The weather here in DC continues to be a little cool at night, but the days continue a slight warm up each day. Nothing like the weather that the rest of the country has been experiencing. Seems quite amazing that we're in the middle of November, and most of the country has been experiencing multiple days of below freezing weather. Debbie and I have been fortunate by staying on the fringe of this weird weather pattern, and now it seems that NY will be looking at weather up in the 60's the next few days. Buffalo is still digging out of about 7' of snow the last few days, and even the National Guard has been deployed to help. As long as it's nice while we're in Syracuse. That's all I care about!
Debbie and I continue to play tourist each day. Yesterday we drove over to Annapolis and took a guided tour around the campus of the U.S. Naval Academy. Of course our first stop was a visit over at their athletic facility. And of course we went straight to a display of gold footballs signifying Navy victories over Army! Now, I think Army has won the last 12 in a row, but as you can see, Navy won the 1st one back in 1890.
I'm sure we'd get the same tour if we visited West Point as both branches seem to take this rivalry pretty seriously. We also passed by a bronze statue of the Navy mascot which has a plaque stating that Navy Midshipman allegedly stole the Ram from West Point prior to one of these early contests, and has remained the mascot of the Navy ever since.
We also took a tour through the USNA Museum, which was truly a magnificent place. Amazingly, the Academy has encompassed the Midshipmen's curriculum into the museum and they are conducting classes and lectures among the exhibits. The museum contains thousands of artifacts of Navy life, documenting the leaders and their service from its earliest days. There are interactive displays and battle maps that document the Navy's history during both war and peace. There are numerous ship models from the 1600's and 1700's, which were made prior the actual building of the ships. They are accurate down to the smallest details. Just recently, they've discovered that the artisans actually left notes and signatures inside the models. There is even an amazing display of ship models built by French prisoners of war using material in the prison yard including wood, straw, and bones from their beef rations.Some of the models took years to make.
Last night, Debbie discovered that if we wanted to take a tour of the U.S. Capital, we needed to obtain a reservation. I logged in to the Visitor Center, and unfortunately there were no openings until 12/1. Well that wasn't going to work for us. So I logged onto the website of our Representative Bill Owens, to see if he could help us. Today when we got back, there was a nice email from his office with an attachment for 2 passes to tour the Capital tomorrow.
Today we headed over to tour the Natural History Museum and the American History Museum. The Metro is a quick trip in from College Park. The slow part was the bus ride getting to the Metro. But the bus actually enters the RV park to pick us up, so that's pretty convenient. We stepped out onto the platform and made our way up to the sunlight and began our adventure.
The metro is very easy to figure out, and any visitor to DC will have little problem getting around. The wind was a little bitter as we made our way around the Mall which had quite a renovation project ongoing. The Capital Building with all its scaffolding was visible at one end of the Mall, and the Washington Monument was at the other.
The Natural History Museum was filled with just about any kind of animal you could imagine. Even a life sized elephant welcomed visitors at the front door. There were some amazing photographs of wildlife from around the world in a separate display. We tried to sit and enjoy the photos, but the place was full of school children raising Kane and running wildly throughout the place. It just got to be a little overwhelming. We're told that Monday is the quietest day to visit. So we packed up and headed over to the American History Museum. This museum is going to take some repeat visits to get through. There's just so much to see. Debbie was fascinated with the gowns worn by the First Ladies, and a display of some of their dinnerware.
I myself was impressed with the living room furniture of Archie and Edith Bunker! There was a nice display of the Gunboat Philadelphia which was discovered in the water off of Valcour Island in 1935. The gunboat was sunk during the War of 1812. The displays are too numerous to mention, so if you get a chance of visit DC, look the place over. It is worth your while.
Tomorrow we are returning to DC for a tour of the Capital Building and who knows what else. The temperature should be up in the 60's, so we're looking forward to that.
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