National Mall - Day # 2

It rained once again overnight, and we were greeted by heavy, heavy cloud cover Friday morning.  We were determined to get an earlier start on the day, but first I had to drive over to the local gas station to fill up our 5 gallon gas can for use in the Honda generator.  We have been using it a lot as we are just not getting any sun here, and none is promised until Saturday around mid day.  In fact Friday promised a lot more rain later in the day.

We arrived at the tidal basin parking lot around 11:30, once again got a parking spot pretty easily.  They allow 3 hours of free parking each 24 hour period, but then you have to move.  Apparently they don't mark the tires, but a vehicle goes through parking lot taking pictures of the license plates to keep track of who has been there how long.  

We had not gotten to the Jefferson Memorial on Thursday, and it is a short walk from the tidal basin, so we headed there first thing.  On the way we came across this cherry tree still in bloom.....most of the trees have lost their blossoms, but there are a few late bloomers apparently, so at least we got a picture of one.

The leaden skies made a great back drop for this picture of the Jefferson Memorial taken from across the tidal basin.

Of course, we all remember that it was Thomas Jefferson who was the author of the Declaration of Independence.  I am always touched by the final line of the first paragraph: "We mutually pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour."  Many of the 56 signers were accomplished men, and had a lot to lose, but they willingly put all that on the line for what they believed in.  I think deep down in side most of us would hope, in similar circumstances today, that we would have that kind of courage.

On the floor beneath the area where the large statue of Jefferson is there is a written, and pictorial history of Jefferson's accomplishments, and life.  Remarkably, he lived until July 4th 1826....the 50th anniversary of the birth of our nation.  He and John Adams both  died that same day.

From there we headed toward the Smithsonian, but on our way we passed by the National Holocaust Museum, which we wanted to see, so we deviated from our course and went in. We spent over an hour there, and could have spent several more hours, but the main exhibit, which you must have tickets to enter, was not available for us to enter until 2 pm...we knew we would have to move our car by 2:25, so we decided to return on the weekend.  We did spend time watching old video of many Jewish families prior to the beginning of WWII and the concentration camps.

At this point we had about an hour before we had to move the car from the tidal basin lot, so we went over to the Smithsonian Castle to see what they had exhibited there, which were a lot of pictures from the Civil War, and pictures of the National Mall from around 1860, and then comparable pictures taken in the last few years.  The contrast is startling.  In 1860 the Washington Monument was under construction, and beyond it was nothing but water.  A lot of D.C. is/was swamp land and had to be drained over the years to build the rest of the Mall.

After spending about 40 minutes in the "Castle" we headed back to move the car, and eat our lunch, which we had brought with us.  After lunch we drove up Independence toward the Smithsonian and found a street parking spot.  Unfortunately, you are not allowed to park on that street from 4-6 pm, so we were only able to buy 90 minutes of parking.  We knew would not even be able to scratch the surface of the National Air and Space Museum, but we decided to go in anyway.  There is so much to see there...I think it will take the better part of a day to see it all, but here is what we did see in the brief time we were inside.

One of the most popular attractions at the Smithsonian

The Wright Brothers plane

Amazing to be this close to this plane

I had no idea that Ford made airplanes....this is the Ford Tri Motor 

It is amazing how many large airplanes are hung in this space.  By the time we got into the museum we had about an hour and a half before we had to get back to the car.  Traffic is bad all the time in D.C., but it is really bad after 4 pm.  We headed home, and on thi day were actually were able to make it in around 20 minutes.  

Our nephew, Jonathan, had invited us over for dinner at his home which ended up being less than 5 minutes from Greenbelt Park.  When we arrived Shari was preparing chicken shish kabob.  

We had been getting tornado advisories most of the afternoon for the Greenbelt/College Park area, and about this time the skies opened up with a deluge of rain, so much so that we had to rush to close the windows in the living room!  Fortunately no tornadoes touched down.  While we waited for dinner we were watching news accounts of the search for the second Boston Marathon bomber.  Finally around 9 pm he was captured after a 24 hour manhunt.  The other bomber had been shot to death earlier in the day.

Jonathan

Shari and Jonathan

We had a lovely evening with Shari and Jonathan talking, and watching the news, and, by the way, the chicken shish kabobs were delicious!  The tornado warnings finally expired around 10 pm, so we headed home in a strong downpour, and went to sleep to the sound of rain on the roof....another nice day....more site seeing to come Saturday!

Thanks for stopping by!!