Aug. 6 - Washington, DC

Day 141 - One Last Look

Gangplank Marina

We spent our last day in DC going to the Air & Space Museum and seeing a few things we'd missed. We knew it would be very crowded on a Saturday, so we were there when they opened. We spent a few hours looking at the highlights...the Wright brother's plane, Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, Amelia Earhart's plane and some of the first passenger planes. It was all very interesting. We skipped the space section since we've seen most of it at NASA. We had lunch at Paul, a nice sandwich shop and bakery on our way to the White House Visitor Center. After reading all about the White House we had a chance to get a closer look and take a few pictures. I can't imagine living somewhere where you have thousands of people staring at you everyday. We saw Michele Obama's vegetable garden...just to go out and pick a few things, security has to clear the area and close off the street. I guess she just gets someone else to do it. Not a way I would want to live.

We rode to the DuPont Circle area of town and then back to The Mall. We've covered quite a bit of Washington on our bikes. There are so many things to see and do here...many things we wish we would have had time to see, like The Library of Congress, The National Archives and several other memorials. Maybe during another visit.

We spent the last part of the afternoon at the National Gallery of Art. Seeing masterpieces by Vincent van Gogh, Rembrandt and many others. The highlight of the museum was the sculpture The Capitoline Venus, which is on loan from the Capitoline Museum in Rome. It is from the 2^nd century AD and is in amazing shape for something so old. Just beautiful.

There's a nice Safeway a few blocks from the boat, so we stocked up on a few things. It started raining while we were shopping, so we got a little wet riding back to the boat. Oh well, I was planning to wash my hair when we got back! We’ve had a wonderful week in Washington D.C.

The Spirit of St. Louis - Charles Lindbergh's plane that flew non-stop across the Atlantic in 1927

The Wright brother's plane that made the first successful airplane flight December 17, 1903

One of Amelia Earhart's plane

Some of the earlier commercial planes

A Piper aircraft known as a Cub - Stan's Dad used to have one like this, and he remembers flying with him when he was young.

Some of the sandwiches at Paul Maison de Qualite

The back of the White House

The front of the White House

The entrance of the National Gallery of Art

The Capitoline Venus

Portrait of a Gentleman with a Tall Hat and Gloves by Rembrandt van Rijn - Painted around 1659