Our Nation’s Capital

    We have spent the last week being tourists in Washington, D.C. I can’t begin to cover everything that we have seen and done. We played real tourists and took two bus tours, one was DC by day.  (A nine hour tour. Lots of time to stop at museums and monuments but still not enough.) And the other was DC by dark. This was a nifty way to see things. Having been here a few times before, it was fascinating to see what things had changed. We also did the “General Public” Capitol tour, which is what you see if you just walk up to the visitor’s center and sign up for a tour. It is free and lasts about an hour. We had also taken the opportunity to contact our Senator (Pat Roberts from Kansas) and got scheduled for a tour led by one of his interns. The intern for our tour was a K-State student, as was another intern that welcomed us into the Senator’s office in the Hart Building. We were really lucky on that tour. We were the only folks on it, so it was like having our own personal guide. We got to ride the underground subway train that links the Senators’ offices with the Capitol. I never even knew it existed! 

    We spent about two hours and went to several places that were not a part of the General Public tour. Given the choice, I would wholeheartedly recommend the Senatorial tour.

    We spent some time at the WW II Memorial. This memorial was still under construction the last time we were here in 2003. It has been completed and is very impressive. 

    Along the back wall (behind the photographer in the above photo) there are 4,048 gold stars. Each star represents 100 killed or missing during the war. Facing the wall at the edge of the reflecting pool is a granite marker that says “Here We Mark The Price of Freedom”.

It was very emotional, probably the most emotional of any monument or memorial that I have visited. Here you have many veterans of WW II who visit. In fact, I was told that the VA will pay for any WW II veteran’s transportation expenses who wish to visit the memorial. I also heard from someone that both they and their dad’s way was paid since their dad was confined to a wheelchair and needed the assistance. We were told that an average of 1,100 WW II vets die every day! Barb took what I thought was one of the most memorable and moving photos of the trip. It speaks for itself. 

    Our journeys also took us to the American History museum. Here we saw things like Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers from the Wizard of Oz movie. 

I had to include the following for all of my Programmer buddies...

    Scary but COBOL has its own display in the Smithsonian!! I used to program using that language. Jeesh, I feel old!!!

    We also visited Ford’s Theater where Lincoln was assassinated. Again, it was under renovation last time we were here. 

    The box has been restored to the way it looked on the night of the murder. While most is recreated, the photo of George Washington is original. 

    A little of the weird were these two works of art in the National Art Gallery. 

    Ever use one of these? I needed one this size!

    A stainless steel tree. Not a small one either. You don’t have to rake leaves, but you do have to polish it!

    We visited the Smithsonian Botanical Gardens. Again, you needed a full day just to see them!  

    Then we visited the Natural History Museum. Here, for a short time only, the Hope Diamond has been put into a new setting. 

    Just a representative sample of what there is to see in just a small amount of territory. We didn’t stray too far from the National Mall. There are still many other things to see and do that we just didn’t have time for. Everyone should come here at least once in their life.