First day in a new city is always a learning curve, and the heat and humidity in Washington DC was quite extreme today, adding another component of fun to my morning. I was coming off of a red eye flight from Seattle to DC when I arrived at 7:30 a.m. this morning. A very tall blonde man on my flight was a dead ringer for Paul Bettany so that was exciting for a minute or two when I thought it might be him. It was not.
I also got through the entire day without a cup of coffee, which now that I think about it, explains so much.
I had no trouble finding the Metro station at the airport. Bought a Metro card and hopped on a train. It took about 50 minutes to arrive in the central DC area. I was on my way to Bethesda to drop off my luggage at my AirBnB before checking out the sights. I switched from the Silver line to the Red line in Metro Center station. On the red line train, an older man wearing a red suit a drawn-on mustache was blasting Disco Inferno on a portable stereo and dancing.
It took about 10 minutes more to arrive at my stop. I got out and stopped at Whole Foods, hoping I might be able to find some coffee and something to eat on my way to my apartment. I couldn’t find coffee so settled on some sparkling Gerolsteiner mineral water.
My apartment was a block and a half from Whole Foods. It was a lovely walk in an old neighborhood lined with trees. As I walked there were lots of little backyard birds and songbirds darting through the trees. It was a lovely morning, not yet too hot, and there was a breeze, and the shade of the trees which made it cooler.
My apartment was very cute. Just the basics, but clean and nicely decorated. I changed into something lighter for the day, drank some water, and turned on the air conditioning in the apartment before heading out again.
I went back to the Metro Center station and got out there to explore. I had no agenda yet, although I was hoping to visit at least one museum today. It was definitely growing hotter and more humid, so this was even more incentive to find someplace to go inside.
I passed through an outdoor food court near the National Children’s Museum.
According to Google Maps, I was just 5-10 minutes away from the Smithsonian Museum of American History, so I headed in that direction. As I was crossing Constitution Avenue, I looked over and saw the capitol building in the distance.
American History Museum
Inside the American History Museum, it took a little wandering around before I figured out how the exhibits were arranged. Each wing was focused on a different aspect of history. I went through the wing on America at War which recounted all the major wars the country was involved in and what was happening at the time that contributed to America being involved.
I also explored the wing highlighting American presidents and First Ladies. Inaugural gowns and china of all the First Ladies were featured mostly.
There was a wing focusing on popular entertainment culture and it included C-3PO and R2D2 from Star Wars, a guitar used by Prince, and Archie Bunker’s armchair, just to name a few of the items. I was looking for the ruby slippers from Wizard of Oz, but these eluded me.
I walked through the wing on transportation which included many full size vehicles including a horse drawn carriage, trains of all sorts, motorcycles, and buses.
By far, my favorite exhibit was seeing Julia Child’s kitchen in the American Food History wing. The kitchen appears to be completely re-constructed down to the peg boards holding her various pans and the little personal touches like artwork and Mr. Coffee coffee pot in the
I used to watch Julia on PBS when I was a kid so I seriously geeked out seeing her kitchen! Episodes of her show play on a loop so I watched a segment of her making roasted garlic mashed potatoes with another Julia fan who was attesting to his friend that he had tried this exact recipe once and that “Oh yeah, 28 cloves of garlic wasn’t too much,” he said. “It was wonderful.”
I didn’t see all the exhibits because I was experiencing a major electrolyte imbalance around this time. Too much heat and humidity! I had to search for something to drink.
Museum of Natural History
I ended up next door at Museum Of Natural History where I bought some very overpriced ice tea at the museum cafe, then strolled around checking out out the iconic dinosaur fossils, an elephant, and a very large Blue Whale, and the Moʻai head carved by the Rapa Nui people on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in eastern Polynesia between the years 1250 and 1500.
This museum, I have to say, was highly chaotic. There are hoards of people including many class groups of children running in every direction. I finished my tea and went outside where I crossed the street and walked past the Environmental Protection Agency and the Internal Revenue Service building to the Federal Triangle Metro stop. I hopped on the Metro and decided I would head back to my Airbnb, get something to eat, rehydrate, and rest. I stopped by Target which was just a few steps from my Metro stop and bought a new pair of sunglasses (the pair I brought broke this morning). I also grabbed some eggs, butter, cheese, lunchmeat, butter, berries, and more sparkling water.
Tomorrow I will be hitting the art museums and probably the National Mall to see monuments, and packing some food and water with me to not have a repeat of today.
