Dateline: Washington D.C.November 23-30, 2007
Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is just about here!!! Your electronic Christmas card is out on the blog!
Well, we have managed to avoid the holiday shopping spree and have not contributed to the national consumer debt by much but we have managed to see more of Washington DC and have stories to tell…. So here goes!!!
.JPG)
.JPG)
Day after Thanksgiving, instead of getting up early and fighting the crowds at Macy’s (yeah, Carol has found the local Macy’s – well, she knows where it is but is exercising CONSIDERABLE restraint) we navigated the Metro and the bus service and made our way to the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport. Don’t ask about the name. It is simply a VERY wealthy man’s last name who gave a LOT of money to the museum. This required us to take the Metro to downtown, find a bus and catch a bus to the Airport and then transfer to a Shuttle to take us on the final leg of our trip to the museum. It was great fun and the only really scary part was sitting next to two guys who were sneezing and coughing. We immediately broke out the Zicam to ward off their evil germs!!.JPG)
The museum was pretty special, especially for Steve the pilot. We had an opportunity to see the Concorde, the Enterprise space shuttle, the Enola Gay B-29, a Boeing 337 (pre-cursor to the B-17 WWII bomber) and the prototype for the Boeing 707. Boeing has spent a HUGE mint restoring these aircraft and they look brand new. Steve felt bittersweet in that he got to see a LOT of old airplanes he used to fly in with his Dad as a kid, but realizes now just how OLD he is. He figures to have himself hung in the museum when he goes onto that that big airliner in the sky! Note to self: Even though there is no school the day after Thanksgiving, even on a bright sunny day, EVERY family with kids goes to the Air and Space Museum ‘cause it’s free!! The crowds were HUGE! For those of you who are airplane nuts like Steve, check out the Udvar-Hazy Photo Album on our Google Picassa Photo Album. 
After we finished the museum we made our way back to downtown and with lots of time to kill, we decided to head out to Arlington Cemetery to finish our tour there (no pun intended). Please take a look at the pictures at our Arlington Album on Google Picassa. We visited the memorials of Bobby Kennedy, JFK again, the Civil War Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers (all 2,111 of them) and the space shuttle crews of Columbia and Challenger. Arlington is such a special place in the quiet of a pretty, cold fall afternoon. It brings to mind the words on the wall next to Robert F. Kennedy’s grave:“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest wall of oppression and resistance.”
Words from the other stone touched Carol in a very personal way. We hope it will touch you too:
“Aeschylus Wrote: In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”
The other saying is something we as human beings should never forget:
“What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black. Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.”
For Carol, the Kennedys embodied the ideal of what was right with politics. It has been a struggle for her to see what has happened to her ideal of the politics of the world. Washington, DC does not embody the idea of a government of the people and for the people. As we all know, Carol has always been a very idealistic person…. being hit with the “real world” of politics in 2007 has been very difficult for her to comprehend.
We have spent a considerable amount of time visiting everything and anything the past week, so you will have to go out to our photo and movie galleries and check out our film. However, some highlights of the past week would have to be:
The Supreme Court
We stood in the freezing wind for two hours to snag the LAST two open spots to hear Supreme Court oral arguments, which was a REALLY big deal for the two of us, as we both studied a lot of Con Law in undergraduate and grad school. The two cases before the court on this morning dealt with Trust Tax Law and States’ Rights (a war over a LNG Terminal on the New Jersey/Delaware River Border – something that is familiar to all Californians considering the LNG war down in Long Beach with the Governator). Listening to 11 lawyers arguing about the meaning of one word or letter can be frustrating for many people, but the humor and intellect of these people is inescapable. One thing that interested us was Justice Thomas. We have heard time and time again (on both National Communist Radio and television) that he looks like he just sleeps through the oral arguments, and never even asks a question. True. He leans waaayyy back in his chair and listens, and has his law clerk bring him written material to look at from time-to-time, but not a peep. The others make up for it however, and they are quite a collection of personalities. Justice Scalia could be on Comedy Central – he had us in stitches for two hours. Justice Souter can be REAL cranky. Justice Bader-Ginsberg is ALL business. One of the best parts was during the second argument for the tax law case. About three minutes into the second half of the show (if you don’t know, each side has exactly 30 minutes to present their case to the court, and no written scripting is allowed, so these lawyers have to be on their toes all the time!), Chief Justice Roberts interrupted the lawyer who was droning on about tax law, and he asked him, “Sir, I am assuming you came into this court with a plan B, is that correct?” The lawyer answered, “Yes, Mr. Chief Justice, of course…” Roberts looked at his watch and then stated, “Well, this would be an excellent time to star with plan B….” Needless to say the place went nuts!
The Supreme CourtWe stood in the freezing wind for two hours to snag the LAST two open spots to hear Supreme Court oral arguments, which was a REALLY big deal for the two of us, as we both studied a lot of Con Law in undergraduate and grad school. The two cases before the court on this morning dealt with Trust Tax Law and States’ Rights (a war over a LNG Terminal on the New Jersey/Delaware River Border – something that is familiar to all Californians considering the LNG war down in Long Beach with the Governator). Listening to 11 lawyers arguing about the meaning of one word or letter can be frustrating for many people, but the humor and intellect of these people is inescapable. One thing that interested us was Justice Thomas. We have heard time and time again (on both National Communist Radio and television) that he looks like he just sleeps through the oral arguments, and never even asks a question. True. He leans waaayyy back in his chair and listens, and has his law clerk bring him written material to look at from time-to-time, but not a peep. The others make up for it however, and they are quite a collection of personalities. Justice Scalia could be on Comedy Central – he had us in stitches for two hours. Justice Souter can be REAL cranky. Justice Bader-Ginsberg is ALL business. One of the best parts was during the second argument for the tax law case. About three minutes into the second half of the show (if you don’t know, each side has exactly 30 minutes to present their case to the court, and no written scripting is allowed, so these lawyers have to be on their toes all the time!), Chief Justice Roberts interrupted the lawyer who was droning on about tax law, and he asked him, “Sir, I am assuming you came into this court with a plan B, is that correct?” The lawyer answered, “Yes, Mr. Chief Justice, of course…” Roberts looked at his watch and then stated, “Well, this would be an excellent time to star with plan B….” Needless to say the place went nuts!
We took some pictures of the Courthouse and waiting in line. If you would like you can find these pictures at our Supreme Court Album on Google Picassa. Please take a look at the video below to get Steve's REAL feelings about the Supreme Court!
Police State Update:
Life is good in Berlin still. Sunday we went to the National Gardens to walk and take videos for our grandchildren of the wonderful Christmas display set up by Sweden, which is full of outdoor garden Christmas trains and stuff. On the way back we, along with about eight other parents and young children, were standing at a corner waiting for the light to change. As usual, there are about 6,000 cops all around the Capitol and congressional area, which is bordered by the National Gardens. This poor (by the look of him and the fact that he was having trouble speaking) Hispanic guy made the mistake of driving his Budget rent-a-truck down the wrong street. All of the sudden all of these sirens start screaming right in our ears, scaring the shit out of all of us, the cops cut this poor slob off in the middle of the street, haul his ass out of the truck and begin screaming at him. We are ALL standing on the corner wondering, “What the Hell is going on here?” as this guy looks pretty harmless to us. The kids with us began crying and their parents are getting pissed off. So they make this guy open the back of his truck and Oh My God, it is full of…. NOTHING! Totally empty, so they back off and let him go. Bet he had to visit the laundry to get his drawers cleaned…. Woman next to us with the kids looked at us with this real sarcastic face and says, “Now THAT was real impressive…”
Second event happened on the way back from the Supreme Court. Nosy Steve, who is enthralled with machines of ANY type, decided to take a photo of the barrier system in front of the Capitol building, because he is amazed at how strong this thing looks. NOT! All the sudden this cop comes up, confronts us, and asks Steve what he is doing. Steve made the mistake of moving his camera over to the cop to show him the photo he just took, and the cop JUMPS back and starts to pull – NO SHIT!! Steve jumps back and thing settle down. Carol thought she was going to have to come home and tell every one Steve got shot for pulling a Nikon D40 on the cops!! Photos are VERBOTEN of ANY security stuff the cop told us, so Steve gladly erased the photo and we were allowed to keep the camera. We are getting to the point of just staying away from that area.
Places:
We have now walked around most of the areas of the District that are safe to walk through. We do three-to-four miles each day, and once you get oriented; everything is pretty easy to walk to, going from one neighborhood area to another. The weather is beautiful and we love the different neighborhoods here. Check out the Walking around Washington DC album for some of our favorite Walking around spots!
The National Cathedral rivals those of Europe, even though it was rebuilt in the early 1960’s…. still has that “Auld Medieval Charm.” If you are into Gargoyles or churches, this church (according to PBS) has the largest collection in North America, and YES, Steve shot close-ups of almost ALL of them, so check the photos if ‘Goyles be your gig!
Life is good in Berlin still. Sunday we went to the National Gardens to walk and take videos for our grandchildren of the wonderful Christmas display set up by Sweden, which is full of outdoor garden Christmas trains and stuff. On the way back we, along with about eight other parents and young children, were standing at a corner waiting for the light to change. As usual, there are about 6,000 cops all around the Capitol and congressional area, which is bordered by the National Gardens. This poor (by the look of him and the fact that he was having trouble speaking) Hispanic guy made the mistake of driving his Budget rent-a-truck down the wrong street. All of the sudden all of these sirens start screaming right in our ears, scaring the shit out of all of us, the cops cut this poor slob off in the middle of the street, haul his ass out of the truck and begin screaming at him. We are ALL standing on the corner wondering, “What the Hell is going on here?” as this guy looks pretty harmless to us. The kids with us began crying and their parents are getting pissed off. So they make this guy open the back of his truck and Oh My God, it is full of…. NOTHING! Totally empty, so they back off and let him go. Bet he had to visit the laundry to get his drawers cleaned…. Woman next to us with the kids looked at us with this real sarcastic face and says, “Now THAT was real impressive…”
Second event happened on the way back from the Supreme Court. Nosy Steve, who is enthralled with machines of ANY type, decided to take a photo of the barrier system in front of the Capitol building, because he is amazed at how strong this thing looks. NOT! All the sudden this cop comes up, confronts us, and asks Steve what he is doing. Steve made the mistake of moving his camera over to the cop to show him the photo he just took, and the cop JUMPS back and starts to pull – NO SHIT!! Steve jumps back and thing settle down. Carol thought she was going to have to come home and tell every one Steve got shot for pulling a Nikon D40 on the cops!! Photos are VERBOTEN of ANY security stuff the cop told us, so Steve gladly erased the photo and we were allowed to keep the camera. We are getting to the point of just staying away from that area.
Places:
We have now walked around most of the areas of the District that are safe to walk through. We do three-to-four miles each day, and once you get oriented; everything is pretty easy to walk to, going from one neighborhood area to another. The weather is beautiful and we love the different neighborhoods here. Check out the Walking around Washington DC album for some of our favorite Walking around spots!
The National Cathedral rivals those of Europe, even though it was rebuilt in the early 1960’s…. still has that “Auld Medieval Charm.” If you are into Gargoyles or churches, this church (according to PBS) has the largest collection in North America, and YES, Steve shot close-ups of almost ALL of them, so check the photos if ‘Goyles be your gig! 
GeorgetownWe LOVE Georgetown (of course, it is the MOST expensive part of D.C. so why not?). We have been out there a few times, and we love to walk the streets and just enjoy the quiet and the beautiful quiet of the place. The original building (now a residence hall) of Georgetown University is beautiful, and we have found our favorite pizza place in the entire city there. The prices there are TOTALLY outrageous though. A nice little “fixer-upper” of a Federal style place (see the photo of the three distinctly colored homes -- two bedrooms and two baths that encompasses about 800 square feet with NO garage) goes for a mere $850,000! We looked at a few of them last Sunday and decided we like Pollock Pines just fine, Thank you. Adams-Morgan and DuPont Circle is another really nice neighborhood. We have some really cool pictures, including pictures of Georgetown University, the Halycon house, the home that President Kennedy announced his presidency at and the last church President Kennedy attended before his death. These and other pictures can be found at the Georgetown Album on Google Picassa.
We hit the National Zoo and got to see the Pandas and all of the other cool buildings and animals, and stayed for the “Zoolights for Christmas” special they are doing. Carol, if you do not know this, HATES snakes, so Steve had to do the reptile house on his own. There are just so MANY free things to see and enjoy here. We think some of our BEST photos were taken at the zoo. Be sure and check out the Gorilla photos! The “Lion” movie is pretty good, too. Sounds just like Steve when he gets out of the wrong side of the bed in the morning. For the Grandchildren, there is a MANDATORY video test out there. We will bring you the answers at Christmas. The adults can skip this part!
We’ve walked through DuPont Circle and the Embassy Row area of Adams-Morgan, checking out all of the foreign embassies there, which was cool. We can even take photos there. No “visible” cops or guns, even in front of the Chinese and Russian Embassies. Interestingly enough, we have found the Consulate of Honduras, and it is located right over a small convenience store right across the street from our house. We just stumbled over it one evening last week. We have been to Chinatown for dinner, and just pop in-and-out of various eateries that look different and interesting, Like California, there is ALL kinds of food to experiment with, and we LOVE it! We have also learned alot about the area we live in. Check out the pictures at the Walking Around DC album on Google Picassa.
The Kennedy Center continues to be our favorite place to be… Saturday night found us there to listen to Rolando Matias, the founder of The Afro-Rican Ensemble. They were awesome! The program was great and the venue was packed! There were small children running up and down the steps and people of all ages listening to great music. Steve bought a couple of the CD’s and wants to tell the Saturday night poker guys… “Look out, there is some new music coming to the game!” 
We returned on Sunday because Carol wanted to see Davy Jones from the Monkeys…When we got there we realized it was a children’s show and we didn’t want to take up space but we urge any of you who are reading this to check out Sandra Keith Boynton (born April 3, 1953) is a popular American humorist, songwriter, children's author and illustrator. Boynton has written and illustrated more than forty books for both children and adults, as well as over four thousand greeting cards, and four music albums. There were tons of kids there and the music was pretty cool!!! Carol went back yet again to meet Carolyn Kennedy and buy Christmas gifts of her book, and she cancelled! We have this thing about getting “cancelled out” back here!!
We went to the Holocaust Museum and it was, as expected, a gruesome and sorrowful reminder of that happens when people give the police-types too much power. Definitely a NO NO for younger children, but an extremely thorough exhibition of 15 years of genocide and craziness. Also a large, credible amount of evidence (presented very politically-correctly we might add!) that America was very much aware of what was happening from 1941 or 1942 on and did nothing to stop it. We recommend it highly to the President of Iran and Dick Cheney. 
It was billed as “Mount Vernon by Candlelight” and by diggity dog it was! We made it to Mount Vernon by riding the Metro to the end of the line and finding a bus and explaining to the bus driver that we didn’t know we were supposed to get the bus transfer at the BEGINNING of our metro trip but that we were stupid tourists and would he please have pity on us. Well he did and only charged us 35 cents to ride to the end of the line out to Mount Vernon and back to the Metro station. It was a great bus trip; we went through the rough parts of Fairfax County and on to the nicer parts of Fairfax County and finally were dropped off right in front of the building for Mount Vernon Shops and restaurants. Note to any of you who might be living in an historical monument…open up a shop and restaurant and you are set for life! Every historical monument that we have seen has a small restaurant that charges at least $4.00 for a cup of coffee and $8.00 for a sandwich! And trying to buy things for the kids and abide by our new “Nothing from China” guidelines is pretty tough…Although I did have to drag Steve away from the wooden pistols and the little hats!! You know Steve…always trying to find a way to get a gun in the house!!! The tour was pretty good, we managed to get in before the really cranky lady who DEMANDED to her husband that she was to be FIRST in EVERY line and we selected to be in group one, she ended up in group three I think. Some people! We went through the house, met Mrs. Washington (who looks pretty darn good if you ask me for her age!) and got a tour of the house, we then made our way through the grounds and Steve took some great pictures, you can find them at the Mount Vernon album on Google Picassa
And you know me…I found a couple of guys to take their picture with me…as we know…any port in a storm or something to that effect!!!After the tour we made our way back to the bus stop and met a very nice local woman whom we talked with all the way back to the Metro station and then to her stop on the yellow line. She is a nurse who lives in Georgetown and was here before, during and after 9/11. It was interesting to get her perspective on politics, the “police” state of Washington DC and what happened after 9/11. Her office was very close to the Pentagon and she felt the vibration when the plane hit, she said that going back into DC that day was surreal and she believed that most of the people of the City were in shock. She said that for a very long time after that, only those with Federal ID’s were allowed to get off of the Metro at the Pentagon and Pentagon City stops. She also told us how the trains, the buses and the city were full of police and military people with dogs, M-16’s and all that good stuff for a very long time. It is as if the people have become accustomed to this type of behavior and when we talk about the military state, they look at us and say, “Well it is much better today than it used to be.” She also talked to us about how the lobbyists really control the government and asked us what would we do differently? We agreed that the aura of power and money are very addictive and that this is where things must be changed. As it always goes, we talked of ways of fixing the problem if we were in charge…too bad Dick and George weren’t on the bus!!! We gave her our card and asked her to stay in touch!!!
The days, for the most part, have been just beautiful and pretty warm (high 50’s) and sunny for DC in November, but the weather people tell us that is changing beginning today for a bitter cold snap, so we shall see. The weather folks in California are much better – these guys get is right about 50% of the time. Our last week here will be busy, busy, busy.
Good News! Carol finally made it to Macy's! Here she is just happy as can she can be with her Macy's bag. She is taking the bag home...Just to remind her...there's no place like Macy's, there's no place like Macy's!!And, Finally, a Word about Garbage:
Say What? Unlike Pollock Pines, DC is a HUGE city. Huge cities generate HUGE amounts of garbage. As you know, every one needs a job in DC, so there are 8 million different garbage companies, and most of them work in the small and narrow alleys right behind our bedroom (even though we live on the 7th floor). Since each apartment building has a different company, they (of course) do not coordinate their schedules, so EVERY day except Sunday, at about 0700 (which all of you know is NOT when Carol is interested in getting out of bed) the following scenario begins, and lasts for about 20 – 30 minutes:
Large BLAST of diesel truck jakes; air-brakes; BEEP-BEEP-BEEP as it backs up (some times punctuated by an EXTREMELY loud horn ‘cause the driver feels like it); high engine revs as it starts the hydraulic hoists; BOOM-BOOM-BOOM as it pounds the dumpster against the truck; car alarms begin going off (Steve’s favorite part is the fugal horn screamers!!), BOOM as the dumpster is dropped and slammed against the concrete (car alarms set off once again). This process is repeated for perhaps six-to-eight dumpsters daily!!
In Pollock we have to LISTEN to hear if the garbage man is coming up the road so our stuff is out on time. One of the things we will certainly appreciate when we get back to at home!
Until the next update, we remain…. On the road
Say What? Unlike Pollock Pines, DC is a HUGE city. Huge cities generate HUGE amounts of garbage. As you know, every one needs a job in DC, so there are 8 million different garbage companies, and most of them work in the small and narrow alleys right behind our bedroom (even though we live on the 7th floor). Since each apartment building has a different company, they (of course) do not coordinate their schedules, so EVERY day except Sunday, at about 0700 (which all of you know is NOT when Carol is interested in getting out of bed) the following scenario begins, and lasts for about 20 – 30 minutes:
Large BLAST of diesel truck jakes; air-brakes; BEEP-BEEP-BEEP as it backs up (some times punctuated by an EXTREMELY loud horn ‘cause the driver feels like it); high engine revs as it starts the hydraulic hoists; BOOM-BOOM-BOOM as it pounds the dumpster against the truck; car alarms begin going off (Steve’s favorite part is the fugal horn screamers!!), BOOM as the dumpster is dropped and slammed against the concrete (car alarms set off once again). This process is repeated for perhaps six-to-eight dumpsters daily!!
In Pollock we have to LISTEN to hear if the garbage man is coming up the road so our stuff is out on time. One of the things we will certainly appreciate when we get back to at home!
Until the next update, we remain…. On the road
No comments:
Post a Comment