Saturday, July 02, 2011

2011 Washington D.C. Day 2


After a couple of long days, we slept late and were moving slow. Few of the restaurants in the area around the hotel are open on weekends so we ended up having some breakfast at Starbucks.

Afterwards, we walked over to take a couple more pictures of the White House and then headed to the Metro station to meet Morgan. She took the train from Penn Station in New York to Union Station in Washington DC and then boarded the Metro to get to our hotel.

Stopping briefly at the room, we got on the Metro and headed for the National Mall. We headed to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. They have an amazing display of animals. In Edmund Morris's book The Colonel which examines Roosevelt's life after he was president, Roosevelt spent a year in Africa hunting and collecting specimens. The Smithsonian Institution co-sponsored the expedition. Many of the specimens were destined for the new U.S. National Museum building, then under construction on the Mall and today known as the National Museum of Natural History.

We bought a new camera in the last week. Jack decided he should carry it and went crazy taking pictures in the museum. Halfway through the museum, we met up with Mary Maloney.

When we were done, we had lunch on the National Mall. There was a exhibition of Columbia culture. We had late lunch of Columbian food and then dove into the Smithsonian National Museum of American History for a quick visit. They have a large exhibit of the flag that hung at Fort Ross and inspired the Star Spangled Banner. We also checked out the Revolutionary War Gunboat Philadephia. At this point, Sharon needed to start to get ready for dinner and we caught the Metro back to the hotel. We will come back to the Museum of American History again later in the week.

We got cleaned up and jumped back on the Metro. The plan for the evening is dinner with the Nooters. I have not seen Rob since 2008. We took the Metro to the West Falls Church stop and Nooter picked us up in the parking lot. They barbecued tri-tip and salmon for dinner. It was a nice evening, but too short. I am hoping that I will get a chance to see Rob again during the week. He dropped us back at the Metro and we wound our way home. Again it was almost midnight by the time we got to bed.

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