Days 10-12 10-12 Nov 2015: Washington DC

Days 10-12: New Jersey - Washington DC  - North Carolina

Day 10: New Jersey to Washington DC  (127 miles)

In the morning it was overcast in Woodstown NJ and it was a light drizzle when we got to Washington. 

We went to the Smithsonian, the national museum for the US. The name of the museum honors its first benefactor, James Smithson. In life, Smithson never visited America, but his ashes now are one of over 100 million items at the museum.

The Smithsonian has many different museums, many in Washington, but others throughout the US. Our first visit was to the Sackler and Freer art galleries. Charles Lang Freer collected all sorts of asian art, but was also intrigued by Whistler, who in turn mixed asian influences with his art.

The Peacock Room, designed by James Whistler and filled with ceramics collected by Freer.

The painter Darren Waterston has created Filthy Lucre, which "reimages Whistler's Peacock Room as a decadent ruin collapsing under the weight of its own aesthetic excess."

Whistler painted European models in Asian settings.

This sculpture of the Buddha incorporates 4 symbols: his curled hair covers a cranial bump signifying wisdom, the dot on his forehead shows renunciation, the elongated earlobes indicate spiritual status and the three lines on the neck are for beauty.

A dish from the Yuan dynasty decorated with cobalt oxide. The word for fish is a homophone for the word for surplus. 

A guardian from the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD). Limestone with traces of pigment. This military figure portrays a protector of the Buddhist faith.

Labor Supported by Art and Science. 1892-1907. Bronze. August Saint-Gaudens. Gift of Charles Lang Freer.

We also visited the Smithsonian Museum of African Art, but they limited photography in most of the exhibits we visited. In any event, we were starting to get 'museumed out', so we took the Metro to Arlington VA.

In Arlington, we stayed with Amanda Cannell-Boone and her husband Peter. We had last visited Amanda in 1987 during a sabbatical in Swarthmore and Philadelphia PA.

We were joined by Elspeth and Alex Hay and their two girls, Sally and Nora.

Sally was particularly fond of Peter, but that didn't stop her from jumping all of Peter's dinosaur checker pieces and claiming victory.

Day 11: Washington DC

Sally was up early in the morning and was happy to share breakfast with a pink bear.

Nora carefully surveyed the breakfast cereals.

By about 9AM we were ready to step out into a beautiful autumn day.

It was a 1-mile walk from Peter and Amanda's house to the Metro station.

It took a few minutes to understand how to catch the right train.

We travelled the first part together, but then the Hays carried on to the zoo while the Minots headed for the Smithsonian again. 

It seemed Washington was a construction zone from the Capitol Building

to the Washington Monument.

First we headed for the natural history section, where an elephant is dwarfed by the size of the entrance hall.

We went to the mineral exhibit to see the Hope Diamond, but were underwhelmed. Many of the less precious gems were far more interesting.

The Grossular crystals from Minot, Maine were a personal favorite.

A sleeping leopard and dead impala graced a tree branch in the mammal section. Leopards can carry prey equal to their own weight up a tree. That keeps the prey safe from hyenas and lions.

The American History part of the Smithsonian seemed positively eclectic in parts. There were the ruby slippers worn by Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.

The original Kermit the Frog from the Muppets.

And Julia Child's kitchen from The French Chef

Nearly museumed out for the second day in a row, we had lunch before heading outside.

It wasn't far to the Washington Monument, just south of the White House.

Past the Washington Monument, and just before the Lincoln Memorial, is the Vietnam Memorial. This is a black granite wall with the names of all US service personnel who died in the war. Its deliberate understatement seems to make it all the more poignant. Because it was Veterans' Day, there were many Vietnam Vets there.

There were many personal mementos left there

... and a few reminders of how the war and its aftermath remains controversial for many.

Lincoln Memorial with a gaunt, almost haunting, statue of Lincoln.

Washington Monument from Lincoln Memorial

South side of the White House.

Concepcion Picciotto maintained a 30-year peace vigil across the street from the White House. Her message was a confused combination of anti-nuclear, anti-fracking and pro-Palestine sentiments, but more importantly, it was tolerated by the gun wielding Secret Service police surrounding the White House. [Update: Concepcion Picciotto died on 25 January 2016]

By dark, we'd all made it back to our refuge at Peter and Amanda's. After a few drinks and nibbles we were ready to help make pizzas.

Amanda rolled out wholemeal dough. 

We got creative with the toppings.

Peter cranked up the barbeque to over 600°F to bake the pizzas.

Alex wielded the slicer

... and we tucked in.

Day 12: Arlington VA to Jacksonville, North Carolina  (412 miles)

This was a travel day from Arlington to North Carolina. Our main stop was a brief visit to Fort Macon State Park in Atlantic Beach, NC.

The fort was captured and briefly held by the South during the Civil War.

Ed found it more interesting to discover that the ornithologist, Elliott Coues, was once stationed here as an Army doctor.

.oOo.