Washington DC, Day 12, Oct 31, 2011

Yes, we were catching the 6:15 am bus from the RV Park.

Now you may ask, why?  Well Bob wanted to see if we could attend the Supreme Court’s oral arguments today.  That means we had to obtain a numbered ticket, and then wait about two hours to see if our number would get us in.  Admittance is on a first come first serve basis.  With our numbers 56 & 57 which we received at 7:25 am, we did get in to hear the two cases presented today.  If you want to read what we heard, check out this link.  Bob had a better seat than I did, I was behind a 3’ diameter pillar, was able to see a few of the Justices, and was able to hear everything.

While we waited until around 9 am, we walked around, saw the sun finish rising with its glow on the capitol.

At noon the Court arguments were over, so off we head to the Air and Space Museum.

Here Bob is lounging next to the Wright Brothers first airplane.

Here is some original fabric from the Wright Brother's’ plane.

The Able Experiment.  Read about it here.

Another great day in DC.

Washington DC, Day 11, Oct 30, 2011

This morning we were greeted with a heavy frost on top of the Explorer.  At first thought it was snow, but just frost.

Today was to be another museum day, but before that we wanted to watch the 2011 Marine Corps Marathon, they would be leaving Arlington, then run up and down the Mall.

We then found some outside art, pyramids made from glass, so what you are seeing is our reflection, our self portrait.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then headed to the National Museum of Art, but, it didn't open until 11 am and it was just 10 am, so we continued to watch the Marathon runners for a  little longer.

Some interesting details I noticed. This is the Interior of Oude Kerk, Amsterdam by Emmanuel DeWitte, 1660-1665

Now here is a close up of an area at the bottom of one of the pillars.  Appears the dog is, well, relieving himself.

Christ Washing the Disciples’ Feet, 1520-1525 by Benvenuto Tisi, called Garofalo.  Notice the fellow on the left, orange tunic with white drape.  His body is facing the table, but his leg and foot are facing the other direction.

A Monet as only Monet can.  Jerusalem Artichoke Flowers, 1880

A Van Gogh called The Olive Orchard, done in 1889, a year before his death.

This one was one of my favorites, called  Four Seasons in One Head by Guiseppe Arcimboldo, painted in 1590.

 

 

 

 

Guilty, yes, I bought a box of Girl Scout Cookies from a mother and daughter walking through the RV Park.

Washington DC, Day 10, October 29, 2011

This morning we had reserved over a week ago a 10:15, History on Foot, which was a two hour walk starting at the Ford Theater with Detective McDevitt investigating the assignation of President Lincoln.   So in order to get there on time, we left the coach to catch the 8:27 bus, with it being Saturday, buses only run every hour.

Since the forecast called for 100% chance of rain changing to snow today, here we are on the tour.  Our guide did an excellent job, we all were his deputies, and all were given different witnesses’ statements to give to him at the time he called for it.  The statement we were given was called for first, of course, it was deep in our backpacks, but we eventually produced it, he is reading ours now.

Our next stop was the Smithsonian American History Museum.  This is Julia Child’s actual kitchen.

Here is her wall of pots and pans.

Below are fragments cut from  the original Star Spangled Banner.

The original flag was 30’ x 42’, today it’s size is 30’ x 34’, it was reduced in size by all the souvenirs taken, even one of the 15 stars is gone.  Below is a photo of a photo taken of the flag.  We were not able (not allowed) to take any photos of the original.

Below is Edison’s first light bulb he demonstrated at Menlo Park in December 1879. Check out the link above, then scroll down a little, you will see the same photo as below.

Yes, that is snow on Bob’s back.  Nice big flakes in the air, but nonetheless, SNOW!

Washington DC, Day 9, Oct 28, 2011

A Day at the Natural History Museum

After our day of rest, we were anxious to get back at it, being a tourist, that is.

First off, in the entrance lobby, is one of the Easter Islands Heads. He definitely has a personality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exciting news, I found some more relatives for my family tree.

Now this is one HUGE trilobite.  One of our vacations back in the late 80’s was to find some of these fossils in northern Utah.  We did find some (about 1” x 1.5”), or at least our son did, he was bored, so before he threw a rock, he looked at it, and he found quite a few.  I guess he who touches the most rocks finds the most fossils.

This is the bloom of a Crinoid, a water lily from 330 million years ago. This specimen was from Indiana and was about 4” tall.  In reading the above link, I find out they are not plants but similar to starfish, who knew!

I grew up on a farm in SE Ohio and would pick up segments of the stem along the cow paths, especially after a rain.  These segments were small flat circles with a hole in the middle, I had no idea they were crinoids, I thought they were fish backbones.

This lady is sorting small animal bones found in Haiti in 1920.  Most of the bones we saw were no larger than sewing pins.

Our next real treat was to visit the Live Butterfly Pavilion.

So many butterflies.  This is a Leopard Lacewing.

They loved Bob’s cap, he had three butterflies perched at one point.

Okay, okay time to move on.  What a fun area!!

“This is a real mummy” was the sign for this display.

Here we are both touching a piece of Mars, collected by Viking in 1976.

This is a mineral Rainbow of Colors.

Washington DC, Day 8, Our day of rest, Oct 27, 2011

The plan for the day was to do nothing or not much.  With being a tourist for seven straight days, we were tired, plus it was forecast to rain all day.  It did drizzle most of the day.  So this morning I put a crockpot full of chili on the cook, nothing is better on a rainy fall day than chili.

We did start the car for the first time also in a week, and drove about three miles to do some grocery shopping.  We ended up with an eggplant and some chicken, so Bob made up one of his great dishes -- eggplant topped with chicken, then topped with a marinara sauce, cheese and Italian seasonings.  So now we will have some great food after more days of sightseeing.

I did get out my sewing machine to work on two projects.  One of my daypack straps was tearing slightly, so I stitched the seam deeper over the strap, worked great!  The next project was to attempt to hem Bob’s jeans again.

See the messy hem, the sewing machine’s tension was not correct.  I had sewn this probably three months ago, it looked horrible, so I put it away.   I was using some special heavy duty thread for jeans and the machine was not adjusted for the change in thread weight.  Bob helped remove the above stitching.  Then I adjusted the tension, and with more patience and more determination, I eventually got both legs done!!

Tomorrow’s plan more sightseeing, not sure what, but by tomorrow we will have it figured out.

Washington DC, Day 7, Oct 26, 2011

With rain forecast for tomorrow, we wanted to do some more outside sightseeing. First off, see the Jefferson Memorial.

From the Jefferson Memorial, the Washington Monument and the Capital. To see the White House, look left of the Washington Monument where the V is in the tree line.

We walked up to the WW II Memorial to get the National Park Service Passport book stamp and saw many folks escorting our WWII Veterans. I believe they were with the group called Honor Flight. Bob’s Dad who served in the engine room of a Navy ship during the second world war would definitely have enjoyed seeing this memorial, unfortunately he died at the age of 62 in 1982.

I did find the jackpot for NPS stamps, after stamping a page or two, I did find a special area for the National Capital Region.

Our Nations Capitol Building…

…with some sort of protest going on across the street.

One of the staircases, looking up, at the Supreme Court Building.

With an 80% chance of rain forecast for tomorrow, I am looking forward to a day of rest!!