Snow's
Vanity, whimsy, and foolishness site...
trip to DC
Travel Story: Washington DC
Monday, Sept. 24th, 2001
Got up earlier then normal Monday morning. That was bad since it's already hard to get up on Mondays. Anyway, we had to finish packing and getting ready for the trip. We forgot a bunch of stuff anyway, like eating. Went to work for a couple hours and then headed to Sea-Tac airport about 10 AM.
Security wasn't too bad. Just had to have someone check your ticket and I.D. before they'll let you through the security point where they x-ray your carry on bags and you walk through a metal detector. Always fun. We (Michael and I) got to the gate just in time to hear them say that the incoming flight was diverted to Spokane because of fog and would be over an hour late. Luckily we were already in line to simply check in. This announcement meant we would miss our connecting flight. They got us onto another flight no trouble and we were set. Except we still hadn't eaten much. A bagel, and some frozen yogurt.
The flight itself was long and tedious, and largely uneventful. There was still that food issue. They gave us a packaged lunch. I ate the chips, and Michael had an apple, and neither of us was going anywhere near the turkey sandwich. Then they found an unclaimed vegi meal for Michael. It was really lame, but at least one of us ate.
The turbulence while descending into Detroit was so bad I was turning green. I get motion sick easily, but have never gotten physically ill because of it.
We had an hour's wait and change of airplane in Detroit. Huge airport and we needed food. All I could find was a bagel place open at 8:30 PM in Detroit. The workers were apathetic and unfriendly. I got Michael a real sandwich though. He was starving and very happy to see it. I had a half stale bagel with two slices of american cheese microwaved. I must have been hungry because I didn't care.
The second flight was only an hour, and I was turning green again as we descended into Baltimore.
There was a 45 minute taxi ride to DC and our hotel for the night. It was midnight when we got to Loews L'Enfant Plaza Hotel, and I went straight to bed. Michael tried to do a little work first. So it was about 12:30 - 1 AM when we got to sleep.
Tuesday, Sept. 25th, 2001
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| View from our hotel | Smithsonian Castle |
Got up early and had a good breakfast, because I was starving still from the previous day. Then we decided to take a walk and see some things. We decided against the Smithsonian. The main building, the castle, was only a couple blocks from the hotel. Since each part of it can eat up a whole day we figure we should plan to see those during a future trip. I took a picture and we kept walking.
Our first stop was the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. A large domed structure on a piece of land that sticks out a little on the Potomac River. You can enter/exit on four sides between tall columns.
In the center is a giant bronze statue of Jefferson. Around the inside lip of the dome and on each of the four large wall areas there was chiseled text. Quotes from Jefferson. I can't recall any, that's why I took pictures. (If you click on the thumbnail you can actually read these.)
Underneath there is a small museum, a book shop and a souvenir shop. We escaped to these when a women took it upon herself to start singing 'America the Beautiful' despite several signs requesting respectful silence.
Leaving this, we headed the rest of the way across the river. Pausing to take a picture of the bridge with the Washington Monument in the distance, and then one, at Michael's request, of the garbage filled river.
From the park on the other side I took a couple of nice photos of Jefferson through the columns.
Farther along we came to the FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Memorial. This was my favorite for the day. With several statues, at least five waterfalls, and writing chiseled into the walls as you go, the whole thing is rather impressive. About half way through Michael realized that it was done as a time line and we had started at the end. Oops. I don't think it made a big difference. I enjoyed it quite a bit even if I did see it in reverse order. (The pictures here are in the order they were taken.)
As we wondered along we passed a few smaller memorials that I didn't take photos of, and don't recall the names or details of very well. DC seems to be the city of president and war memorials.
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My feet were getting tired, but we soon reached the Lincoln Memorial. The front steps were roped off while being power washed, so the only way to the top was by going into the museum and shop area at ground level and then taking the elevator up to where the statue of Lincoln sits. |
Of course I have seen the statue here of Lincoln many times in movies and such, but I have never seen images of the ceiling above him, or columns to each side with the Gettysburg Address in the south chamber and his Second Inaugural Address in the north chamber. (If you click on the thumbnail of the speech you can actually read the whole thing.)
After Lincoln we came upon the Vietnam Veterans Memorial: The Wall of Names. I have seen photos of it before, of course, but none of them gave me a real sense of this monument. Every photo I have seen is a close up of one of the tallest panels. I assumed, lamely, that they were all the same height. They are not. What is striking first is that the wall curves down into the ground. With a path to walk along it, you start out standing level to the top of the wall. The first panel has just one or two names. As you continue down this number grows exponentially. At the center the west wall meets the east wall at about a 135 degree angle, and you begin to climb back out. Near the wall above there are books placed that catalog all the names, and then tell you where on the wall you will find that name. You see, on the wall itself the names are listed in the order by which the people died. I feel my description lacks something so I found the original design proposal submitted by the architect, Maya Lin.
I had no desire to see this wall, and I think that is part of why it had the largest impact on me.
Then we went to meet a friend for lunch. We had a bit of walking yet to get to David's office, which took us within sight of the White House. All roads that would take you within a block of it were closed off, with guards on the outside of the barriers. I'm guessing they were letting some people in. I saw some interesting buildings along the way, but only took a picture of one. I was really foot sore by the time we got there.
It was wonderful to sit down for an hour. Had a nice lunch at a nuevo mexican restaurant. David is a friend of Michael's that I've only met once before when we was visiting Seattle earlier in the year. (He made a great first impression by coming and sitting in my messy living room without flinching, instead he smiled a lot and held up his part of the conversation. I like that.) Of course our conversation this time was colored with recent news, as was every other conversation I had had since Sept. 11th. It was a good visit, just too short.
No, we didn't go to see the wreckage at the pentagon.
After lunch we took a cab back to the hotel, and collected our bags since we wouldn't be staying there the second night. Michael went to change his clothes for the evening. I went to the gift shop in the hotel and asked the cashier if I could buy state quarters from her. She didn't have any customers so she didn't mind. For those who don't collect these coins it is worth pointing out why I was doing this. There are two places where coins are minted here in the USA. Denver, CO and Philidelphia, PA. On the west coast we usually only see coins from the Denver mint. If you get yourself a cute little coin collectors folder it has a space for a coin from each mint in it. My Mom and her partner, Donna, both have these folders and I wouldn't mind having a set as well. So here I was pawing through quarters with a cashier in Washington DC. She broke open a new roll and we found about four dollars worth. I thought that was really nice of her.
Then we got in another cab and went to Cada Vez, the place we were hosting a dinner, at which Michael was speaking. We got there rather early because we were too tired for anymore walking and we wanted to make sure everything was ready and set up the way we wanted and all of that. Almost 30 people attended. I met lots of nice people. Dinner went well. Our timing was good at the beginning, but we ran way over at the end. Luckily the folks at Cada Vez didn't seem to mind at all.
It was 9 or 9:30 PM when we left there, taking a cab to our second hotel which was only a few minutes from the airport in Baltimore (BWI) that we needed to be to by 5 AM. It was a long drive, nearly an hour, and we were pretty wiped out. So, we went straight to bed, and did our best to get at least five hours of sleep.
Wednesday, Sept. 26th, 2001
We were up at 4:30 AM, well before dawn. Everything was still packed from the day before, so we just got dressed and wandered down to the lobby. They had a complimentary breakfast set up. Cereal and stale bread products. The juice was good enough. Then we caught the shuttle to the airport. We didn't have any real trouble with security. The lines weren't too long at 5:30 AM. Although they did seem to be pulling every man aside for wand metal detector treatment, but none of the women. I thought this seemed a bit odd. But it was quick and relatively painless. Then we had over an hour before they started boarding the airplane. I amused myself by watching the people around me. A couple of older black ladies in wheel chairs discussing their medication and I don't know what else. A young clean cut man who was reading his bible. A twenty-something couple trying to sleep on the hard bench/chairs. A teenage boy traveling alone and the middle aged man who awkwardly struck up a conversation with him.
They finally boarded the plane and everything seemed to be right on schedule until the last minute when they announced that they were delaying the flight by half an hour because there were fifteen people who had checked in but were stuck at the security point. This really pissed a lot of us off. We were there early, we sat around for an hour at the gate! Why the hell were we waiting on people who weren't paying attention to the news and getting to the airport in plenty of time? Why were the people on the airplane being held back? Possibly missing connecting flights in Detroit? We wanted them to put the late comers on the next flight, not us! The stewards were apologetic but said they had no say in the matter. Everyone glared maliciously at the late comers when they finally showed up. Dawn had come and the sun was well on its way up from the horizon when we finally took off.
Luckily we did not have to change airplanes in Detroit, and luckier still was that I was able to sleep off and on all the way home. Michael finished a book that he had started on the flight out. We weren't fed much this time either, but it was not so bad this time since we were flying home. It was 11 AM when we landed at Sea-Tac airport. I had left my car in the airport lot while we were gone so we were home by noon.
~Snow Dragonwyck
27 Sept. 2001 Hell of a trip. I think I'll write about it now, and add pictures when I get them. ~Snow
14 Oct. 2001 I have finally finished my story, two and a half weeks later. I got the pictures back today, and I'll try not to wait two more weeks to get them up. ~Snow
20 Oct. 2001 I have added 15 pictures to the page today. It's not enough so I will likely add more tomorrow. ~Snow
21 Oct. 2001 Twenty One more pictures, a lot of rearranging and fiddling, and I think I am finally done with this page. Enjoy! ~Snow
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