Third Day in Washington, D.C.

Yesterday we set out a little bit later because we weren’t catching the bus.  We drove to the Metro Station and parked the car in the parking garage there.  It costs $4.25 to park so it is actually 25 cents cheaper for us to park than it is to take the bus.  I’m sure we spent that 25 cents on gas to get there though.  LOL

Here comes the train

We headed straight to the American History Museum because we hadn’t finished with that one.  Up on the third floor was the last gallery that we hadn’t seen.  But also we left in the middle of the President’s gallery so we had to do that one too.

One of the Dumbos from the Dumbo ride at Disneyland

Dorothy’s ruby red slippers from The Wizard of Oz

Apollo Anton Ohno’s skates

How’s THIS for a doll house??

Edith & Archie Bunker’s chairs from All in the Family

Fonzie’s jacket on the left from Happy Days, Phyllis Diller props on the right from various stage acts and Minnie Pearl’s hat in the middle

Then on over to the President’s Gallery.  It covered everything from the elections to the assassinations to everything in between.

These are various mementos from White House weddings

Chelsea Clinton’s ballet slippers

Amy Carter’s Doll House

Bill Clinton’s saxophone and various other President’s hobbies from bowling to fishing to coin collecting to hunting

FDR’s funeral

JFK’s funeral

From there we headed to the Archives.  That’s where we saw the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Magna Carta and the Emancipation Proclamation.  Awesome to see but no pictures whatsoever are allowed in this entire building.

There was also a gallery called What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam about the role the government has had in food production.  VERY interesting.  One of the things I remember about it was the Butter Act.  It explained that the manufacturer had to sell margarine white in color to differentiate it from butter so they included a little yellow dye pack so you could make it yellow yourself.  It was a law and two people actually went to prison for two years for selling yellow margarine. 

his is an excerpt from the exhibit brochure:

“Washington - "Eat more cottage cheese; you'll need less meat," a World War I-era government poster exhorted. Herbert Hoover, then head of the Food Administration, pushed the cost-saving protein alternative as a patriotic choice, saving meat for our troops.

That's just a taste of the federal government's efforts over the years to influence what and how Americans eat. "What's Cooking, Uncle Sam" - a new exhibit at the National Archives - offers a smorgasbord of examples. They touch on global plant-gathering expeditions and garden pesticide recommendations, farm subsidies and food safety, exploding home-canned ketchup and vitamin-enriched doughnuts, protectionist trade policies and paeans to convenience foods.

This is the archives' first exhibit on food since its inception in 1934.”

This is the LONG line we had to wait in to get in

From there we decided to go find a place to sit down and have a beer.  We asked one of the guards and he sent us to a sports bar around the corner.  We had a few beers while waiting for our friends from Florida to arrive for the weekend.  They were our neighbors when we lived in Sunrise, FL before selling our house.  I was SOOOOO excited to see them and I didn’t even take pictures.  Pennye, Dave, their son Austin and Pennye’s dad all met us for dinner.  Then we set out to do some more exploring and ended up walking ALLLL the way to the Jefferson Memorial.

It looks really pretty at night

From there we ALL piled into a cab and went to Pennye’s hotel where Rod and I caught the Metro back to the RV Park.  My gosh, it was a long day but, again, well worth every minute!

Today we’re meeting up again and going who knows where.