I have so many pics from Day 3, I thought I would split them between a Daytime and Nighttime post. I also am not posting any of the tons of pics I took of the fall foliage... I think the colors of fall deserve their own post.
I started out the day a little later than I planned, because my phone charger apparently had a short, and my phone hadn't charged overnight. I finally got it charging, and was having to wait to start my day when I heared quite the commotion outside my hotel. I went to my room window to see a motorcade driving by including what looked like, "The Beast", the President's ride.
Once I had a charge in my phone, I went to the Newseum. The Newseum is a privately owned museum, so it isn't free like the rest of the museums in D.C., but I think it's worth the price of admission. It's a museum dedicated to the media, but it has lots of historical exhibits. Out front and on the 6th floor, there are all the major newspaper headlines of the day from around the country, so I got to see the New Jersey Star Ledger marking the swearing-in from the day before...
I started out the day a little later than I planned, because my phone charger apparently had a short, and my phone hadn't charged overnight. I finally got it charging, and was having to wait to start my day when I heared quite the commotion outside my hotel. I went to my room window to see a motorcade driving by including what looked like, "The Beast", the President's ride.
Once I had a charge in my phone, I went to the Newseum. The Newseum is a privately owned museum, so it isn't free like the rest of the museums in D.C., but I think it's worth the price of admission. It's a museum dedicated to the media, but it has lots of historical exhibits. Out front and on the 6th floor, there are all the major newspaper headlines of the day from around the country, so I got to see the New Jersey Star Ledger marking the swearing-in from the day before...
Also on the 6th floor, there is a place where you can walk outside and look both directions down Pennsylvania Ave. It was raining, but I still got some great pics.
View of the National Gallery
View down Pennsylvania Ave with the old Smithsonian Castle in the background...
There is a fairly large section of the Berlin Wall...
One of the very interesting aspects of the wall, was that you could compare the West's graffitied side against the East's bare side...
There were a couple of JFK exhibits marking the upcoming 50th Anniversary of the assassination...
The wire report from November 22, 1963
Zapruder's Camera...
One of the drums used in the funeral procession...
The Newseum has Tim Russert's office.
It is exactly as it was the day he died in 2008...
I'm such a huge Tim Russert fan, that being there made me quite teary
They even had the famous "Florida, Florida, Florida" whiteboard from the 2000 election
They also have a quite moving collection of September 11th artifacts...
Pieces of the planes and some police cars...
A wallet found in the rubble that belonged to a woman who was a passenger on one of the planes...
A collection of cell phones found in the rubble. First responders reported that the phones rang for several days as people were searching for their loved ones...
A portion of the Pentagon from where the plane hit...
The antennae that was on top of the North Tower...
and you can see the backdrop of the wall of front pages
After a quick run through the Newseum, I walked down to the National Archives.
I love the National Archives
I love catching a glimpse of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution,
and the Bill of Rights (but no pics allowed).
Then I walked down Pennsylvania Ave. down toward the White House, because I was meeting someone for lunch a couple of blocks away from the WH. I walked past the Robert F. Kennedy Building which houses the Justice Department...
and also the Old Post Office...
complete with a statute of the first postmaster, Benjamin Franklin, of course...
I finally made it down to the White House
You can see the White House garden really well
I walked around the White House
On the north side, I found a big protest. al-Maliki, the Prime Minister of Iraq, was in town and in addition to causing traffic problems for my whole visit, it also had this group really fired up...
Apparently at some point (I think while I was at lunch) Newt Gingrich, Tom Ridge, and Patrick Kennedy joined in.
After lunch, I was trying to take a short cut back by the White House and Treasury Building, but they were not allowing anyone in the park because the Prime Minister was due to visit soon. I had to take the long way around and went by the hotel where he was staying and the security was just off the charts.
A view of the Capitol from my walk.
I made my way down to the Museum of American History. I was a little disappointed because despite being closed for quite some time, it is still largely under construction. They didn't have any of the fun pop culture stuff displayed, and they did not have ALL of the first lady dresses on display.
One of Mrs. Kennedy's dresses and pearls
Mrs. Obama's dress.
It was even prettier in person. There was so much detail that is hard to pick up in photographs.
They have all the White Houses' china patterns on display. I still love Lady Bird Johnson's the best, but I like this one too (wouldn't you know I can't remember who it belonged to!).
They also had a George Washington outfit
Mrs. Julia Childs kitchen has been re-created too...
After the museum, I decided to walk down to all the monuments...
I had not seen the World War II Memorial before...
At this point, I headed back to Georgetown. It was getting quite warm, and I had to hit up the Apple Store for a new phone charger. I might have also made another stop at Georgetown Cupcake!
Stay Tuned for photos from my "Monuments in Moonlight" Tour that took that evening.
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