July 25, 2006: Alexandria & Washington DC
Since we're in Virginia, I'll tell a joke my father-in-law's cousin sent to me. (Thanks, Jack!)
We paused this morning to catch our breath, then struck out for Washington, past the enormity of the Pentagon, over the Potomac River, arriving at the Smithsonian Institution. To our surprise, we quickly found a convenient parking space only a block away from the Mall. Like Williamsburg, the Smithsonian is a gusher of history and information, the largest museum complex in the world, providing nearly 150 million objects for everyone to study. And all of the museums are free. Where to start?
Tommy told me he was interested in aliens, but I had to inform him that there is no Smithsonian museum devoted to them. (Perhaps we should visit Roswell, New Mexico, on our next trip.) The best we could do was the National Air and Space Museum. We spent several hours there, marveling at the technological ingenuity and audacity that gave us wings and allowed us to dream of traveling to the planets and perhaps someday the stars.
I’m the son of an aerospace engineer, so planes like the Wright Flyer, Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, the X-1, the X-15, and SpaceShipOne are always fascinating to me.
Everyone knows the Wright Brothers and Charles Lindbergh, but the other planes may need some background. The orange Bell X-1 was the first plane to break the sound barrier, the black North American X-15 the first to reach the edge of space, and the white Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne the first privately-funded vehicle to take a human into space. The latter project was paid for by Paul Allen, Microsoft cofounder and Bill Gates' classmate at my wife's alma mater, Seattle's Lakeside High School.
I was reminded by the many dents and burn marks on the bodies of the aircraft and spacecraft how perilous an undertaking flight is, and I was startled by the apparent flimsiness of many of the vehicles – the Apollo lunar lander most of all.
Both boys also voted for a museum of evolution, which is pretty much the essence of the National Museum of Natural History, so we crossed the Mall, grabbing a couple of popsicles on the way.
Entering the museum, one is greeted by a great stuffed pachyderm – an elephantine feat of taxidermy, so to speak. To the right are the dinosaurs and to the left the mammals; upstairs are insects and reptiles and rocks, but we never got there. The boys were too interested in the family trees of the beasts great and small on the first floor.
Tommy has already given himself an impressive self-education in paleontology and taxonomy, so it was as if he were visiting old friends and relatives. There was even an “evolution theater” in the mammalian wing playing a film about the rise of the mammals.
On the way back to our car we stopped at the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden, where the boys played with an Alexander Calder mobile.
Before we left DC, we drove past the White House. Not surprisingly, this is as close as the public can get to the president's residence in a vehicle.
If you know me, you know I devoutly wish the current occupants of the White House could be persuaded to jettison their pro-Christian, anti-science, pro-corporate, anti-tax, pro-oil, anti-environment, pro-war, anti-gay positions and policies, which have so poisoned and polarized our nation and world. But I'm not holding my breath. The only hope for a new agenda is a new administration.
Back in Alexandria, thousands of fireflies were lighting up the lawns. Danny couldn’t resist capturing a few and then setting them free.
When Abu al-Zarqawi died, George Washington met him at the Pearly Gates. He slapped the terrorist and yelled, "How dare you attack the nation I helped to conceive!" Patrick Henry approached, knocked him down, and shouted, "You will never take away our liberties!" James Madison followed, kicked him, and roared, "We provided for the common defense to stop you!" Thomas Jefferson beat al-Zarqawi with a cane and snarled, "Evil men like you inspired me to write the Declaration of Independence." The thrashings continued as George Mason, James Monroe, and 66 other founding fathers unleashed their fury on the terrorist leader. As he writhed in agony, an angel appeared. Al-Zarqawi screamed, "This is NOT what you promised me!" The angel replied, "I told you 72 Virginians were waiting for you. What did you think I said?"
We paused this morning to catch our breath, then struck out for Washington, past the enormity of the Pentagon, over the Potomac River, arriving at the Smithsonian Institution. To our surprise, we quickly found a convenient parking space only a block away from the Mall. Like Williamsburg, the Smithsonian is a gusher of history and information, the largest museum complex in the world, providing nearly 150 million objects for everyone to study. And all of the museums are free. Where to start?
Tommy told me he was interested in aliens, but I had to inform him that there is no Smithsonian museum devoted to them. (Perhaps we should visit Roswell, New Mexico, on our next trip.) The best we could do was the National Air and Space Museum. We spent several hours there, marveling at the technological ingenuity and audacity that gave us wings and allowed us to dream of traveling to the planets and perhaps someday the stars.
I’m the son of an aerospace engineer, so planes like the Wright Flyer, Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, the X-1, the X-15, and SpaceShipOne are always fascinating to me.
Everyone knows the Wright Brothers and Charles Lindbergh, but the other planes may need some background. The orange Bell X-1 was the first plane to break the sound barrier, the black North American X-15 the first to reach the edge of space, and the white Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne the first privately-funded vehicle to take a human into space. The latter project was paid for by Paul Allen, Microsoft cofounder and Bill Gates' classmate at my wife's alma mater, Seattle's Lakeside High School.
I was reminded by the many dents and burn marks on the bodies of the aircraft and spacecraft how perilous an undertaking flight is, and I was startled by the apparent flimsiness of many of the vehicles – the Apollo lunar lander most of all.
Both boys also voted for a museum of evolution, which is pretty much the essence of the National Museum of Natural History, so we crossed the Mall, grabbing a couple of popsicles on the way.Entering the museum, one is greeted by a great stuffed pachyderm – an elephantine feat of taxidermy, so to speak. To the right are the dinosaurs and to the left the mammals; upstairs are insects and reptiles and rocks, but we never got there. The boys were too interested in the family trees of the beasts great and small on the first floor.
Tommy has already given himself an impressive self-education in paleontology and taxonomy, so it was as if he were visiting old friends and relatives. There was even an “evolution theater” in the mammalian wing playing a film about the rise of the mammals.
On the way back to our car we stopped at the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden, where the boys played with an Alexander Calder mobile.
Before we left DC, we drove past the White House. Not surprisingly, this is as close as the public can get to the president's residence in a vehicle.If you know me, you know I devoutly wish the current occupants of the White House could be persuaded to jettison their pro-Christian, anti-science, pro-corporate, anti-tax, pro-oil, anti-environment, pro-war, anti-gay positions and policies, which have so poisoned and polarized our nation and world. But I'm not holding my breath. The only hope for a new agenda is a new administration.
Back in Alexandria, thousands of fireflies were lighting up the lawns. Danny couldn’t resist capturing a few and then setting them free.
posted by Tom & Debbie at
6:18 AM
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