Thursday, Nov 16, 2017

Washington DC. The bartender last night (remember the kid?) told us the traffic was terrible here. Guess he’s never been to our area. We’re still the winners.

Made into town by 10 and then took an hour to find our “hotel”. Turns out, we booked into a corporate apartment, amongst other tenants, with a different name on the building and teeny-tiny address numbers hidden in the brickwork. After finding it and a place to park, (not included), we walked out, headed for The Mall.

The White House is completely locked down. There are barricades and yellow caution tape wrapped every which way with security and police standing everywhere. There isn’t a trash can in sight so we couldn’t dispose of the truly awful coffee and scone we’d found at Starbucks. We walked several blocks until reaching the Washington Monument.

Touching the Washington Memorial

Me too

It was closed, indefinitely, for repairs. It was closed the last time we were here, too. Go figure, forty years later and nothing’s changed. Kinda says it all about DC?

We then walked down to the WWII memorial, past the reflecting pool to the Lincoln Monument. Once again, it’s truly a breathtaking spot. Once again, it hammers home how far we’ve come and how nothing’s changed; still striving to right the injustices and create peace.(Quite possibly the most powerful single place I have ever been. Couldn't stop myself from  getting teary eyed)  Then, onto the Vietnam Memorial; 58,000 names on the wall, (8 of them women), all killed in the name of national vanity and greed. Across the reflecting pool, we found the Korea War Memorial with a note there for the 54,000 service people killed between 1951-1054. See a theme? 

The Martin Luther King Memorial was well done but not particularly impressive. The granite statue is massive, his visage is blockish, not particularly graceful. The Roosevelt Memorial is inspiring and once again, sad to say, so much time has passed and we are still here, still doing the same stupid things as a nation and not as caring human beings. There’s a new monument going up for the forgotten statesman, the one who wrote the very first Declaration, the one cribbed by Jefferson, for the final Declaration of Independence. Sorry to say, I’ve already forgotten the name. The Jefferson Monument is massive and impressive in all its marble glory.

on the way to the Jefferson Memorial

We’ve now walked the circumference of the Mall, no lunch, no water, still a long way from the room. We walked onto the Smithsonian Castle, ie: vistor’s center, grabbed some bottled water and played with the interactive displays. That was fun, like watching mini film clips and pac-man at the same time. We went across to the Nature and Science Museum to view mummies, the Hope Diamond, incredible photography by award winners and live butterflies. Those were amazing; saw a Blue Morpho as wide as my hand, lots of Monarchs, Green Malachites and spotted all-types. There was even a Moon Moth in a special case, kept that way so he wouldn’t be hidden during the day. They only live 3 days so it was unusual to see one at all.

We limped back to our room, fumbled around with check-in and finding our luggage, hidden in the bowels of the parking garage next door. Our apartment is huge. There’s a full kitchen, with an island, dining table, living room couch, chair and tv. Down the hallway is a full size bedroom and bath. All the amenities are included, even a gift bag with coffee, paper towels and cleaning supplies.

The gal at the front desk gave us a coupon to dine next door – so we did. Woodward Table or Woodward Take-out Food, aka WTF, (really?? They didn’t think that through??) is very clubby, lots of wood, pretenses’ menu with a southern slant – 24 oz ribeye with collard greens and sweet potatoes – and pricy. A screwdriver is $12.00. Anyway, Jim had pork wings (bottom half of a pig’s leg) and I had a Louis salad. We shared Parker House rolls (oh yeah) and Myer Lemon Crème Brule. Best meal we’ve had in a couple of days.

On the bridge by Jefferson's place