Washington, DC
We flew to Washington Dulles on April 2, 2013, to spend five nights in Washington, DC visiting museums and monuments. And maybe to see some cherry blossoms.
Apri 2,- April 7, 2013
On our first day, we went to a couple of major museums. Our hotel was not far from the White House, so we got a nice view of it on our way to the National Gallery. Unfortunately, there were no White House tours while we were there (budgetary fighting caused a suspension of that and some other things).
The National Gallery was a really great art museum with art that is old (first photo), and not as old (but still old, like impressionists, second photo). There was also a modern art section.
After that we walked through the sculpture gallery of the Hirshhorn Museum and visited the Asian Art Museum. Great collection there. Nearby was the “Smithsonian Castle” that was pretty in the spring.
The next day, April 4, we visited several major governmental buildings. First we went to the Library of Congress with its lovely ceiling. Then we visited the Capitol. We had tried to get a normal capitol tour through our congressional representative to no avail, but luckily were able to get a private tour (staff to a congressman from another state) through a business colleague. We liked the statuary hall and the fairly new statues of heroic women.
Rosa Parks to the left, and the dome below.
After the informative tour, we went to the Supreme Court Building, shown above. [Postscript, we think a lot less of the institution in the years following our visit.] Above that another view of the Capitol.
After a lunch at food trucks (felt like home!) we visited the Air and Space Museum (part of the Smithsonian Institutions). It was a bit overwhelming and crowded (it was sort of a school vacation time of year).
The next day we visited the part of the Smithsonian called Museum of American History which has really fun exhibits like Julia Child’s kitchen and Dorothy’s slippers. In many ways it was a “cultural” museum not just a history museum.
After lunch we went to the fantastic Newseum. We learned several years later this closed down, but we really found it very enjoyable and could have spent longer than the couple hours we had there.
Later that afternoon, we also visited the National Portrait Gallery.
Our final full day was Saturday, April 6. Today we spent most of the day seeing the major monuments on the National Mall and around the tidal basin. When we left home on Tuesday, “peak cherry blossom bloom” was predicted for Thursday or Friday, and we were excited about that. Alas, there was a cold snap and the cherries hibernated for several days and were just now starting to show. Darn, peak bloom would probably now be Monday or Tuesday, and we are going home tomorrow (Sunday).
Nonetheless, we had a fabulous day with bright sunshine and slightly warmer temperatures.
We started our tour with the Lincoln Memorial, first two photos.
To the right, view back from the Lincoln Memorial to Washington Monument with a scaffold half way up.
We next visited the moving Vietnam veterans Memorial before heading to the Tidal Basin and our hoped viewing of the blossoms.
The first major monument was the Jefferson Memorial.
A quote displayed in the Jefferson Memorial to the right.
We next visited the Franklin Roosevelt Memorial which was well done and very moving.
There was a statue of Eleanor Roosevelt next to it (below).
And some nice blossoms.
And we capped it off with the powerful MLK memorial.
We spent the afternoon strolling around the city and enjoying the spring blossoms.
This map shows many of the places we visited.
The next day we walked around near the White House and the office buildings in the vicinity before taking our mid-day flight back to the west coast.