Fun In DC

Kathryn and I took the metro into DC this morning, and spent the day downtown. It was good fun.

We went to the Air & Space Museum first. Even though I go there...fairly frequently... I still found some things I really hadn't noticed before to look at. I liked looking at all the Cold War stuff, things that had a lot more relevance to me after taking that Cold War class last semester than they did before. We took the "free guided tour" given by a really sweet old man who was full of stories about some of the planes. He talked a lot about the early space program, too, which was cool.

After that we walked over to Union Station to eat and look at the model train. Union Station is one of my favorite places in DC - it's so elegant and grand...makes you feel like you're in some sort of romantic novel or movie just to walk around inside. Also on the walk over we were crossing a street and I caught this trucker checking one of us out and then when he saw me noticing, he revved his engine at us as we walked in front of the truck. Then when the light changed and he came around the corner, he honked and waved. It was silly and made us act like giggly high schoolers for a second.

After Union Station we went to the "In the Beginning: Bibles from 1000 and Before" exhibit at the Freer Gallery. Apparently the guy who established the Freer Gallery was also a collector of early Biblical texts, and this is the first time that some of them had ever been on display. There were some there that were dated to be from 75 or 100 CE at the latest. It was really incredible to be able to actually see artifacts that have lasted from when Christianity was just beginning...in some ways it made the faith seem a bit more tangible and less like some fantasy that was grown from legend and twisted into shape over centuries and centuries.

Finally, as dusk was approaching, we walked to the World War II memorial. We walked around the whole thing while the sun was setting - I know how sappy I tend to be, so I don't think we could have chosen a better time to see it than amidst the roar of the water in the fountains combined with the echo of the winds through the colums as the shadows grew longer and then faded into blackness...it was truly awe inspiring.

After the memorial, we walked over to the Ellipse and saw the National Christmas Tree. It was pretty neat. By then we were both rather tired and there was a plethora of screaming children, so we finished up and headed back to the Metro station. Kathryn indulged me while I stopped at the Tivoli's in Rosslyn to bring back some cookies for the family. Tivoli's is great. I practically grew up on those cookies. Good times.

Hopefully in the next few days I'll post some of the DC pictures - if not here, then on Facebook. Maybe both places. We shall see.