They even had the Star Spangled Banner

This morning was the morning we needed after the oh-so-full day we had yesterday.  We started at our own pace with absolutely nothing on the schedule.  We decided to spend the majority of our day in the Smithsonian Museum of American History.  That’s the one I most wanted to visit.  It has all of the cool American things you hear about- Abe Lincoln’s hat, Dorothy’s ruby red slippers, Dallas’ own frozen margarita machine- the first of its kind.  We saw the original Kermit the Frog, Archie Bunker’s chair and the original George Reeves Superman costume from the old TV show.  We stood on a part of the stage from Woodstock and held a replica of Prince’s guitar.  It was very cool.  The first thing we saw was the original Star-Spangled Banner.  It was very, very large, and surrounded by a flurry of kids on a summer field trip.  

It was such a long day there that we ate lunch at their cafeteria.  It was actually very good, but if I can offer one pro tip- they sell food by weight, and apparently, items on a salad bar weigh a lot.  It was just what we needed to launch into the afternoon at that same museum.  It is so much, that you need to spend a lot of time there.  

We wrapped it up at that museum later in the afternoon and headed to the hotel for a nap.  It was a lot of walking, and our feet are almost used to the stand-and-shuffle move of museum visits, but naps are, indeed, magical.  

Dinner was to be in Chinatown.  I had been to Chinatown in my last DC visit back in 2012, but the neighborhood has changed.  After we went through the amazing decorative gate, there was a scene unfolding in front of us with a series of police officers and some folks (probably) breaking one or more laws.  There were roaming people who truly looked up-to-no-good.  We made our way to the restaurant we wanted to visit quickly, and at the close of what was a wonderful meal, our waiter confided in us that the neighborhood isn’t what it used to be.  Covid killed their business and it hasn’t recovered.  I felt bad for the guy- he seemed nice, if totally exasperated.  

Nevertheless, we walked pretty quickly to the gate when we left the restaurant, as we weren’t interested in lingering.  We made our way to the National Mall, and we visited exactly two amazing things before we decided it was time to pack it in for the night.  It’s another day where the step-counter on my watch has topped 20,000, so I will not be responding to accusations that I need to go to bed early due to my advanced age.  It was a big day, that’s all.  

The two things we had the opportunity to really check out were the Washington Monument and the World War II memorial.  The WWII one is relatively new, having been completed in 2004, and it’s absolutely stunning.  It’s a big ellipse shaped thing with pillars for each of the states and territories.  One end of the ellipse has a balcony that says Pacific and the other says Atlantic.  The center is all fountains.  It’s beautiful.  

The Washington Monument is exactly what you have come to expect, but when you get up close, it’s so much more impressive.  The bricks you see when you look at photos are about as wide as my arms when I stretch them all the way out.  It’s kind of amazing.  We have been trying to book entry to the inside of the Washington Monument for a while, now.  There was a promise online when we were back in Dallas that we could get tickets 30 days out.  That didn’t happen.  There are allegedly tickets you can get online for next-day visits, but you have to be a real quick draw at 10 am.  We’re trying again tomorrow.  I set an alarm on my phone for 9:45.  There are also a batch of same-day tickets that are released at something like 9am each day, so we will try that as a last resort.  We’ve got time, so we’ll see if any of that works.  

Other National Mall visits will certainly come later in the trip.  We haven’t made it to the Vietnam Memorial wall or the Lincoln Monument.  We have a lot to go and see, but we also have time to do just that.  Tomorrow, we will take the hop-on-hop-off bus tour we booked back in Dallas.  Cas is calling it the HOHO bus.  I like that.  This tour company has a bus that will take you all around to different sites of interest, including Arlington Cemetery.  From there, for a few more bucks, you can book a bus of theirs that runs through Arlington and tours you around the Cemetery.  We forked over the few bucks.  Why not?  I love that the former home of Robert E. Lee was where the Civil War dead were buried, and that’s how we got to where we are.  Serves him right for seceding and leading the rebel army.  Talk about the wrong side of history.  But more on that tomorrow.

For now, here’s a photo of some very fancy drinks you can get in Chinatown:

And of course, here are our photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/i5YWxcScDLHgbJqLA

See you after we ride the HOHO bus! 

Buildings, boats and Bullfeathers

Wow.  Yesterday was a very full day in our nation’s capital.  Cas and I woke up and went for a workout.  This is a recent plot twist- we hadn’t prioritized working out in previous trips, but our Italy voyage left us both heavier at the end than when we started, despite the insane amount of walking.  Workouts are probably in order.  And something happened at our hotel- nobody has been to clear on what.  Some kind of water damage or other happened prior to our arrival, so they made a deal with a very nearby Gold’s Gym to get all of their guests access to that facility.  So, for the first time ever, I worked out in a Gold’s Gym this morning.  It was exactly as much fun as any other gym on the planet- pretty much what you’d expect.    

We made our way back to the hotel for showers and a little get-ready time.  We started all of this pretty early so we could get out the door for a scheduled tour of the White House, so when the time came, we were back out and ready to get on the Metro.  We hustled a little bit, but we got there in time for our scheduled tour.  We did exactly what we were supposed to do- we wrote to our congressman and asked for tours to all of the pertinent things, but our guy only followed through with the White House tour, and I suspect it was because he needed only to forward that to the Executive Branch.  The FBI building, the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress and the Congress building- we’re on our own.  We broke down and booked most of those things ourselves, too- we just don’t have an adorable intern shuttling us around.  Last time I was around these parts, it was 2012, and I had a bow-tied Alex P. Keaton lookalike showing me and my younger brother the senate floor and the crypt.  I digress.  Every Capital visit is different.  This time, I saw a TON more of the White House and a lot less of Congress, but it was all very cool.  

But back to the start- the White House- where to begin?  It was great.  We saw the rooms that were available on the public-facing tour.  The dining room and the East room were huge, but I gravitated toward the hallway with the literal red carpet where I remember distinctly Barack Obama walked up to a podium and announced that Osama Bin Laden was dead.  I also remembered a very specific scene from a movie I liked with a staircase I saw today.  If you ever watched The American President, I walked past the staircase where Annette Benning and Michael Douglas walked into a very public fist date.  I know their actual staircase was a Hollywood replica, but it was a very good replica.  

From there, we decided to head back to our hotel.  There are rules to the White House tour, and they pretty much mean that you can’t bring anything with you.  As a result, we needed to retrieve my purse, our sunscreen and all of the bottled water. On our way, we walked through a farmers market, locating the best empanadas I have ever had.  Fun fact- the Farmers Market in DC has to sell only handmade goods.  Bottled water is rarely handmade.  We had the promise of an amazing lunch in our hands, but nothing to drink until a block or two away when we popped into a sandwich shop and bought water.  Once we finished our lunch on a bench at Franklin Park, we were back at the hotel to regroup.  Time for tour number two.

Tours of Congress start in their visitor’s center, which is underground with some very large skylights for a little bit of sunshine.  We went in and were processed through their lines for our tour.  The whole lot of us in the time-stamped group were ushered into a theater and shown a film about congress, then divided into five groups.  To join a group, you had to select a tour guide from whom you would retrieve a headset, then enter a line of people to tour around with.  We picked the guy you couldn’t really see well, because he was concealed behind two other people.  The first thing he said once we got our headsets on was that his group appeared quite small.  Perfect!  He took us around the building from the downstairs Crypt, so named for the unrealized intent to bury George Washington in it, to the rotunda where the portraits and paintings stole this show.  It was a pretty good tour.  Here we are after the tour ended: 

Afterwards, we felt less time pressure.  The timed-entry tickets to these things kind of put us on a clock, and when we accomplished them, we were a little more free.  So free, in fact, that we went exploring a bit.  We ended up at a place called Bullfeathers, which I am convinced I had heard about before, though I can’t remember where.  It must have come up in a movie or been a part of some political scandal.  Regardless, it was a very nice bar and restaurant with breezy patio seating and a nice happy hour.  I really think we were in the spot where all the interns and aides went for post-workday beers.  The clientele was young, they all seemed to know each other, and they were all dressed better than Cas and I were.  It was actually very cool.  I felt like a local- just for a moment.  

Bullfeathers was a stop on our way back to the waterfront.  We decided the best way to wrap up our day of touring was a water taxi tour on the Potomac, so we found a boat and got out on the water.  The ride was great, but the recorded tour information was pretty quiet, and we refused to go back into the enclosed part of the boat.  We’re right-up-front people.  Regardless, we saw the Jefferson memorial and the unusual looking Watergate Hotel, along with a hazy view of plenty of other things.  The haze was no joke, though.  There are some nasty wildfires roaring through parts of Canada right now, and the smoke has traveled south.  If you look at our photos, the ones from Thursday evening are fuzzy, and not because of our cameras.  

With the boat ride in the books, we were pretty wiped out.  It was time to find our way back to a bed, so we opted for a bus that took us to the Metro station.  We hadn’t used a bus until that moment, but the walk to the Metro station from the Wharf was a long one, and we had already topped 20,000 steps each by that point in the day.  (Whew!)

Today, we have nothing in particular scheduled, which is a nice change from yesterday.  We’re sleeping in and adopting a more leisurely pace.  I suspect there are museums in our near future.  More on that later.  In the meantime, Cas has our photo album up and running: https://photos.app.goo.gl/i5YWxcScDLHgbJqLA

Here we go- day three…

When you’re a tourist

If you never watched Burn Notice, I can assure you it’s a cute show.  The protagonist is a former spy trying to make his post-spying life work out, and each episiode starts with him explaining some feature of his old job.  He begins each narration, “When you’re a spy…”

Apropos.  Our only scheduled thing today besides a Southwest flight from Love Field to Reagan National was a time-stamped entry to the International Spy Museum.  That one was Cas’ idea, and he wanted to do that first, in case there was some content we learned that would help us interpret the things we’d see the rest of the time we’re here.  Spy museum accomplished.  Here’s how it all shook out: When you’re a spy, you land and take the Metro to your hotel.  Wait, that’s when you’re a tourist.  Regardless, we are all in for public transportation.  We got a seven-day pass, and we plan to wear it out just before we get a three-day pass for the rest of our time here.  

Still, when you’re a tourist… you have to eat lunch.  After being allowed an early check-in, we headed to a sandwich shop called the West Wing Cafe.  It’s a half-block off of Pennsylvania Avenue, and they have pretty great paninis.  That was along our path to the Spy Museum, and we forged ahead.  We actually walked through the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History on the way, too.  The greatest thing about the Smithsonian Museums is that they’re all free.  If you have five minutes or five hours, you can walk in and see something amazing.  We looked at the dinosaur bones for a bit, as well as the skulls that represent earlier versions of humans before we headed up to the second floor to check out rocks, gemstones and the oh-so-famous Hope Diamond.  

Weird girl confession time- I have never preferred Diamods over other stones.  In fact, I prefer Sapphires, then Rubies, then Emeralds long before their pale cousins, the diamond.  Still, the Hope Diamond is a very pretty blue, making it inherently more interesting to me that anything that those folks at the engagement ring store tried to persuade me to want just over seven years ago.  I know, I am not girl-ing correctly, but since when is that a surprise?  

From there, we walked over to the International Spy Museum.  Cue the When you’re a spy references, because we sure did.  It was a very cool museum.  There were spy gadgets, features about famous and infamous spies, explanations about why spy craft is still necessary in today’s world- and each person was assigned a cover story to “be” through the exhibits.  I was pretending to be a photographer from Puebla, New Mexico named something like Christine.  I had to collect intel as we went through and help capture the bad guy.  The staff there upon entry told us it typically takes two hours to get through all of the exhibits.  They clearly haven’t strolled through a gadget-laden space with Cas.  We showed up about two hours and 45 minutes before they closed, and we walked out of the inevitable gift shop with the rest of the folks being shooed out.  It’s a pretty great museum- I can recommend it, though I think the interactive portions are so popular that they should build additional ones.  Also, a few more benches wouldn’t kill them.  It was nearly three hours of stranding.  I digress.  When you’re a tourist, you can do that.  

From there. We went to the Potomac and found a nice bar for a light dinner with a few celebratory glasses of Prosecco.  We learned after a years-ago balloon trip that you should always follow a successful flight with a few sparkles, and we wouldn’t want to buck tradition.  

From there, we headed back to the hotel by way of a drugstore where we picked up breakfast bars and a few bananas.  I do so enjoy not rushing about in the morning in the mad dash to find breakfast.  

We’re turning in early tonight.  It was a very big day, and we have an early appointment tomorrow to take our White House tour.  We’re going through the rules and regulations now to make sure we don’t screw up.  No aerosols.  No water bottles.  No box cutters.  You get the idea.  Bring your ID, your flash-less camera or phone, and try not to touch anything.  

We’ll see what we can do, but maybe they can see if they can invite us in to chat.  I have some great ideas, especiallly about the education system, and specifically, the teaching profession.  I think they’d love to hear from me.  

More on our trips to the White House and to Congress tomorrow after we get there.  In the meantime, we’re getting our toothbrushes out and hitting the hay.  

Cas will have the photo album ready tomorrow, so go ahead and hold your breath.  It’s on the way.  Our hotel Internet leaves something to be desired.  

And here is a nice picture of us walking through a Smithsonian-adjacent garden on the way somewhere today: 

Good night, and wish us luck in our lobbying efforts- I mean in our tour- tomorrow.  When you’re a tourist, sometimes, you get confused.  

Carpe-ing the Diem

Three weeks ago today was the first day of our summer break.  Cas had to go in for one more half-day after I was done, so he says it’s now been three weeks and three hours since school ended.  That makes today the one-week-out mark for this summer’s adventure.  We leave in a week.  Hooray!  

This time, we’re off to see our Nation’s Capital.  Or is it Capitol.  Actually, (Thank you, Google) I believe it’s both- we will go to the Capitol building in the Capital city of Washington, D.C. 

Nevertheless, it may be of note to share what we’ve been up to while kicking around in Dallas for these three weeks.  Just because we haven’t yet traveled out of the immediate area, that doesn’t necessarily mean we’ve just been staring at our four walls, playing Mario Party and waiting to head off the the airport.  In the past three weeks, we have:

• Driven GoKarts
• Been to two movies
• Seen a minor league baseball game
• Taken a sunset cruise on Lake Ray Hubbard
• Taught our niece how to make gnocchi noodles
• Booked an impromptu room in Grapevine and enjoyed the wineries
• Been to a distillery and a brewery
• Been out on three double dates with three different couples
• Bowled with and without bumper lanes
• Celebrated my older brother’s birthday with a sufficiently fancy dinner
• Been out for a fancy dinner of our own with smoked old fashioneds and elk steak
• Played a round of indoor miniature golf
• Attended a comedic play called How the Other Half Loves
• Played a game of pub trivia 
• Seen a Shakespeare in the Park production of Much Ado about Nothing

If that list is three weeks in Dallas, I am very excited to see what happens when our flight lands in DC.  Oh, and we have an idea about a short trip to Chicago working, as well as the possibility of a quick jog down to in New Braunfels so we can float around on a pair of inner tubes.  This summer, we’re not doing a grand European tour, so we can really make some cool stuff happen stateside.  Turns out, this is the summer that the rest of the US is actually booking European and other international travel, though, so everything related to visiting someplace foreign is much pricier.  I guess we accidentally picked the exact right moment to skip international travel.  

We’re seizing the days- all of them- until they make us go back to work.  Stay tuned- we’ll share the Capitol in the Capital amongst other sites and scenes.  In the meantime, here we are, at the Pocket Sandwich Theatre: 

Carpe Diem, everybody!  Happy summer!