) to find something to eat in the food court. It was decent, but nothing special. We spent the next hour or so looking though the bottom floor of the Museum of American History.

A little backstory of this: When I was in DC a few years ago, I was most excited to see this museum. Unfortunately the entire building was closed for renovations. They had a decent-sized exhibit inside of the Air and Space Museum which included such things as Lincoln's top hat, a pair of Dorothy's red slippers (along with the first technicolor video camera), handwritten lyrics from Garth Brooks' (my love) song "Beaches of Cheyenne" (along with one of his guitars), the bar from the show Cheers, Sandra Day O'Connor's robe and numerous other artifacts of American culture. It still wasn't enough, I wanted more! Thus, the highlight of this stop on our trip has been the hours and hours that I planned on spending in the Museum of American History, particularly the National Treasures of Popular Culture exhibit. Remember this, because you will be quizzed on it later.

About thirty minutes before our tour was scheduled to start, we left the museum (free entry to all Smithsonian museums...as many times as you want!) and headed across the street to the Washington Monument. We waited in line for a short while and then were allowed to enter the building, have our backpack searched by security, and enter the elevator for the 77 second ride up the 555 foot tall building. It was well worth the early morning to wait in line for the tickets. The view from each of the windows at the top is incredible. Each wall has two windows with a picture above that details what you can see from each window. The White House is visible, as is the Capitol, the World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. As I said, the views were truly incredible. But more elevator loads were constantly being deposited and the building isn't that large, so we loaded up and began the descent. Along the way, the elevator slowed, the windows turned clear (from being cloudy) and we were able to see some of the stones that had been dedicated, beginning in the 1850's. One in particular caught my eye, donated from California "the newest sister to the Union."

Oh, and the Monument changes color partway up because funding ran dry and the Monument stood uncompleted for a number of years before the government took over building. Though the stone came from the same quarry, it was a different color when they began building again.

After the trip up the Monument, it was back to the Museum of American History to continue our tour. We had been told that a guided tour began at one, but the guide left early so we decided to finish it on our own. The Museum has three floors of exhibits, each with an East and a West wing. The exhibit The Price of Freedom: America at War was particularly touching. The exhibit began with the early stages of the Revolutionary War and continued on through the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea, the Cold War and Vietnam, with a small section devoted to September 11, 2001 and the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Going back to my previous story about this Museum) I had very high expectations for this Museum. I literally have spent years building it up in my head. While the exhibit as a whole impressed me, I was disappointed by the lack space devoted to the First World War, the Korean War, Iraq (including Desert Storm) and Afghanistan, along with other conflicts. While I understand that the exhibit was dubbed "America at War," I think that more attention should have been paid to other conflicts that America and American soldiers have been involved in. And knowing that the Museum renovation was completed in 2008, I expected to see more recent information.

A quote from a British commander "whoever looks upon them as an irregular mod will find himself much mistaken, they have men amongst them who know very well what they are about."

One of the Amendments to arise after the Civil War.

The wall reads "A Television War"

A passing guide pointed out that this was John McCain (a photograph staged by the North Vietnamese to show that they were treating POWs well), but his name is not written on the plaque nearby.

Okay, now that I'm (temporarily, probably) done being nit-picky, the section on World War II was hugely impressive, with an interesting display of government propaganda posters that I enjoyed seeing (along with everything else of course).

The Vietnam section had a display case devoted to some of the mementos left at the Wall. The notes were hard to read; "remembering a sweeter, gentler time. we never dreamed serving the people would end this way. God Bless You. Rest in Peace," "May God keep you safe in His hands," Here's the beer I owed you. Twenty-four years late. You were right, I did make it back..." The notes are displayed with the items left with them, along with other items left on their own: a beer, a bottle of Jack Daniels, a saxophone, a Silver Star (alone with the certificate and a written note; "to Dad, love your son", a watch (with the note "this time we won), and more. And yes, I was crying again...I'm such a girl.

The section on September 11 included a piece of one of the towers, along with images from that day.

We finally left that exhibit, and headed to the National Treasures of Popular Culture exhibit. I saw Dorothy's slippers, Lincoln's top hat, Kermit the Frog, a small selection of items from the Olympics (Apollo Ono's skates), a hand drawn sketch of Peanuts (by Charles Schultz), Archie Bunker's chair, Fonzie's jacket and a few other items. Then I expectantly, and excitedly, went to move on to see the real exhibits. (Cue background information from earlier) ...And...that was it. That particular exhibit is currently under construction at the Museum. Imagine my dismay (and anger, oh yes, anger) when I was left with seeing less popular culture items in a temporary exhibit of that specific topic, than I had seen when it was combined with a temporary exhibit of the ENTIRE Museum. Oh yes, I was pissed. But on the bright side, it gives me another reason to come back (like I needed one :) ) and drag Bryce along with me. :)

After leaving the Museum in a huff, Jess and I headed down to the Metro and took it down to the Capitol Building on the other end of town.  We sat and rested on the Capitol steps for a little while before heading back to the Metro. It was almost 5:00 by now and we had been walking since 8:00. Needless to say, our feet were killing us. Poor Jess, who had been limping around all day. Now, I had tried to be nice and offered to either carry her, find a wheelchair, or head home to Jen's, but she's a trooper and insisted on making the most of our few days in the city.

The view from the Capitol steps.

Our next stop was Hello Cupcake on Dupont Circle with Jen and her roommate. The cupcake was creative (chocolate cupcake with a peanut butter frosting and a hershey kiss) and good, but not out-of-the-ordinary delicious. On our way there, we walked past A Burger Joint, and were enticed by the smell of charbroiled goodness. Not having eaten since breakfast at 9:30, our stomachs were rumbling. After Hello Cupcake (life is short, eat dessert first!) Jess, Jen and I followed our noses (and Jess' sense of direction) back to A Burger Joint and found the most delicious hamburgers I'd had in a long while (completely excluding O'Brady's). Jess and I just tried the regular "A Burger;" mine with the "Mojo Sauce." I'm not usually a sauce fan, but I decided to step out of the box for once in my life. It was ah-ma-zing! The french fries were made with fresh potatoes, and you could certainly tell. The place had a laid back, eighties vibe, with Sixteen Candles playing on the TVs and Michael Jackson playing through the speakers. This is definitely a must-eat in the DC area.

The three of us then hopped back on the Metro (check out this massive escalator to take us down to the station below Dupont Circle!) and headed back to Union Station to pick up the car. We ventured out to navigate the city streets (me driving!) on our way to see the Jefferson Memorial at night. It isn't near any Metro stations and we weren't willing to walk that far. Plus there was a parking lot right there, how were we to refuse? The Jefferson Memorial lies right across the Tidal Basin from the rest of the Mall.

Farther down along the Tidal Basin is one of my favorite memorials in DC; the one dedicated to FDR. Roosevelt served four terms in office, and all four are represented in a park-like setting, with water features and quotes etched into the granite. Truly beautiful and like all of the monuments, stunning at night. The park isn't as well lit as the others, so picture-taking is difficult, but this is one of the many water features in the park.

Finally, the girls decided that I had dragged them around for long enough and we headed back to the apartment (9:30 already!), to plan out the agenda for tomorrow and recharge our batteries (literally and figuratively). Jess and I are considering leaving DC another day early (tomorrow afternoon instead of the next morning), giving us some time to spend near the ocean.