It was back to the city for us today. We drove to the New Carrollton (Orange Line) Station and found a parking garage, catching the metro to King St. in Alexandria, after a transfer to the Blue Line at L'Enfant Station. We were headed for the George Washington Masonic Museum. The last tour was scheduled for 3:00, and that's the exact time we arrived at the King St. station. We had to leave the station, walk up the street a block, and climb the stairway that seemed to reach for heaven! I was literally panting by the time we reached the top, but we made the tour before they left the first room.
I found the Museum to be very interesting. One room is dedicated to George Washington, and has some of his personal belongings in it, including a piece of his luggage.
The other rooms in the museum are each dedicated to one of the Masonic Bodies (Knight's Templar, Scottish Rite, Tall Cedars, etc.). Although there was no room dedicated to the Order of the Eastern Star. Hmmm. The most intriguing part I found was that the rooms are in the formation of an arc, with each subsequent one becoming smaller as you near the top. The elevators even travel at a 7.5 degree angle from the side on the first floor to the center on the top floor. There is an observation deck at the top, which we looked out from, but the day was very hazy. I could just make out the Washington Monument and Capitol Buildings way across the river, but I don't think they came out well in my pictures. This is the best I could get. Washington Monument is on the left, the Capitol Building is on the right.
After leaving the Masonic Museum, we hopped back on the metro. Bob wanted to see the Pentagon and Pentagon City. Pentagon City was first. It's a mall under the Pentagon. However, our tummies only allowed us to make it to the first store on the right, which happened to be a restaurant called "Johnny Rockets." It was a 50's style diner - very cool. The workers were even dressed in white with boat hats. We ordered sandwiches, and this is how our fries came:
That was the only place we saw in Pentagon City because it was getting late, and we still wanted to see the Pentagon and the National Air & Space Museum. We hopped back on the metro to the next stop, the Pentagon. Bob was surprised to find that the metro stop is right under the Pentagon. This is the view when we came up.
Back to the metro we went, riding to Smithsonian station again. The kids had lots of fun in the hands-on section of the Air & Space Museum.
We also got to tour inside a Skylab, seeing how the astronauts eat and shower in zero gravity! The history section showed a cool setup of the Wright Brothers' lives and planes, and even had Orville's diploma from Centerville High School.
After the Air & Space Museum closed, we walked around town and got refreshments, waiting for the sun to go down so we could get better nighttime pictures. These are the best of what I got. We even walked up to Pennsylvania Ave. in front of the White House (no traffic is allowed there anymore). There was a policeman on guard the whole time, making sure we were all being good citizens/tourists. The Lincoln and WWII Memorials, taken from the Washington:
The Jefferson Memorial, taken from a bridge:
The Washington Memorial, taken from the area just after coming off the bridge:
The White House, taken from Pennsylvania Avenue:
The Capitol Building, taken from the Mall:
It was a late night for us. Back to the cabin for our nice cold beds!
No comments:
Post a Comment