Share my writing life...

Tuesday, July 03, 2012

Washington DC


Wow! Who would have thought we'd end up in Washington DC? Not me, that's for sure.

Instead of driving into Washington from Purcelville, we took the train. Hey, get this... We "rode on the Danville train". Get it? Probably not. Remember that old song: "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"? The lyrics go: Virgil Caine is my name and I drove on the Danville train.... I took the train to Richmond that fell..." Well, we actually did ride the Danville train into Washington, and we did stay one night in Richmond, Virginia. Cool, huh?

Anyway, we drove from Purcelville into Danville and took the train into Washington. Grand Central Station in New York is famous, but equally so is Washington's lovely old Grand Central Station.

 I didn't get any photos from inside the station. Everything was under netting, sectioned off, or behind scaffolding. They'd had an earthquake last year that did some significant damage to this lovely old building and so a lot of it was under repair and reconstruction.

We jumped on a bus to take the "Hop-on-hop-off" City Tour of Washington and left the station via this huge round-a-bout with the magnificent fountain in the middle of it.


We were right not to drive around Washington. The traffic is absolute chaos compared to New York, (and we thought New York was bad enough at the time.)


 These jump on jump off trolley/double decker bus tours are great if you only have one day to see a city. They take you around all the famous sites where you can jump off for a look around and then jump on the next one of their vehicles that come along every 20 mins or so. 

We used these in every major city we went to. It's a very cost effective way of seeing all the sights.


The domed building with the spike on top, above. Looks kind of famous.

 The round building with the statue inside it.
.
There's that big pointy thing you can see from almost everywhere...


...and, hey look, there's that domed building again!
I think this square thing might be kind of famous too.


Here's another view of that square thing.
We had lunch here in the park. See the plane over the kiosk? We asked why all the flights were coming and going over the river and were told that all flights had to come in that way because the President was at the White House and there is a "no fly zone" around it. Cool. Might drop in on the Prez. later on, hey. 

Actually, he ended up following us everywhere. Later on when we were at Camp David, he was there too! Then, later on in Chicago... Yep, the Prez was in rez again! Talk about hitching a ride on our coat tails. Okay, so he wasn't really following us. He was on his campaign trail and just happened to be wherever we were - or we just happened to be where he was... Whatever!


Arlington, once the home of Robert E. Lee and his family. Now one of the most famous military cemetaries in the world.


 This grave off on its own belongs to Robert Kennedy. The other Kennedy's are together.
 Arlington is quite simply...



Acres... 



 ...and acres...


 ...and acres, of dead people.

It was quite spectacular, and beautiful, and all of that, but it didn't instil in me a sense of pride and honor. Instead, I felt sick, and angry. In fact, the more I saw, the angrier I felt. Acres and acres of dead young people throughout history. Canon fodder. People being sent to their deaths in wars not of their own making. Ugh! Too much sorrow here. Too much grief. Overwelming and too much.


This is the monument to all wars. Quite beautiful. On the other side of it is the tomb of the unknown soldier which is guarded 24 hours of every day.


We watched the changing of the guard. Precise, quite, regimented, honorable.



 Present arms!
 Inspection over, the next soldier takes his turn on the carpet. Every half hour. It was a lovely day when we were here, but can you imagine doing this in the middle of winter?

 Then we hopped back on the bus and went back to the park to visit this square building again.

Inside, there was a statue of an old geizer sitting on a chair. Big.


And the old geizer in the chair is looking directly at that obilisky thing, by the way. Everything lines up in Washington. There was supposed to be a reflective pool in front of the obilisk but they'd drained it because of an algae problem. They were reconstructing it. You can see the heavy equipment working away in the distance. It seemed to us that half of Washington was being reconstructed.

Yes, we did drop in to see if the President was at home.
The president was at home, but was probably too busy mowing all his lawns to come down and open the gate.

Then it was back onto the bus for a trip through the leafy streets of Washington.

Apart from the famous monuments and buildings, the general architecture of Washington is quite lovely.
 There are beautiful old buildings, gardens and fountains everywhere. It is a pretty city.













Then we were off for a tour of that building with the dome with the pointy bit on top.

 Capital Hill.

 Inside the dome. Can you believe that the figures in that painting right up on the ceiling are actually 7 feet tall?
And the frescos around the dome were absolutely spectacular. They look 3D but are actually just paintings.

 I think our tour through Capital Hill was the highlight of our day in Washington. It is an absolutely gorgeous building full of statues, stunning artwork and magnificent chandeliers.

We then hopped back on the bus for the remaining half hour of our day to go to the Smithsonian. Pity we only had half an hour. We could easily have spent a week looking through the buildings of the Smithsonian, or a month, and I bet we'd still not see it all.

We chose to go inside the aero-space part of the museum. That's Geoff with the famous lunar module.

The week after we left the space shuttle was taken to the museum. We missed it by mere days. Never mind. Next time.

Then it was a quick bus trip back to the station to catch "the Danville train". You know, that never gets old... "we rode on the Danville train..." No, Stonewall's cavalry didn't come to tear up the tracks, but it was a very slow trip back to Danville due to a vicious, near-tornado conditions storm.

We followed the storm all the way back to Danville where we'd parked the car. It was only raining lightly by then. We were lucky to have missed all the rain, hail and wind. We drove back to Oakland Green for our last night there, planning to go to Gettysburg the next day. The fireflies were out in the woods again. I could never grow tired of watching them.





Plurk

GoodReads

Widget_logo

Glenloth Earth Tones Art at Zazzle


Gypsy Stone Dukkering

Casting the Stones

Long before the Tarot became synonymous with fortune telling, Gypsies used the natural world around them to help them see into the troubled hearts of those who came seeking knowledge and guidance.
River stones, gems, crystals, sticks, needles and bones were often used by the dunkerer [dukkerer] or palm reader.
I love using my own set of river stones that I personally hand picked and charged with healing energy.
When I read, I'm not so much telling a fortune, as looking into the heart of the energy surrounding the person I'm reading for. I believe this gives a more accurate insight into what is at the heart of a problem or situation and can provide real, down to earth ways of helping people deal with what life sometimes throws at them.
Casting the stones is something I love and I hope to continue with my readings for as long as life will allow.

Láshi Baxt Me Zhav Tute

(May Good Luck from me go with you)

My Facebook

Heather Williams's Facebook profile