Annapolis

We have been able to spend a day and a half in Annapolis and we love it.  It seems like it is the home of sailing and all things naval.  The Naval Academy is here and we went on the campus to have a look around.  The American propaganda machine was in high gear and glorified the navy and it's accomplishments.  They have reason too, there have been two Nobel Laureates that have graduated from the Academy, one being Jimmy Carter and another a physicists in the early 1900's who helped discover the speed of light. Many of the pilots for the astronaut program were graduates of this institution. We watched a movie about the program for the candidates who enter the academy and
then were allowed to wander around the campus.

It was amazing, the most ornate buildings I have ever seen on any campus.  We also got to see the plebes, or new recruits in action. 

Here is one of them doing a 200m repeat in a weighted vest and carrying her weapon. 

We were given a map which explained which building we were allowed to walk through but once again we did not take notice of that and ended up in the Physics building where we glimpsed laboratories and ensigns at work.  When we walked out another door there was a sign that said this building is not open to visitors. 

The chapel on campus was quite the structure as well, it was huge and had wonderful stained glass windows designed by someone who worked at Tiffany's and I would have loved to hear the pipe organ being played. 

We spent some time in the museum which had a superb collection of ship's models.  The exhibit explained that way back in the day when a new ship was commissioned a ship wright was pulled off the job of actually building a ship and made to produce a model.  They were given a separate building or space in which to work and the model was presented to the new owner once the ship was finished. Some of the models dated back to the 17th century.  

We went to the state legislature, a very impressive building.  At one time the US Congress met here for awhile.  We were allowed in after the backpack search, the presentation of picture I D and the scan through a metal detector. 

The Maryland State Congressional Chamber.

The Maryland State Senate Chamber. 

Taking note of the weather we have more time than we anticited before we do our ocean passage to NYC so it was really nice to just relax a little here and wander about the city on foot.  I got my hair cut and Barry went off in search of a boat part.  We actually ran out of diesel the other day, the first time in nine years and Barry thought it was the lift pump, the very piece of equipment that we had given way a couple of weeks ago. Not to worry, Barry had another spare so he put that on and we tried to get going again, which was when we figured out that we had sucked the tank dry.  We sailed to a spot to get more fuel and Barry very efficiently took the garbage in with him.  After we got going again he was rethinking his repairs and decided that perhaps the lift pump may have not been the problem, you can't lift fuel when there isn't any!  BUT the old pump was gone with the garbage. Such is life, we will have to get on with it because his mission to purchase a new one failed.  

Farewell to Washington

We left our wonderful anchorage in the Washington Channel two days ago.  Our last day we spent learning about the White House in the visitor's centre then we walked all the way around to get views from the front and the back.  If we wanted a tour we should have applied weeks ago so we could undergo a security check, and I never knew we had to do that. First thing in the morning we lined up for our free tickets to the Wash. Monument, we were there at 0915 and all the tickets for the 1830 ride up to the top were already gone, it is very popular.  We went up at 1230 and it was a geat day for it, bright and sunny, you could see for miles.  We saw our boat at anchor, the White House, the Pentagon, the reflecting pool and the Lincoln Memorial.  It was great.

You can see Cat's-Paw IV at anchor, she is the closest one to the bridge. 

Looking west to the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial. 

The long Washington Mall as it is called and the Capital Buildings to th east. 

This fellow was keeping an eye on all the tourists as we walked by the front of the White House. 

Proof that we were there. 

We had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves so we spent some of it in the Natural History Museum.  They do such a great job in the museums, there are interactive things for kids and the information is presented in such a way that you can take in a little or a lot depending on your reading and interest level.  They had the Hope Diamond in the Gem section, it is a stunning dark blue diamond found in South Africa.  They had all sorts of other famous diamonds, some that had been worn by Russian Czarinas, there were a pair of enormous earrings that put my bling to shame. 

A sandstone structure that Mother Nature has sculpted

A moth with snake wings to camouflage himself. 

Pretty sure this would be an Alaskan King Crab. 

I spent some time in the human genome exhibit and after visiting the butterfly room I gravitated to the ocean world. They had a dead giant squid as well as a fake giant jelly fish, I hope I never encounter something like that while I am in the water. 

Later we planned to have a crab dinner, after dodging all those pots all the way up the Chesapeake we decided to see what all the fuss was about.  It was Friday night and the part of the waterfront we are on in under construction.  When we went to buy the crab the traffic was backed up for blocks partly due to the construction. guess it is a DC institution to head on down to the fish market on Fri. night and have a feed.  It was crazy, we bought a dozen crab and some fresh prawns and headed back to the boat, Barry ate 9 and I had 3!  Barry said he wasn't full even after that, they were pretty small and
getting the meat out was a workout in itself, but they were tasty.

On the way back to the boat last night after a trip to get more fuel and visit the West Marine Store.  We also managed a very good seafood dinner.  The community was called Solomons.

We headed off down the river at dawn the next day.  I must recommend the Capital City Yacht Club to anyone who sails up the Ptomac. It was one of the most welcoming clubs we have ever been to, everyone said hi and made us feel at home, for $16/day we had full access to showers, laundry, kitchen facilities, bar and a secure spot to leave our dinghy we were at anchor, I did not want to ask what the rtes were to dock. It was also within walking distance of all the main attractions.  At the moment we are headed towards Annapolis where I hope to be able to spend some time ashore.  We are watching the weather so we can have a sailing window the overnight sail we will have to do on the open ocean to NYC. 

The day of the Memorials

We succeeded in our efforts to get into the Capital Buildings yesterday, no lockdowns and we got there before the visitor's centre opened so the line up was pretty short. We were part of the first tour, first a movie and then we were herded around building by a very forceful tour guide.  She warned us to stay together and one older woman wandered away from the group awhile later and she just lit into her.

This bust of Abe Lincoln was as a model for the sculpture on Mount Rushmore, you can tell because he only has one ear, the other one of course is just part of the mountain. 

The short columns that shore up the capital dome, notice the arches which distribute the weight. 

We were also taken into a room where there were statues from every state.  The only limitation the federal government gave to the states about who they could send a statue of was that the person had to be dead and the statue had to be made out of marble or brass.  

We then had to go to a different place to get into the House of Representatives, we were told we would have to show some ID but the girl giving out the passes was about to make a phone call so she just handed the passes to us, hmmmm!!  Anyway, we rushed in and we hooked up with a group going in, they were all in suits and it ended up they were all army guys from the Pentagon doing some team building exercise.  We rather stuck out in the group, I had on a lime green long sleeved shirt.  One of the fellows with the group said  "I am not going to rat you out but don't do anything to embarrass 

us." Right, with 15 big army guys all around us. When we were leaving and we followed along and 

one astute cop said to us.  "Where do you think you are going?" We made our way back to where we were supposed to be and exited without getting into any more trouble.  

On the way out we met Gus the bomb sniffing dog, just recently returned from Afghanistan.

The weather had turned better so we visited the Lincoln Memorial and the very moving war memorials.

This is actually very impressive when you see it in person.

The Vietnam War Memorial

The very effective Korean War Memorial

Part of the WWII Memorial. This is a tribute to thse who stayed home and fed the country, so good they were included.

We finished off the day at the Holocaust Memorial Museum.  It was a very sobering trip as you went in you were given a card about one of the victims. We are supposed to tell her story.  Her name was Olga Geib and she was born on Jan. 26, 1925 in Czechoslovakia.  She was forced to quit school at 14 due to antisemitism and she was deported to Auschwitz in 1944. She was put to work assembling grenades which attempted to sabotage.  She was transferred to Ravensbrueck in 1945 and was liberated by Soviet troops in 1945. There was a photograph of all the hair that was shorn from victims of the Holocaust as they entered the camps in order to intimidate them. It is indescribable how much hair there was, it brought me to tears. 

Capital Bldg. and Library of Congress.

The main reading room in the Library of Congress.  

We headed off to get a tour of the Capital Buildings, but it was not to be. The Visitors Centre was in lock down status and no one was allowed in.  In the U.S. American history is taught in the 8th grade and there were hundreds possibly thousands of teenagers waiting in line with their teachers.  We decided to go into the Library of Congress instead.  I have never been in such an impressive building.  The art and the architecture were stunning.

We did not take a formal tour but just wandered around.  We loved the maps they had on display, one showed the original 13 states, another was so old that the outlines of Hudson Bay were wrong, they showed the east side as being completely straight, not the rounded bay that we know now! Another room was all about Bob Hope, he was a very popular entertainer and he was shown with every president from Dwight D Eisenhower to Clinton. I really enjoyed the exhibit about the Gershin brothers, their piano and the typewriter they composed their lyrics on was on display. They also had a montage of the films that involved their music, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers were featured in quite a few of the musicals. 

We took the tunnel from the Library of Congress to the Capital Buildings but the line was too long to bother to wait so we headed off to the National Museum of the American Indian.

This building has no corners in keeping with nature and is made out of limestone from Minnesota.

This brought back memories of my youth.  These Bombardiers as we used to call them were used to haul houses etc. from one town to another back in the 60's in Northern Manitoba and then they were abandoned in the bush.  My brother and I used to play in them.  They are shown here as being used by the Métis in Manitoba to ice fish with nets. 

Next on our agenda was the National Gallery of Art. Barry was not impressed saying it all looked pretty much the same but I really enjoyed it.  After going through some galleries with painting from the 16th and 17th century I headed off to the Impressionist Gallery and gazed at paintings by Monet, van Gough, Picasso and Degas. 

A Renoir

A variation on a theme by Monet. 

Self portrait by Paul Gaugain

It was a miserable wet cold day and we headed home to snuggle up in the boat and relax.  All this sight seeing is hard work, we walk everywhere and most of the day is spent on our feet.  My age is starting to catch up to me and my feet get sore and my back aches from carrying around a backpack that has everything I might need during the day in it, ah me!

Barry took this shot, what an eye he has.

Space and Air Museum

 

We spent all day yesterday at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.  It was awesome, if there wasn't so much else to see we would both go back and spend more time there.  The exhibits ranged from the theory of flight, through the history of flight up to and including images from the Rovers on Mars which were named Spirit and Opportunity. The exhibits were so well done that I was not overwhelmed with facts but constantly learning.

This is Wilbur Wright in the original plane, they have managed to keep approx. 80 % of the real plane! the material for the wings had rotted away so that is all new. Orville did not get to fly that day because he lost the flip of a coin. They were the first real media superstars of the century.  

This is one of the lunar modules that the astronauts practised one before going to the moon.  Where were you when the footage was on TV?

This is the mock up of the Sky Lab, if you look you can see a person walking inside so you can get a idea of the scale.  It was very narrow inside with an exercise space on one side and work space on the other. 

This is during the race to space and the Americans and Soviets came up with the idea to pretend to like each other and promote world peace and brotherhood and the two different vessels docked in space. 

This is what the Rover on Mars looks like and it has sent back some beautiful images. 

They even have full sized planes from WWII in the building.  Below is the German Messerschnitt

While the Allies answer was the British Spitfire. 

We went in to see the 3 D IMAX movie about D-day! it was very well done.  Then just as we were about to leave they announced that there was going to be a live Russian launch to the international space station.  There were 3 cosmonauts that went up including a woman, there has not been a Russian woman in space for quite some time. I took the following image from the very large screen it was projected on.  Such a great day. 

On the Washington Mall which is just a big park between the Capital Buildings and the Wash. Monument. People were running around the track on the outside.

Washington is amazing, the main area around the White House and the Capital buildings is just covered in Federal buildings and museums.  Our tour bus ride was a great investment, we saw everything we wanted to and now we will have to prioritize which places we want to visit.  There are 19 Smithsonian buildings, so choosing might be quite difficult and they are all free!!   Barry wants to go to the Air and Space Museum and I am bound and determined to walk up the Washington Monument.  We have heard that you have to book a White House tour weeks in advance  but apparently tours of the Capital Buildings the Senate and the House of Representatives are quite spectacular and well worth it.  

One view of the Capital buildings.  

This is the original Smithsonian, it is called the Castle. The statues in the corners of the gardens are of extinct birds. 

Where the money is printed!! 

Some of the pictures were taken from our tour bus so the angles are not always the best.  A couple of the bus drivers were just a scream, one from Chigaco was quite funny while another had gone to the Duke Ellington School for the Arts and entertained us with songs, imitations of presidents and a truly rapid fire delivery as we drove down embassy row.  Did you know that the Canadian Embassy is the only one located on Pennsylvania Ave. due to our close and enduring friendship with the US? Apparently during the presidential inaugurations they close off the whole street between the Capital Buildings where he is sworn in and the White House and they even take the street lights out so that the parade can proceed down the middle of the street with nothing to interfere with it!! 

Here are some random buildings that I enjoyed the architecture of.

This is Union Station, where we stopped to have lunch.  It is the second biggest station in the US next to Grand Central Station in New York. Below are two shots to the ceiling of the station.  apparently there was 40 pounds of gold used in the ceiling and when Wash. had an earthquake in 2011 there was dust and particles coming off the ceiling.  Perhaps you could have made a few bucks by walking through the station every lunch hour and then shaking out your clothes when you got home.

I have always loved mystery and spy stories, so the possibilities of a tour of the J.Edgar Hoover building is something I am going to google and then we saw this building below, I don't imagine the entrance to this museum would be free

J Edgar's favourite place to have lunch. 

The Washington Catherdral.  It took over 80 years to complete and they allow preachers of many different religions to prostelize in it.  

Historic Georgetown, where the building were once taxed on their width, thus the very skinny frontages.  They have passed an ordinance which does not allow you to change the character of the buildings without applying to some board. 

The old Washington Canal whch used to run the length of the city but now only exists in Georgetown.  

Laundry must be almost done, off to see the sights up close and personal this time!