Friday: Washington, DC, Day 3

Good lord there are a lot of museums and monuments here. I started the day early by taking the Metro to the Rosslyn stop and walking south to the Iwo Jima Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. Both defy words. Robert E. Lee's home and outbuildings are also up there and open to the public. A much better view of the city than from the post office tower, and very rewarding. It's easy to visualize Lee staring across the river, deciding whether to stay in the Union Army or resign and fight for Virginia. Thank you, junior high history teacher Mr. Malone, for making us watch Ken Burns's the Civil War. Also, if you're up there, I recommend checking out the Women in Military Service in America Memorial.

Then it was across the Potomac to the Lincoln Memorial. Best memorial ever. But frankly, you could stick photocopies of the Gettysburg Address, the Second Inaugural Address, and a portrait of the guy on a wall and it would be hard to beat. Definitely in the top 5 things I saw this visit. Then there was more walking to monuments: Korea, Vietnam, Albert Einstein, World War II. The Department of the Interior Museum is under renovation, the Forestry Service Museum is just a small visitors center wiyh an animatronic Smokey Bear, and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing ran out of tickets, so those were busts. But the Daughters of the American Revolution have a nice building with a collection of colonial and early nineteenth century period rooms, including a recreation of the room where John Hancock and Samuel Adams were when Paul Revere made his famous ride.

After that I detoured up to Dupont Circle to check out the Phillips Collection. Quite a collection of impressionists and the like, including this one. I recommend visiting, with the caveat that the staff there were the most annoying, condescending, paranoid bunch I have ever encountered--and I have been to a lot of museums. The ticket counter guy was a jerk, and the galleries are full of staff who follow and stare at you, and change position constantly to keep you in their line of sight. It was extremely distracting, and I have never experienced it to that degree before. Ok, got that off my chest. But the art is great!

Then it was back to the Mall for a quick run through the American History museum (the Jefferson Bible and a good installation about the enslaved families at Monticello) and the Natural History museum (titanoboa, forensic skeleton study, and Homo floresiensis. Finally, drinks at a fancy DC bar and sushi. A good day.

So, after three days of museums, I believe I have had enough culture and enlightenment for right now. It's time to go to New Jersey.