Day 8 of Washington Trip: Saturday

Not such a rude awakening this morning, thank goodness!

We got ready and headed out for our day. I forgot to mention that another thing I was working on last night was figuring out our transportation for today. We wanted to ride the subway and not mess with the buses. So I had to figure out which Metro stations had parking and what trains to take to get to the Smithsonian. It’s not a hard system, but I had to learn how it works… whereas Atlanta’s MARTA has North, South, East, and West lines, the Metro has Blue, Orange, Green, and Yellow lines. And they kind of go in the four directions… but they veer off in places. Anyway, I figured it out, so we drove 2-3 miles to a Metro station with parking. You can park free on the weekends. We still had to walk about 1½ blocks to the actual station. We had no problems at the station and were soon on our way to the Smithsonian.

We went to the American History Museum. We had to wait a few minutes for them to open. It was crowded from the beginning. It only got more crowded as the day went on. The first exhibit we went to was “The Star Spangled Banner.” It is the actual flag that flew at Ft McHenry during the War of 1812. It is the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write “The Star Spangled Banner,” which went on to become our country’s anthem. I had no idea the flag is was large as it is. We were not allowed to take pictures in this exhibit, but I was able to get a postcard and a picture of a replica displayed elsewhere in the museum.

We then went through the exhibit of First Ladies’ Inaugural Gowns. I think I got good pictures of all of them. It was neat to see the different styles over the centuries. They even had one of Martha Washington’s gowns! That goes back 200 years!

We saw a few more things and then went downstairs to meet my online friend, Aga. She came all the way down to the Smithsonian to meet us and have lunch. In addition, she brought me some Washington, DC scrapbooking goodies… paper and stickers! I was so excited. I can’t wait to use them! We had lunch in the café with Aga and then walked through the “Thanks for the Memories” exhibit. We saw Archie and Edith’s chairs from “All in the Family,” Kermit the Frog and Oscar from Sesame Street, and the Ruby Slippers from “The Wizard of Oz.” We left the museum about 1:30 and walked to the subway station, where we told Aga good-bye and headed to the Newseum.

The Newseum is the one of the newest, if not THE newest, museum in DC. It deals with… the news. Six floors of it! It’s pretty neat. First thing, you watch an orientation film. Then they had a G-Men and the News exhibit. You then take an elevator up 6 floors to an outside terrace with an awesome view of the Capitol. My batteries actually went dead in BOTH cameras! Can you believe that?! I brought 3 sets of rechargeable batteries, and only one set will hold a charge! So I got Mom’s camera and just took both of our pictures with that. There is so much in this museum… I can’t even describe it all. They had newspapers (originals) from as far back as the 1600’s to this year! They had papers with all the big headlines: the Hidenburg, Lindburgh baby kidnapping, Pearl Harbor, Peace at the end of WWII, Kennedy’s assassination, September 11th, etc., etc., etc. Just paper upon paper… It was unbelievable! They also had a section about September 11 with a piece of a broadcast tower from the top of the North Tower, a piece of the fuselage from Flight 93, and a piece of masonry from the Pentagon. It was information overload, like every other place in this city. My head is crammed full and spinning!

We left the Newseum about 4:45 (they close at 5) and aced the trains back out to our car. We came back here and have hung out, too tired to move, the entire evening. We will pack up the car in the morning and hopefully leave by 10am and head to Fayetteville, North Carolina to spend tomorrow night.

We have had a wonderful trip, but I have to say I am ready to go home. I need to see my husband, my kitties, and my recliner!!! LOL!