Touring the Capital!

While in Washington DC we stayed busy touring.  We met a couple in the FamCamp, Dennis and Judy, that joined us most of the time and that made it more enjoyable.  On other visits to DC we have intended to use the subway system but never managed to quite make it.  We drove into town, with the accompanying frustrations and delays.  Well, with Judy and Dennis we headed off to the nearest Metro station about 6 miles from Andrews AFB.  

Parking was not a problem.  We could opt for the Kiss & Ride or the Park & Ride!  I liked the Kiss & Ride but BJ said we would do the Park & Ride!   
Once we got into the station our first goal was to get the requisite fareticket  needed to get through the gates to the train platform.  They are only sold in automated machines.  The problem was the time of the AM when we were there the sun was shining in right on the machines and we could not read the step-by-step instructions on the screen!  And since we had no idea what we were doing it made a hilarious scene - too bad a mini camera was not recording it all.

However, despite these difficulties and with the help of some very patient attendants we managed to get faretickes for each of us.   So now we head thru the turnstiles.  You stick your fareticket in one end and pick it up out of slot on your way thru.  You have to use the same ticket when you enter and at the destination where it prints your remaining credit on the ticket!   We had to change trains at L'Enfant Station.  The trains traveled on different levels, so not only did we have to find the right level, but the correct direction on each level - all underground like moles!!

At any rate, we managed to make it to the Mall downtown with the Congress at one end and the Washington Monument at the other.  We spend Monday at the American History Museum.  Tuesday we did the Air & Space Museum part of the day and the Natural History Museum the rest of the day.  We had driven out to the Manassas National Battlefield Park on Sunday so we were all ready for a rest on Wednesday.  I was thinking of visiting the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum, a Smithsonian facility at Dulles Airport, on Wednesday after I went to an RV shop in Manassas to pick up a part we needed.  But, by the time I fought the traffic on I-495 and I-64 to Manassas, going right by the facility, I did not feel like fighting the crowd in the parking lot and getting in to facility so I passed and returned to Andrews.

International Spy Museum

The next day BJ and I headed back into DC on our own, Dennis and Judy were still taking it easy.   We tried a different route on the Metro and managed to get to the International Spy Museum several blocks off the Mall.

American Art Museum

We spent several hours there going thru the maze of exhibits they had laid out to make it more interesting.  Afterwards, we had lunch at a nice pizzeria across the street and then went into the American Art Museum with the American Portrait Gallery in what was originally the US Patent Office.   One of many interesting exhibits was the one created by an eccentric gentlemen in DC after he got out of the Army following WW II.

Throne Of The Third Heaven Of The Nations Millennium General Assembly 

It was constructed by James Hampton (1909 - 1964), a janitor for the General Services Administration, over a 14 year period from 1950 until the time of his death, after which it was discovered in a garage he rented near his apartment in Washington D.C.  Made of scavenged materials, minutely detailed and finished with glittering foil, The Throne is composed of some 180 pieces, occupies an area ofsome two hundred square feet and stands three yards in height at its center.    If you are interested, there is an essay on this eccentric, but focused man at this link!

We drug ourselves back to Andrews thru the turnstiles and Metro stations and started preping to depart for Ft Mead the next day.  We had a great time in DC and plan on visiting again (the fairtickets we have left are good forever) but it is time to move on!!