Firefly

DC blog day 2

Using a DC Trolly we toured the city on the open-air, driver-narrated bus in order to get an above-ground lay of the land. When getting about normally the Metro is best but the view sucks. One of the highlights of that your is embassy row. The driver attempts to name all the foreign embassies and ambassadors residences along the section of town at 40mph. Like a tennis match bobbing your head back n forth at high speed taking in some 50 landmarks.
A stop at the National Cathedral was enlightening. Not due to all the cool stained glass and music and size but because of their display on the Aug. 2011 5.8 earthquake's damage to the 100-year-old structure.
We spent a couple of hours in the Museum of Natural History, which was very well done and included a nice gallery of National Geographic quality nature n wildlife photographs.
With an hour left of daylight we took to the Mall to take in the sunset light and the Washington Monument. Have you ever been to the Pirates of the Caribbean? Just after a sit at the WWII memorial as the dusk changed to night and the lights of the memorial's fountains took over the fireflies began to show off. I as a west coaster only know the phenomenon from Disneyland so it was cool to see them in action. There little bright phosphorescent butts streaking around the grass like little shooting stars. A mile down the Mall we came to several memorials we wanted to see dramatically lit. Lincoln and Vietnam. This is my fourth trip to our nations Capitol but these memorial's never cease to captivate. One particularly chilling moment was spent looking over the Vietnam Nurses Memorial where one nurse is looking skyward for the medivac helicopter. An actual helicopter coming thru the darkness from the exact direction she was searching broke the science in a bone chilling flashback sort of way. Powerful.
To cap off the eve. I made a rookie tourist mistake. From the Lincoln Memorial it is one mile in any direction to the nearest Metro stop to go home. Tired n foot sore, we set out across the Arlington bridge at about 9pm. Upon arrival, find that THAT station closes at 7pm;( That is now a mile back to Lincoln and a cab home because we don't have the energy for another mile and Metro. Plus there is no food in the same radius and lunch was a waaze back. A CVS sandwich and bed at midnight for an early Capitol building tour.