I must say, I am a bit surprised that the Super 8 even has wireless, but so it does and here I am. Super 8 is no hotel George, that's for sure, but I'll pretend I'm snuggled in down and air-conditioning, so here goes....And oh yeah, Williamsburg, VA is 'definitely' the South.
We started the day in DC on the later side, sleeping off the long drive of yesterday and deciding to go put in a quick workout at the hotel gym. I enjoyed the "bus girl" episode of Dawson's Creek on my private screen while on the elliptical machine while Steve sweated his way through yet another tee-shirt. We then (after showering of course) decided to hit the town and head towards the Washington Mall for a day of museums. We were starved for that meal that comes before lunch if you skip breakfast (brunch?), and so headed out of the oppressive August heat and humidity into the sweet, sweet, airconditioning of the new Smithsonian American Indian Museum. The museum is absolutely enormous--designed sort of like an Adobe Guggenheim--and beautifully landscaped. Our first stop was the cafeteria (remember, I am travelling with Steve), where we were overwhelmed at the selection. They've designed the cafeteria to feature the native foods of different regions, and so while Steve enjoyed a buffalo burger from the Great Plains, I tucked into a chicken enchilada and blackbean salad with quinoa cakes from the southwest. The food was extremely impressive and not really cafeteria like. We then headed to the fourth level to work our way down.
The exhibits were very well designed and informative and I really appreciated the work they did on the ramifications of contact with the Spaniards and other Europeans from the 14th-18th centuries (history nerd alert for most of the rest of the post), but most especially on the difficulties of preserving native and tribal culture today. I also like the choice of including native peoples from Mexico, Canada, and the Carribbean as well. What was really stunning was the fact that most of the museums collections (some 800,000) artifacts, were from ONE collector, a New York investment banker named George Gustave Heye, who died in the 1950s. I like the way that the curators decided to display many of the artifacts in large groups (like the cases with guns from the 15th to 20th centuries) but it sometimes took away from the power of individual artifacts. I highly recommend a visit to the museum if you've not been. After a few hours in the museum we wandered next store to the Air and Space museum, which, upon reflection, really has not changed too much since I was there in 1995.
Steve, preferring "space to Indians," happily wandered from exhibit to exhibit, learning about space flights, jet engines and turbines. Some of the exhibits were cool--like seeing the Spirit of St. Louis, or the old WWI planes. Since the Museum of American History is closed, the Air and Space museum houses a few rooms full of famous American objects, so I headed among the crowds in there to see: Lincoln's top hat, Prince's yellow guitar, Louis Armstrong's coronet, George Washington's Uniform, R2D2 and C3PO, an original Edison lightbulb, etc. We then watched a 3-D imax space station movie, narrated by the creepy Tom Cruise, before heading back out into the oppressive Washington Heat. It was really interesting to see the thousands of people at the Space museum in contrast to the fairly uncrowded Indian museum--telling, I think. We also saw no fewer than 3 kids get some part of a shoe stuck in an escalator in the museum, prompting some freakish situations and rescues. Too many people.
Strolling across the mall, towards the Capitol and the Hotel, we stumbled upon the memorial to the Japanese Americans interned by the US government during WWII. Having taught a great deal about internment the past few years, I knew the monument existed, but had never before seen it. It's tucked away in a remote spot on the way toward Union Station, but the monument setting is much larger than I thought, and extremely moving. The centerpiece is a large crane (for peace) bound with barbed wire, and surrounded by walls engraved with the names of the "Relocation Centers" and the thousands interned there. It was incredibly moving, and really something everyone should see. This was a blight on our history (and maybe I was feeling it more so because of the hours at the Indian museum), and more attention should be paid in order to never forget.
We made it back to the hotel in one piece, picked up the car and luggage, and headed off to Williamsburg. Approximitely 160 miles from Washington, we thought it might take us 2.5 hours to get there, but no, due to some freakish 95 South traffic, it took more like FIVE HOURS. That's a roadtrip for you. We had our first Crackerbarrel (the country store and restaurant) experience, which was better than expected--chick'n'dumplings were good as were biscuits, etc. We finally made it to Williamsburg around 10:30, safe and sound, and ready for bed. Tomorrow, a bit of Colonial Williamsburg, and a drive to the Outerbanks of North Carolina.
Pic 1: Our nation's Capitol, literally....
Pic 2: The bound crane.
Pic 3: The Museum of the American Indian
Pic 4: Steve didn't believe I saw them in the exhibit he refused to go into, so here's proof!
Pic 5: One of the many amusing signs I saw today, this in the Air and Space toystore.
