-Seventeen museums, 1700 security guards, 17,000 visitors, 17,000,000 photos taken.
-So all-inclusive, one may never need to visit another museum--or WANT to.
-Animals on display.
-Plants on display.
-Rocks on display.
-History on display.
-Art on display.
-Science on display.
-Business on display.
-The World on display.
-Best of all--the unstructured behavior of tourists is on display. It's not regimented, guarded, enclosed in glass, or beset with interpretive signs. Fascinating!
-By far the tallest structure in Washington D.C.
-Symmetrical
-A tapering shaft aimed to the sky.
-Grayish-white. Cold.
-A neverending line of people at the base, waiting to climb 555 feet to the top.
-Windows near the top--two on each side. They look like eyes that monitor your every move.
-Above the eyes are blinking red lights. The purpose? To warn aircraft of its presence? A visual code being transmitted to a distant planet? A small bit of animation given to the rigid, impersonal iciness of the monolith?
The National Mall
-People criss-crossing the poorly-maintained lawns.
-Shade trees and weeds. Gravel and gray skies.
-Visitors of many nationalities speaking many languages.
-Joggers and cyclists.
-Street vendors.
-Big monuments, memorials and buildings in all directions.
-A cop on a horse--complete with billy club and gun.
-A carousel. Horses galloping to nowhere.
-A hungry man rummaging a trash container for food.
-Another man sits on a bench, pointing and gesticulating wildly and talking loudly to nobody but himself.
-A Segway tour. The guide works hard to keep the tourists interested.
-An American Parthenon.
-Tons of concrete and marble.
-Twelve massive pillars.
-One has to look hard to see the 16th president hidden in the interior shadows.
-Three flights of steps leading to Lincoln's Temple.
-A pedestal. A chair. A throne, if you will.
-Lincoln sits on the throne, arms resting on armrests. Oversized clothing. A look of dead seriousness.
-Eyeballs glaring, his steely gaze blazes a laser beam right through you.
-A white that matches the purity of his heart--but not a BRILLIANT white. No, a white with a gray area.
The Nation's Capitol Building
-It stands guard at the eastern edge of the National Mall.
-A big, ornate block of whiteness, like a sculptured chunk of white fudge.
-On top, a dome, like a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
-A GUY stands on top of the scoop of ice cream. Could it be George Washington himself? He looks out over the mall, his eyes meeting the eyes of his namesake monument.
-Manicured gardens.
-Too nice of a building to house "congressmen."
-The reek of corruption, kickbacks, extortion and shady political deals permeates the air.
-Note the large pool out front. Does it symbolize the cleanliness of our legislators? Or is it there for those legislators to wash the slime off after a hard day of law-making?
We also went to the Korean, Viet Nam, and World War II memorials. Then the Albert Einstein memorial, followed by a long walk to The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Ron was looking forward to that last one, and we took a tour of that fine facility. From the observation deck at the Kennedy, we got great views of the Potomac River, The Pentagon, The Jefferson Memorial, and, perhaps the all-time greatest symbol of political corruption, the Watergate Complex.
We took a bus to the Foggy Bottom subway station and took the Blue Line subway to the Central Metro station. From there we transferred to the Red Line subway to the Woodley Park station. By the end of our day, we were public transportation experts.
Julius Caesar and I give a "thumbs up" to the day.
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