Jill, Jordan and Gail, today I took some advice to use the METRO train to go into what they call "The District" around here. Its taken me 3 weeks to notice that nobody from here ever calls Washington D.C. anything but "The District".
Not DC, not the Capital city, not Washington.
I selected a street called "F" for today as it has about 5 Museums/Places of interest.
The first place is the National Building Museum...and outside it clues you in to whats it is about, see photo below:
That blue nut is about 5 feet high and the Clamp is 12 feet off the ground....very cool.
Inside its seems they were getting ready for a big Party in the Main Hall:
The Party is for a Veterans Legal Defense Association....bunch of Lawyers I guess (maybe Mark and Linda will be there).
You can get an idea how big this "room" is seeing the guys moving chairs on a cart. Here is another photo from the 2nd floor balcony:
You guys remember the Union Train Station...this is much higher and more formal. The building only had one exhibit of very old Architect Drawings, which I loved but could not photograph.
I left the Building Museum and walked to the Spy Museum but decided to not go in as I was determined to only see the free sites today ($18 for Spy). I walked to Fords theatre where President Lincoln was shot but it was also charging, so not today. I did find some pretty cool presents for you while touring. I looked on the map and saw the largest museum on this street was called the American Portrait Museum. "Who wants to look at portraits for hours" I thought...but I went in to take a look.
The first thing that caught my eye was how big this building was....it was a large square 5 story doughnut with this massive Atrium in the middle...here:
Inside, a sign called "Framing the West" lead me to see this called Sacred Trash:
Made of scrap wood and metal, clad in aluminum foil, these are Altars and Worship tables made by a Christian artist for Churches. Cell phone camera couldnt get a clear shot, but is was a shimmering display of furniture.
While I did spend some time in the gallery that has portraits of Presidents (photographs, paintings and even live plaster face casts of Lincoln) those areas wouldnt allow taking pictures. I discovered that about 80% of this Museum was not "face" portraits, it was Art which was American....a "portrait" of America in Art. Here's an example:
I spent 20 minutes looking at this thing. 50 feet long and 15 feet high of neon tubing and TV's that showed American culture. For instance, I noticed that the state of Kansas had 4 TV's which all played the Wizard of Oz movie. Dorothy was from Kansas. Texas showed Rodeos, Idaho flashes images of Mr. Potato head....get it?
Then here is an area on the 3rd floor that had Moms, Dads and Kids sculptures and in the middle next to a free coffee machine was a Big....Gold....Jack:
I always thought jacks were a piece of Art. This one is as tall as me, 6 feet high and across. This museum has so much more than any of the reviews I read.
In this area was a Horse made of driftwood from the beach:
Close to that was a tall column of LED Lights that spun around with words and sentences:
I only saw a 3rd of this museum and will defintiely go back to see the rest. My feet were done...time to walk back to the train station and go. As I walked by the Convention Center on my way, the Capitol Police blocked traffic so kids and Parents could cross to go see the Circus show in town. One Cop on a motorcycle, using it to block the street, was approached by a little girl who asked if she could sit on his Big Harley Davidson... and He said YES! Check it out:
Hey Jord....we have that same Hat she is wearing, don't we?
So that was my Saturday in "the District" on "F" street. One street down, 430 to go. This is a pic of the METRO train station loading platform, very nice concrete, very strong, very safe:
Until next time, I miss you all.
-Dave
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