Washington DC – Part 2

Did you know that the stone in the Washington Monument is two different colors?

 

Just a note: this entry was WHILE we were in Washington, DC back in May! It appears we have confused some of our readers!

The Cherry Hill RV Park has a “dog walking” service available. For a small fee a person will come to your RV and give your pet two “potty breaks” and a 20 minute walk while you see the sites of Washington. If need be they will even feed your pet for you. Knowing  that Raider was being well cared for we spent 10 hours one day and two 12 hour days seeing as many sites as possible. We opted for a Gray Line Tour called “Open Top Sightseeing Tour”

We opted for a Gray Line Tour called “Open Top Sightseeing Tour”.

This tour included a very nice courteously bus to take us into and out of Washington each day and allows for an unlimited number of hop on or hop off stops over a two day period.  This allowed us to see much more of Washington than we could have on foot and got us out sight seeing much earlier than the public bus and  Metro ride into Washington did.

So what did we see? We visited 4 of the Smithsonian museums: the National Air and Space Museum, the National Art Gallery, the American History Museum, the Natural History Museum and the Smithsonian Castle. One of the  most amazing things we found out is that all of the Smithsonian Museum are FREE!

The Smithsonian Castle, headquarters for the Smithsonian

We visited the Washington Monument

Work began on the Washington  Monument in early 1848, but it wasn’t completed until December of 1884. Due to a 25 year halt in construction. Because they used 2 different quarries for the stone, before and after the construction halt, the stones are two different colors. The history of the construction of the Washington  Monument is a very interesting story follow this link to read it: Washington Monument Construction.

We saw the White House

This is the Oval Office. I think that if you look real close you can see President Obama waving to the camera. ;-)

We saw National Cathedral

We took a ride down Embassy Road

We visited the Lincoln Memorial:

We visited the Vietnam War Memorial:

Both the Jefferson Memorial and the FDR Memorial were closed for repair.

We toured the Capitol Building:

 

 

We also visited the National Archives and saw the actual Declaration of Independence and the actual Constitution. No pictures are permitted and the  light level is kept very low. The Declaration of Independence still looks in pretty good condition, but the ink on the Constitution as faded badly.

Other sites we visited include:

The Supreme Court building

The Library of Congress Build

The slideshows has many more pictures of our visit to Washington

Washington DC – Part 1

The Spirit of St Louis

Our next destination was Washington DC; neither of us had every been there and we were really looking forward to our first visit. We stayed at the Cherry Hill RV Park in College Park, Maryland. They really cater to tourist wanting to see the sites of Washington. They start with a daily session on how to use public transit to get around Washington. They provide detailed written step by step instructions on how to get to most locations. The public bus stops in the RV Park and then goes straight to the Metro rail system. The Park sells bus and Metro tickets. They also sell Grayline Tour tickets. If you are taking a Grayline Tour, Grayline provides a very comfortable courtesy bus into the center of Washington.

On our first day we took the bus and Metro to the Washington Mall and the home of 16 of the Smithsonian's Museums. I am sure like many before us our first destination was the National Air & Space Museum.

Not models but actual airplanes hang from the ceiling.

What a collection!!

The actual airplane that the Wright Brother’s first flew

The plane Charles Lindberg flew when he became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic

The plane Chuck Yeager flew when he became the first person to break the sound barrier.

John Glenn's Mercury capsule when he became the first American to orbit in space.

  The Apollo 8 Command Module that brought Neil Armstrong back to earth after having been the first person to step on the Moon

The Gossamer Condor the first human-powered aircraft capable of controlled and sustained flight

I thought this sign really sums up a visit to the many Smithsonian Museums.  This is the “REAL” stuff not just the planes and spacecraft of the Air & Space Museum but at some of the other Smithsonian Museums we would see the actual flag that Francis Scott Key was writing about when he wrote the “Star Spangled Banner”. The real Hope Diamond, the actual Ruby Slippers worn by Judy Garland when making the Wizard of Oz, the real Kermit the Frog from the Muppets.

They even have the “real” Starship Enterprise.

I added these last pictures for all of my friends that do work or have worked in Information Technology.

If you can remember when the Cray – 1 was the fastest computer in the world you either are or should be retired. LOL

Below is the slideshow of our day at the National Air and Space Museum