day 17: washington dc I

we entered our nation’s capital by its impeccably clean subway. r pointed out that the motto written across the dc license plates read ‘taxation without representation’ which we both thought quite amusing. sock it to ‘em, dc.

the next thing we noticed was how miserable the weather is in the capital! washington must never have been to the site he approved while in office, otherwise he would never have done so, in m’s opinion.

we began our federal tour amidst a federal downpour. we stood beneath our umbrella in the line to enter the library of congress, that palace of the national mind. entering the national mind means stepping forth to be dispossessed, x-rayed and scrutinized by a cranky security guard with an overblown sense of authority (when m leaned forward to place her wallet in a plastic bowl the guard snatched it from her and tossed it onto the conveyer belt where it promptly fell between the rollers and was stuck, the guard barked at the visitors to get a move on). once inside we marveled that every available inch of space had been covered in federal graffiti. m was disgruntled by the fact that the only women represented on the walls and ceilings of the national mind were allegorical, simple abstractions personified (‘agriculture’ clutching a sheath of wheat, ‘mathematics’ embracing an abacus, etc). as tourists, we were allowed to stand behind a thick glass wall and peer down into the reading room. the experience, however, simply teases the visitor into what curiosities are held in the plentiful and neatly organized book stacks.

we went into a few exhibition rooms, but by far the most interesting was the collection of books that Jefferson sold to his country after the british burned the city during the war of 1812. comprising some 7,000 volumes, it was the beginning of what would become the library of congress that we know today. most tragic, however, was that most of this collection was burned during a fire in the late 1800s. they have since replaced about 80% of the destroyed copies, but they indicate which books they have yet to find by placing a box in its place with the title and author.

of all the days on this trip that r could have left national parks passport in the car, this would have to be the most damaging. we visited six sites, and missed the stamps for each one. oh well, he said later, impetus to bring us back and see the things we missed. and see the ones we already saw again, just to get the stamp.

we stepped out of the library of congress and walked practically next door to the supreme court building. we were astonished to learn that our government did not provide a permanent home to the high court until 1932, and then, mostly because of the political clout of former president taft who was then serving as the chief justice (the only president to serve on the supreme court, it is said that he would rather have been appointed to the court than named tr’s successor). the tour was set to begin in forty minutes so we ventured into the basement and ate at the supreme court café, wondering all the while if Sandra day o’connor enjoyed the panini as much as we did, or perhaps maybe antonin scalia became so fat from a daily dose of cheeseburgers (and we consider that a good thing, perhaps it will shorten his tenure if he has health problems). of all the things we would see this day, the court was the most fascinating, in r’s opinion. we were encouraged to come back on monday and witness the handing down of opinions, and if we had, we would have been within spitting distance of the justices. the transparency made r feel as if democracy had suddenly come alive, ideals had suddenly been realized.

after the tour, we made our way around the capitol – and just to put it out there, no, we never went into the capitol building – and up to the Smithsonian museum of american art/portrait gallery. we did not allow ourselves very much time, and used every moment scouring the few areas we were able to get to. r made sure to get to the presidential section, including a room about lincoln’s second inaugural ball (which, incidentally, was held in that very building back when it served as the us customs house). r was taken with a norman Rockwell painting of Nixon that dared to give the man a look of humanity.

the museum closed at 7:30, and the tour book we were using said the archives stayed open until 9. upon arriving at the massive bronze doors, we found them locked; apparently the research side is open till 9, the visitors section closes at 7. across the street behind the gates of the scultpture garden m spotted a bourgeois sculpture, and demanded we visit there the following day when it was open.

we pressed on – r had too many memorials to see that day. we began our trek by walking down Pennsylvania avenue, skirting the white house. the flag was flying (which in England means that the queen is in residence, is it the same in america?) and we were surprised that there were so few people out front of the gates. the president’s residence looks directly at the washington monument, so we made our way to the national phallus. the lawns around the monument were covered with organized games of coed-softball and kickball, and we were curious as to whether this would become the new sport of decision making, taking over for golf.

just to the right from the 555 foot multi-stoned structure lies the world war II memorial, which is at the foot of the reflecting pool. the descent into the memorial is lined with bas-relief sculptures that tell different stories of our nation at war. the fountains at the heart of the memorial were unimpressive and seemed out of place, a slight distraction to the otherwise homage to our history.

we tried to walk along the reflecting pool up to the Lincoln memorial, but were deterred by the smelliness of the federal waters and the massive amounts of cluster flies. we took an outer path and, to m’s delight, it was covered with lightning bugs, of which she had never seen (examine the picture at right to find at least three). the sun was setting and provided just enough light for us to see the Vietnam veterans memorial. although our experience was at times disturbed by large groups of unruly high-schoolers, we agreed that the setting set a proper mood for the quagmire of a war, and a somber memorial to all the young men and women who died in vain.

we climbed the steps to the Lincoln memorial as darkness fell on the city. the view up the national mall to the capitol, which peeks around the washington monument, is difficult to replicate with a camera, but here is our attempt.

the memorial to our great sixteenth president cannot help but conjur up feelings of patriotism. upon entering the room, r instantly heard the chorale of music that plays when jimmy stewart does the same in the movie mr. smith goes to washington. we read both inscriptions on the walls: the Gettysburg address and his second inaugural speech, while throngs of tourists simply approached, snapped a picture and left.

by the time we left mr. Lincoln it was just past ten. ‘there’s just one more i want to see while we are over here,’ r asked of m. we had not eaten, or rested for that matter, since the supreme court café now some six and a half hours ago. there was no place nearby to eat, so it only made sense in r’s mind to press on.

and press on we did, walking clear around the Potomac river tidal basin – past the future site of the mlk memorial, which is marked by a plaque – en route to the Jefferson memorial. we suddenly came upon a memorial that neither of us knew was there, the one in honor of fdr. we were pleasantly surprised that the first statue is of him in his wheelchair (scott, r’s brother-in-law would later tell us that there was a great controversy around this, however we agreed that it was appropriate and realistic). by far our favorite memorial, it is broken into four sections to correspond with his four terms he was elected to serve as president. it is the only memorial that features someone’s dog (on the second display) and we were curious as to whether they would honor his pup and not his wife. just as we talked about that, we turned a corner to find an elegantly large statue of Eleanor. highly satisfied, we found the energy to visit that conundrum of a man, Thomas Jefferson.

while it is the only memorial to feature a small museum in its basement, we found the artifacts poorly presented, the complexities of the man hardly dealt with. the statue (the tallest one in dc) sits in a rather uninspiring circular chamber, whose exterior is meant to resemble his Monticello. we spent just a few moments here, thoroughly exhausted and hungry. from there, we found a roundabout way back to l’enfant plaza where we picked up the metro and headed back to our hotel. as washington is definitely a city that sleeps, there was slim pickings in terms of dinner. luckily we were staying next to a wendy’s that had a drive thru open til one. a very late meal for us on an extremely long day.

r apologized to m for leading her on such a prolonged walk through the capital, but reminded her that she had given him supreme control over what we saw while in this city.
perhaps she will not be as willing to lose her voice in the matter next time…