Visits Galore III

The visits continued when my Dad and aunt Karen came down for the weekend, and as always it was great to see them. We ended up going into DC on Friday, which is always fun, and then staying a little more local for Saturday and Sunday. So without further ado, here's a quick recap:

Friday
We spent the day in Washington DC, and since I was just there with Daniel and Tim, we decided to see some different exhibits, including some that I'd never been to. We started off with the National Archives. It's amazing that I've been through DC as many times as I have without ever going here before, but then again my friend Shelley lived her whole childhood 30 minutes from the mall and has never seen a monument. In any case, I figured their exhibits would be the heavy hitters like the Declaration of Independence and not much else, and boy was I wrong. Of course, we started with the permanent display where you can view the Declaration and the Constitution. The rotunda looks just like it does in the movies, only much dimmer, for the obvious reasons. Plus, the Declaration is really, really faded. I mean, you can barely make out the words. It's not like the reproductions that you usually see. This page has a pretty accurate picture, and explains a little bit about it. The surprising part about the archives is that there is a lot more to it- there's a very well done, interactive museum to see. It has multimedia exhibits with things like historical news clips, tapes of official presidential conversations (I understand some of Nixon's are missing), and all kinds of other random stuff. In short, if you're like me and keep skipping the National Archives because it looks boring, give it a shot next time you're close. Plus, it gave us an odd desire to watch National Treasure again (which is, of course, sold in the gift shop).

Next we went to the National Museum of the American Indian. Like the Archives, I have been near it many times but never checked it out. It's not like Air & Space- apparently the exhibits were designed by the individual tribes themselves, so while there is a central theme to each room, there is a pretty wide variety. Some displays were recreations of habitats with various artifacts, some were interactive multimedia displays, but all were well done (funded). There were also large displays of weapons and treasure, which were cool. They even made a reference to when Cortez kidnapped Montezuma, took the ransom gold and killed Montezuma anyway, which lead to the cursed gold in Pirates of the Caribbean. The exhibits were good, but I was really impressed with the building itself. I guess it was designed to look like the stratified stone of the plains, and I think it does. The inside is equally impressive.

Finally we hit the National Museum of American History. I have been to this one before, but it was about 14 years ago and I didn't remember much. I think that's because they change stuff around a lot, but I would see the occasional exhibit and have a brief flashback or two. Since they're closing the museum for a major 2-year remodel next week, many exhibits were already closed off. My favorite part of what was open was "America at War." This exhibit covered everything from the revolutionary war all through enduring freedom, and was very well done. There were lots of historical items from each war, and they were all presented in the period environment- i.e. one of George Washington's uniforms was in a colonial-era village, and later a video montage of Vietnam was shown on a wall of 1960's TVs. To watch it, they even had you sit on lime-green couches covered in clear plastic. Dad and Karen said it really took them back. Now, anyone who knows me understands that I am not political in the least, but the Vietnam exhibit made the similarities to our current war eerily apparent. On a lighter note there was a Jim Henson exhibit that included the original Muppets. I got my picture taken with the Swedish Chef!

After that we saw the WWII memorial, then hit Anna Maria's (a nice Italian place) for dinner and headed home, and pretty much went to bed when we got there. Since this is getting pretty wordy (and I haven't posted anything in over a week) I'll recap the rest later.