DC Vacation

We just got back from our Vacation the Nation's Capitol. Wow, what a place. The sheer history alone will awe you, no matter what your political bent is. That's a good suggestion to start with when visiting the Captiol; leave your politics at home. There's more to DC than Politics. If you're going, I suggest staying at a hotel in the outlying areas that is close to a Metro Station. For those that don't know what the Metro is, think a Subway. For my Bay Areans back home think Bart. It is by far the most stress free way of getting into that town to sight see. I also suggest getting a 2 day pass for one of the many sightseeing busses that cruise through town. You won't regret it. We hopped on the City Sightseeing bus http://www.city-sightseeing.com/ (I liked them so much I will put their website url up in this post) and we didn't regret our decision. A two day pass for 3 people was 70-something dollars. This included a night tour. The beauty of these busses, besides being open topped double deckers, is that you can get on and off as many times and for as long as you want at each stop. You do not have to get back on the same bus, just one of that companies busses that comes along every 15 minutes. The stops are all at or near places you want to go anyway. I also suggest doing some research ahead of time. We bought a couple of really cool travel books at the bookstore. One broke the City down into sections, and each sections write up was two pages long. Included in that section was a flip up map of the area. Very handy. Also each book comes with a Metro map in the front...again vary handy. One thing you should be prepared for is high security at all the museums, etc. And please folks, don't bitch and moan about the crap security asks you to do. The one time someone doesn't check something is the one time something happens. These folks are just doing their jobs, don't give them shit. I highly suggest the Holocaust Museum. That place will get you. Also I might add that anyone who thinks that the Holocaust didn't happen needs to remove themselves from the Gene Pool. I loved the Museum of Natural History but I ran into someone outside that I really wanted to smack. There was a chunk of iron ore dated back to 22 million years ago. Some guy with his sons was reading it to them and he said..."22 mllion years, or 7000 depends on what you're buying." Freaking Creationist!!! I literally wanted to smack the guy and say "if you don't believe any of this is true then what the Hell are you doing going into the museum." I ignored the ingnoramous and we walked in. Holy Crap that place was huge!!!! You could seriously spend a week in that place. Here's a pic of one of the halls:



Huge isn't it? There was a very cool temporary exhibit going on that was a Butterfly tunnel. You went in this room that was filled with flowers and there were butterflies of every kind, color, etc flitting around. They'd land on you and the curators had to check you on the way out to make sure you didn't carry any hitchhiking butterflies. We tried to get to the American History museum but ran out of time.

The memorials are very moving. I only got to see Abe and the Korean War Memorial and the WWII one from the bus. Here are some shots:







Abe is 19 feet tall an along the side walls are the complete Gettysburg Address. The figures in the Korean War Memorial are lifesize and the detail is amazing.

I suggest trying to see all the Memorials. You may not agree with the decision to go to War, but you have to honor those men and women that gave their lives so we can be the Nation we are.

Also try and see all the Smitsonian Museums. They are free, and the artifacts in them are amazing.

My favorite was the Air and Space Museum. I got to see the Spirit of St. Louis, a Predator Drone, one of the Lunar Landers, several space capsules and the Wright Bros plane......very impressive.....here's some shots.







Didn't get the Wright Bros plane as my phone camera doesn't have flash. The Wife got some good shots though.

We tried to get into the Capital but some Jackhole left an unattended package and they had to treat it like a security breach. Especially since Congress is in session.

There is so much to do and you need several weeks to do it in. It was really a good trip and we were exhausted when we got back to the Hotel.