DC Vacation Day Two
Today we got started at the break of about 9:30 or so. Dragged our asses down to the Metro station and hopped on over to the Smithsonian station. The subway right away seemed faster than the one I remember from my trip to Madrid, but it may have been an illusion based on the shorter distance between stops. I’m not sure. In any case, subway tunnels are always impressive bits of construction to me.
Our intention today was to go at least to the Air & Space Museum. On our way there, we saw a sign for an exhibition based entirely on the world of Jim Henson at the S. Dillon Ripley International Gallery. As a person admittedly obsessed with all things Henson and Muppet, I immediately took a right turn and went straight to it. It was amazing. I’ll tell you right now, if all I see is that exhibit and the Air & Space Museum, this trip has been more than worth it. The exhibit was full of Henson’s original sketches, writings and creations, as well as some older commercials and pre-Muppet stuff that I had never seen before. There was even a whole wing devoted to The Dark Crystal – a movie that goes on my desert island list.
We then wandered into the Hirshhorn Museum Sculpture Garden, followed by the museum itself. It was interesting enough, I suppose – I’m interested enough in art that I’ll get really into it at times, but there wasn’t all that much inside the museum to grab my attention. The sculpture park was cool, though.
Then we went on to the main event. The Air & Space Museum was everything I hoped and more. I’m officially a space nerd, so it was like a dream museum for me. I took a whole ton of pictures in there (I took 147 pictures all told today – thank God for digital cameras). We managed to go to the perfect museum, as they’re celebrating 50 years of NASA this fall. Plus, hanging in the opening entry was SpaceShipOne; I’m incredibly excited by what that ship has accomplished. I’m a little daunted by the prospect of describing everything inside the museum. I may have to make a picture log post of it later on. We attended a video in the Einstein Plane’arium about black holes. The plane’arium was cool, I’ve never really been in one (as an adult, anyhow – I live in a pretty science-starved area). The movie was narrated by Liam Neeson, which just made it all the cooler.
We got out of the museum with a little bit of time to spare, and headed to the Capitol Building, took some pictures and then headed back up the Mall. We’re saving the National Gallery of Art and the National Museum of Natural History for tomorrow and Sunday, respectively. I’d seen the monuments before on my last trip to DC, though they’ve added the World War II memorial since. It was pretty impressive, though it doesn’t lend itself to photography. Maybe from the top of the Washington Monument, or something. I’m always impressed by the Lincoln Memorial. We visited the walls for the Korean and Vietnam wars, and then headed back to the hotel.
Tomorrow we intend to hit up the 2008 National Book Festival and then the National Gallery of Art. Should be a good time. I screwed up my foot somehow today and it’s killing me. Hopefully I can sleep it off and manage to walk tomorrow. I promise to put the better pictures I took up at some point, but it’s a lot of effort that I don’t want to do now.
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