Washington, D.C., Day One

Washington, D.C., has the best public transportation. Mike and I have visited DC before, but never together. He has been here on business. I lived nearby when I was a young girl, and I came once on a pleasure trip while I was in graduate school. We've both used and admired the Metro system before. It's very easy to use, and now, with the assistance of Google Maps, it's better than ever. Our trip yesterday started right here in the RV park. I imagine our truck will be happy for a few days off. We hopped on the 83 bus,

and rode that 22 stops to the College Park/University of Maryland Metro station. There is also a park and ride here, but a bus ride was $2 round trip for each of us. Parking for the day at the park and ride was $5.20. On weekends, parking is free.

From there, we got on the Green line train. The station was above ground here...and check out that sleek train.

We rode the train another 10 stops to the Archives station, which was under ground.

When we came up above ground again, we were in Washington, D.C., at the Navy Memorial. Our complete trip took us about one hour. We could not have driven it that quickly.

Across the street was the National Archives.

This is the inscription on the National Archives building.

From there, we walked a couple of blocks to the Smithsonian. It's impossible to walk around D.C. without seeing some monument or government agency building. Looking right as we walked along, we saw the Washington Monument off in the distance.

Crossing the street and looking left, we could see the United States Capitol.

We passed by the Justice Department.

Here's the inscription on the Justice Department building.

And very soon, we were there. The Smithsonian Institution is made up of dozens of museums. Yesterday, we visited just this one.

Finally, we saw our first moose of the trip.

And, honestly, if I'd started taking pictures of everything that was unusual or interesting, I'd have taken thousands of pictures. Instead, I decided to focus only on the cats.

This is how Smitty looks after catching a squirrel.

This is how Sadie sees herself.

This is how Smitty sees himself.

Studly. Yes. But stuffed cats weren't the only things we saw. In the gem exhibit, we saw these.

We were wandering through an insect exhibit when we suddenly found ourselves among Egyptian mummies, including these cats.

And then there were these. They're not as cute without their fur.

Cats were used as an example of several different kinds of cartilage.

And there was this blasphemous exhibit.

"Most popular," obviously. But, "invasive," never! Cats are "invasive" only if they mean cats will invade the blackest of hearts. Otherwise, we purrotest this dispurragement of our feline furriends!

Aside from the cats, I thought you might enjoy seeing these eye poppers from the gem exhibit. This is the Hope Diamond.

There were lots of sparkly things in here. I especially liked this one.

It stands about a foot tall.

And this one. Emeralds are Mike's and my birthstone.

We spent a couple of hours at the Smithsonian, and by then, our eyes were pretty full. For lunch, we walked back pretty much to where we'd started. Along the way we passed the FBI building.

We had a pretty good lunch at a place I can't remember. While we were eating, the Presidential motorcade passed by. Neither of us had ever seen that before, and it was pretty interesting to see what a spectacle it is when the President passes by on downtown streets. It involves lots of police on motorcycles and in cars, lots of black sedans, several emergency vehicles (including an ambulance), and probably some others I've forgotten. When we got back to the trailer, we realized it was our President traveling to the United States Capitol building to meet with members of Congress about tax reform. (Cough.) And that's about all I should say about that.

Our next stop was the art gallery. Along the way, we passed the Newseum. I doubt we'll make our way to this on this trip, and honestly, one could spend a month in Washington, D.C., and still not see it all. Nevertheless, I loved seeing the First Amendment to our Constitution there...big and bold. Thank you.

Within a couple of blocks, we came to the West Building of the National Gallery of Art. We've both visited here before as well, and it's another place where I could have taken thousands pictures, but didn't. I would have been taking pictures of everything I saw.

Nevertheless, I did want you to see this marvelous building. These huge marble columns support the inner rotunda. There's a fountain there in the center.

Looking up, it looks like this:

Look at the floor, and this is what you see.

Also, I liked this oil portrait of a young Abraham Lincoln. He was handsome in his youth.

Also, as we passed from one room to another, we noticed this relief off in the distance through multiple doors. It was glowing gold.

When we approached it, this is what we saw. It covered a whole wall and was life-sized.

A picture really doesn't capture its splendor. Across the bottom there was too long an inscription to capture without doing a pano, but you can read the words that matter most.

Here's the accompanying placard.

Our shadow selves especially liked this photography exhibit.

Of course, we paid a visit to the gallery gift shop in search of a refrigerator magnet. There were all sorts of fun things in there, but this display caught my eye. It was all cats.

The gift shop had all kinds of refrigerator magnets, most focusing on just one artist, and generally in packages of two or more. I only wanted one, and how could I choose just one artist? Instead, I got this little box of magnets. You'll never guess why I chose it.

They're cats from various works of art. Here's the key:

This is the explanatory tag on the back. Those of you with sharp eyes will notice that this product comes from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. I don't care about that. I'll always know I bought it at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Also in yesterday's travels, I picked up this one from the Smithsonian.

So that was our day. We rode the Metro system back the way we came, and our trip home was just about an hour as well. We were happy to see the kitties when we got back. They were relaxed and ready for treats.

Also, yesterday, we added the great state of Maryland to the side of the RV.

Here's how the map looks now. I'm afraid Delaware is sticking out there like a sore thumb, and I'm also afraid we're going to miss Delaware this trip.

We'll see. I might be able to finagle it into our future travels. You know I will if I can.

Today we'll venture back into the city, but today we'll be seeing a lot of monuments. The weather has been nice. Yesterday it was a little breezy, but it's supposed to be warmer today. I love the grand and inspirational monuments. I've seen most of them before, both as a child and as an adult, but I still enjoy them each time. Also, there are a few new ones I haven't seen before. I'm looking forward to a first glance at the World War II memorial (my dad is a WWII veteran), and the monument to Martin Luther King, Jr. I imagine there are a few more I haven't seen as well, but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.