Location: Greenbelt National Park, Maryland
Our second day in D.C. and we spent a good 10 hours exploring more of The Mall, Museums and surrounding areas. We spent most of the morning at The Capitol on a tour. The Capitol dome is currently under renovations. A 7 year project costing $100 million dollars. The deadline for finishing the project is the next Presidential Inauguration. That explains why so many people were working on a Saturday.
Props to Hawaii for having the most stand-out statue. All others are either bronze or marble. King Kamehameha ruled.
California's statues were Ronald Reagan and Father Junipero Serra. California was in the process of taking back Father Serra and replacing him with Sally Ride (the female astronaut) but the Pope just cannonized Father Serra...which kind of nipped that in the bud.
Washington tour guide humor...What 5 Presidents are NOT buried in the U.S.?
Answer: Carter, Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr. & Obama...cause they are still living.
We also toured the U.S. Botanical Gardens. It was really a hot and muggy day. I can honestly say it's the only time I've experienced a tropical greenhouse feeling less humid than the outside!
Ned was thrilled that cacao theobroma was honored in the botanical gardens! Imagine our surprise stumbling upon this mural.
And even more surprised seeing the cacao tree front and center with tons of flowers on it! We think they must fertilize the heck out of it cause we've never seen that many flowers on a cocoa tree. Every little branch, clear out to the tips, had flowers on it.
There are 19 Smithsonian Museums and we're doing our darnedest to hit most of them! Next up was The National Air and Space Museum. This place was packed with school kids, families and most of mankind. For sure this was the most popular place on The Mall. We did just about every exhibit in this museum.
The best part of this Museum for Ned was seeing the plane that his dad flew in WWII. It was an SBD Dive Bomber. Ned's dad flew 62 missions in the Pacific as a Marine Pilot. What a hero!
We also saw the Air Medal on display that he received.
After walking around outside for a bit, we decided it was still too hot and humid to hang outdoors.
Here's the event planner doing her thing. Time to find another museum!
The National Gallery of Art won out. I especially enjoyed the photography and print exhibits. There were some pretty cool Andy Warhol prints, but we both enjoyed this one. I think I liked it cause I was thirsty, Ned for other reasons.
By this time it was early evening, the temperature was cooler and pleasant so we decided to explore more of the surrounding area. We walked to Chinatown. It is nothing like San Francisco's Chinatown. This was the most Chinese thing we saw. This area is more of a shopping, dining, hipster area. Awesome Con was happening (East Coast version of Comic Con). It was fun to see all the costumed characters wondering by on the street.
Dinner was an outside Indian inspired restaurant. So much fun to enjoy the cool evening while having fun people watching.
The Monuments lit up at night are still the best.
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