Mr. BowlderMan Goes to Washington

“Gotta go to DC for work. Not a whole lotta time for sightseeing, but I'm taking a red-eye so I get there on the Tuesday after Mem. Day early. The meeting I'm presenting stuff at is all day Wednesday, then I have Thursday morning to, you know, meet with senators, congressmembers, presidents, etc. before flying back in the afternoon.”

“Tell George and Dick I said Hi.”

“Will do!

Any policies you'd like me to ask them about?”

“tell I said to expand the roadless areas and that George should designare more wilderness areas in the West.

thanks”

“Ask Dick if he got an insurance policy on his artifical heart.”

“Ten-four!


Actually, I have heard that, when visiting DC, you can stop in and say "hi" to your congressmember if they are around. Anybody ever done that? I wonder if that's true for senators, too - Dianne Feinstein is an old pal of my dad's (when she was mayor and he a cop in SF), so maybe I'll pop in and say hi.

Realistically, I do want to see a few things there that weren't there when I was there last (1992, I think). Anything new in DC in the last 15 years?”

“Another thought: I'll activate the "fuego" check box on TT so I can find out the hot button issues for both libs and cons to be up to speed on stuff that might come up if I bump into George.....”

“I've always wanted to do the museum stuff in DC, but then I always wind up in some godforesaken remote corner of the country when I have any free time.

what a loser i must be.”

“Ask 'em about that dam on Willa Crick....”

“I've never been to the National Gallery, so I might go there. I think the Holocaust Museum is new since I was there last. Saw the Vietnam Memorial when I was there before - I think there are some newer memorials since '92. I'd go to the Smithsonian, but I've been there before, and I think with only a day, maybe a day and a half, I'll go see smaller scale stuff....”

“Don't knock over the Washington Monument--I've seen you cause landslides before!”

“I enjoyed the Hirshhorn and the Sculpture Garden. The Garden is is nice when the weather cooperates and isn't a large time investment.”

“A visit to The Dubliner would be more productive than a visit to the Capitol.
http://dublinerdc.com/”

“Excellent tips so far - keep 'em comin'!



Good thought, aero - that thing does kind of look like a giant bowling pin!”

“Hey, that pub is only about 8 blocks from my hotel! Could be staggering distance....”

“The BowlderDude is descending upon DC, cool! Too bad it's not on a weekend.

My fave art gallery is the Freer, it has Asian art. I've heard the Spy Museum is awesome, but I haven't seen it yet.

http://www.spymuseum.org/index.asp”

“You used to live there, huh lyra? OK, let's hear some more on the [former] local's perspective....


Hah! The Spy Museum is right across the street from my hotel! Of course, now that I told you where I'm staying I'll have to kill you....
last edited: 5/03/07 12:08:43 PM”

“The Dubliner is pretty nice AND it is now smoke-free!!

When I was a kid my older brother and I would run up and down the Washington Monument.
These days we would probably be shot as terrorists.”

“oh yeah.... There are always these crazy old retired 'field opertives' on C-SPAN giving talks at the Spy Museum when they come out with a book. I think they may have one of the Astin Martin DB5s from "Goldfinger" on display. That'd be worth it for me right there ;-)

And The Dubliner! Say no more!”

“Ummm let me think! Well I've also been to the Native American Museum, I think that one's pretty new. It was okay...most of those huge museums get old after about 20 minutes, if you ask me, haha. And I'm trying to think of any good restaurants in the area, but I haven't really eaten out around there too much!

You're close to the Mall and everything, that's cool.”

“Cool! I can go shopping, right?”

“Freeze-dried ice cream at Air & Space....”

“I used to live in Olde Town Alexandria, if you're into history it's a cool place to visit. I used to live on Wales alley, it was a short, 1/2 block long brick alleyway named after an English Torry hung for treason :)

Some GREAT spots to have a brew or three there also! I used to have a sailboat docked there I could walk to & sail up into the city. (those were quite the days for me!)”

“You are a big dork!! :-D”

““You are a big dork!! :-D”
lyra

I take it you don't like Old Towne? :)


The sense of History you Easterners take for granted is pretty cool to Californians! Nothing out here is really that old, remember the gold rush wasn't until 1849, we have no old architecture, really no sesne of U.S. history at all (relatively speaking), that's why I was suggesting B-Man take a stroll in Olde Town - I'll bet he'd like it!
last edited: 5/03/07 1:10:27 PM”

“Good thoughts, wanderer!

True, the "old stuff" comment - BowlderSon's piano lessons are in an old house built in 1878, one of the oldest in the whole city!

(I think the "dork" remark was related to the "shopping" remark :-P )”

“Yeah that was for the BowlderDork.”

“I'm baaaaaaack!

Had a good trip. I was there for work - we were presenting a draft research paper (my boss does these research-y things often - this was my first time doing one), and responding to comments on it by the project panel. The meeting was scheduled for all day Wednesday, but we finished a couple hours early, which, we hope, meant that we had done a good job.

I flew in on the red-eye on Tuesday. The trip from Dulles into the city was a piece of cake - the Washington Flyer bus to the Metro to my hotel took all of about 45 minutes. I was able to check in (the Courtyard at 9th & F Streets) early and leave my stuff, so took off sightseeing.

The National Archives were my first stop. Despite various warnings of hellaciously long lines, it took all of 10 minutes to enter the building (memo to others: show up about 15 minutes after something opens because there's probably a long line before the opening time, so people see that and go somewhere else - the line then grows longer after a little while). I had to wait another 5 minutes to get into the rotunda. I was able to see the major documents there - the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Something about seeing the actual documents makes them seem more real. I did not see Nicholas Cage lurking about. I bought replicas of the Big Three for BowlderSon.

Then I wandered around the other exhibits there for a while before heading to my 12:30 entry time at the Holocaust Museum. It's an excellent museum, but more so for someone who doesn't know about various events before during and after it. I felt like 90% of it was stuff I already knew. Well-presented, though.

Then I headed to the National Galleries of Art. I zoomed through the old stuff in the west building, other than spending a little more time in the tiny room with the half dozen Vermeers - very cool. Lunch at the underground cafeteria with the cascade fountain bubbling down outside. Over to the East Building, where I enjoyed catching the Jackson Pollock painting and Dali's Last Supper. The Dali painting is in the oddest location - in the elevator lobby.

Then it was back to the hotel for a nap. After a nap I went for about a 5-mile jog on a tour of monuments/memorials, including: Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, FDR Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and the WWII Memorial. I thought the Korean War Memorial was particularly striking. You really get the feeling of being with the soldiers.

Dinner at the Gordon Biersch in the same building as the hotel.

Wednesday was the work meeting. After the meeting, I went for another jogging tour, this time to the White House, Capitol Building, Library of Congress, and Supreme Court. Dinner with one of my colleagues at the District Chop House - good food and beer.

Thursday I got up and worked a little, then went over to the Air & Space museum. There was an enormous mob outside, so I just waited in the shade until most of them had gotten in before I went in. It was OK - since a big section was under renovation, it didn't have that much pizazz (sp?).

Over to the Natural History Museum, which was pretty cool, except there were ten zillion school kids there - it was incredibly loud and wall to wall people.

Back to the hotel to check out and retrace my steps to the airport. Our flight was delayed a bit as they changed our routing to avoid some of the stormy weather in the midwest, so we landed back in Oaktown about a half hour late.

See my pics at:

”

“Yo Bowlder! Dude you sure do get around, you saw more stuff there in one trip that I saw in like years! ;-) Glad you had a safe trip.”

“Whew! I put 10 miles on my feet on Tuesday - man was I tired!!”