Tourist Stops in DC

In addition to spending time with friends, we spent some of our time in Washington DC doing tourist activities: visiting historcal sites, seeing a one-man play about Abraham Lincoln, and going to a fantastic museum that only opened in 2015, the African American History and Culture Museum.

Shana, Andrew and I spent basically an entire day at the African American Museum (exterior above with the Washington Monument in the background). You begin your visit in the basement of the museum, which contains extensive exhibits about slavery in the US, and then "rise out" of slavery as you go upward through exhibits that trace the history of African Americans in the US during the Civil War, Reconstruction, segregation, the Civil Rights movement, and more. That part of the museum alone could take an entire day, but two upper floors contain displays about African Americans' contributions to sports and culture in America. We also took time to eat lunch at the museum's restaurant, which offers traditional southern foods like fried chicken, fried catfish, grits, macaroni & cheese, sweet potato pie, etc., etc. It was fantastic and we were stuffed!

Our viewing of Mister Lincoln starring Scott Bakula (of Quantum Leap fame) as the titular President at the Ford's Theater was quite entertaining and very meta. We even learned some things we hadn't previously known about Lincoln's life. Unforttunately, we did not have a good angle to get a picture of the box where Lincoln was actually shot, so no photo.

Finally, Shana, Andrew and I spent a day in Virginia visiting Mount Vernon (George Washington's home) and Arlington National Cemetery, both places I visited when I was about 5 years old, but could not really remember at all. Shana had never been to either.

Mount Vernon is impressive, and it is obvious why Washington chose it as his home. In fact, both the house itself, and the view from the house look a lot like they did over 200 years ago:

Much of what is preserved at Mount Vernon relates to the slaves owned and leased by the Washingtons. There are many buildings relating to where the slaves lived and worked on the plantation, as well as a monument to those who were buried there (without individual graves of course). Interestingly, Washington did free all the slaves he owned in his will, but he could not free those he had leased, many of whom were leased from his wife's family.

Arlington National Cemetery is huge. We went to John F. Kennedy's grave, along with monuments to the astronauts killed in the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters. What I did not realize was that many famous people are buried in Arlington, not just soldiers. For example, we went to see the graves of a number of Supreme Court Justices.

And, of course, we went to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which is a truly impressive and solemn ceremony. Although it is a little distracting to watch the planes flying into Reagan airport in the background if you are an aviation enthusiast.

Washington DC and its environs offer a virtually endless opportunity to see famous places and things related to US history, along with a large number of spectacular museums. We highly recommend it. 

More soon.

Jeff and Shana