Gary-Summer: March 2023

Friday, March 31, 2023

March 31, 2023 - Washington DC-National Arboretum

Title: March 31, 2023 - Washington DC-National Arboretum

Hike Info : Description : Flowers and Plants

Hike Info:

Type:Tourist

Distance Walking: 3.7 Miles

Description:

Another good night's sleep, even though I am starting to think about our trip returning home, particularly getting to the Dulles airport. The route is good, but how do we navigate getting to the right terminal? The airport maps seem pretty straightforward.

Steps to Azalea Garden

Today’s agenda is pretty simple-see some gardens, maybe the National Arboretum, and go to the Ford Theater for a production of Shout, Sister, Shout. This is the show we were to see Wednesday night, but got rescheduled for tonight.

We decided to go to the National Arboretum. So at 11am, we leave our room and walk down to K St. There we pick up bus D4 which takes us to the Mt Olivet Cemetery area. This is considered the Trinidad area of DC. We walk about ¾ of a mile alongside the Arboretum until we get its gates on R St.

From my view, parts of this Arboretum looks like a well taken care of natural forest. This is the part which we walk up first. It is on the side of a hill, rising a couple hundred feet up. The sign says this is the Azalea Trail. There are more signs in front of plants for rhododendrons than azaleas. Still in a few places there are blossoms. From the signs, the first director of the national Arboretum was originally the director of a place called Glen Dale where azaleas are propagated. Apparently he went crazy-in a good way- with them and there are over two hundred different varieties of azalea in the Arboretum.

We continue to climb the hill. Many flowers populate our walk. When we reach the top of the hill, there are columns laying on the ground. Also a picnic bench. Sounds like a good thing to do to keep up our energy. Lunch is the normal peanut butter and Nutella. And then we are off.

We are not sure where we are on the property, but are enjoying going down this road.The flowers do liven up a walk. We come to a gardener’s shack and outside are ten rules posted about conduct within the Arboretum. One of them is “do not eat lunch on the grounds”. Oops. Glad we did not know this earlier.

Morrison Garden

We circle back around and come to a walled garden dedicated to Benjamin Y. Morrison's memory. It has had only cursory maintenance. But there is a sense of aesthetics here. We then drop down to a road and cross over a field to some columns we have been observing for a while. There are 22 of these columns laid out. When the Capitol building was expanded, these columns were removed and put into storage. 30 years later they came out and put into the Arboretum. While columns look stately, they seem out of place.

Capitol Columns

We head down to the Visitor Center and use the facilities. And then on to the herb garden. In its present state, just after Winter condition, it doesn't seem very healthy. But maybe in a month or two, it would be something to write home about. There are some healthy bushes, but many of the sign identifiers had no plants beside them. There were a lot of roses.

Sherri and Cherry Blossoms

We step across the road to the banzai exhibit. This is interesting to me. Such delicacy in a living tree after 20, 30, 40, … 100 years. Along with the delicacy is beauty. The shaping of these trees do not need to be symmetrical, just a pleasing shape. We spend at least 45 minutes just wandering through this area, looking at the trees. Then the last tree we see is the most pleasing. It was started in the 1600’s and still looks radiant.

And now we are on our way back to our rooms, so we can rest for tonight’s performance. I check my phone for the route and I see a call from the 202 Area Code-that’s DC. When I listen to the voicemail, it is Ford’s Theater canceling out tonight’s performance. Unfortunately, this night is probably the last night we have available. I left a message saying, give us a refund on the money.

We make it back to a bus stop for D4 and ride it all the way back to 1st and K St, walking the two blocks to our room. We both crash and relax once we get back there. Sherri takes a nap and I read. Then we go to a pizza place, Andy’sPizza NOMA, in the same building as us, and order a take out. They said 25 minutes to wait. It was more like 55 minutes. But the pizza did taste good. Not much else happens. I head off to bed around 10pm, pretty tired for such a tame day.

Flowers and Plants

Azaleas and Rhododendrons

Ever Red Sunset

Cherry Trees

Bonsai Trees

Unknown

Thursday, March 30, 2023

March 30, 2023 - Washington DC

Title: March 30, 2023 - Washington DC

Hike Info : Description : Background : Extra Photo's

Hike Info:

Type: Tourist

Distance: 2.07 Miles

Description:

Supreme Court

I must have been tired as I slept over 8 ½ hours last night. Not that yesterday was a tiring day. I think it is an accumulation. We will see how today goes. We only have a few things on the docket: Supreme Court, a tour of Ford’s Theater and possibly going to the Kennedy Center.

We leave at 9:50 for a short ride on the Metro from NoMa to Union Station. It saves about 10 minutes and a ¾ of a mile of walking. But we still need to walk to the Supreme Court. We get in line about 10:10 and get admitted at 10:30. We find out that the 10:30 lecture will not be held today because the Courtroom is closed. But it will be available Friday at 10:30, 12:30 and 1:30.

So we are content to read about the building and the Court. It talks about how this building was not constructed until the 1930’s. Before that, they met in parts of the Capitol building And then there were the accomplishments of the justices of the Court. Some of them were the Chief Justices; others were part of the court. Of course the big one is Justice Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice. He set the tone for the rest of the Court’s activities. But there was also quite a display on Sandra Day O’Connor, the first female Supreme Court Justice.

Belmont-Paul Suffrage House

We did not have time to go through even half of what was there. But when I go to a place like this, there are certain things which cause me to pause and think. There was engraved in stone four court cases, one of them, and I do not have the reference, talks about how the US Constitution is malleable and needs to conform to the needs of each generation. I wonder how this opinion works with today’s Court’s activity where the justices seem more in tune with what the original documents say and what did the original signers mean. Things to ponder and look at.

We have a noon pass for the Ford Theater. So we leave the Supreme Court at 11:10. We walk up to E St NE, passing by the Belmont-Paul Suffrage House

Ford's Theater

. At E, we just miss the bus. So we waited about 20 minutes for the D6 bus. When it comes, it lets us off just a block or so from the Ford Theater.

We have a noon pass so they let us in, even though we are 15 minutes late. So we get herded into the basement where there is a museum which they funnel all visitors down into. When we get down, they announce something about allowing us up into the theater in a little while. In retrospect, it was probably the tour. But Sherri and I just continue our looking around as the displays talk about Lincoln’s presidency, principally about the Civil War. But there is talk about his relationship with African-Americans. There is one which they showed a History Channel film on, Fredrick Douglass.

I think we are getting hungry, but we still want to go up into the Theater. First thing, we try out our seats for tomorrow night’s performance. They will do, even though there is a pillar slightly obscuring the stage right. The seats are pretty compact, as was said, this is a Victorian style theater. From the stage right side of the theater, you can look up into the Presidential box where Lincoln was shot. We go on up to the second deck. Here we can see clearly into Lincoln’s box. It is a bit numbing being this close to this great event. How could it be so?

Lunch at Succotash

We make our way down the stairs-a bit tricky since the steps are narrow and end up being very narrow on the inside of the curved stairs. Our next objective: find someplace to eat! The Supreme Court does not allow any food or drink, even water, into the building. So we are hungry. Sherri finds a place called Succotash Prime just around the corner from the Ford Theater. As we go in, we see it is a James Beard award winner. I guess this will not be Shake Shack pricing. I go with what I think I am going to like: a Fried Chicken Sandwich. It is really good and really big. Sherri orders Chicken and Waffles with an asparagus side and Belles Punch to drink. She is immensely satisfied with it all. She showed an interest in how the asparagus is made. The waiter uses the term mint chimichurri. She will need to look up what this is.

Now what to do with the rest of the day. It is 4pm. We can meander back to our room. But we decided to go over to the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. We take the Metro from the Metro Center Station to Foggy Bottom. Then walk the half of a mile to the Center.

RiverRun Rug at Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center is right next to the Watergate building-yes that Watergate. But as large as the Watergate is, the Kennedy Center looks humongous. From the outside, it is just one large block of stone. But when you wander inside, you get the feeling of the complexity of the building. The first thing which catches our eye is the rugs both hanging and laying on pedestals. They are not flat, but show relief. They depict life in the forest.

States Flags

I wander over to someone who looks like she may be able to help me understand what we are to do with the building. She directs us down some steps to the lower part of the building. There is a station there which provides tours. One is being organized-with twenty five high school students from Alabama, plus their chaperones. We are invited to either wait for another tour and join this one. We joined.

Helen is our tour host. She is really good, dialoguing with the students, and explaining what we are seeing. One of the things she talks about is a festival underway right now called RiverRun. The idea is that the art is depicting scenes where water flows through, from the forest scenes we saw in the rugs to overhead where there are waves and curves of blue shirts flowing through the air-atmospheric rivers. She also calls our attention to this hall is the Hall of States where each of the states, the five territories and the District of Columbia has a flag high up. There is an international hall where country flags are flown who contributed to the making of the Center.

She then takes us to the various theaters making up the Center. The most predominant one is the Eisenhower Theater-he is the one who started the planning of a Art Center back in 1958 It was after Kennedy died did this become a memorial to Kennedy She also takes us into the Opera House where the Performing Arts awards are presented each year. In both of these theaters, there is a Presidential box which we see from the outside. I assume the other four theaters also have similar boxes for the President.

The final area Helen takes us to is the terrace. The terrace gives us a splendid view of the Potomac. We can see Arlington over to Georgetown. She points out the Pentagon. We can see both the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials as well. Such a good view.This is the end of the tour, and in many ways the exclamation mark on it. Helen invites us to walk around the terrace and view DC from all sides of it. It is worth the steps. We also go into the display which talks about Kennedy. Interesting what we lived through in our youth.

And now it is time to head back to our rooms. Parked in front of us is bus 42 which is one of the routes Google says to take. So we took it to Farragut Park. I saw the Metro station just before the park, so we went there. But there is no Red Line sign! Why? When I ask, security says this is Farragut West, not North. So we take a Blue Line to Metro Center, get off and get on the Red Line to NoMa.

It is good to be back in our room before dark for a change. I do go out for a few groceries, but we spent most of the rest of the night just resting. This travel thing is wearing on us.

Background

Trip Advisor:

Succotash Prime: This is the type of place which my wife and I eat at maybe once every five or ten years. As you might guess, my sense of taste is not finely developed. We had just come from the Ford’s Theater and were hungry. Succotash being right around the corner seemed like a good fit-it was.

The food was excellent and the servings were plentiful. Plus the wait staff were present without bein intrusive. I had the Fried Chicken Sandwich; my wife the Chicken and Waffles with an asparagus side and Belles Punch to drink. All was good and if anything, the serving size was overwhelming. But with food this good, we enjoyed it to the last morsel.

Extra Photo's