Washington DC is a small place packed with a lot of history! I just spent five days strolling the streets of downtown DC, hiking the mountains of Shenandoah, and observing the wonders of Great Falls. There is no way you can see everything in 5 days! Hopefully I can return in the spring and see some of the things I didn’t get to see this time around.
Since it was a five-day trip, and I squeezed as much in as I could, this blog will probably be in several parts. I’ll start my trip off with DC… I have friends that live in Arlington, so it was a short metro ride to downtown where as I said, there is more history than anyone can take in, in one trip. Why the metro? Because you don’t really want to drive around downtown! It’s confusing and congested! There are streets you can drive on at certain times of the day, and cant at other times. The parking is absolutely crazy, and the tour busses and cab drivers are aggressive and ridiculous.
First stop… the Holocaust Museum. When you enter the museum you are told to take an ID card and get in the elevator that will take you to the top floor. I read my ID card as we rode up to the main museum. I didn’t realize it at the time, but everyone gets a different ID card… that puts you in the shoes of someone who survived the Holocaust and tells his/her story. As it turned out I wore the shoes of a gay man. This museum is not for the weak… in fact when I first entered, I thought about turning around, because it was already playing with my emotions. In the crowd was a group of high school children listening, reading, and taking notes. I’m sure a report would be due in the future. This museum is grotesque, heartbreaking, and moving… and something I think everyone should experience at least once.
The second stop on my bucket list was the National Museum of Art. This place is huge, and a beautiful piece of architecture. Outside it resembles a large neoclassical building, including a rotunda, colonnades, and the government style pediment. The stairs where a bit much, and the start of some aches and pains for the remainder of the trip. The interior was filled with statuary, fountains, and of course an oculus in the rotunda. I chose the Italian art as my first experience since that has been the majority of my studies in art history thus far. Getting to view the art up close and personal was a great treat! Viewing it in a book just does not do it justice. I even got to be a bit of a tour guide, explaining the mediums, the artists, and the era’s. I’m told we spent about 3 hours just looking at the Italian art (it didn’t seem that long to me), but we needed a break and headed outside where the cloudy skies had turn to sunshine! I figured I could go back another day… but as it turns out, that didn’t happen.
As a child my father took us to DC (he always took us to cool places), and at that time we actually got to go into the White House, and the Capital. This time… I only photographed them from the outside. We walked up to the Capital building as close as we could to get a decent shot. I didn’t take my Olympus along since it started out as a rainy nasty day, so the point and shoot had to do. I did get some good shots in the days ahead from the top of a tour bus. Which saved on the legs I might add.
We ended the day with a nice dinner, and wandered around downtown planning our next day of sight seeing, what exactly we felt like we couldn’t live without before the whole trip was over. :) I knew I wanted to include some night shots of Washington in my portfolio so we also planned on either staying late one day, or heading back after all the traffic died down. As it turned out we stayed late and added more stress to the already achy body. It was well worth it though… and I will share more in my next post.
Love, Laughs, and Photographs,
Wendy
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