The last day

Hello,

Well, today was my last full day in DC. Tomorrow Tom and I drive home. This has been an amazing experience that I still haven't quite processed yet. I am sure as I write my report for the Lilly Foundation I will gain more insight into what it is I actually accomplished. Off the top of my head, I think the thing I am most proud of is the fact that I did this at all. It all seemed like such a pipe dream when I started. Thanks to Terry Burns who gave me the idea in the first place and was my greatest cheerleader, Deb Johnson who helped with the original proposal, and my family most of all who let me go. I couldn't have done this without knowing they were going to be o.k. at home. Of course they did better than o.k. :) Thanks to all of you who read my entries and asked for more. I have never kept a blog before and this was a lot of fun and a great way to keep track of everything I did. It was a great experiment that worked out well.

All of this was a great experiment, and it turned out better than I ever could have imagined. I am going to continue to post entries for a while so watch this space! :)

Tami

Odds and Ends

Hello,

The count down to going home in now being measured in hours. It is hard to believe that I will be home soon.

But until I leave, there is still time to see a few more sights--like the Postal Museum. This is another one of those places that sounds a little weird but is actually an interesting place to spend an hour. It is located right next to Union Station so it isn't hard to get find. It has been so hot and humid here lately that after spending the day with the trees we needed to go somewhere that wouldn't require a lot of energy. This fit the bill.

Also, Tom wanted to see the inside of the Freer Gallery and the Native American Museum. He has been looking at my book about Smithsonian architecture and these two buildings interested him. The Freer Gallery is mostly Asian and Egyptian art, but it also has the famous Peacock Room. It was originally a dining room, but it was dismantled and put in the museum. I can't even imagine being able to dismantle a whole room and move it! We walked around The Mall and then went in search of the Octagon House. It is located near the DAR, Red Cross, and Organization of American States buildings. (Hey, did you know that the Organization of American States has an art museum? I didn't either! It takes about 2 minutes to go through it, but there are a couple of interesting pieces there. By the way, the Organization of American States was originally called the Pan American Organization and its purpose is to foster good relationships between the countries in the Americas-North, Central, and South America) Back to the Octagon House, I have been at the DAR more than once so you would think I would have seen this before--Nope!! It was originally built by John Tayloe, a friend of George Washington's, as a retreat from his plantation. It really isn't shaped like an octagon, but the foyer is circular and to create that effect they framed it as an octagon and then plastered it smooth so it looks like a circle. The doors leading off of the space are curved to fit the walls which is kind of interesting. It was in this house that James and Dolley Madison lived after the White House was burned during the War of 1812. They also signed the Peace Treaty ending the war in this house. It only took about 30 minutes to tour, but it was on my list of places to find so it feels good being able to cross it off. I also crossed off the Adams-Hays hotel. I have actually walked by it about a dozen times but because it has been undergoing a renovation there has been scaffolding covering it up so I didn't know I was actually seeing it! It was one of the premiere places to stay in the Roaring 20's.

Tomorrow is my last day in DC. I am not sure how I am going to spend it yet, but I know some packing is going to be involved!

Tami

Tree Day

Hello, Today I took my tree loving husband to the National Arboretum. We actually DROVE there. This is the first time I have gone anywhere by car in the DC area. My little trip out of the city doesn't really count because I didn't have to navigate DC traffic. He drove--I followed the map. We make a pretty good team :) Anyway, I told him that no trees were allowed to "accidentally" follow him home. He was a good boy and left all the trees in the park. I didn't tell him this, but there were so many there that he probably could have brought one home and they wouldn't have noticed. This place covers a lot of ground. There is an Asian garden and Bonsai museum which is really cool. They have one Bonsai that is almost 400 years old. There is an Azalea collection, another one for Dogwoods, Fern Valley, Friendship Garden, Holly and Magnolia Collection, Boxwood Collection, herb garden, perennial garden (with lots of different varieties of lilly which are my favorites) and a children's garden. We saw them all (whew!) It was a full day in the heat and humidity. To celebrate we went to Ben's Chili Bowl for dinner. This is one of THE places to eat in DC. There are a lot of pictures on the walls of famous people who have eaten at Ben's--Hilary Clinton, Bill Cosby, President Obama. We didn't recognize anyone while we were there, but that isn't saying a whole lot. The food is really good, though.

After dinner we were going to listen to the Navy band on the steps of the Capitol, but they canceled because of the weather--it looked like it was really going to storm, but then we got just a light rain. Oh well, it was nice to come home and relax.

Tami

The beginning of the end

Hello,

My husband, Tom, is back and that means my time in DC is almost over. We will start driving back to Indiana on Friday with a short stop in Gettysburg. I know I have been here for 6 weeks which should be plenty of time and I should be ready to go home. There is so much to see and do here that I don't think 6 years would be enough, but I got to see A LOT. I will be happy to get home, but it will be hard to leave. I have had a great experience here, and I am grateful to whichever gods or guardian angels are watching over me. I am also going to give a shout out to Karma because you just never know for sure! There were so many times when things could have gone very badly, but instead those things that didn't quite go as planned still worked out to be happy accidents.

Anyway, we still have a few days here so we are going to make the most of them! Today we went to the Smithsonian Botanical Garden. When we win the lottery and move to our fabulous row house in DC with the garden space that Tom wants we now know which plants we are going to grow. There are a lot of great plants that thrive in this climate that wouldn't do very well in Indiana. Of course, our fabulous row house will also have a conservatory to grow all of those plants that need a more protected environment so Tom can have those plants that don't like the DC climate, too. We aren't asking for much are we???

After the Botanical Garden we went to the art museums--east and west buildings. The east building has all of the older art and the west building has more modern art. The west building is beautiful, and there seems to be plenty of space to expand their collection. It didn't seem to have very much. The east building, on the other hand, seems to go on forever.

Our last stop of the day was Eastern Market. Tom likes flea markets so we decided to go, and I wanted to get some more goodies from the farmers' market. The peaches here are to die for! After that we came home and made a feast of a dinner. It was 98 degrees here today so we are going to take it easy this evening so we have energy for tomorrow!

5 days to go!

Tami

Busy Day

Hello,

My friend left for her family reunion this afternoon, but we had a good day yesterday. She is a member of the DAR, but she has never been to their headquarters so we had to fix that! It really is a cool place, but I don't think it is somewhere we could take our whole group of school kids. If a smaller group or some of the chaperons wanted to go while we have free time at the Smithsonian that would probably work.

After that we went to a lecture at the National Archives. The author of Declaration:The Nine Tumultuous Weeks When America Became Independent, William Hogeland, was going to be speaking about his book. I found out about this a few weeks ago so I had a chance to read it and it was really interesting because it talked about a third group of Americans at the time of the Revolution that I hadn't heard anything about. Everyone knows about the Revolutionaries who wanted independence and the Loyalist (Tories) who wanted to stay with England, but then there was a third group that Hogeland calls the Reconciliationists who were loyal to America but didn't want to go to war against England. His talk only lasted about an hour, and then we spent some time on the Mall. My friend hadn't been to DC since the American History museum reopened and she had never been to the Castle so she decided to go there, and I took care of a few things that I wanted to do. I am glad she had a chance to see what she wanted at her own pace.

Today before she left we decided to go to Dupont Circle because we are both fans of the movie The American President and Annett Benning's character mentions that she keeps getting lost at Dupont Circle. It is no wonder because there are no less than 4 lanes of traffic around the circle and 9 different streets that come off of it! Now we can both nod in a knowing way when that scene comes up in the film. I also got a chance to take her to the Portrait Gallery (my favorite place, as you all well know) for a short visit and then it was time for lunch and for her to get going.

It was nice having company again!

Tami

The 90 minute walk of Alexandria that only takes 7.5 hours!

Hello,

My friend is a tourist after my own heart. I asked if she would like to spend the day in Alexandria, and she was game to go with me. I had another one of my infamous walking tours that are only supposed to take 90 minutes and off we went! Now, I have done two of these walks before--Georgetown and U Street and neither one of them was even close to 90 minutes in length. It is nice to know that this one fit the pattern. The editors of the guide book I got these tours from needs to seriously reevaluate their time frames!

Anyway, we were able to take the Metro to Alexandria and then ride the bus to the Visitor's Center. This town really welcomes its tourists. There is a free trolley service that goes the length of the main drag--King Street--and most of the sights are within a few blocks of this street. It would have been possible to take photos of everything we saw because it is all so picturesque, but we were trying to stick to the guide (yeah, right). We were able to see the church George Washington attended, the school he helped support for free African Americans, and a reproduction of the house he used as his surveyor's office. We also saw Robert E. Lee's childhood home and where he received his elementary education. There are still cobblestone streets that are really cool, but I don't think I would want to drive on them. We also toured the Carlyle House and gardens and ate lunch at Gatsby's Tavern. Eating at the tavern is a very touristy thing to do, but the owner was very nice and actually sat and talked to us about sights we should make time to see. The last place on the tour is also the last thing on King Street before it ends in the Potomac River--the Torpedo Factory. It really was a torpedo factory during W.W. II, but now it is a place where artists-painters, potters, jewelry makers, etc-- have studio space and sell their work. It's a really neat place to walk around and check out all the different art work. All this only took 7.5 hours!

Our day wasn't over though! We had to leave Alexandria in order to get to the Marine Corps Sunset Parade. There is a shuttle bus from Arlington National Cemetery out to the Iwo Jima Memorial where the Commandants Own Drum and Bugle Corps played. They are a really impressive marching band! It reminded me a lot of watching my boys perform with their high school marching band. After the band played, the Silent Rifle Drill Team performed their maneuvers. It was a great night, but just as the Marines were finishing the Marine Corps Hymn it started to POUR down rain. It had been overcast and humid all day, but as we were leaving Alexandria the sky looked like it was clearing. The clouds had actually helped keep it from feeling too hot as we were touring. Well, our luck didn't hold and we got drenched! Thank goodness we were only two Metro stops from home and dry clothes!! My friend said that even with the soaking it was still worth going, and I can't argue with that!

Tami

Geek moment with a good friend :)

Hello,

I have company again! A friend of mine from school is here. She is on her way to a family reunion in Virginia, and she came a few days early so that she could visit with me. She got here early enough on Sunday that we could go out. She has never been to the Eastern Market so we decided to start there. The neighborhood around the market is full of row houses with beautiful architecture so it is a neat place to walk. At Eastern Market we went to a farm stand and got peaches that were to die for and some corn on the cob. We also got some fresh baked bread which helped make a great dinner.

Before going home to eat our goodies, I took her to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. She is a big Notre Dame fan so I knew she would like to see this Catholic church. While we were touring there was an organ concert that was really amazing. This church is huge, but the music seemed to fill the entire space. Some of it was heart breakingly sweet, but some of it was booming and so low in tone it seemed to shake the floor. Those parts felt a little like the music that used to be played during silent horror movies (don't open that door!).

We got home in time for a late dinner and had a nice visit, but we had to get to bed so we could get up early on Monday. We had registered for a research class at the Library of Congress. Major Geek Moment! After the class we were able to get our Reader's Identification Cards so we could go into any of the Reading Rooms including the Main Reading Room. This is what tourists can see when they tour the library. I knew exactly what my first research project was going to be. My father's mother had a children's reader called The Rose Primer that was published in 1905. My grandmother's copy was really beat up and many of the pages were torn or missing so it was impossible to read the whole thing. Once in the Main Reading Room I was able to request the Library's copy and read it. Imagine sitting is this beautiful setting reading a book published 105 years ago that you could see and touch but not read. Even now it seems unbelievable and yet I really did it!

After that we took a quick walk through the new Congressional Visitors' Center which is across the street or accessible through a tunnel from the Library of Congress and then we went to get some dinner. We had big plans for the evening. The National Theater, which is about 3 blocks from the White House, is a lot like the Embassy Theater in Fort Wayne. It does have stage shows--Dreamgirls will be there soon- and it shows classic movies for free on Monday evenings. They choose a movie star each summer and show some of that artist's films, and this summer it is Cary Grant. They were showing An Affair to Remember--so romantic...sigh. Anyway, we got to the theater in time to get two of the free tickets, and we were ready to go into the theater when we found out they don't show it on the big main screen. Instead, they set up plastic lawn chairs in the upper lobby and show the film on a screen that is not much bigger than a large screen tv. Very disappointing!! We decided not to stay so instead I took her to the Old Post Office where we could take the elevator to the observation deck and get a great view of the city from about 12 stories up. That was a better way to end the day!!

Love,
Tami