Adventures in DC!

Well, it's Spring Break... the time to head south and break away from the last few weeks of Ithaca winter still to come. A few of us from Bible study decided to hit up DC to see the sights. We headed out Monday morning on the 350mi journey on a beautiful bright, sunny morning.

A Martin under construction

Older section of the factory...

Our first stop was in Nazareth, PA at the Martin guitar factory. [Here] (Three of us play...) This was quite interesting to one who has built guitars, to see how it works at a medium volume factory (~200 guitars per day). As expected, much of it involves CNC mills, laser cutters, and robotic sprayers, but there was still a lot of work done by hand. They also had a very nice visitor center and museum that was fun to browse. They had some very old guitars (Martin was founded in 1833!), some very interesting concept guitars, some guitars played by very famous people, and some very fancy guitars. Also of interest was a room where you can go and play their high-end models. As usual, extremely high prices don't always get you a better sound, but I found a couple in the room that I really enjoyed playing.

One of the fancy Martins in the museum

Gettysburg Memorial

Our route took us through Gettysburg (Right at dusk, since we spent so long at the factory...). We didn't stop for long... Just snapped a few pictures, went up the large memorial [Here], and headed on.

Just like the picture!

We arrived in DC at out hotel in Falls Church (15 min away from the Mall) around 10pm, and found out that all the food places in Falls Church close at or before 10. (I guess we take some things for granted, living close to a college campus!) . Anyhow, the next day we headed in to the National Mall [Here] for our first of two days.


We concentrated on outdoor stuff, since it was predicted to rain the next day. This included the Washington, Lincoln, and other assorted monuments, White House, etc. We also stopped in to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum for a while. I'd been here before, but only for a few minutes (Not enough time to see anything!) Besides the dinosaurs (skeletons...) I really found the rocks & minerals to be QUITE astounding. There were just room after room of brightly colored, strange-shaped, beautiful, and extremely valuable rocks. Its hard to imagine most of that stuff coming out of the ground!

Some kind of mineral

Huge chunk of Opal


One of our group had a great-aunt that lived in the area, so we had an enjoyable dinner at her flat that evening (overlooking the new Air Force Memorial, the pentagon, and the rest of the city.

Air Force Memorial, Arlington, VA

The next day we finished off the stuff on the Mall. This included the US capitol, Library of Congress, Supreme Court (in session, so couldn't go in), and Air & Space museum. Of course, the Air & Space was very interesting... It's always a shock to look at something and realize that the is THE Wright bros airplane or THE capsule that first carried an American into space. Since the museum of American History was closed for renovation, they had an exhibit in one of the galleries there with such things as Dorothy's red slippers, George Washington's sword, and a Babe Ruth signed baseball.

Inside the Library of Congress

Friends

Under the Museum of Modern Art








Our last day (Thursday) we checked out of our hotel and drove up the the National Zoo. It was another clear, crisp day, and we perused the Giant Pandas, Sloth Bears, and assorted other animals.

Forward and Reverse at National Zoo

The National Cathedral [Here] was right near the Zoo, so we went ahead and stopped there, too. It is a full-on gothic-style cathedral with flying buttresses and all. However, after the cathedrals in Europe, something just seemed wrong. Perhaps it was the banners flying up front and inside, the light clean sandstone, or just the fact that it was relatively new. I don''t know. It was still mighty impressive, though.

Front facade of the National Cathedral

Inside the National Cathedral

The drive back from DC was rather uneventful... just long. We got stuck in traffic behind an accident that closed off the freeway for a while. That was no fun. After the warm-ish spring weather in DC, it was a blizzard driving back into Ithaca. They had even closed off the highway back into town from more accidents, so we had to take a little detour. We got back just fine though, after a fun four days.