Gary-Summer: April 2, 2023

Sunday, April 2, 2023

April 2, 2023 - Washington DC

Title: April 2, 2023 - Washington DC
Hike Info : Description : Extra Photo's

Hike Info:

Type:Tourist
Distance: 2.1 Miles walking

Description:

Not much is planned for today. I get up at 6:50 to see if I can procure some tickets to the Holocaust Museum

Gary and Sea of Galilee

. Almost. There was a message saying I am next in line. But when I get in, there are no tickets for today. Same with the Spy Museum. We have some choices, the Postal Museum, some of the gardens along the Mall, and the Bible Museum.

Today is a low key day. We have a breakfast of leftover pancakes. I slather mine with lots of peanut butter and some Nutella. I do not think I will be hungry for a while. We talk and do not do a whole lot. So we leave around noon. Before that, our toilet stopped up again. So we let Trinity know. Then we are on our way to the Metro station. First the Red Line, then the Blue Line to Federal Center SW. This puts us right on the same block as the Museum of the Bible.

When we enter the Museum, there is a line for tickets. The couple in front of us is from Dallas [Andrew Simmons], a therapist]. As we talk he has a half price Groupon ticket for four, would we like to piggyback on their ticket? Sure. I gave him $20 to help compensate for it. This lets us old people in for half price. We are appreciative, but we do not see them again today.

Replica of a tablet

The greeter at the entrance recommends going to the third floor first and to do “The Hebrew Bible” exhibit. That seems a bit packed, so we look at “The World of Jesus of Nazareth.” It tries to give a feel for Jesus’ world, by showing the housing, foods, and environment behind his teaching. But there are some things I wonder about how it represents things, such as the ceiling in the building is about 8’ high. Pictures I have seen seem to show more like 5-6’. So I am wondering about the authenticity of the rest of the exhibit.

We go back to the Hebrew Bible. Turns out it is somewhat of a theater thing. It takes you through the highlights of the Old Testament. It starts in a theater setting. Then after five minutes, it has us move through some rooms which show scenes from Genesis and Exodus. Then back into a theater setting. You get the idea it goes back and forth between movement and theater. By the time it ends, I am thinking this seems more like an elaborate children’s Sunday School lesson, complete with the David and Goliath story. The one thing which struck me as meaningful was the passover scene. They had us move through a door with “blood” smeared on the crossbeam. The voice intoned that by staying in the house, you are protected by God. That seemed to me the take away from the Passover. By staying where God wants me to be and going when God wants me to go, I will stay protected by Him. It should be noted that even with God’s protection, there are rugged spots, like the Israelites being attacked and having to escape through the Red Sea or the heat and dryness of the desert.

We go up to the 4th Floor. This is the part which is the best, in my opinion as well as the most draining. We spent over an hour on this floor. It gives the background on how there is commonality with other area legends and teachings, such as the Flood or Wisdom teachings. Then there is how the Old Testament was used and broken up by the Jews. The exhibit builds on this going through old manuscripts, showing both how close to the writing it was with the progression of manuscripts. This progresses through the Greek, Latin and English versions of the Bible. While some of the early stuff are facsimiles, it looks like many of the New Testament books are original. There is a certain WOW! factor in looking at all of this.

We are pretty well tired by now. But there is one more short exhibit I am interested in. That is down on the 1st floor. The Vatican Museum and Library would seem unusual here. But it does fit in as the Vatican is probably the world’s leading location of manuscripts and ancient writings. Later I found out that when this museum opened, Pope Francis sent his blessings. There is not much on the walls. But the video presentation has a lot of interest with all of its background. We spend a lot more time than I thought we would.

We leave the Bible Museum at 4:15 and start heading towards the U.S. Botanical Gardens. But somehow we get misplaced around the Smithsonian’s American Indian Museum. That is fortuitous as we notice it is open until 5:30. There is some sort of Cherokee ceremony going on. But we ask at the information desk, what would be the best thing to view in the hour before closing time. He suggests the treaties exhibited on the fourth floor.

One of the many interpretive signs

So that is where we go. The basic theme is that the Europeans would make treaties with the various Indian nations, probably in good faith. But within a couple of years to a decade, the treaty would be broken by those of European descent. But there are some subtle differences as well. The exhibits showed several treaties, talking about contrasting views on land, leadership, language and negotiators. For example, to the Indians, the written words were not to be trusted. It was the person, the relationship which was trustworthy. I do not think either side understood the other’s differences in viewpoints. Just meditating on this took most of our time until we were told the museum was closing.

Cherry Blossoms

Tulips

One of the places which kept getting pushed off our daily list of places to go was the US Botanical Gardens which is run by the Capital Architects Office. The building is closed, but the gated gardens are open for a while longer. This is a place where Sherri seems to lose her tiredness and just enjoys wandering through it, examining each plant. So we spent an hour here. We still have tomorrow which we can see if we want to go here or someplace else.

Peace Statue

Sherry and Cherry Pie

When we leave, go by the Garfield and Grant Memorials and then come to the Peace Monument. We have sort of been by here, but really did not know about it. Here at least we reflect a bit about why this is here and what has been achieved for Peace. Turns out the monument is not what I think it is. From here we headed towards our Vrbo place. But we were looking out for where we could eat? It was past 6:30 already and we were running low on energy.

As we were going down Louisiana Ave, we came across a memorial which we had not seen before: the Japanese-American Memorial. The idea was to celebrate the patriotism of Japanese-Americans in the face of persecution. Each internment camp was noted and the names of the soldiers who died for America was listed. Moving.

Shake Shack

While this memorial was moving, there was still the body to take care of. Google noted there were restaurants in Union Station, so we went in. But it seemed like most establishments were closed or closing. But The Shake Shack was was doing a great business. So we stood in line, ordered and waited, and waited, probably for half an hour. By the time our order was called, we were ravished. But somehow the food did not seem quite as good as the other day.

After eating, we hunted for the Philip Randolph Monument in Union Station, but we did not have any success, once again. So we went went down and took the Metro back to NoMa and to our Vrbo place at about 8pm. We are tired! One full day left in DC.