April 29 - May 2. Washington DC

We had a fun time sightseeing in Washington DC.   Saturday, April 29th we walked to the Botanical Gardens.  Even though we walked through neighborhoods instead of by the most direct route we arrived before the doors opened.  We spent this time exploring the Capitol grounds and talking to the very quiet, polite, peaceful protesters who were visiting DC to participate in the climate march. One of the nice protesters took a picture of us so there is visual proof that we do travel together! The museums are used to accommodating protesters and provided bins outside the door for people to leave their posters and banners so they could pick them up after they toured the buildings.   Bill was a good sport about visiting the gardens and was very patient every time I said "I just want to look at this one plant, I won't be long". 

After the Botanical Gardens we went to the Library of Congress Jefferson Building.  This is the most spectacular building I have ever seen.  We were so over-awed by the building that we spent over an hour just looking at the ornate carvings, paintings, mozaics and the architecture of the building. The viewing area for the reading room was one of my favorite experiences.  We were enjoying the building so much that we decided to have some lunch and come back.  In the afternoon we saw the Gutenberg Bible, the Mainz Bible, and the first map showing the word "America", and other exhibits.

When we finally left the Library of Congress we had a long walk back to the boat in 90 degree weather with high humidity.  We spent the rest of the afternoon doing laundry enjoying the air conditioning in the laundry room.

Sunday we walked to the Washington Monument and wandered through the gardens near the Smithsonian Castle until it was time to walk to Anna's apartment to meet her for our trip to the Air and Space Annex.

Anna drove us to the Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center.  It was  a rare treat to spend a day with her.  The museum showcases a stunning assortment of aircraft.  We were able to stand in one place and see wooden framed airplanes, a Concorde, the SR-71 Blackbird, the Enola Gay, and the Space Shuttle. The sheer variety of planes and helicopters is incredible. That someone ever thought it would be a good idea to climb into the prototypes of some of these aircraft is even more incredible.  The work room where the aircraft are repaired and restored and the range of talents required to do so is amazing.

Monday we decided to focus on monuments.  We walked to the WWII memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and walked by the Vietnam Memorial (it was extremely crowded), and the Constitution Gardens. The carving at the Korean War Memorial "Freedom is not Free" sums up the feeling that seeing these memorials causes.

After our long walk we needed a break so we went in search of coffee.  On the way to Peets Coffee we wandered by the DAR museum and it looked interesting so we decided to come back.  The building, as usual, was beautiful.  There were 30 rooms decorated from different eras.  After the DAR museum our plan was to go to the Natural History Museum to see the butterfly display.  There were hundreds of very excited children in the museum.  While it was wonderful to see so many young people enthused about learning the volume of noise was deafening.  We decided to skip this museum for now.  We were hungry so we went to the USDA cafeteria and had such a big, delicious, inexpensive lunch that we skipped dinner.

Tuesday our plan was to leave Washington DC and head down the Potomac. We stopped for fuel then headed south.  The wind was 20-25 knots with higher gusts and was right on the nose.  This was no fun so we turned around before we reached Mt. Vernon and returned to the same mooring we had left 4 hours earlier.  In the afternoon we decided to make the most of our unexpected extra day in DC and went to the National Archives, the sculpture garden, and the Natural History Museum and then went back to the boat to enjoy our view of the Washington Monument.