Day 6 -- National Cathedral and Spy Museum

The National Cathedral

Its Mission --

 to serve as a house of prayer for all people

and a spiritual home for the nation.

Sunday, the sixth day of our History Vacation, we went to church. The only day we went by car. Our Lyft driver to the National Cathedral was a long-time Washington resident. Before he started driving for Lyft he drove a taxi, so he was very knowledgeable both about how to get where we wanted to go and about what we saw on our way.

(An aside regarding Lyft -- my daughter reminded me that when she was growing up I taught her not to arrange to meet strangers on the internet and not to get into cars with people she didn't know. Now we make arrangements with strangers on the internet to get into cars with them.)

Having grown up in Oklahoma where there are no natural lakes and now living in Colorado which is High Plains Desert, the concept of water travel is very exotic to me. The Potomac River which empties into the Chesapeake Bay which in turn opens out to the Atlantic Ocean is an important feature of the City of Washington and an endless source of fascination for me. On the way to church we passed through country that was a combination of city buildings and sail boat masts.





Like the Washington Monument, the National Cathedral was damaged in 2011 by the strongest earthquake east of the Mississippi since 1944.


The magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck about 90 miles southwest of Washington D.C. and was felt by more people than any other quake in U.S. history. It was felt in 12 states and several Canadian provinces.



The Cathedral still has scaffolding in place and is trying to gather enough money to repair the damage.



Each of the doors across the front of the church is covered by beautiful ornamental metal gates.

                 The left entry gate                                                  Two details from the left entry gate

On Saturday, the day before we went to church, Washington had its big Pride Parade to celebrate its LGBTQ community. We were unaware that the parade was taking place so we missed it.


The entrance procession for mass typically includes all who will serve during mass -- the ministers who will serve at the altar, including acolytes or servers, the deacons or priests who will serve as assisting clergy, and the celebrant.

To acknowledge Pride Week, the procession also included a woman carrying the cross festooned with rainbow-colored streamers.

The Reverend Canon Jan Naylor Cope's sermon emphasized diversity and unity. She stressed that all are welcome in our nation and to this church. And that we should strive to overcome the deep divisions within our country and work together for the good of all.

A fitting service to bless our History Vacation.


Among the many striking features of the National Cathedral is one that is not there. The entrances have no metal detectors to walk through and no one examines the contents of your purse. Although, I felt perfectly safe everywhere we went in D.C., I must say, I felt safer there even without the righteous, post 9/11 security practices at all the museums.

From church, we took another Lyft to the Spy Museum. Well, actually, he let us out at the Spy Museum, but there was a Shake Shack right next door. Ah, yes. Burgers all around.

The Spy Museum is not one of the Smithsonian museums and is not free. It also ain't cheap. You get $2 off if you get tickets on line, but for an adult they're still $20.95.

For that, you get all things spy. Both real spies and fictional ones. The information and artifacts about real spies are real, not a bit cheesy. But, if they were, they might be less disturbing.

The kids, including my adult son, enjoyed the Spy Museum immensely. My personal favorite was James Bond's car. (Photo by the museum.)

Think I'll stick with the fictional spies.

On the walk from there to the nearest Metro Station, we were treated to some unique and beautiful Washington architecture.

St. Patrick's Catholic Church, est. 1794

When you turn away from St. Patrick's, right behind you is the most amazing building facade.

        

It's a seven story building with the bottom two stories decorated with painted cast iron.

                 

                    Detail of painted cast iron facade                      Story of the building

Don't forget. You can click on the photos to enlarge them.

Day 5 Holocaust Museum & American History Museum

Some of the thousands of shoes confiscated from arriving prisoners
at the Majdanek concentration camp in Poland.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is not part of the Smithsonian Institution. On November 1, 1978, President Jimmy Carter established the President’s Commission on the Holocaust, chaired by Elie Wiesel. Two years later the United States Congress voted unanimously to establish the museum, and the federal government provided land adjacent to the Washington Monument for construction.

In October 1988, President Ronald Reagan helped lay the cornerstone of the building, and on April 22, 1993 the museum was dedicated amid speeches by American President Bill Clinton, Israeli President Chaim Herzog, Elie Wiesel and others of note. Four days later the Museum opened to the general public. Its first visitor was the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet.

Admission is free, but to tour the permanent exhibit you need a ticket which you can get ahead of time online. You can also get tickets on the day of your visit, but just be warned, there'll be a line.

Five years ago, when the girls and I visited Washington on our History Vacation, I started the tour of the permanent exhibit, but like this year's tour of the Museum of African American History and Culture, it was too intense and I had to leave the tour. 

What the tour does is exactly what it is meant to do. It brings home to your heart that the Holocaust was not only a horror committed against millions of Jews and other Europeans, but murder and unspeakable cruelty against individual people. Some, seniors like me. Some, children like my grandchildren. Some, well-educated professionals. Some, working class. Each a person had their own past, their own hope for the future, their own story. Each person had a name.

During my abortive visit five years ago, I waited in the reception area for the girls to finish the tour. I met a woman also waiting. She was a little older than I. An immigrant with an accent. She was a Holocaust Survivor. She was very young when her family was sent to one of those camps. And she was the only one of her family who lived. We didn't talk very much about what happened to her in the camp. We talked about how she came to the United States. How she met her husband. About her children and grandchildren. For me, she is living proof that humanity can endure and rise above hate and tyranny.

The museum and that woman's experiences remind me that we cannot be bystanders. Germany during that time was not a nation of monsters. I'm sure they never believed their country could perpetrate such evil. It can happen here. It has happened here. Perhaps not so efficiently or on such an industrial scale, but wars, both formal and informal, against Native Americans. Communities' tacit acceptance of lynchings of African Americans. Cultural abuses great and small against immigrants, minority religious groups, the physically or developmentally handicapped, people who somehow deviate from the "norm." 

To protect against becoming a Nazi-Germany-style nation, it is absolutely necessary that we speak out against hate and prejudice whether we're in line at the checkout counter in Walmart or in the voting booth.

My son John and his wife decided before the D.C. trip that nine-year-old Silas was too young to go through the Holocaust Museum so he and I did our own thing while John and J.R. went to the museum. The plan was to meet up after lunch at the Museum of American History.

If you recall, Silas's priorities for the vacation were to swim in the hotel pool and go to an escape room. First of all, being locked in a room anywhere is not my idea of entertainment. For that matter, neither is swimming in a hotel swimming pool. I didn't even take a swimsuit. 

Luckily for both of us, the hotel had a lifeguard on duty, so I didn't have to get into the water. While Silas swam, I read. Paragraphs liberally sprinkled with "Grandma Claudia, watch this!" A good book spiced with a child's enthusiasm -- the best kind of reading.

Washington, D.C. is a wonderful town to eat in. You can partake of any cuisine from any place in the world. 

To celebrate this abundance of choice, we had pizza from a food truck. 

We ordered. Pepperoni, of course. Watched them make it. And ate on the terrace of the Museum of American History.

Our only food truck meal while in D.C. It was really good.

While we ate we talked about the flag we were going to see inside the National Museum of American History. The flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the poem "Defence of Fort M'Henry." His words would become the "Star Spangled Banner."

The museum houses artifacts from all aspects of American History. Many of the exhibits follow American culture more than American history.

Americans, it seems, have always been on the move so transportation from human powered and horse drawn to steam driven engines, internal combustion engines, and electric powered machines. They have water craft of all stripes from canoes used on fresh water streams to ships for the high seas. There are locomotives and bicycles, motorcycles, and automobiles.

(To be honest, I like the Forney Museum in Denver better when it comes to bicycles, automobiles, motorcycles, and locomotives. Of course, the museum in Denver is solely focused on those items with a few manikins dressed in clothing from whatever period a vehicle is from.)

The exhibit following changes in American foods, food is preparation, preservation, and marketing over the years is fascinating.




Americans, no doubt because we are a country of immigrants, have brought our ethnic foods from all the nations of the world.

The Hello Kitty bento box is an excellent example of our adoption of things Japanese. After all, what American college student has not existed nearly exclusively on ramen noodles after growing through their childhoods admiring Ninja turtles. Okay, so the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a peculiar American take on Japanese folktales.

Pizza and pasta from Italy. Brats from Germany. General Tso's Chicken from China. Tacos from Mexico.








Speaking of tacos from Mexico. What would a good Mexican meal be without a margarita?

Yep, this is the World's First Frozen Margarita Machine.

Make mine with salt on the rim, please. Thank you.





Many of the exhibits tend toward light-heartedness and nostalgia. Like Micky Mouse and the First Ladies' evening gowns.

But some are quite serious like the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II and the dispersion of immigrants throughout America. Reminders that history continues to be relevant to and revelatory of history as it goes forward from today.

The pièce de résistance:

The Star Spangled Banner

On September 13, 1814, the British Fleet attacked Ft. McHenry. The bombardment continued through that day and all through the night. On the morning of September 14, the oversized American flag was raised over the fort for reveille, just as it had been every morning for a year. The American forces had held. The British attempted land and sea invasion at Baltimore was defeated.

          Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
          What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
          Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
          O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
          And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
          Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
          Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
          O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

It is our responsibility to continue the fight for "the land of the free." No longer against the British, but as Walt Kelly's comic strip character Pogo said it so well, "We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Day 4 -- Marine Barracks

The Marine Barracks Washington

Established in 1801

Our History Vacation continued late into the evening of Day 4. We attended the Friday Evening Parade at the Marine Barracks.

Admission to the parade is free, but it's a good idea to make reservations online. The gates open at
7 p.m. for people with reservations. At 8 guests without reservations are offered the unclaimed seats.

A band member showed us to our seats then asked and answered questions. He was pleased to learn that the son and grandsons are from Texas. He is, too. He answered questions ranging from his duties with the band and as a Marine to how they get those white pants so clean. (Detergent, Oxyclean, and bleach.)

Son John and Grandsons JR and Silas waiting for the Parade to begin.

Established in 1801, the Marine Barracks is the oldest Marine Post in the United States.

Completed in 1806, the Commandant's House (the white house to the left) is  the only original building left in the complex. They light all the lights in the Commandant's House and as night falls the house's floor-to-ceiling windows shine out into the parade grounds. I was struck by how welcoming those lights seem.

I have long bemoaned the fact that the TV-powers-that-be have decided not to show the marching bands during half-time at college football games. Instead they have old football guys talking about other football games, old football games, future football games, etc., etc., ad nauseam. 

     

               The Marines in red jackets are the band.        Those in blue march in formation.

It was a joy to get to see a marching band sans football! Plus, these people are fine musicians.

And, and! The Silent Drill Platoon is amazing. The 24-man rifle platoon performs their drills with bayonets fixed to M1s. The 10.5 pound rifles were standard issue for the Marine Corp from 1936 to 1959. 

The routine ends with much spinning and tossing of the rifles. Where we sat, we couldn't see most of their performance, but we could see the bayonets flashing in the lights as they spun high in the air. To see a Youtube video click on the Silent Platoon Drill.

At the end of the parade, the flag was lowered, the troops withdrew, and a single bugler played Taps from atop the barracks. This reminds us that these Marines are not just for show. In the War of 1812, they fought the British during the burning of Washington, D.C. It is traditionally held within the Marine Corps that, out of respect for the brave showing of the Marines at the Battle of Bladensburg, the British refrained from burning the barracks and the Commandant's house. And these Marines continue to train and are ready to answer the call to arms, should the necessity arise.

Of course, with kids in tow, no experience is complete without a visit to the gift shop. I think everything in D.C. has a gift shop. But the Marine Barracks gift shop was special. We got to meet Sgt. Chesty XIV, the Marine Corp Mascot.

                                               

The Marine looks sharp in his proper white cover.
Silas's squid cover may not be proper but he's pretty cute.
And he scored a stuffed toy Chesty in the gift shop.

Day 3, Part 2 -- The National Mall

This is looking east along the National Mall

from the terrace in front of the

Lincoln Memorial toward the Washington Monument

and my grandsons, J. R. and Silas

The National Mall is 1.9 miles long. It is anchored on the west by the Lincoln Memorial. The Washington Monument rises from about it's midway point and the Capitol sits at the east end. It and the Capitol Dome are the two most identifiable objects you can see when coming in for a landing at D.C.'s airport, Reagan National.

Between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument are the national memorials to the military people who have died serving The United States of America.

A bit northeast of the Lincoln Memorial is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. I didn't go there with the boys. Nor did I go when the girls and I took our History Vacation seven years ago. I saw it some twenty-five years ago while on a work assignment -- my first trip to D.C.







As you can see on this diagram, it angles slightly to its center point. The highly polished, black granite wall is cut into the earth. It tapers from less than a foot to ten feet deep at it's center. It bears the names of people killed in that war. Not listed alphabetically, but chronologically by when they died, They are named with those who died with them.





The walk follows the wall as it goes below the level of the ground behind the wall. Away from the wall, the ground rises gradually so you don't feel like you're entering a tunnel. For that matter, it doesn't feel like you're walking down into the ground, but more like the wall is rising above you.

The diagram shows how near the streets are to the Memorial. And they are busy streets. You would think traffic noise would intrude, but the way it slopes down into the ground, the earth dampens the noise.

When I visited that morning so many years ago, I was the only one there. The newly risen sun shone on the names of the fallen. Most of them from my generation. I wept for them in the days when they were dying. Then I wept again when I saw the wall. I do not need to see it ever again to remember them.





Southeast of the Lincoln Memorial is the Korean War Veterans Memorial which includes statues of American GIs wearing ponchos and carrying full battle gear.

The statues are taller than grandson John Riley and son John at six feet and six-three, respectively.

A foggy, misty day could render this tableau more than a little frightening.






At the east end of the Reflecting Pool is the World War II Memorial. White granite arches stand on either side of a large oval pool with fountains. One commemorates victory in the European Theater of War and the other the victory in the Pacific Theater of War. The 56 pillars stand for the 48 states, the District of Columbia and the then territories of Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Philippines (as of the 1945 end of WWII.)  The Philippines became independent in 1946.

It seemed like the walk from the World War II Memorial to the Washington Monument was all uphill. But by that point I was more than a little tired and very thirsty. You'd think that living in the High Plains Desert that is Denver's setting would have had me carrying my water bottle everywhere. Silly me, I left it at home and didn't think to get another one.

Standing at 554 feet, 7 11/32 inches, the Washington Monument is the world's tallest stone structure and tallest obelisk. It is also fenced off. It has been closed off and on for various and sundry reasons including, but not limited to, security upgrades following 9/11 and damage from a 5.8 magnitude earthquake in 2011.

After the Washington Monument, we were all ready for lunch. A late lunch and a break!

Day 3 -- The Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial was Number One on Grandson John Riley's priority list, so Day 3 found us making our way there. Inside is a huge statue honoring our 16th President.

As we face the statue, to our left is inscribed the text of the Gettysburg Address. To the right is his Second Inaugural Address. On March 4, 1865, during the final days of the Civil War and only a month before he was assassinated he ended his address to a war-torn nation with these words:

                         "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness
                          in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to
                          finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to
                          care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow,
                          and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just,
                          and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." 

Seated, he is 19 feet tall. Given the same proportions, he would be 28 feet tall if he were standing. At 6 feet 4 inches, President Lincoln was indeed tall, but no where near that tall! Considering his character, perhaps 28 feet tall is not too great an exaggeration.

Two of my favorite Lincoln biographies are Carl Sandburg's which is divided into two The Prairie Years and The War Years and Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals which is a more politically in depth focus on his presidency.

While the boys took their time inside the Memorial, I sat near the top of the first set of steps and looked east from the Lincoln Memorial, across the reflecting pool along The Mall toward the Washington Monument.

As I sat there, a teacher talked to her class seated on the bottom three rows of steps. She talked about the building of the Memorial -- how long it took, how much it cost, where the stone came from to build it.


I thought about the Civil War, the bloodiest war in our Nation's history. The war that could have destroyed The United States which by that time had stood as a constitutional democracy only seventy-two years. Enough time to see a person into old age, but as a nation, only as many years as to bring it into adolescence.

We deplore the divisions wracking this country today, but it is nothing compared to that. The Nation survived that. The Constitution survived that and civil rights were nominally expanded to all men. Not enough, but a beginning.

There were scattered groups of people milling about. I met a couple from Switzerland using the Memorial as a landmark, a place well-known and easily identified, to meet friends. There was a tour group of Asians, another of Spanish speakers, another of Middle Eastern people, and more and more -- people from all across the nation and from around the world. There were families and couples and singles scattered about the grounds. But there were spaces between the groups.

I sat just feet away from where Dr. Martin Luther King addressed the nation so many years ago. When Dr. King spoke, there were no spaces between the people gathered on the Mall. It was a sea of people -- so many, so many. As far down the Mall as you could see. In his I Have a Dream speech he gave our Nation his vision: 

                 "I say to you today, my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today
                  and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the
                  American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up,
                  live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident,
                  that all men are created equal.'"

That was August 28th, 1963, in the midst of a nation divided by the same questions of civil rights for all our people. It was less than three months before another president was murdered -- President John F. Kennedy. A difficult time. A difficult time.

Since then, we have made giant strides forward, but there is still a ways to go. We will endure this current setback and advance civil rights still further for all people and "live out the true meaning" of the American Dream.

A History Vacation -- Day One

Dome on the United States Capitol

Day One of a History Vacation:

Five years ago I went with the girls (my daughter, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter) on a History Vacation to Washington D.C. The granddaughter was 12 and old enough to enjoy and benefit from a vacation that focused on museums and monuments.

My grandsons are now 14 and 9, so it was time for them and their father, my son, to go on their own History Vacation. In June, I flew from Denver and they from Dallas for a week in our beautiful Capital City.

Washington is definitely a walking city. There are so many people from out of town and what little  parking there is is pricey, so driving is not only fiscally disheartening, it is emotionally daunting. I can't imagine trying to navigate an unfamiliar town in heavy traffic where most of the other drivers are also trying to navigate an unfamiliar town in heavy traffic. With the Metro, D.C.'s subway system readily available at reasonable cost, there is no need to drive there. It is safe and clean and there are always people ready to help you find your way.

We stayed in a hotel in Crystal City which is just outside D.C. on the Virginia side of the Potomac River. The hotel shuttle runs from the airport to the hotel every ten or fifteen minutes and is free.

Crystal City must be the hotel and apartment capital of the world. Look out any window or down any street and mostly all you'll see is another hotel or apartment building. There is one large shopping mall with little malls and parks scattered about.

My son John is most adept at using his smart phone. He pulled up multiple options for our dinner that evening -- within walking distance, say 15 to 20 minutes. We settled on Nando's Peri Peri. I tend to avoid chain restaurants but Nando's was identified as serving Spicy Afro-Portuguese food. I'd never eaten African or Portuguese food. Well, I had Ethiopian on the previous History Vacation. Which by-the-bye, I enjoyed thoroughly.

We passed the large shopping mall on our walk to dinner. We never ventured inside it. I'm not a shopper by nature and it's hard enough to get me into a mall in Denver much less in D.C. where there are so many other places to spend my time. Places not available at home.



My son John and his son Silas, the nine-year-old, enjoying Peri Peri chicken meals.

According to Wikipedia, Nando's is an "international casual dining restaurant chain originating in South Africa. Founded in 1987, Nando's operates about 1,000 outlets in 30 countries." I can testify that the food at the Nando's in Crystal City is good and reasonably priced. And the people who work there are courteous and friendly.



Outdoor seating for diners is available in the middle of the small square of shops. If you look closely, just beyond the people eating, there are people participating in an outdoor yoga class. The yoga folk also have a shop on the square for rainy day classes, indoors.

There is a bakery, an Irish pub, a Lebanese Taverna, a Zen Bistro and Wine Bar, etc. It's a totally perfect place if you're hungry and looking for someplace to relax after a long day. And travel makes for a long day for me.



The weather was beautiful, mid-60s with golden evening light reflecting off the upper stories of the buildings around us. We ate and strolled around the area before returning to our hotel.

What we call a Convenience Store. Although its
location was "convenient" to our hotel,
its hours were not. It was only open

until 5 in the afternoon.

This sign was just around the corner from our hotel so not only did it give me a chuckle every time I saw it, but I knew where to turn to get back to our home away from home.