DC Adventures!

(Or More That You Ever Wanted To Know About Our Trip!)
We had some free time to do some site seeing on our recent trip. One day we decided to ride the Metro from Vienna, Virginia to the Smithsonian and we had fun figuring out the Metro parking lot and riding into town, part above ground and part underneath.

We decided to explore the National Museum of American History which was closed for renovation 2 years ago when we were there.

Since our time was limited we decided to take a 1-hour "Highlight Tour." Our guide took us quickly through all three floors of the museum. Now we feel prepared to go back and spend some time and really see what they have there. Our guide was especially excited to show us Julia Child's kitchen--which is her actual kitchen and everything in it moved piece by piece to the museum.


When I visited the museum 40 years ago the original Star Spangled Banner was out in front in full view for all to see as you walked in the main door of the museum. But I guess all that light took its toll because now it is housed in a special dark room under special glass, but it is still something to see!


On another day we had a couple of hours in the morning free, so we headed into the Virginia countryside (which is very beautiful) to visit Gunston Hall which was the home of George Mason. So who is George Mason, you ask? We wondered that too as we drove around Virginia seeing signs for George Mason University. It only took a few clicks on the Internet to learn that George was an American patriot, statesman and delegate from Virginia to the US Constitutional convention. Along with James Madison he is known as the Father of the Bill of Rights. He was visited at this home by all of the famous statesmen of the day so it was fun to think about those men visiting here.

Wouldn't you love to have a tree-lined lane leading up to your home like this?

This is the actual home built in 1760. Although it doesn't look as impressive as Monticello or Mount Vernon, he was a very wealthy man of his day owning and operating this 5,500 acre tobacco and wheat plantation on the Potomac River. And there certainly weren't the crowds that you get as those other places, so we enjoyed it a lot. We had a private tour of the home as we were the only people there for the 10:30 tour. You can't see it in this picture but the kitchen was actually a whole separate building, leaving lots more room in the house for other things.

Here's George:

The Masons had 12 children so they built this little school house on their property. The schoolmaster lived upstairs. That's my kind of home school!

This is one panel of the wallpaper in one of the sitting rooms in the house. A bit over the top for our day but was very "Georgian" which is the style of architecture and decorating used in the house.

On the day Dan had meetings I hopped aboard the DC Trolley Tour. They tell you interesting things as you travel all over the area. You can get off at any of the various stops and then hop back on later.


I decided to see the newest museum in D.C., the Newseum!

On the outside of the Newseum they have today's front page (so updated daily) posted from every major newspaper in the world (you can see them in the photo). After viewing an orientation movie in the basement of the building, they suggest you ride a special glass elevator to the 6th floor and start your way back down. So I spent some time out on this terrace where there are terrific views of Washington D.C. That's the Canadian Embassy right next door with the Capitol in the distance.

Some other highlights of my visit to the Newseum: A special exhibit called "G-Men and Journalists" where I was especially interested to see the Unabomber's Cabin. Another special exhibit were artifacts that are owned by the author of "Manhunt," James Swanson, so lots of things related to Lincoln and his assassination. (Good thing because I first got off at Ford's Theatre and found out from the notice on the door that it was closed for a couple of days). They had 8 12-foot sections of the original Berlin Wall and an actual 3-story Guard Tower. There was also an interesting display about 9/11 and the reporters who covered it. But my favorite area was on the 5th floor where they had a display called Historic Front Pages with front pages spanning 500 years of history. It was interesting to see history unfolding through the headlines of the day.

I had literally only a few minutes before I had to catch the last Trolley of the day but I couldn't resist heading across the street to the National Gallery of Art in the building below. Even in a few minutes I got to see many great works of art!

As I was waiting at the stoplight to cross the street to catch the bus I snapped this photo of the buildings in the area. What a great place to hang out!

I got back to our room at the Marriott Wardman Park hotel about 10 minutes before John and Sara arrived to join us for dinner.

We had a pleasant evening together walking to a restaurant and then afterwards to Baskin Robbins and back to the hotel for visiting.

P.S. If you're still with me:

One evening we got to watch a performance of this group: Capitol Steps: We put the MOCK in Democracy! I think we laughed almost continuously for the full hour. "The Capitol Steps began as a group of Senate staffers who set out to satirize the very people and places that employed them. In the years that followed, many of the Steps ignored the conventional wisdom ("Don't quit your day job!"), and although not all of the current members of the Steps are former Capitol Hill staffers, taken together the performers have worked in a total of eighteen Congressional offices and represent 62 years of collective House and Senate staff experience." They were certainly excellent singers. Some of our favorites were: "Help Me, Honda" (from the Beach Boys) sung by 3 GM execs; "Oprahbama" sung to the tune of "Oklahoma"; "401K" sung to the tune of "YMCA"--commenting on our current economic situation; "Obama-mia" (to the tune of "Mamma Mia!"); and "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Korea?" sung by a Kim Jong-Il look alike. Very current and funny stuff!