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As some of you might have known, we planned on spending two weeks in the Washington D.C. area. Lance had scheduled a week’s vacation (the first since last May) around a conference and the rest of the time we were going to delve in and explore our nation’s capital. As they say the best laid plans of mice and men…

Unfortunately, we received the sad news that Lance’s Grandfather had passed on early in the first week. As you may have read earlier on our website, it was not completely unexpected, just sudden. As the plans unfolded we were only in D.C. for five days before heading north to Rhode Island to be with family.

Clearly five days is not enough time to see everything there is to explore in D.C.—just ask my good friend Debbie who has actually lived in D.C. for the past year, she still hasn’t seen it all! What follows is a laundry list (with a few pertinent facts thrown in) of our whirlwind time in the District of Columbia (by the way, when our capital was founded in 1790 Columbia was a nickname used for America, in honor of Christopher Columbus).

Our first day we hopped on a tour which took us out to Mount Vernon, George Washington’s estate. On our way out there we drove through Old Alexandria, Virginia. During his Presidency, the Capitol and the White House were under construction so Washington and his wife, Martha lived in Alexandria (as it was known back then). The Washingtons attended Christ Church, the same church that many years later Robert E. Lee would attend with his family. I know I mentioned this a week or so ago but did you know that Robert E. Lee was married to Washington’s granddaughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis? The child was from the widow Martha’s side as George did not sire any children of his own.

How strange that the granddaughter of the “Father of our Country” married a man partly responsible for trying to rip the country apart. Anyway, back to the estate on a hill overlooking the Potomac River, Mount Vernon. When Washington acquired the estate it was roughly 2,000 acres with a small six-room farm house that was built in 1743. By the time of his death in 1799 Washington had increased the estate to over 8,000 acres and the house had 21 rooms! In keeping with the times the 9,000 square foot Mansion had no bathrooms, that need was addressed by the nearby “Necessary.”

Although Washington spent over 16 of his 67 years serving his country he considered himself to be a farmer. Washington developed numerous techniques to improve his lands and his business ventures. At the time, Washington owned one of the largest whiskey distilleries in the country. When he decreed in his will that all his slaves should be set free (following Martha’s death) he was the only founding father to do so. One last tidbit about our first president: he was 6’2 ½” tall while Martha was 4’11” short!

Touring Mount Vernon took most of the morning so after lunch we were off to Arlington National Cemetery. On the way our guide entertained us with, “Did you ever hear the story about how George Washington threw a silver dollar across the Potomac River? It’s true, everyone knows that money went further back then!” Go ahead and groan, we all did.

Arlington National Cemetery was our first national cemetery; there are now over 100 throughout the country. Arlington was established on the grounds of Robert E. Lee’s house, just across the Potomac River from the capital, after a particularly bloody Civil War battle.

All honorably discharged servicemen and women, their spouses, and children as well as Presidents, Supreme Court Justices and Cabinet Members are eligible for burial in a national cemetery. The cemetery averages 24 burials every weekday and currently has over 300,000 graves. At this rate the cemetery will be full by 2060. We were able to watch a changing of the guard ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns. Buried there are the unidentified bodies of a soldier from WWI, WWII, and the Korean War. The guard changes every half hour April to September, every hour the rest of the year, and only every two hours at night.

After crossing back over the Potomac we wandered around the southern end of our two-mile-long National Mall. We started at the impressive Lincoln Memorial. From there we looked north to the Washington Monument and peeking out from behind that was the large rotunda of the Capitol Building. The layout of the our nation’s capital was designed by Pierre Charles L’Enfant in 1791. Although the plan was later modified the basis of L’Enfant’s design still stands. The Capitol Building, the place of governance by the people, stands tall on old Jenkins Hill (now Capitol Hill), with the White House off to the side and a good distance away from the Capitol Building to ensure separation of powers; the location of the Supreme Court is similar, but on the opposite side.

The Lincoln Memorial is one of three federal properties in D.C. dedicated to President Abraham Lincoln. Ford’s Theatre, where Lincoln was shot on April 14th, 1865, by John Wilkes Booth and the Peterson House across the street from the theater where Lincoln died the next morning April 15th, 1865, are the other two. When the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated on February 12th of 1914, Robert Todd Lincoln (Lincoln’s son) was in attendance. Since then Lincoln’s last descendant, a great grandchild, died in 1985.

I found it very intriguing that the only money Lincoln had in his wallet when he was shot was a five dollar Confederate note. One of the Park Rangers (most of the memorials, monuments and historical places in D.C. are managed by the National Park Service) mentioned that there were more words written in the English language about Lincoln than any other man except Jesus Christ. Perhaps this Lincoln quote will illuminate why: “I hate it (slavery) because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world – enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites.”

The Washington Monument, at 555 ½’ tall, is the world’s tallest masonry structure. The Monument was begun in 1848. After a hiatus caused by the Civil War, work resumed in 1876 and it was finally completed in 1884. Anyone who looks closely at the Monument will see the difference in the color of the stones from the two construction periods. I forgot to mention this earlier but did you know that Washington was our only president to be unanimously elected? And not just once but twice!

Of course we filed reverentially past the Korean War Veterans, Vietnam Veterans and (the relatively new) World War II Memorials. Sadly, we pondered just how many more Veterans’ memorials our country will need. We hope not very many. A tidbit about the WWII Memorial, since its opening in April of 2004 WWII veterans have been dying at a rate of 1,000 per day. Cheery thought, eh?

To finish our tour for the day we drove through Georgetown to the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Diocese of Washington (also known as the Washington National Cathedral). What a perfect name for a place known as the capital of acronyms and obfuscation! Probably the most interesting thing about driving out to the Cathedral was passing by the Naval Observatory. Although it wasn’t much to see it is interesting because that is where the Vice President of the U.S. lives—I never knew that!

The next day we rode the Metro into D.C. to tackle the most popular of the Smithsonian Museums: the National Air and Space Museum. The museum, which traces the story of mankind’s fight against gravity, is the most visited museum in the world! Opened in 1976 the museum houses the largest collection of air and space craft in the world. A couple points to ponder: in 1917 when the U.S. entered WWI we had only 50 outdated aircraft. Early planes had no seat belts and many pilots died because they simply fell out. Eddie White, the man who took the first U.S. space walk, was so amazed by what he saw that he had to be ordered back in!

As you can imagine, that museum took most of the day and we still didn’t see everything! We did get to touch a moon rock though. And then, the coolest thing happened. Remember my friend Debbie who I mentioned has been living in D.C. for the past year? Well, the reason she and her husband and sons are in D.C. is because Andy (her husband) was on sabbatical working with colleagues at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. So, lucky us, Andy gave us a behind the scenes tour of the museum! How cool is that?

The Smithsonian Institution, which encompasses 19 museums and 9 research centers, has over 146 million specimens with 126 million of them at the Natural History Museum. The museum, which opened in 1910, is over 18 football fields in total area. Talk about a dream job!

Since the National Archives stays open until 6 pm we had time to peek into the Charters of Freedom Rotunda. On display are the three founding documents of the U.S.: The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America (we call it the Declaration of Independence), the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights. Also in the Rotunda are other influential papers from our young government.

On the way into the Rotunda we passed by one of only four remaining copies of the Magna Carta. Written in 1297 the Magna Carta is considered to be the basis of English Common Law upon which our government was slightly based. The Magna Carta is not owned by the U.S. government, it is on permanent loan from the Ross Perot foundation, interesting! For those of you who have seen the movie National Treasure, I’ll share with you what the guards at the Archives told us: first, there is no map on the back of the Constitution. Second, the entire case that the documents reside in is lowered under the floor and sealed nightly with some of the best security measures in existence, so don’t even think about it!

After all our museuming we were happy to take advantage of our RV park’s hot tub. I think we had to rest our full minds as much as our sore feet! The next day was Thursday, the day of Lance’s conference. We rode in together on the Metro but then split ways at L’Enfant Plaza. I got off and walked over to the “Castle” and Lance continued on down to Arlington. The Castle was where the Smithsonian Institution first began with a coin collection in 1846. The money to establish the institution was willed to the U.S. government in 1836 by James Smithson, an English mineralogist and chemist. The odd thing about Smithson’s bequest was that he had never even visited the U.S.! The original building of the Smithsonian is now mainly a visitor’s information center but if you’d like to thank Mr. Smithson for his amazing gift and vision you can do so in the Castle, since his crypt is just inside the entrance.

Talk about fun—my friend Debbie met me on the Mall and we toured the relatively new National Museum of the American Indian. The museum is devoted to representing extant tribes from all of north, south and central America, truly a monumental job. The museum gave me my new word for the day: survivance. Debbie and I lingered over lunch, catching up on the past year. It was almost like the old days back in Tucson, wrapping up before we diverged for the summer. After Debbie caught the Metro home I had a few hours to explore before meeting Lance. I headed straight for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, since I had never been there before.

The building is huge—over 27 acres! Inside, the Bureau prints all our paper currency and security notes as well as all White House invitations. The world’s largest producer of bills started off in the attic of the Treasury building in 1862. President Lincoln authorized the printing of paper money since the Civil War effort required all metals to be used for other purposes. Factoids: It takes 9-10 days to print a bill. The $1 bill costs .04 cents to print. The largest bill in circulation is the $100 bill. They used to print $500, $1,000 and $5,000 bills but that all stopped in 1969. The Bureau has 2,500 employees that work 24 hrs/day 5 days a week. 95% of the bills printed are replacement bills, the other 5% account for economic growth. The design and look of our bills will be changed every 7-10 years with the $5 bill to be changed in 2008. I saw my first million dollars, in $10s. It was a stack roughly 4’ by 4’ by 4’. The Bureau also sported a large sign that read: “Free samples, tomorrow only.” Too funny!

After exiting the Bureau I found myself temptingly close to the Tidal Basin so I opted to walk around to pay a visit to the Jefferson Memorial. It was a rather warm day so I welcomed the shade offered by the cherry trees. The Jefferson Memorial is as awe-inspiring as the Lincoln one. From the top of the steps Jefferson looks across the Tidal Basin to the White House. Similar to the Lincoln Memorial is the small museum and gift shop dealing with the President’s contributions to our country. How did they manage to do and think all the things they did back then? Were the days longer? Were the people smarter?

Continuing around the Tidal Basin I came to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. What a man! He served for twelve difficult years, from the middle of the Great Depression to World War II. His memorial is dramatically different from the large, architectural monuments of the other presidents, his is an outdoor series of “rooms” that are linked together by flowing water. One of the nicer things about the memorial is that it is slightly off the beaten path so it was great place to escape the crowds.

I quickly crossed the Mall and sat with Albert Einstein’s Memorial statue for a few minutes before trekking to meet Lance at the Kennedy Center. In support of public art the Center offers free concerts every day at 6pm. Our concert was by a band called Dile from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. The band played a high energy assortment of Latin music, they had us all wiggling in our seats and clapping to the beat. After the show we passed by the Watergate Hotel, site of that famous scandal. Did you know that our Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice supposedly lives there? And just like that, another day in D.C. was over. On our ride home we made some hard decisions and prioritized locations for our final day in D.C.

On our last day in D.C. we headed to a place where Lance would be happy to live forever, the Library of Congress. The LOC was founded in 1800 to serve the research needs of Congress. Several times the Library has burned or been destroyed yet every time it was reformed. Currently the LOC is the largest library in the world with over 130 million items in over 470 languages. The library has over 500 miles of shelves! In D.C. the Library occupies three huge buildings, the Thomas Jefferson, the John Adams and the James Madison. Due to its massive size the Library has multiple storage facilities throughout the U.S.

We toured the Thomas Jefferson building which was the first of the Library buildings when it opened in 1897. The Library does not have a copy of every book ever written but since 1870 it has received 2 copies of everything copywriteable. The LOC doesn’t keep a copy of everything, of the 22,000 items it receives every day the LOC keeps about 10,000. The building is ornately decorated, almost a shrine to the written word that rivals many of the great churches of Europe. Since we were there we applied for our LOC cards which are good for ten years. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do much research that day but I have a feeling we’ll be back!

Since the LOC is right next to the Capitol Building we walked around the impressive edifice. Security measures kept us from getting up close but we still had a good view. It was fun to walk by the House of Representatives offices, we made up stories about all the people in suits that were streaming past us. Funny thing: The other side, where the Senate Office Buildings are located is known as the SOB side (an acronym for Senate Office Buildings, of course).

And whew, we left D.C. exhausted but full of new thoughts, ideas and proud of our nation’s accomplishments and history.

Photos: View our photographs from Washington, D.C..

Notes: We stayed in Washington, D.C. from 05/21/2007 to 05/26/2007.