Ok, I'll explain as I go along - but you do recall our adventure with Captain Tony's funeral parade down Duval Street that I documented early on? Today, Bob and I witnessed a couple of parades - Washington, DC style! Methinks I prefer the Key West tradition - they have politics but they have FUN! DC is all about cops, Secret Service and closing down roads and to hell with the people that are inconvenienced. . . .
But I'll get into that later - I know you are way too excited to hear about our Memorial and Smithsonian adventures!
So - we hit the bus, that takes us to the Metro and our Museum adventure started with us getting off the Metro at the Navy War Memorial.
Between the last two museums, I'm ready to get as far away from the crowds as I can get, my ankles are bruised from all the strollers and Bob's tolerance level for ignorance matches my own. Damn tourists. . .
So, what do we do? We go to another museum! Couldn't NOT do it, it's the National Museum of the American Indian. One of our tour guides told us that they had views that would enable a photographer to get a great aerial view of the Mall area. He did not lie. It was a strange museum, they had a bunch of gardens outside that you needed to walk through, then when you went in - you had to start on the 4th floor and meander your way down for the rest of it. We did that, and they had a lot of small, meandering exhibits done by various tribes. What surprised me was that they had left the entire circle in the center of the building thru all four floors a wide open atrium. I thought it was a lot of wasted space.
* 
As we were watching this spectacular display of security and vehicle after vehicle shoot around the corner, I happened to look down Pennsylvania Avenue and caught myself one helluva weather phenomenon.
I tapped Bob - everyone's eyes were forward on what was coming towards us. I happened to look back and it looked like the fog that we'd seen yesterday. But I could see it moving towards us and rapidly.
*I've waterproofed the camera, there will be no photos here*
The skies opened up on us - it was so horrific that the DC police must've called a halt to the G20 departure train and given us poor bastards on Pennsylvania Ave ability to cross the street to cover! Pennsylvania Avenue was lined with people, press, and I've never seen so MANY people clear - folks were hugging walls and umbrellas were worthless in this storm - I can't tell you how many we saw rolling down the road!
It took us the better part of 2.5 hours to make it back to the campground - traffic in DC was truly messed up with all the dignitaries leaving town, add to that - the local University of Maryland had a big football game.
We're coming home tomorrow with a ton of laundry and fun tales to talk about.
Thanks for tuning in.
But I'll get into that later - I know you are way too excited to hear about our Memorial and Smithsonian adventures!
So - we hit the bus, that takes us to the Metro and our Museum adventure started with us getting off the Metro at the Navy War Memorial.
First, we went to the National Archives - the veterans for peace were staging a protest (and not a really well attended one, I might add), and they had posted a banner on the side of the building stating that we needed to follow the Constitution and arrest Bush and Cheney for war crimes. The cops were there, so apparently it was OK for them to be staging their protest and I wanted to hang around and watch what happened but Bob wasn't so inclined.
We saw the original Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. It's amazing, the lighting and temperature are climatically controlled and there are no less that 4 guards in the room at any given time. Flash photography is NOT allowed and I didn't even try to take a photo of any of the documents as neither Bob nor I were able to actually read them as displayed (even with glasses).
We then went on to the Museum of Natural History - did I really need to go to Key West to get a picture of a manatee?!
We then went on to the Museum of Natural History - did I really need to go to Key West to get a picture of a manatee?!
We then hit the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum - it's Saturday, the weather is kinda dicey but not too bad but clearly all the tourists and school groups chose (as I did) to do the indoor activities today.
Between the last two museums, I'm ready to get as far away from the crowds as I can get, my ankles are bruised from all the strollers and Bob's tolerance level for ignorance matches my own. Damn tourists. . .
So, what do we do? We go to another museum! Couldn't NOT do it, it's the National Museum of the American Indian. One of our tour guides told us that they had views that would enable a photographer to get a great aerial view of the Mall area. He did not lie. It was a strange museum, they had a bunch of gardens outside that you needed to walk through, then when you went in - you had to start on the 4th floor and meander your way down for the rest of it. We did that, and they had a lot of small, meandering exhibits done by various tribes. What surprised me was that they had left the entire circle in the center of the building thru all four floors a wide open atrium. I thought it was a lot of wasted space.
As we were traversing down the floors of the museum, I happened to look out the window and noticed that there were literally thousands of people streaming down the mall. By then, we'd had enough of the crowded museum scene and bailed out to see what was going on.
It was a demonstration for same sex marriages - apparently, California, Florida (and somewhere else) banned H-8 (which is the bill for same sex marriages), after voters in those states turned down legislation approving same sex marriages. Problem is (and this was all over the news tonight), the Supreme Court ruled the bans unconstitutional! It was an amazing "parade", but Mother Nature shut it down pretty quick.
It was a demonstration for same sex marriages - apparently, California, Florida (and somewhere else) banned H-8 (which is the bill for same sex marriages), after voters in those states turned down legislation approving same sex marriages. Problem is (and this was all over the news tonight), the Supreme Court ruled the bans unconstitutional! It was an amazing "parade", but Mother Nature shut it down pretty quick.
But wait - there's more! We're done for the day, want to get back to the campground and basically start organizing all the crap we have to drag into the house when we get home. We get to Pennsylvania Avenue and were confronted by more Political crap with regards to the G20 summit.
I mentioned it yesterday - although I mislabelled it as a G-2 summit. This summit is a gathering of all the world leaders to address the various economic crisis (and here is where I cry for executives at AIG to be put in JAIL) and it has created some amusing news clips and traffic chaos!
It was all over the news yesterday - more government waste, they had a wine list that involved bottles of wine at $499/bottle. This is for less than 20 people, I believe.
As I reported earlier, they had all avenues leading to the White House closed.
As Bob and I were heading out of dodge, we walked up to Pennsylvania Avenue to return to the Navy Memorial metro stop - Pennsylvania Avenue was CLOSED. Not just to motor vehicle traffic, but they were SERIOUSLY controlling pedestrian traffic. Apparently, the G20 summit was over and I have never seen a more serious collection of police cars, black sedans, limousines, and it went on and on. . . Bob and I caught the motorcades from Italy and Japan go by - they had to pass by sidewalk protests calling for China to get out Tibet.
I mentioned it yesterday - although I mislabelled it as a G-2 summit. This summit is a gathering of all the world leaders to address the various economic crisis (and here is where I cry for executives at AIG to be put in JAIL) and it has created some amusing news clips and traffic chaos!
It was all over the news yesterday - more government waste, they had a wine list that involved bottles of wine at $499/bottle. This is for less than 20 people, I believe.
As I reported earlier, they had all avenues leading to the White House closed.
As Bob and I were heading out of dodge, we walked up to Pennsylvania Avenue to return to the Navy Memorial metro stop - Pennsylvania Avenue was CLOSED. Not just to motor vehicle traffic, but they were SERIOUSLY controlling pedestrian traffic. Apparently, the G20 summit was over and I have never seen a more serious collection of police cars, black sedans, limousines, and it went on and on. . . Bob and I caught the motorcades from Italy and Japan go by - they had to pass by sidewalk protests calling for China to get out Tibet.
* 
As we were watching this spectacular display of security and vehicle after vehicle shoot around the corner, I happened to look down Pennsylvania Avenue and caught myself one helluva weather phenomenon.
I tapped Bob - everyone's eyes were forward on what was coming towards us. I happened to look back and it looked like the fog that we'd seen yesterday. But I could see it moving towards us and rapidly.
*I've waterproofed the camera, there will be no photos here*
The skies opened up on us - it was so horrific that the DC police must've called a halt to the G20 departure train and given us poor bastards on Pennsylvania Ave ability to cross the street to cover! Pennsylvania Avenue was lined with people, press, and I've never seen so MANY people clear - folks were hugging walls and umbrellas were worthless in this storm - I can't tell you how many we saw rolling down the road!
It took us the better part of 2.5 hours to make it back to the campground - traffic in DC was truly messed up with all the dignitaries leaving town, add to that - the local University of Maryland had a big football game.
We're coming home tomorrow with a ton of laundry and fun tales to talk about.
Thanks for tuning in.
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