Washington, DC

Well, it only took over a week, but one of us has finally written about our trip to the capital. Between us, we took enough photos to sink the Titanic, so much of the week was spent just trying to upload them to Flickr and put them in some semblance of order. I'm always going on about David's skill as a writer, but honestly I'm partial to posting photography and linking to his writing... if he ever gets 'round to writing a book I'd probably nudge him towards a coffee table hardcover in which I could add some illustrative photography. Just a thought.

Anyways, back to Washington, DC.

David's journal entries in Multiply and photo album on Flickr:

Capitol ideas, day one
Capitol G, day two
Washington, DC - photos

I divided my photos into two albums, one for the Smithsonian Museums and the other for out and about in the city:

"There's no place like home,
there's no place like home..."
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rowrrrr!
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Smithsonian Museum photos

The Smithsonian is not one museum but an institution -- the world's largest museum complex, drawing over 20 million visitors each year. The National Zoo also belongs to the Smithsonian. To see them all in one visit would be total information overload, so it's best to plan which ones you want to see, and plan for a whole day on your feet. I wanted to see the Museum of Arts and Industry, but it was closed for renovations, so I took in the Museum of American History, the Hirshhorn Museum (contemporary art), and the Air and Space Museum.

come along
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photos around Washington, DC

The weather we had in Washington was quite near to perfect. Sunny, warm, just a touch too breezy sometimes, but overall we had no reason to complain. There is definitely a change in air quality just a few hours south of where we live -- a bit more humid. It didn't take as long to drive down there as we'd originally thought, too -- according to MapQuest, it was supposed to take just shy of four hours to reach our hotel, but we made it in 3.25 hours. I slept the whole way, too, it was funny... asleep just out of Scranton and awake just in time to reach the hotel driveway.

Some real pluses for Washington: the metro, the pedestrian orientation of the National Mall, and all the museums are free! I've lived in two capital cities before (Edinburgh, Scotland and Canberra, Australia), and became too disenchanted with their transient nature and artifice to want to live in a capital again, but I will always be an avid visitor. It's the one place in a country where you are guaranteed that money will be invested in culture and the arts. It's also tourist-friendly, but that's where capital cities can be a pain for residents -- during high season the crush of tourism can make it incredibly inconvenient for people to get to work. That probably also applies to the people of Washington, DC, except for maybe President Bush. He's got Air Force One and heavies.

Kermit Goes to Washington
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Kermit, born 1955
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Of course, we took Kermit along because he wanted to research his roots, too.

ADDITION: Tuesday, Apr 26

David, ever the history buff, wrote a little blurb on Pierre Charles L'Enfant (L'Enfant Plaza is named after him).

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