Washington, D.C. is known for its fabulous museums, many of which are part of the Smithsonian Institution and are free to the public. Because of this, we had to fit as many of them in as we could.
Because of the timing of when the events our congressperson secured tickets for us were, along with what was geographically close to those things, we wound up scheduling all our museum visits on the same day. There was unfortunately no time for us to go to the National Gallery of Art, which I really want to see, but we did get a lot in on one day. We visited Ford's Theater, the National Portrait Gallery / Museum of American Art, the American History museum, and the National Air & Space Museum.
Although it is usually better to spread museums out in order to take everything in, it wound up being fortunate that we put them all on one day, because that day (the last day we were in D.C.) it was incredibly hot and humid - even worse than at Arlington the day before. Staying inside air conditioned buildings was the perfect way to spend the day.
Our first stop was Ford's Theater, or more specifically, Lincoln's Waffle Shop across the street for breakfast. Very curt, fast waitstaff - we felt just like locals. It was the best breakfast we'd had in D.C., after usually resorting to a coffee shop bagel or muffin.
Lincoln's Waffle Shop - yummy waffle with eggs and coffee included for quite cheap. Very much a "local" place.
Peterson House - across the street from Ford's Theater, this is the location Lincoln was moved to after he was shot in order to die in private, owned by family friends.
Ford's Theater (taken by Loren).
After we finished breakfast, once the line had gone down (they let people in in large groups at half-hour intervals) we went across the street. I had bought tickets to get us into the museum and into the theater itself for a half-hour ranger talk on the theater. The museum held lots of information and some interesting artifacts like the coat Lincoln was wearing when John Wilkes Booth shot him, the actual pistol Booth used, etc.
John Wilkes Booth's derringer used in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln (taken by Loren).
The coat Lincoln was wearing the night he was shot.
At a certain time, everyone is supposed to head upstairs and go into the theater itself, which has been reconstructed into a working theater (it went through decades of office space, storage, and general disrepair) and restored to the way it would have been at the time Lincoln was there, including the box in which he sat when John Wilkes Booth shot him. A ranger gives a short talk about the history and what would have happened that night, and then you are released into the lobby to browse the gift shop or continue about your day.
Ford's Theater, reconstructed to how it was the night of Lincoln's assassination.
It was already in the 90s at 11:30am, but fortunately our next stop was a block away: The National Portrait Gallery / American Art Museum. I particularly wanted to stop here just for the Portrait Gallery half, but it's connected seamlessly in the same building in the American Art Museum, and I soon discovered I could easily spend forever in this museum, rather than the short hour or so I'd allotted to see the portraits before lunch. What we did see was amazing, and we hopefully will be back soon to spend time here. This was easily the best museum I've been to in D.C.
The National Portrait Gallery & American Art Museum
Portrait of Ben Franklin - this painting was used as the basis for the engraving on the $100 bill.
Portrait of General George Washington (taken by Loren).
Portrait of President Abraham Lincoln (taken by Loren).
Portrait of President Bill Clinton, by Chuck Close (taken by Loren).
Portrait of President John F. Kennedy (taken by Loren).
Charles Lindbergh (taken by Loren).
President George H.W. Bush (taken by Loren).
Portrait of Dizzy Gillespie (taken by Loren).
Portrait of Benny Goodman (taken by Loren).
(taken by Loren).
(taken by Loren).
Teddy Roosevelt's White House 1903 Steinway (as reference in the White House entry).
Afterwards, Loren and I wanted to go to a restaurant in Chinatown we'd gone to on our day trip to the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in October, and we were quite close, so we went to Ming's on H Street. It's very nice inside, and has a wide menu (it's fusion Chinese / Japanese / Sushi).
It was a little less than a mile from Ming's to our next museum, the National Museum of American History, but due to the weather we took an air-conditioned cab. The National Museum of American History has great potential, and has a lot of really great exhibits and things to share, but unfortunately this museum does not have very knowledgeable people in charge of creating the displays. Things are scattered, exhibits are somewhat haphazard, and explanations are lacking. That being said, there are many great things to see there, including the original Star Spangled Banner (an amazing thing to see in person - no photos allowed, unfortunately, but they wouldn't do it any justice anyway). We spent the most time in this museum, going our separate ways and getting lost in the exhibits.
National Museum of American History
Loren and C3PO, the actual costume worn in Episode VI.
Julia Child's kitchen.
George Washington.
Martha Washington's dress.
Mary Todd Lincoln's dress.
Louisa Adams's (John Quincy Adams's wife) harp.
Michelle Obama's Inaugural Ball dress.
Counter from the Greensboro sit-ins.
Original Muppets - from a show called Sam & Friends.
Items from American comedy - Fonzie's jacket, Minnie Pearl's props, a slapstick, etc.
Instrument exhibit.
We were in this museum until it closed, then head over to the Air & Space Museum, which was open until 7:00 that evening. I remembered this museum from when I was little, but that didn't take away from any of the excitement at seeing some of the crafts in there again. There are many famous air and space crafts in this museum, and Loren particularly loved it.
National Air & Space Museum.
National Air and Space Museum.
Sputnik.
Spirit of St. Louis.
Apollo 11.
First manned aircraft to fly (the Wright Brothers' plane).
Historical sheet music written about flight.
We went to dinner nearby, and came back for a free observatory hour, but it had become very cloudy and the event got cancelled so we just called it a day and went back to the hotel. All in all, it was a great way to end the trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment