Scroll Down for My Favorite Pictures... When I Lived in Washington DC My Family would Come to Visit Often and I Was the Tour Guide... Taking Them Wherever They Wanted to Go. For Example: Aunt Roberta Wanted to See the First Ladies Inauguration Party Gowns... A Place I Had Never Heard of and Had No Interest in but... It was THEIR Vacation so I Took Them There!
Many More:
https://www.vanityfair.com/style/photos/2017/01/first-lady-inaugural-ball-gowns
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| First Ladies Gowns Exhibit at the Smithsonian |
While they were Busy, I Walked to the Next Exhibit. Automata Made in Germany. Robots Most Famously Used in Coo Coo Clocks... Some Have Dancing Couples... and are Quite Large...
and I Loved the Political Buttons Collection.
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| and Uncle Harry Wanted to See the US Marine Silent Marching Drill... The Thing that Makes this Special is that Usually a Drill Sargent Shouts out Orders like Hup Two Three Four, Right, Left Present Arms and So Forth... Well, These Marines March in Complicated Patterns SILENTLY... VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CueyX_LtHeo |
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| View from the Lincoln Memorial looking at the Reflecting Pool and the Washington Monument |
Identical Copy of the Lunar Lander - Air and Space Museum - The Real one is Still On the Moon.
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| Outside of the Air and Space Museum with the US Capitol in the Background  The Botto is Quite Burnt from Traveling Thru Earth's Atmosphere. It's Interesting to See the Old Equipment... Way Before Computers. There are Movies "The Dream is Alive" and "To Fly!" at the Air and Space Museum. It is Uplifting and I've Seen it Many Times. Featuring Narration by Walter Cronkite and SUPER CLEAR IMAX Films of Rocket Launches and Home Movies Taken by Astronauts While they Were in Space - and Most Importantly. Films of The Earth as Seen From Space... Heroic Music... Pacabel's Canon...   by Robert McCall https://www.nasa.gov/feature/100-years-ago-birth-of-space-artist-robert-mccall There is a Great Movie on TV Called "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian." Were the Exhibits Come to Life at Night... Amelia Earhart Saves the Day by Awakening The Statue of Abraham Lincoln to Defeat the Egyptian Pharoah... That's a Tour well worth Taking! ~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~ At the National Art Gallery they Have Two Buildings. One of Old Masters and another of Modern Art. My Favorite was the Salvadore Dali Last Supper Painting. This Painting is in Its Own Dark Room... Since I Have Visited it Many Times I Noticed that The Same People were often there... Like it was a Church for Prayer and Meditation... a Holy Space.  Alexander Calder Mobile at the Modern Art Wing of the National Art Gallery.  It Moves Around and Around Floating in the Currents of the Air Conditioning... one day They had a Gamelan Orchestra from Indonesia Playing in this room. Metal Bells, Xylophones Gongs Played by 20 People - in a very Echoey Space.  More Alexander Calder Mobiles ~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~ Modern Art Wing - The Building was Designed by I M Pei...  Between the Old Masters Wing and the Modern Art Wing is a Conveyor Belt That People Ride on. With a Psychedelic Light Show made out of Thousands of Light Bulbs. Next to the People Mover is a Waterfall that is Part of The Mirrored Pyramids Shown in the Photo Below. Here's a Link to a Video of that Waterfall.  My Favorite Painting in The Modern Art Building of the National Art Gallery is Picasso The Tragedy  One Day I Took an LSD Trip There and Looked at All the Paintings... and This One Made Me Actually Feel Cold in My Body... True Synesthesia... That Night we all went to a Tangerine Dream Concert at the Fabulous Warner Theater. So Many of the Other Paintings Seemed Trivial and Insignificant... Andy Warhol? SO WHAT? Roy Lichtenstein? Copycat... One Day I saw an Installation of a Full Size House Covered Entirely With Mirrors. We put paper Booties on and Walked inside and It was an Infinite Room. I loved the Giant Wall Hanging by MIRO.  For Decades I Thought it was a Portrait of a Cow but then one day I Read The Card Describing the Work of art and It said "Woman" - 34 Feet Tall - Hanging in the Main Room Under the Calder Mobile... https://www.nga.gov/collection/highlights.html They Have Traveling Exhibits and It's Worth Your Time to ask a Docent or Guard What's Happening Now... I was lucky to see Original Leonardo da Vinci Mechanical Drawings... and they are Much More Impressive in real life that in a Book... The Other Exhibit that my friend Charolette made sure we went to was the Doll House by Chippendale. He made it for his Daughter and there is "Chippendale" Furniture in Every Room. ~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~ In the Old Masters Wing there are Four Paintings Called "The Voyage of Life" by Thomas Cole.  Youth...    Old Age... Now That's Some Art With Meaning... It Tells a Story... OUR Story! They also Have Classical Music Concerts for free in the Old Masters Art Gallery. I saw "PDQ Bach" - a Classical Music Quartet of NEW MUSIC Composed in the Old Style by Chip Davis of Mannheim Steamroller and the Song "Convoy" ~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~ Natural History Museum: This Stuffed Elephant Seems to Be Charging at ME... Danger Danger!   In the Museum of Natural History they Have Many Stuffed Animals including this Walrus...   In the Same Building... ROCKS!   Tensegrities by Buckminster Fuller... at the Hirshorn Museum.  Quite Often the Hirshorn has very bad quality Paintings but I Have Found that I can Walk Very Quickly thru those Rooms and Move on to the Interesting Exhibits... I saw Lucian Freud Paintings there... Quite Good but Horrible! I'm So Glad I Don't Live in HIS World. _1985.jpg "Lucian Freud Self Portrait Painting") at the Hirshorn I saw an Andy Warhol Installation. It was a 3D White Sculpture of a Woman's Head. They He Projected a Film of The Same Woman's Head onto the Sculpture... Quite "Creepy" but Insightful... She wasn't doing much but occasionally she would Talk... but not often... and there was no sound BUT... Excellent! ~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~  the Lincoln Memorial Washington DC I've gone there Many Times including Once when a Boy Scout Troup was singing "America the Beautiful" and then after they were done, the Park Ranger said... "No Singing in the Memorial" - BUT - He Waited for them to be Done... That's an Educational Lesson there! I also Marched in an Anti War Protest March from the White House to the Lincoln Memorial during the Presidency of George Bush the Father... There was a Parade Permit that expired at a Specific time and Anyone IN THE STREET Would be Arrested. Well, About 50 People Intentionally Sat Down in the Street in order to Be Arrested... as a Part of their Experience at the Protest March... I was Standing on the Sidewalk watching the Jack Booted Storm Troopers haul the Anti-War Activists away on a Couple of Busses... MY CHOICE was to Not Get Arrested that Day... I Happened to be High on LSD That Day and Everything Seemed So Very Significant... Especially that Decision... I was interviewed by TV News... a Man on the Street Opinion... and my Neighbor saw me and Later said that I was Babbling Like a Jackass... I Thanked Her and Said... If I Made You Unhappy, I Know I'm Doing the Right Thing! Vietnam Veterans Memorial  I have Visited the Wall but... I Know No Names of People That Died in Vietnam. One Traditional Way to Remember the Dead is to Make a Charcoal Rubbing of their Name...  The Wall as Seen from The Air. It's a Cronological List of the Dead. At the Beginning of the Wall it is Very Short and then Near the Center it is Tall... then It Dwindles Down to be Very Short at the End. Just Like the Actual War... Jefferson Memorial  It's Right Next to The Tidal Basin with Paddleboats.  I never Rode those Boats because During the Times I Had a Wife or Girlfriend We Never Selected to Go... and During those Years when I did Not Have a Girlfriend I Didn't want to go alone... This is also where the Cherry Blossom Trees Are... a Gift from the Country of Japan.  Lafayette Park Across The Street from The White House...  At The Anti War Protests I Played the BIG Marching Band Bass Drum in a Drum Circle... The Owner of the Drum was tired of holding up that heavy Drum so he asked Me to Play it. At a Different Protest March I played the Frame Drum with Buddhists... They played a Very Odd and Difficult Rhythm. I asked Why and They Said It Intentionally Required my Totally Focused Attention... as a Tool to Make the Meditation Work.  White House as Viewed from Lafayette Park Where I went to Many Protest Marches.  I Went to a NORML Protest of Marijuana Laws. The Police DID NOT Arrest anyone for Smoking because that would make for a Bad Headline in the Newspaper... It started to Rain and I wanted to walk back to my car and Get a Raincoat but... I couldn't Figure out How to Cross Pennsylvania Ave... The Pedestrian Crossing at 17th Street is Difficult to Figure out When It's Safe... So I Went to a Museum and admired ART... A Couple of Hours Later, I was No Longer Stoned and I was able to Cross the Street Safely.  Anti-War Protest in Lafayette Park Across the Street from the White House. I met this Lady... Sadly, She was too Insane for me to Hold a Conversation With... But I Did Learn that She used to Protest with her Husband but He was Killed while trying to Blow Up the Washington Monument with a Truck Bomb... She's in the Movie Farenheit 911 by Michael Moore.  Concepcion 'Connie' Picciotto maintained a peace vigil since 1981 in D.C. Celebration of Trump's Defeat... Interactive Tour of the White House: We went on a Tour of the White House with Aunt Roberta. She rolls around in a Wheelchair all the time so... We got to Take a Special Tour... We went to the Beginning of the Line or Tourists and were Let In First... then We Rode Elevators in a section of the Mansion that is OFF LIMITS to the General Public... I was thrilled to see Behind the Scenes... areas that had an Obvious "Employee" Look to them.  MUCH MORE COMING! ~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~ Other Journeys ~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~ Virtual Journey: Canada Tourist Guide & Autobiography. We Went on our Honeymoon to Vancouver, BC. We Rode a Bicycle built for Two in Stanley Park... and Many More Wonderful Places to Visit.Virtual Journey: Eureka, Arcata, Trinidad - Visit Northern California's Coast. We Have Our Own Little World Here Behind The Redwood Curtain! https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2022/05/eureka-arcata-trinidad.htmlVirtual Journey: Trinity Alps, CA, USA - Drive the Bigfoot Highway (299) From Arcata on the Coast to Redding in the Central Valley. White Water Rafting! Gold Rush Ghost Towns!Virtual Journey: to the Star Wars Flying Motorcycles Redwood Forest on Hwy 36 in Remote Humboldt County, CA, USA - and the Bridgeville UFO Festival, The Town of Mad River.https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2022/03/virtual-journey-hwy-36-remote-humboldt.htmlVirtual Journey: Lost Coast, CA, USA on Highway 211 - From Victorian Ferndale to The Beach, the Mountains of Mateel to the Avenue of the Giants. Humboldt County.https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2022/03/a-virtual-drive-thru-remote-humboldt.htmlVirtual Journey to San Francisco - Boat Ride on the Red and White Fleet. Under the Golden Gate Bridge and Around Alcatraz Island... and MORE!Virtual Journey: The Smithsonian and Washington DC. Instead of Buying Gasoline and Driving There, Take this Magic Trip Instead! A Guided Tour to the Places My Family Wanted to See... |
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