Washington, DC–Part 2

I spent a couple of hours in the National American History Museum.  I find it interesting that some of the items made it to a History Museum.

Archie Bunker’s Chair--

Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers --

Even though it seems like a fairly new item, the electric car below is a 1904 model!

Years ago, a co-worker and I were taking a class in Reston, VA and drove into DC late at night to see some of the memorials.  I enjoyed it and wanted to see them again at night.  But I didn’t want to do this by myself, so I took a tour.   The tour started a little before sunset, so the first couple of picture don’t really look like night time shots.

White House -

Jefferson Memorial-

Jefferson Memorial from a different view-

MLK Memorial – (just opened last year)

Washington Memorial, with the capital in the background.  This was taken from the MLK memorial.

After several Downtown DC days, I decided I wanted a non-DC day.  I went to Great Falls Park on the Potomac.  I did a little bit of hiking and enjoyed the falls.

The Hirshhorn Museum is an interesting museum, much more modern than the other art gallery I went to (National Art Gallery of Art).

They were having a special exhibit, called Suprasensorial; Experiments in Light, Color and Space.  I don’t know that I would call some of the things art, but they were interesting.

The above was basically a blue room (not sure if paint or blue lights) and lights.  The fence like structure are fluorescent lights.

Below is Pablo Picasso’s Women with Baby Carriage.

I did go to the National Gallery of Art, but didn’t stay too long, this type of art isn’t really my thing.  I searched out a few of their big name items, such as the one below.

Vincent Van Gough’s Self Portrait.

One of the newer Smithsonian Museums, is the National Museum of the American Indian.

I appreciated the meaning of this sculpture.  It Symbolized the O’odham journey through life.  The description said “It’s about seeing what is ahead and choosing which path to follow”. 

The United States Botanic Garden was another way to get away from the museums and the crowds.  They were having a special exhibit on orchids, which made it even better!

The rose garden in the outdoor garden-

Some Orchids--

A room based on Oriental gardens-

While walking around the Mall area, I saw this--

McDonald’s has a couple of McDonald’s Express locations.  These are basically like lunch carts.  My guess is they could not get real delivery trucks to these locations, so they have this “Big Mac One” mini-mini van.  It is not road legal and they can drive it on the sidewalks.

One day, I thought I was going to be lazy.  The plan was to go to Arlington National Cemetery and then go back to the campground and do laundry.  I ended up walking about 5 miles at the cemetery. 

Changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier(World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam)--

I did not know that there is no longer a body in the Vietnam tomb.  He was removed from the tomb, and identified by DNA in 1998. 

Above is the Tomb of Unknown Soldiers from the Civil War. 

The Space Shuttle Challenger Memorial sits next to the Iran Rescue Memorial and the Space Shuttle Columbia Memorial.

I also went to the National Archives and saw the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution.  The cabinets that these were in, were interesting.  I watched a video on how they made these and then moved the documents.  I don’t remember exactly, but I believe the cases for these documents cost 5 million dollars.

If you are like me and prefer my normal outdoor and nature pictures, I only have one more blog on my Washington trip.