Tourist Day

Capital Yacht Club,
N 38 52.817 W 77 01.607

Sunday
Our brunch didn’t happen today so we had the time free to just be tourists. We had fun.

We went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Even though we saw it once before, the historical significance of the artifacts stored there inspire awe. One startling addition that I never expected to see was a Soviet SS 20 ICBM, rigged for multiple warheads.

We had another surprise. The museum of American History was closed until 2008, but it’s most popular artifacts (like Archie Bunker’s chair) were moved to the Air and Space Museum in the interim.

I was also greatly impressed by the A300 Airbus cockpit simulator. I didn’t get to fly it, but they were replaying takeoffs and landings. I was stunned to see that during landing the nose of the airbus is so high that the pilots never get to see the runway. Not until after landing, when the nose wheel comes down, does the runway appear in the window. Wow!

It was particularly fun to watch and listen to the tourists, putting aside agoraphobia for the moment. We heard so many languages. It makes one proud to be an American.

After that we walked down the mall to see the memorials. We saw the WWII memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the F.D.R. Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial. All were impressive. The Vietnam Memorial in particular was very emotional and we left that with big lumps in our throats. The memorials of dead presidents reminded us of what superb statesmen and orators we had in our history. It makes the absence of such characteristics particularly glaring. Unfortunately, the way that the media and politics work in this modern world, I doubt that we’ll ever see those talents ever again. How does one reach the youth with oratory today when they are all consumed by text messaging conversations in bites of 160 characters or less?

Anyhow, when we got back to Tarwathie we were both worn out from all the walking. It’s not fun getting old.

By the way, we learned who owns the other boats anchored here. They are all semi-permanent residents. It is entirely possible that of the millions of tourists here in town that Libby and I are the only two to arrive here by boat. Cruisers take alert: Washington DC is a very rewarding place to visit by boat, especially if you hit it at a non-crowded time. Next weekend is Memorial Day and the yacht club people expect to be mobbed with boats.