Day 11: Washington, D.C.

15,827 steps/6.7 miles

The downside of renting a 12-passenger van is that you don’t fit in any of the parking garages in D.C.  Through the parking panda app, you can reserve parking spaces, but the only two garages I could find that had the clearance for us were at Walmart and at Union Station.  So we parked at Union Station and rode the subway for the first time today to get to our 10 a.m. appointment at an unmarked random government building.

Which turned out to be Secret Service Headquarters!

Bill made the acquaintance of the Secret Service chaplain a few months ago when he was in Salt Lake City, and he happened to say that if we were ever in D.C., he’d be happy to show us Secret Service HQ and arrange a tour of the White House!

“As a matter of fact, we are going to be in Washington . . .”

The White House was a no-go because they close it off to do renovations whenever the President is overseas for extended periods, but we got to visit the Secret Service museum room and the lobby.  That’s as much of a “tour” as is allowed!  Oh, and we got to shop in their store.  Colin’s been saving money for that for months!  It’s not every tourist who gets to come home with Secret Service gear!

The museum tracing the history of the Secret Service was very interesting.  We knew some of the beginnings due to reading Lincoln’s Grave Robbers last year for book club (which book I would highly recommend!)

After lunch we decided to walk down to the National Archives and on our way we could stop at the Navy Memorial.  We also ran into the equestrian statue of General Winfield Scott Hancock, who we all love.  I knew there must be a monument to him at Gettysburg, but had no idea where to find it, so I was really glad to stumble across this one.  The Navy Memorial was really cool, too.  There were various panels of Navy history all sculpted by different artists.

After the archives, we walked across the street to the Nathan Hale Memorial.  It feels like there’s a monument on every corner in Washington!  But it was kind of fun to stumble across some of the more obscure ones to people we’ve studied in history.

Then we walked down to the National Gallery.  I could wander art galleries all day, but I specifically wanted to show Anya and Erik the Mary Cassatt paintings that we have been studying. We saw all of the Cassatts except one which wasn’t currently on display, as well as many other Monet, Manet, Renoir, Pissarro, and Seurat paintings that, again, we’ve only ever seen in books or as prints.  There was one more Vermeer that we’ve studied, but Erik was fast losing interest in art, so we looked at it quickly and then left.

This is what you get when you ask Erik to pose:

Mary Cassatt:

Anya with her favorite Cassatt we studied: 

And with one we never studied:

George and Martha and family:

One of my most favorite paintings ever (by Monet):

And Bierstadt, who I’m liking more and more:

Vermeer’s Woman Holding a Balance that we also studied this year:

And the very impressive restored plaster cast of the Shaw Memorial (which is a bronze sculpture in Boston commemorating Col. Shaw and the  54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in 1863.)

Erik wasn’t interested in going to the natural history museum either (although later demanded to know why we didn’t stop there . . . I don’t know? Our feet were too tired?) so we started walking back to the subway to get back to our car.  On the way we also found a monument to the Grand Army of the Republic, found a great view of the Capitol, and Bill wanted to stop at the National Law Enforcement Memorial.

Meanwhile, Nana had gone home, so then we picked her up for the drive out to Arlington Cemetery.  I seem to remember being able to drive through Arlington when I was 12, but now you have to park and walk.  A very long way. 

Luckily for summer, it was now open until 7 p.m., but I could tell we weren’t going to make the 6:00 Changing of the Guard, so Andrew and I took our time and then got separated from the others.  We decided we could find Jimmy Doolittle’s grave which was close by, and then walk over to the Civil War Tomb of the Unknown before the 6:30 Changing of the Guard at the Tomb on the Unknown.

Tomb of the Unknown Civil War Soldier:

Then we showed the others where Jimmy Doolittle’s grave was so Colin wouldn’t be jealous then started the long walk back to the Visitor’s Center, stopping at Kennedy’s grave on the way.  We could also see Arlington House, which is closed for renovations. 

After dinner (where I tried to smash my big toe on the heavy glass door) we decided to try Lafayette Square again and found a close parking place.  There was a group of protesters in front of the White House with light up letters spelling out “Throne Envy” and a brass band!  So entertaining! But with selective editing, they don’t have to be in your photo!

I wish this one wasn’t so blurry; it’s one of the few with all of us in it, and bonus, we’re all looking!