National Mall - Day # 7 - National Museum of American History

Wednesday dawned cold again, but the sun was out, and it warmed up quickly.....TLE was near the end of a book that she had been reading with some focus and intensity the past few days, so she wanted to finish that book before we headed off to town.  The forecast was for temperatures in the mid to high 70's....a welcome change for sure.

After 3 days off from touring the National Mall we headed back around Noon time on Wednesday.  Our destination for this day was the National Museum of American History, another of the Smithsonian museums.  We quickly found free 3 hour parking in the tidal basin parking lot again, and set off on foot around 12:25 to this museum on the opposite side of the National Mall from the Air and Space Museum.

I had no idea how big this museum is.....of course we are talking about 237 years of history, right?  There are three floors.....2 above ground, and a basement level.  We decided to start on the top level, and work our way down to the basement.....in 3 hours we saw less than 1/2 of the top level.....the top level includes a large wing dedicated to the "Presidency", and another wing dedicated to "Americans at War"....that's as far as we got before it was time to move the car.....of course, by this time it was getting close to 3:30 and I was hungry.  Obviously, we will need to spend more time there Thursday, and maybe Friday.

We got back to the car, got a blanket to sit on, and ate our late lunch under a tree near the car, then moved the car up to the area behind the Air and Space Museum finding another free 3 hour parking spot very quickly.  Instead of heading back to the History Museum we decided to walk up to the Capitol and around to the far side where the Supreme Court, and the Library of Congress are located.

 James Garfield

I am sure at some time in my past I knew that the statue atop the Capitol Rotunda was the "Statue of  Freedom", but I had forgotten.  From street level it appeared to me that it might be a statue of a Native American, but that notion was quickly dispelled when we entered the Capitol Visitors Center, which, by the way is underground.  We arrived there around 4:15 and only were able to spend 7, or 8 minutes inside as it was near closing time.

 

Model of the Statue of Freedom

After they politely kicked us out of the Capitol Visitors Center (we'll have to go back....there is a lot to see there, too) we headed a block, or so over to take a picture of the Supreme Court, which, like so many other structures here in D.C., is undergoing some sort of renovation, too.

 Supreme Court

 Library of Congress

 A shot of the Capitol from the Supreme Court side

Since it was now after 4:30 we decided to do some walking and headed up to "E" Street and then over to 10th Street to see Ford's Theatre.....the site of Abraham Lincoln's assassination by John Wilkes Booth.  It was a long walk, but we covered the ground quickly, arriving just around 5 pm.

 Obviously

Below is the house where Lincoln was taken after the shooting, and where he died the next day.  This whole area is a seedy tourist trap kind of place, and there were a lot of vagrants standing around with their hands out for donations.

 The house where Lincoln died

As we were walking along "E" Street toward Ford's Theatre we saw a Starbucks at the corner of "E" and 7th, and decided we would stop there on our way back to the car to get some refreshments.  Of course, I ordered a Moca Frappuccino, and TLE got an Americano (ice coffee).  We sat for a while at the "bar" drinking our beverages and talking about our day, then started the multi block walk back to the T-Bird, which, conveniently, was at the corner of 7th and the National Mall.  We got in the car around 5:45.....right in the middle of rush hour.......again.......our timing is impeccable!  The traffic around the National Mall was mind numbing, but eventually we were able to creep out of the congestion and headed for home, but not before stopping at the local Safeway to get some Duraflame logs for our outdoor fireplace......we had wanted wood, but this store had none.  As near as we can tell there is no wood for sale here in the Park either, but we see fires around us every night.

The air temp was still balmy when we arrived back in camp, so we decided we would have a fire that night for sure.  After eating a delicious chicken salad prepared by The Lovely Elaine we headed outside to sit by the fire for what turned out to be just an hour.....it started sprinkling, and so we put away the chair and headed inside.  It sprinkled on and off for several hours, then the wind came up.

We watched NCIS, NCIS L.A., and Body of Proof (recorded Tuesday night) before heading to bed.  We actually slept with the windows open most of the night, which is a first here......around 2 I awoke to wind and the sound of rain on the roof, but it still wasn't that cold!

Thanks for stopping by!