Washington, DC
Back in February Laurie and I were going to end up in DC, her traveling for work with me tagging along to take advantage of the free accommodations and see the sights. Of course it just so happened that was the same week that DC got slammed with enough snow that even a town in Maine would be shut down for at least an afternoon. Luckily enough our flight got canceled and we were able to get a full refund, because even if we had made it we would not have been able to do anything.
Fast forward a couple months and Laurie again had to go to DC again for work and this time the weather cooperated. I had not been in Washington since the post Junior High trip back in the summer of ’93 during which the tour group was more likely to drop us off at a Mall, with clothing stores, then The Mall, with museums.
Being that Laurie was working I really hit the ground running, much to the detriment of my poor feet, and crammed in a large number of sights; Alexandria, Renwick Gallery, Corcoran Gallery of Art, National Botanical Garden, the Presidential Memorials (Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, FDR), the War Memorials (Vietnam, Korean, WWII), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, National Building Museum, Library of Congress, Holocaust Museum, Freer Gallery, Air and Space Museum, American Art Museum, Portrait Gallery, National Gallery of Art (East and West Buildings) and finally the International Spy Museum.
Needless to say I do not need to go back for another 15 or more years
The surprise standout of the trip was the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress, which is an attractive building from the outside but is truly stunning once you make it into the atrium, see the picture on the left. And as an added bonus the exhibits are really well done. It had not even made my schedule of sites to see rather it was on the secondary “if there is time swing by” section of the itinerary. Only wish I had planned for more time there since I would have liked to utilize the reading room by finding something for the librarian to pickup from the stacks. They have all sorts of one of a kind books, prints, photographs, recordings, etc etc.
We will be off to Hawaii, our true vacation this year, before we know it and I will have to let you know how that goes, I am keeping my fingers crossed that there is no snow storms to hinder those plans.
