Back to D.C.

I arrived back in D.C. a little after 1am Monday morning. It was easy to see that D.C. had gotten a lot more snow than Pittsburgh, it was piled everywhere. I walked to my hostel in downtown. I had been worried about walking there but there was virtually no one around but I will say that all of the people I did see were black. What is it? Don't white people walk? As I walking,facing oncoming traffic of course a guy going in the same direction slowed his car and was looking out his rolled down window at me. I think it was saying something to me, I not sure as I didn't hear what he was saying. He was so distracted that he drove straight into the back of a car in front of him. He didn't follow me anymore! Needless to say I made it to the hostel in one piece and here I encountered another difference. In most of the other hostels I've stayed in the staff are generally white and in their mid twenties with a bit of travel experience. The two guys on the Hi Washington hostel desk were two middle aged black guys who looked as if they really knew how to handle themselves. Was this place expecting trouble? I didn't care it was 2am and I needed to go to sleep. I got checked in and that's what I did.
I hadn't expected to back in D.C. so soon but thought I would take advantage of the extra time and try to do a few of the things I hadn't managed to so far. A bonus of staying in any city hostel is that they will have a fairly comprehensive list of stuff to do in their locality and how to get there. I even worked out how to get to the Air and Space museum out at Dulles airport on public transport. I love hostels. Most of the time. I went to the National Cathedral, which is stunning and includes a space themed stained glass window that has a piece of moon rock in it. As the cathedral was built on a pay as you go plan it took over eighty years to complete. One of the things they did to raise money was to allow people to buy one of the gargoyles on the outside of the building. That gave them the right to stipulate what was carved on the gargoyle. I think a lot of people chose to have their own faces put on them instead of the traditional gargoyle face. One of them is of Darth Vader, very cool. They have a tour to go behind the scenes, but because I was the only person who wanted to take it, it didn't run.
I went to the portrait gallery and I am so glad I did. Like many other institutions in D.C. right now they have an exhibition to celebrate the bicentennial of Lincolns birth. This is so relevant for this building as it was where the President held his second inaugural ball. My very favourite thing was an exhibition of presidential portraits. Unlike the portraits I had seen in the state capitol building in Denver, these paintings weren't all traditionally posed portraits. A lot of the twentieth century portraits were really relaxed. There was even an abstract painting by De Kooning of J.F.K. in her abstract expressionist style. What made the exhibition even better was as well as the Presidents name and dates in office they included details of what each president had to deal with during his term. An add on to the exhibition was about the fourteen men who had been vice president before becoming president and the circumstances in which that had happened. Of course in the case of President Bush senior this happened in the normal way through an election. Very different from the circumstances in which L.B. Johnson or Gerald Ford became president. Just an interesting aside, Gerald Ford was the only person to become president who hadn't campaigned for either the presidency or the vice presidency. Cool. After the museum I stopped by the library and had a little internet time. All in all a very satisfactory day, especially when compared to the previous day!
I checked out of the hostel the next morning and went to the Folger Shakespeare Library. When the Folgers decided to build the library for their private collection of Shakespears works and other related material they picked out a piece of land behind the Library of Congress. The government wanted the land too and it took a resolution by Congress for building permission to be granted to the Folgers. Then they decided that they wanted the building to be Tudor in style with dark,heavy wood beams and white plaster work. It was pointed out to them that this would not be in keeping with the surrounding buildings and they relented and built in a neo classical style. The building is attractive but not a place you would suspect of housing one of the three great collections of Shakespeares works in the world. The other two are in the U.K.. Inside they have a theatre and a long gallery both in Tudor style with oak panelling and plaster ceilings. The actual library is closed to the general public and they allow you to just look in through a door way. Out of the 700 first folios printed the Folger library has 79 of them and keeps one of permanent display in the great hall. I have never seen a first folio before, it was of my reasons for visiting the library.
I took the metro and got off at the Pentagon, which really is only any good for the Pentagon itself. I did find out that there is Pentagon tour you can take, I was very disappointed that a reservation was required so I wouldn't get to go. Sometimes it does pay to plan. I headed to the Air Force memorial. For some reason I had decided that I did need to see it up close. Well the closer I got the more I realised that I should have listened to Jim. The memorial is huge, so I had seen it from a distance and since it is surrounded by motorways, not very accessible to pedestrians. Instead I went to a nearby shopping mall and finally started my Christmas shopping. I spent the afternoon in the library before picking up my bag and going back to the Ball house.