Washington D.C. 3

I had planned to start my day with a visit to the National Museum of African American History and Culture . However I committed the sin of failing to secure a timed entry ticket well in advance. I keep forgetting that is necessary for some museums, especially in a destination popular with tourists during high season. They are actually fully booked all week, so I will have to hope to snag one of the few tickets they make available for that day first thing each morning.

So, change of plan. It actually changed my entire day as I am trying (and mostly failing) to consolidate destinations in a particular geographic area of the city as I am mostly walking. I was able to snag one of two remaining timed entry tickets for the Library of Congress. So I hiked the couple of miles over to Capitol Hill to take advantage of that.

The Library of Congress is a phenomenal place. Of course, it is the world’s largest library, housing more than 173 million items, including books, other print materials, recordings, photographs, maps, sheet music and manuscripts. They are particularly proud of their collection of photographs, which was highlighted both in a film presentation and a room displaying some of the most iconic prints. I paid particular attention to this, hoping to get some farthing inspiration for the remainder of my trip. This room led to the Jefferson library. After British troops burned the old Capitol bulling in 1814, destroying the existing collection of books, Jefferson sold his entire collection, which was then housed at Monticello, to the U.S. government as a replacement for, and foundation on which to expand, the library. To house and protect the collection, Congress built a separate library building.

The Thomas Jefferson building is, in itself, a work of art, both in the architecture and interior decoration. It is filled with art, murals and quotations. Although it was the first public building in Washington to be built with installed electricity, it was still designed to admit a great amount of natural light, which gives the entire interior a magical feeling when reflected through the stained glass windows and reflected off of the complex and intricate interior decoration. The piece the resistance is the reading room, located in the center of the building, and takes the feeling from magical to mystical.

They were allowing 40 people at a time into the reading room for just five minutes. I took advantage and was able to capture a few images. I also went up to the second floor to look down on the reading room. Unfortunately, plexiglass panels had been installed to forestall the paper airplanes apparently sent down by school children visiting the library. However, I heard the docent mentioning that anyone could get a library card. All you had to do was fill out a form on-line, then have your photo taken. Of course I had to go through the process, because how could I turn down a library card to the Library of Congress! It also turns out that, with that card, you have on-line access to the collections. Now, that is a phenomenal resource. It also allowed me to walk back into the reading room with no time restrictions. I had to leave my larger bag, including my camera, at the cloak room to get the card, so I only had my phone. Actually the phone works better in those sorts of situations, so I was able to capture a few more images.

I spent far longer than I had intended in the Library of Congress, and far less than I could have. However I wanted to hit a couple more destinations before the day was over. My next stop was the National Museum of the American Indian . Yes, that is what it is still called. I guess updating the name would take - well - an act of Congress. My first stop was the Mitsitam Cafe to refuel before tackling the museum itself. “Mitsitam” means “Let’s eat!” in the Native language of the Delaware and Piscataway peoples. With a bison burger and an espresso (fortunately they also cater to modern necessities) I felt ready to go up to the fourth floor to start my visit. This floor houses the main exhibit, which highlights the various treaties between the U.S. government and various tribes and nations. In every instance, the U.S. lied, cheated, coerced and/or failed to uphold the treaties. The exhibit emphasized the cultural differences in how each side would enter treaty negotiations, some of which led to the U.S. taking advantage of the Native inhabitants.

Only in the 1960s, after the native populations had been devastated, did they begin to form grass roots organizations and coalitions to try to enforce some of the original treaties and protect what remained of their cultures. They learned how to work within the system, using the U.S. legal process to regain some control over their sovereignty. The last exhibit related the current disagreement over the Dakota Access Pipeline.

My plan was to conclude the day with a visit to the Supreme Court. I had carefully checked the website, which, under the “plan your visit” section, listed the hours as 9:00-4:30. I arrived at 3 PM to find that the actual hours were 9:00-3:00. I had to show the website on my phone to the security guard before he believed me. Of course, that didn’t change anything, but he did take a picture of it, so maybe they will fix their website, which has to have misled many more people than me. So the Supreme Court will have to be another day. I splurged on a Lyft back to the hotel as rain was threatening and it had already been a long day. In this town, a 2 mile ride costs 20 bucks.

Rather than attempt another museum, I hiked back out to the Mall to try to capture some images with blurred motion of people. I rather obnoxiously set up my tripod in the middle of the Lincoln Memorial, just under the overhang, as I had previously scoped it as the best vantage point. In truth, there was plenty of room to move around, I was not obstructing traffic. It just happened to be central. You can decide how successful I was in executing my vision. I had been hoping for colorful umbrellas, but the rain never really arrived as promised, so it was just people. The walk back featured the no familiar street and park closures for whatever event. You just never know in this town how you are getting from here to there.

Stay tuned to see if I can get into the National Museum of African American History and Culture tomorrow.