{"id":15780,"date":"2019-10-13T15:17:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-13T21:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=15780"},"modified":"2019-10-13T15:23:47","modified_gmt":"2019-10-13T21:23:47","slug":"three-days-in-dc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/10\/three-days-in-dc.html","title":{"rendered":"Three Days in DC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

So this past weekend \u2014 well, not really a weekend, actually, but from Thursday through Saturday, I was in DC, and while what brought me there was a meeting that\u2019s one small step forward in Jane The Actuary\u2019s (delusional) Plan To Fix Retirement, I tacked on a day before and after; I had hoped to add to this some additional meetings or events broadly speaking (speakers, panels, etc., of the sort that the big think tanky people sponsor), and did connect up with someone for dinner, but mostly played tourist and wanted to share my photos and experiences.<\/p>\n

Thursday<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yup, up bright and early, for a 7 AM flight, which got me into Reagan National Airport.<\/p>\n

Honestly, here\u2019s something I don\u2019t understand:\u00a0 Reagan is much, much closer than Dulles.\u00a0 It\u2019s super-convenient to take the subway into the city, and I would have assumed that one would pay a premium to fly this airline, but that really wasn\u2019t the case, at least near as I could tell.\u00a0 (Sure, Baltimore-Washington\/BWI would have been much cheaper but I didn\u2019t want to fuss with the substantial added travel time.)\u00a0 Are there a limited number of cities which have service to Reagan and But in any case, I had picked a hotel in Arlington, in the Rosslyn area, a short walk from the metro stop, that seemed to be affordably priced relative to others, and by 10:45, I was checked into my room, oriented myself a bit, and headed into DC, planning to spend the afternoon bopping from one Smithsonian museum to the next before returning, changing into something more professional, and heading back into the city for my dinner.<\/p>\n

This didn\u2019t quite work as planned.<\/p>\n

Quick photo break!<\/p>\n

\"\"
Trump! in DC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yes, that was my view as I stepped out of the Federal Triangle Metro station: the Trump International Hotel.<\/p>\n

But anyway, I headed south, ate a hot dog from a food truck, then got in security-check line for the museum of American history, which I had had a favorable impression of from a prior visit.<\/p>\n

In front of me were two German tourists.\u00a0 I wish I\u2019d taken their picture.\u00a0 Instead, I texted my husband:<\/p>\n

Her backpack is Reisenthel.<\/p>\n

His t-shirt has a S Olivier logo.<\/p>\n

He has Adidas shoes, a Fossil watch, and a Jack Wolfskin hat.<\/p>\n

She does not have Swabian-red hair, though.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And by Swabian-red I meant the fact that, at least a decade ago, women of a certain age in that area tended to dye their hair a dark reddish-brown.<\/p>\n

Anyway, it amused me.<\/p>\n

The museum? Not so much.<\/p>\n

\"\"
General Motors Hall of Transportation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The General Motors Hall of Transportation was fine enough, I guess.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

as was the adjacent display \u201cOn The Water,\u201d though its effort to include every way in which Americans used bodies of water for transportation, fishing, industry, etc., meant that the entire exhibit was simply a sum of individual bays, which were entertaining enough but never more than that.<\/p>\n

But then there was this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

According to the website<\/a>, this is not a special exhibit but a new gallery space, and one of substantial size and, studying the map<\/a>, I am trying to visualize exactly where this was relative to what I saw of the exhibits and where I was when I took this photo, because the museum map just shows greyed out areas without distinguishing between staff or private areas and what\u2019s under construction and, to be honest, the largest inaccessible area was on the 3rd floor and I am quite convinced that this was on the first or 2nd floors, and fairly prominent, as if it was swapped out for some other exhibit which I had also missed.<\/p>\n

I toured the exhibit on American military history and it was fine enough, though not as good as the Civil War Museum in Kenosha and the First Division Museum at Cantigny in Wheaton, IL.\u00a0 And I walked through the exhibit \u201cMany Voices, One Nation<\/a>,\u201d but it really seemed to be more about \u201ce pluribus, pluria<\/em>\u201d (or maybe plures<\/em>) \u2014 that is, emphasizing all the many identity groups retaining their identities.\u00a0 I had the feeling that in the effort to tell everyone<\/em>\u2018s stories, they told no particular story well.\u00a0 And strangest of all was the Ruby Slippers exhibit \u2014 an exhibit space that I peeked into that had the Ruby Slippers in the center of what seemed to be a mostly empty room, designed as if Americans would pilgrimage here and crowd around as if they were looking at the Mona Lisa or the Rosetta Stone.<\/p>\n

So I was annoyed.\u00a0 And maybe I missed parts of the museum that I might have enjoyed \u2014 beyond the children\u2019s museum area is apparently an exhibit on American Enterprise but I had written off that corner of the museum \u2014 but I made my way over to the Air & Space Museum instead \u2014 where, yes, again, over half the museum was closed for renovations<\/a>.\u00a0 So I said \u201chi\u201d to the V1<\/p>\n

\"\"
V1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

and V2<\/p>\n

\"\"
V2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

and a few assorted missiles<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

but a \u201cgreatest hits of the Air and Space Museum\u201d visit is not what I was looking for.<\/p>\n

And by then I was irritated, and getting tired, and not up for a try at a 3rd museum, so I took that Metro back to the hotel and napped briefly before my dinner.<\/p>\n

Friday<\/strong><\/p>\n

So most of Friday was taken up by my meeting, and when I got back to the hotel, I wanted to go over to the Arlington National Cemetery but first I knew I wanted to put together a quick article about the latest news on Illinois pensions<\/a>, and I figured I had plenty of time to do both.<\/p>\n

But I didn\u2019t plan on this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So this was as close as I came to paying my respects:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

and happily the Marine Corps memorial was not fenced off:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

with its accompanying sign also surprising me:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

because we have such an endless profusion of memorials now \u2014 for every war, and honoring all manner of identity groups fighting in those wars.<\/p>\n

Saturday<\/strong><\/p>\n

What with the hotel being in Arlington, but very close to the river itself, I started off the day with a walking tour, crossing Key Bridge into the Georgetown area.<\/p>\n

Cute as a button.<\/p>\n

Dripping with money, both from wealthy residents and from college students from wealthy families, but cute as a button.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The neighborhood was a bit too tree-lined to take particularly good pictures.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Though I did find myself annoyed as I realized, the more I walked through the neighborhood, that the cars in these streets were one foreign brand after the next:\u00a0 BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Toyota, Subaru, etc.\u00a0 The only American brands I saw were one Suburban and two Jeeps, plus American-branded vehicles for the tradesmen working.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I started to get less charmed and more irritated by the foreign cars and the oozing money (I wanted to get a donut to supplement my light breakfast and was surprised that they were priced at $4), and then discovered that I was two blocks away from a path along a canal<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

which itself led to a pedestrian\/bike path to the Lincoln Memorial.<\/p>\n

Now, I mentioned that on Thursday, I was amused by the German couple in front of me at the security line, and I continued to notice German tourists.\u00a0 But this took the cake:<\/p>\n

ahead of me, as I\u2019m walking to the Lincoln Memorial, I see a group of soldiers, and am reminded of our days in Rome this past summer and the substantial military\/police presence.\u00a0 But then I get closer:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

and these are indeed more Germans!<\/p>\n

What they were doing there, I have no idea, but I found it very funny.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, I continued on through to the World War II memorial (not a fan; it just seems so generic and bland), then north towards the White House, though you really can\u2019t see much.\u00a0 I decided I was done walking and it was time for museum-ing, so I decided to try the\u00a0National Museum of African American History & Culture<\/a>, but was surprised to learn that I needed a timed pass.\u00a0 What\u2019s more, they could only be gotten online, but the helpful man at the doorway told me there were time slots available starting at 1:30, so, since it was about noon and my phone was losing its charge very quickly that day, I decided to go to the Natural History Museum, hoping that I could find some not-too-expensive thing to eat in the museum cafe and an outlet near a table, charge my phone, then get a ticket.\u00a0 Turned out, I should have just gotten the ticket right away, as by the time I found the outlet I was looking for (turned out, in a corner of an exhibit where they had a movie cycling through, since I felt I\u2019d stand out too much in the main hall and outlets were hard to find), there were no tickets at all left for the day \u2014 but I didn\u2019t anticipate that, and at the same time, didn\u2019t want to use the phone until I could be sure I\u2019d be able to charge it.<\/p>\n

So I ended up touring the Natural History Museum<\/a>, which was adequate, but I was again disappointed, because I wanted to be more \u201cwowed\u201d by a museum that calls itself \u201cNational\u201d than I was.\u00a0 I also realized what was missing:\u00a0 even though I get that it\u2019s not \u201cpolitically correct\u201d to combine natural history and ethnology, the latter is the sort of museum exhibit I like a lot and it was largely missing here.\u00a0 Even the mummies \u2014 the Field Museum exhibit includes a lot of detail on life in ancient Egypt, and the mummy corner of this museum was, well, in addition to being a lot smaller, was more focused on, \u201chey, guys, mummies are really creepy.\u201d<\/p>\n

And I admit, I\u2019m spoiled by such places as the National Museum of Ethnology<\/a> in the Netherlands and the British Museum and the Deutsches Museum, but I really wanted to be more impressed by these museums than I was.\u00a0 I suppose next time, if there is a next time in the near future, I\u2019ll get that online ticket, and maybe try the art museums, and do more advance research to find the off-the-beaten-path spots.<\/p>\n

So that was my weekend.\u00a0 How was yours?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So this past weekend \u2014 well, not really a weekend, actually, but from Thursday through Saturday, I was in DC, and while what brought me there was a meeting that\u2019s one small step forward in Jane The Actuary\u2019s (delusional) Plan To Fix Retirement, I tacked on a day before and after; I had hoped to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":15819,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[939,625,1329],"class_list":["post-15780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-personal","tag-tourism","tag-washington"],"yoast_head":"\nThree Days in DC<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So this past weekend -- well, not really a weekend, actually, but from Thursday through Saturday, I was in DC, and while what brought me there was a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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