Washington, DC (again) - Friday 10/23

It's been a while, fair reader. Been quite busy around here. Trips out of town. Workin'. And a sudden debilitating case of a snottily clogged cranium. All have taken me away from my usual quiet time here with you on these pages. Never a dull moment for me. Let's catch up, shall we?

After work on Thursday October 22nd (yes, that's over 10 days ago) me and the pooches pile into the Jeep and travel one state northward to Alexandria, VA to crash at the Brannons. Late after arrival, James and I begin the first of our two cinematic critiques. We'd been arguing back and forth via telephone, email, and Facebook on the merits of Citizen Kane and Touch of Evil. I am firmly in the Kane camp, James in Evil's. Late, late Thursday...into the wee hours, and the cinematic gem Citizen Kane is in the books.

Early Friday morning after scarce sleep, and it's time to hit the Metro at Huntington Ave. to make my way into DC. First stop? The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. They were having a special exhibit on Charles Darwin and his travels, writings, and theories. Quite interesting. I'm always a sucker for a good museum exhibit. And I am always amazed at the cursory glance some museum-goers give the displays. I know I am a notoriously s-l-o-w museum visitor as I read everything, but some people looked as if they were speed walking through the place.

From here, I Metro it over to Capitol South and walk up to the Library of Congress, specifically the Thomas Jefferson building. Absolutely beautiful here. Unless you're a Congressperson or a researcher, you cannot actually enter the reading room. (I ask every time.) But still, they have some sort of exhibit going on all the time. And the tour is nice. Ornate and grand and a spectacle. All for books. The Library of Congress is yet another of the multitude of structures in DC that fascinate me. The architecture amazes me. Since my recent relationship meltdown, I found solace in a previous trip to DC and a book purchased there at the Hirshhorn Museum entitled How to be an Explorer of the World. It's full of tips and tricks to take note of the small things around you that you probably pass up countless times a day. Buildings in DC offer up a variety of discovery points and minutiae that thousands may miss. Like for example these chaps holding up the facade of the LOC:

Pretty cool. I always enjoy the quiet and solace of the LOC. The books and books that must lie in wait behind the scenes. Thomas Jefferson's donation to the new nation after a fire destroyed virtually all the original library. Awe-inspiring.


After the LOC, it was a few blocks walk northward past the Capitol, past the Supreme Court, to my destination near Union Station for a late lunch: Capitol City Brewing Co.





Belly full and thirst quenched, I hopped back on the Metro to the Smithsonian stop for that was the closest stop to my next destination, my favorite in all of DC: the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. Without a car (or a tour bus) there's just no easy way to get there. So me and my plodding feet hoofed it from the Mall, past the Dept. of Agriculture, past the Holocaust Memorial, past the Bureau of Engraving & Printing, down to the tidal basin and around its edge to the (in my opinion) most stately of presidential memorials. I love it. So I walked and walked and walked, then made it up all the steps, then just sat and pondered and meditated for a while. I brought a Jefferson book or two for kicks, so after sitting quietly in the rotunda where his statue stands, I sat on the steps of the Memorial and read. Instead of reaching and searching for things to bring me joy, sometimes it's just the little things that do it: sitting on the steps in front of Jefferson, reading about Jefferson, seeing the Washington Monument across the basin, and watching the sun go down. Outstanding.



The sun goes down, it gets chilly, so it's time to walk all that way back to the Smithsonian stop and catch the Metro back to Alexandria. A full day in DC to say the least.