Friday, July 29, 2011

D.C. '11: Mount Vernon

On our second day in D.C., we had a George Washington-themed day and went to Mount Vernon in the morning and Alexandria (where there are many Washington-related sights to see) in the evening.  This post will be about Mount Vernon.

We had such an amazing experience at Mount Vernon!  It was as if some little elf was plotting our experience so that we would optimize every second of it.

That statement is almost literal.  When we first got there, we went in and purchased our admission ahead of several large school groups in matching shirts, and were apprehensive about sharing our tourist experience with hoards of elementary school kids... the visitor's center was already a zoo.  An elderly museum volunteer saw our apprehensive faces, grabbed us, and whisked us away to another information center that hadn't seen a single human being yet that day - it was blissfully quiet.  He showed us some highlights of the exhibit, like Washington's wooden teeth and other museum wings to hit later, and plopped us down in a film about Washington's exploits as a war general.  After enjoying a private viewing, we exited the theater to see the first waves of the schoolchildren lining up outside the theater.  Our little helper found us and whisked us back through another exhibit yet untouched, showed us some more highlights, and showed us on the map the best course of action for the day.

So, remaining just one step ahead of the worst of the school groups, we went over to see the main attraction of the estate, the mansion itself.  It was smaller than I expected, and the tour through the inside was a brief and somewhat hurried walk-through most of the rooms... during the winter, I'm sure it's more beautiful and less rushed.  No photographs were allowed inside, and the outside was having a bit of restorative work done, so photos of this part of the day were not fantastic.  Still, it was neat to see a revolutionary-era house, where Washington lived and died (eerily, we saw the bed and room where that happened), helping to humanize an otherwise monolithically legendary character in American history.

 
The mansion, with the scaffolded wing cut off from view - when looking straight on, the layout of mansion/side wing / archway / side structure is symmetrical.

View of the Potomac river from the mansion - the tree has been there since Washington's time.

Another view of the mansion, up to the scaffolding. 

On either side of the house, connected by arched walkways, are functional rooms for the home - such as the kitchen.

Portion of the kitchen.

After the house tour, we walked down the path lined with structures associated with keeping up an estate - the butcher's hut, the stables, etc.  We came across the old tomb structure, where Washington was entombed with other family members while his own structure - as dictated in his will - was being built farther along the path. 

 Stables at Mount Vernon.

Path leading down to the old tomb.

The old tomb (taken by Loren).

The new tomb, where George and Martha Washington are entombed.

Placard outside the new tomb (taken by Loren).

When we got to the "new" tomb, we got there just as a twice-daily wreath laying ceremony was about to start.  Each day, at 10:00am and at 2:00pm, the gates to the tomb are opened, and a wreath is dedicated to Washington.  Volunteers are taken from the crowd to participate, and two veterans are asked to do the actual wreath-laying.  When the crowd was asked for veterans, my dad raised his hand, and was selected to participate!  It was an awesome experience, and I caught the entire thing on video:

 
Here are some still photographs from the ceremony:


(taken by Loren).

(taken by Loren).


Happy parents after the ceremony (taken by Loren).

After the ceremony, we continued down the path to the water, where there was a small dock.  There were cruises leaving from there that went up and down the river, but we were doing a similar activity later in the week, and decided to go back up to the visitor's area to find some lunch and browse the gift shop.

Loren and I on the path from Washington's tomb to the river.

We got lunch at the "Mount Vernon Inn," a lovely little tavern-style restaurant with waiters in historic clothing.  After all the crowds of schoolchildren we had to swim through all day, and especially through the gift shop to get to the restaurant, it was so lovely and peaceful.  Our food was delicious as well.  All in all, it was the perfect way to end the excursion.

The patio-esque room in which we dined, complete with period-dressed waiters.

 My cup of delicious cold strawberry soup.

 Loren's meaty meal.

To get to and from Mount Vernon, we drove along the George Washington Memorial Parkway, which is a beautiful glorified trail along the river with great views of trees and water.  It's even better to take the bike path that runs between the road and the river, if you have the time and physical energy (which we did not).  

The view from the car - so green!

We took this road to and from Alexandria, the topic of the next post.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

D.C. '11: The National Cathedral

I must start this entry with a disclaimer: when I first heard about the existence of a National Cathedral, I was skeptical and uneasy - why is there a religious institution associated with our nation's capitol?  I soon learned, however, that though many high-ranking officials have endorsed and patronized the cathedral, it officially has no connection to the government, and calls itself the National Cathedral due to its central location, not affiliation.

It is technically an Episcopal cathedral, but it welcomes people of all faiths, and in fact encourages it.  Here is their mission statement from their website: "Washington National Cathedral is a church for national purposes called to embody God’s love and to welcome people of all faiths and perspectives. A unique blend of the spiritual and the civic, this Episcopal Cathedral is a voice for generous-spirited Christianity and a catalyst for reconciliation and interfaith dialogue to promote respect and understanding. We invite all people to share in our commitment to create a more hopeful and just world."

Regardless of whether or not you are religious, or in what context or denomination or practice your beliefs lie, there is a lot to see at the National Cathedral.  It's done in the Gothic style, so architecture / art history fans, it's definitely a sight for you - pretty much, it's the only Gothic architecture you can find in America.  And, there are neat little things to see within the architecture itself - historical vignettes done in stained glass, a moon rock from the Apollo missions, presidential tributes, etc.

The day we visited was a busy one, we just happened to arrive between activities - apparently, one hour before our visit the German Chancellor was there, and as we were leaving a funeral service was starting for a high-ranking military official who had also been a religious figure within the church.  The interior was thus decorated beautifully with white flowers for the occasion.

As with the last post, now that I've given background information, I'll let photos with captions take up the rest of this entry.  There were all either taken by Loren or myself.


The cathedral from the southeast corner (taken by Loren).

The apse (I took this for my friend Alex as an inside joke).

The western facade

 A moon rock embedded in a stained glass window dedicated to the Apollo 11 mission.

 One of the rose windows.

The children's chapel - everything is sized for a 5-year-old, with animals embroidered on the kneelers, super cute! 

 The alter, with funeral preparations (taken by Loren).

 One of the side alters

Woodrow Wilson's tomb in an entire bay dedicated to him.

 Stained glass windows in Woodrow Wilson's bay, with gorgeous light coming through (taken by Loren).

Statue of Washington.

One of the gargoyles - yes, it is Darth Vader.

Me in the Pilgrim's observatory, which had awesome views (taken by Loren).

 Some flying buttresses (taken by Loren).

 The view from the Cathedral over Washington, D.C. (taken by Loren) - you can see the Washington monument and the Potomac river pretty clearly.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

D.C. '11: The Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is right next to both the Supreme Court and the Capitol Building, so it's a good place to visit before or after either of those tours (we went in the afternoon after visiting the Supreme Court).  It's a fantastic and often overlooked sight to see in Washington D.C.
If you've never heard of it, it's literally what its name says: it's Congress's library.  When the Capitol Building was first built, it had a small library of mostly legal reference books.  When it was burned down during the war of 1812 by the British (technically in 1814), Thomas Jefferson offered up his personal library from his Monticello of over 6,000 books, in many different languages and spanning topics from law to science to literature to religion to just about anything.  At first, there was contention about Congress accepting this collection, to which Jefferson argued, "there is in fact, no subject to which a member of Congress may not have occasion to refer."

Although another fire in 1851 destroyed a good deal of this collection yet again, eventually the holdings outgrew the space in the Capitol Building, and in 1897 the new building was finished in a beautiful Italian Renaissance style.  Now, it's this fabulous, gigantic building with every inch covered in intricate sculpture, painting, and every other type of art you can think of, both inside and out, and filled with symbolism both of American history and of American ideals.  It's absolutely gorgeous.

It's not only the Congress's library, but is opened up to be the people's library as well.  There is a beautiful reading room for people doing long-term research, and there are many exhibits highlighting collections pertaining to different aspects of America's history.  One such exhibit is Thomas Jefferson's original library, protected behind glass but beautifully laid out in a spiral bookcase, with the original volumes salvaged from the 1851 fire as well as replacements from the exact publishing years of the volumes that burned that we have on record.  One could spend days exploring this library.

I'll close out this entry with photos and captions, now that I've explained what the building is all about.

View of the Library of Congress, including the dome of the Rotunda in its Reading Room) from the visitor's entrance to the Capitol Building.

Fountains at the base of the building - ground floor entrance is behind these statues in a little tunnel.

First floor entrance (closed to visitors at this time, the ground floor entrance is underneath these stairs).

Archway inside the First Floor entrance.

A Buddhist monk looking over the atrium.

View of the 2nd floor walkway around the atrium.

There is sculpture all around the atrium packed with symbolism - there are several pairs of these babies representing different geographical and cultural regions of the world - these two are the African on the right, with his hand over Africa, and the Native American on the left, whose hand shades his eyes, since he has no nation left (surprisingly insightful to me for late 19th century architecture).

Minerva holding a scroll of all the different academic disciplines of humanity.

I particularly liked this inscription.

 Thomas Jefferson's original library (photo stolen from the Internet).

This is a photograph I pilfered from the internet of the Reading Room - every statue and carving here has its own symbolism as well.  No photographs were allowed, so I had to search Google to find this.


I'd love to spend days and days in this building.  Definitely try to see it if you are ever in D.C.

D.C. '11: the National Archives & the Bureau of Engraving and Printing

After the three branches of government, The National Archives is essential for first-time visits to Washington, D.C.  In addition to being in charge of housing national records such as censuses, presidential speeches, and other documents, it has on display for the public the three most important documents relating to our country: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

Viewing these documents is a special experience.  It's easy to let their contents become abstract thoughts in the back of our American consciousnesses, general concepts we live by and take for granted... we forget that they were written down, by real people, coming up with these "radical" ideas for the first time.  Seeing the documents in person reminds you how tangible this way of life is, and how recently it came into being.  This isn't the way things have "always" been.  A couple hundred years ago, a group of men wrote down what they thought was the best way to ensure basic freedoms to a nation of people.

The documents are very large - paper sizes haven't "always" been 8.5x11" either.  The Declaration of Independence is 29 7/8 in. by 24 7/16 in.; The Constitution is four sheets, approximately 28 3/4 in. by 23 5/8 in. each.  The effect of this is that the sheets spread out before you, so you have to physically move a bit to read what you can (the Declaration was not properly taken care of for decades; it didn't occur to anyone to preserve it with the same care as the Constitution, and so it's mostly faded).

No photographs were allowed inside, as they are taking painstaking measures to preserve the documents on display.  One interesting thing to see is John Hancock's signature, which is actually pretty legible, and where we get the slang for getting someone's signature.  Here's a photo I pilfered from the Internet:


On the opposite side of the building from the entrance is the Navy memorial, which made for some good pictures of it in front of the Archives.


In the interest of getting to the end of these blog posts, I'm combining events when possible, so I will now move on to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is not necessarily a Washington D.C. "essential," but it is a good thing to do at some point.  It's probably an "essential" to do with kids, as it's an easy way to kill a couple hours and keep them entertained, all while in an air-conditioned building.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is, as you may have guessed if you do not know already, where our money is printed.  A tour of the facility allows you to walk through the gallery windows above the printing presses and see sheets of bills being printed at several stages of the process, and a tour guide tells you what's happening, the materials used, the steps of the process, where they get cut, etc.  If there are workers down below sorting or counting or inspecting bills, they will sometimes wave up at you and perhaps do a little goofing around with their uncirculated stacks of $100 bills.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing locations in Washington, D.C. and Texas combined print hundreds of millions of dollars a day.  It's hard to imagine that much money needing replacement each day, but then consider how many bills you've destroyed by leaving them in your pants multiple times through the wash, or how many coins you got as change and promptly lost, and the mere fact that money wears out after a while, and it starts to make a little sense.  Still, the numbers are almost infathomable.


No photos allowed inside this building either, for obvious security reasons, but here's a short little video from HowStuffWorks.com that shows a couple clips of the printers: http://videos.howstuffworks.com/howstuffworks/54-how-money-is-made-video.htm


Monday, July 4, 2011

D.C. '11: The Supreme Court

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

So, on to the third branch of government!  We actually went to the Supreme Court on Monday, June 6, two days after we went to the White House and the Capitol Building, but since I'm not updating real-time, I can keep things grouped together differently.


Breaking news: D.C. is hot in the summer.  We got to the Supreme Court at 9:00am and it was already too hot to stand in the sun comfortably.  The plan was to get in line to hear rulings decided from the bench at 10:00am, which we did, but it was a very busy day and there were a lot of visitors to the Court, including a group of young lawyers getting sworn in, and there were not enough open seats to open it up to those of us same-day hopefuls.  So, we didn't get to go in for that.

The Visitor's Center (the entire part of the building under the giant staircase, aka the ground floor) is open to the public during most of the day, so we went in.  There are exhibits explaining the history of the Court, interspersed with explanations of the exterior and interior architecture and sculpture, and exhibits containing interesting items like John Marshall's chair.


We found out that there was a discussion / "lecture" (basically, an info session) that took place inside the courtroom itself, so we waited for that to start in order to see the actual courtroom.  There were no photos allowed inside, but Loren was smart enough to take a photograph of the miniature model in the downstairs exhibit, and honestly, after being inside the real thing, I had to do a double-take looking at this photo.  It's pretty much exactly how the inside looks.


Lining the walls above the columns just out of sight of that photograph are relief sculpture panels of different figures important to the history of law.  The photo above is Draco and Confucius.   Pretty much every square inch of the building, from the architecture outside to the relief sculptures inside the courtroom, is decorated in some symbolic way.

It was gorgeous, and you could really feel the history of that room.  This is probably largely because there are never any videos permitted, or recording of any kind really, so we're not constantly inundated with media input from this particular institution - you have to see it to know it.

When the "lecture" was over, the decisions of the day were ready at the secretary's office, so we got to pick up the packets explaining each of the four rulings delivered that morning.  Lots of legal language, an explanation of the case at hand, what was at stake, what was decided, and which justices voted for or against certain cases.  Boring legal stuff, but exciting to be in that building as it did its job!

We ate lunch in the Court's cafeteria to save time before moving on to our scheduled tour across the street at the Library of Congress, and it was decent enough.  Typical cafeteria food, it will do if you are in a pinch for time.

I'm almost through editing my photos, which is the task that makes me procrastinate so much (the blogging part is the fast and easy part), so once I'm through with that I'll really start crunching through these entries!

I leave you with a photo by Loren: