Inauguration Sensation: Adventures in DC (Museums & Monuments)

The school districts in and around DC are so spoiled because they have the nation's most concentrated area of national museums and monuments! The National Mall is littered with field-trip opportunities. I was amazed. And DC is the ultimate place for single grown-ups because there are so many things to see and do. I'm starting to sound like a travel guide, but it's just overwhelming. I stayed in DC for 5 days and I had plans to see Georgetown, Dupont Circle, Embassy Row, maybe old town Alexandria if I had time. I didn't even get past the National Mall. So much to do.

The National Museum of Natural History::


The Museum has one of the largest gem and mineral collections in the world. That's an emerald! About 2" by 2", 858 carats. This museum is a zoologist's dream. It's separated into Worlds, like Ocean World and Africa. The attention to detail is mind-boggling. It's easy to get overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge that's concentrated here. Tax money put to good use, I say.


The National Archives houses the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence (there's an ice rink right across the street, awesome!). You kinda have to wait in line with giggly school groups who talk about their cell phones while texting each other about what their cell phones can do. But it's worth it when you see these priceless documents up close::


It's kind of heartbreaking to find out just how faded the Declaration of Independence looks. Good thing it's backed up online::


Going monument-hopping along the Mall is best done on a bike because they are actually farther apart than you think, even when you're on the Mall itself. The height of the Washington Monument makes its apparent proximity very deceiving for some reason! Still a sight to see, from any angle:


The Jefferson Memorial, about two months before the famous Cherry Blossom Festival in March. I practically had the whole Tidal Basin trail to myself.


Coming from a city without a subway, I was in awe of how accessible a big city is with a quick, efficient Metro. Denver has an above-ground Light Rail, but its reach is limited. You have to live in key areas to get the most out of it. I guess I don't give enough respect to the bus system here. Really a shame. But I just love subways!


A couple Metro stops east the Capitol and National Mall, you are actually in residential-neighborhood DC and not the marble paradise that tourists are used to. Eastern Market is a cool area with a famous indoor marketplace that actually suffered a fire last year. Didn't completely destroy the place, but it's under renovation for a while. This side-annex continues some operations: butcher shops, fruits and vegetables, sweet shops, mmmmm::


The building that probably had the biggest impression on me was the Capitol. It just grows on you, how it exudes permanence, history, power, change, scandal, tolerance::


This view is from Pennsylvania Ave. I wanted to get the 'classic' shot of the rotunda and the Penn Ave. lights. I timed traffic so that I wouldn't get run over. Turns out my favorite was from the closest traffic light. A commuter on a Segway brushed past me as I took the shot. At that moment, it occurred to me the National Mall is the ultimate Segway track.

Earlier that day, I went on a walk with a friend of mine who lives within eyesight of this building and now works as a staffer in a Senate Office, and we talked about how on the surface, working here in DC politics must be a genuine thrill, but it remains a transient experience. New people, new laws, new expectations, every 2, 4, 6 or 8 years. Priorities and agendas in almost-constant rotation. I can definitely see how living in the nation's capitol tends to loses some of its gloss once the reality of down-and-dirty politics sets in.


I was just awed at how government works now that I saw it on a very present, physical level. And I mean levels upon levels upon levels of bureaucracy. My friend took me into a House building and I met some of his colleagues, and upon chance I met the Acting Deputy Department of State Ambassador to Senate Affairs or something, and it didn't take me long to become confused on how exactly that fits into this hierarchy that was all around me. I had so many questions. Who's your boss? Do you have a staff? How do you help get legislation passed? What career path did you take to get here? And so on and so on. It's just a different approach to getting things done compared to my free-market, small-business, entrepreneurial state of mind.

This was compounded when my uncle gave me an ad-hoc tour of the Pentagon (where he works). Imagine the biggest office building ever with miles and miles of hallways. Now put in all the branches of the US Armed Forces, staff them, now add in committees and sub-committees and staffers Chiefs of Staff officers and assistants and deputies and assistants to deputies and ambassadors and liaisons and defense planners and chairmen and janitors and a food court to feed all of them. Now tack on an alphabet soup of job titles and administration names. I love taxonomy but this is ridiculous!

And that's just the Department of Defense. Don't forget the Departments of State, Commerce, Labor, Energy, Interior, Homeland Security, and all the rest. Wow.

The Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the Capitol were all built on the same line of latitude (that L'Enfant sure knew what he was doing!), so you have to literally lean off the Lincoln Memorial while hanging onto one of the marble columns to get this shot::


Imagine this scene on the Fourth of July. Fireworks blazing. Flags waving. Not so bone-chilling cold. Gotta go back! Much more to see.