-As is virtually always the case, I woke up significantly earlier than JTH on Monday morning. I used the time to explore Manassas. I drove and came across a magnificent site: McKay Used Books! The store is located in a strip mall on 8389 Sudley Road in Manassas. It was completely serendipitous. It was like I was drawn there. It is like a gift...-The store was smaller and pricier than its Tennessee counterparts but was still worth the stop.
-Once JTH awoke, I picked him up at the hotel and we began driving to the DC area. When we realized what a predicament we were in the previous night in regards to lodging, we called JTH’s old girlfriend LMM, who lives in Alexandria, to see if we could crash at her place. We got no response. So we just headed to her house, located at 41 Rosemont Avenue. We parked the car, caught the nearby Metro and assumed we could either catch her at work or she would call us back later in the day. You know what they say about assumptions...
-LMM’s townhouse is located very close to the massive George Washington Masonic Memorial (which was a great landmark) and more importantly to the King Street Metro Station terminal. An employee graciously helped us properly purchase day passes.
-The Metro passes actually had Barack Obama’s face on them! This would be a trend.
-We exited the Metro near Ford’s Theatre, where Abraham Lincoln was shot on April 14th, 1865. We were immediately inundated by street vendors. If Barack Obama’s face could be emblazoned on an item, it was made. My favorites: condoms, foam fingers, a basketball cleverly marketed as the “inaugural ball” (which was not worth the $15 it was selling for), magnets, peppermints, etc. I cannot guarantee that Barack will stimulate the national economy but he certainly has done wonders for the local market. Just in money made off the Metro alone they should be sitting pretty for awhile.-I cannot adequately describe the mass of humanity engulfing the city, mostly covered in Barack paraphernalia. New York City had nothing on this. It was a racial rainbow and we, Caucasian males, were in the extreme minority. Frankly, the diversity is what church should look like.
-We looked for a place to eat. We originally decided to try the ESPN Zone. After being seated, we were not served for a significant period of time. Also being unimpressed with the limited menu, we walked out and eventually ate at Ollie’s Trolley, a local hamburger joint which opened in 1978. The seasoned burgers were voted best in town and were billed as having 26 herbs and spices. I would rate them as good, but not great. After our experience at the ESPN Zone, we were glad just to have a meal.
-We then decided to find the National Geographic Society Museum, where LMM works. Despite carrying my GPS, this proved ridiculously difficult. The Garmin (which JTH has affectionately named “Delores”) did not adapt to us being on foot and we spent literally hours trying to navigate the masses. We made a completely unnecessary large rectangle around the building and passed the American Red Cross headquarters so often that it felt like it was mocking us. Sadly, this photo of the Washington Monument represents about how close we got to historic landmarks on this day.
-In the midst of this debacle, we made a great purchase at Barnes & Noble. We entered in part to get a respite from the cold but JTH found an Insight Pocket Map of Washington, DC. It included a pop up map that JTH took great pleasure in unveiling throughout the trip. The map helped on two levels: First (and most obviously) we knew where we were going. Second, it made us look like the idiots we were. People gravitated to help us. It would be only the second best purchase on the day. (That, my friends is called foreshadowing.)
-Even after we had the map, we managed to walk past the White House without seeing it! I did stop to photograph this statue of Andrew Jackson. It was built by Clark Mills in 1853 and rests in Lafayette Park on the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 16th. It depicts Jackson shortly after the Battle of New Orleans. Jackson was the first of three presidents from Tennessee.
-We eventually found the National Geographic Society Museum. Unfortunately due to its proximity to the Inaugural festivities, it was closed until Wednesday! Our epic quest for LMM had all been for nothing.
-Undaunted, we proceeded onward. Since JTH had never seen the dinosaur exhibit, we headed to the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History. En route we made the purchase of the day. We had once again wrongly assumed we would spend much of the day indoors so we did not bring gloves. So we bought some from a vendor. These were not just any ordinary gloves. These were “Limited Edition Hands 4 Change”! You will note they have Barack Obama’s face in the middle and the doubling of the number 4 represents his status as the 44th president. Genius! Had nothing else happened on the trip, it would have been worth the effort just to purchase these bad boys.
-We made our way into the museum and JTH got to see the aforementioned dinosaur exhibit. I remembered the layout of the building as I have been there numerous times. This time was different. The place was so crowded that we could not read signs indicating what we were viewing. It was amazing and frankly, annoying.
-JTH had also never seen another of the museum’s primary attractions, the Hope Diamond, a large, 45.52-carat, blueish diamond, famous for allegedly being cursed. This was the mass of humanity that surrounded it. JTH, like many who manipulated their way to the front, was letdown.
-While at the Museum, we also watched an IMAX movie at the Johnson IMAX Theater. JTH had never seen an IMAX movie. For $8.50 we watched the 4:50 pm showing of Deep Sea 3D. The forty minute documentary features various sea creatures and was narrated by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. We were given 3D glasses to properly view the movie. JTH was not overly impressed with the film, but if nothing else, we were glad to be out of the cold for awhile. The Smithsonian was closing for the day as we exited the theater.-We headed back on the Metro to return to our car. The UT hoodie I wore all day identified our origins and started conversations. On the way back, we chatted with some tourists who had driven all the way from Mobile, Alabama. They could not believe we had not secured lodging. To be honest, we were a little worried ourselves.
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