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First day in Washington D.C. - did all the main sights, except the Whitehouse. Started with a walking tour from near the Washington monument, past the Whitehouse (we averted our eyes, its not a political thing, more of that later) and onto the Washington Monument. The guide was great, very knowledgeable, a trained architect. We walked down to the World War II memorial, I didn't remember it from my last trip to Washington in the 1990's and was relieved when the guide said it was built in the early 2000's - it wasn't built when I was there the last time. We continued to the Vietnam War Memorial, the two could not be more different, WWII Memorial is a grand celebration of victory, the Vietnam memorial is a somber wall for reflection. On to the Lincoln Memorial, a truly monumental building and a wonderful statue of Lincoln. Standing on the steps looking across the reflecting pool, past the Washington Monument to the Capitol is an awe inspiring view, all the more inspiring, knowing it is the spot where Martin Lurther King Jr delivered his historic "I have a dream" speach.
We jumped on the Circulator bus that connects a lot of the sights to get to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Before going in, needed lunch, I thought we might find a good truck. I saw two on a side street, as we got closer we realized there was a whole street with about 12 food trucks. I had a great platter of Peruvian food. The Jamaican "Jerks of the Caribbean" had the loudest music.
On to the Air and Space Museum, a fantastic collection. I was there years ago, it was great to be back and fantastic to see some of the new exhibits, including a fantastic room of stunning photos of the moon. They are from a lunar satellite that was launched in 2009 to look for a location for a manned base on the moon. The thinking is the lunar polar regions are best, they have some daylight all the time rather than bright sun and fierce dark and cold of the other regions. This satellite is send back photos of the craters and mountains of the moon. Some craters are 4 miles deep, and show signs of molten rock, melted by the force of impact. I'm still in awe that the actual capsule from Apollo 11 is right there. It's tiny, certainly used and carried 3 men back from the moon.
We left the Air and Space and walked past the capitol and headed back. A quick swim in the wonderful outdoor pool was a relief from walking and standing.
We jumped into the car and he added to Reagan National Airport to pickup Shyana. I had the whole week off, she only took 2 days so she flew down on Wednesday evening. We did a driving tour of the sights of DC, not quite as dramatic as I hoped, there's lots of trees. First stop was the Whitehouse, we weren't disrespectful earlier when we averted our eyes, we wanted to see it all together. I left Boston with Christopher and Evelyn on Tuesday morning to drive down, it had only been one night, but good to all 4 to be together again.
We headed back toward Van Ness and stopped at Indique a great Indian restaurant in Cleveland Park.
A great day and time for some sleep...
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