First we dropped Mikey off at the Downtown Dog Lounge. Then we participated in the Jingle Bell Run 5K, with Scottland in his skivvies, shoes and Scooby outfit. Then we changed, finished packing and were off to the airport.
After a fairly pleasant five'ish hour flight we touched down at the Ronald Reagan airport this evening. And by "touched down" I mean hit the tarmac like the engines gave out five feet above the runway. Oh well, no harm no foul I suppose. Took about an hour for Scottland's nail-marks to fade from my fore-arm, though.
So yeah. Welcome to Washington DC, err I mean Crystal City. Not sure why it's called Crystal City, unless its a reference to the wild packs of meth-heads roaming the streets. Hah hah. I kid. Besides, they're crack-heads.
Ronald Reagan is across the Potomoc and in Virginia and we got in so late that we went straight to our hotel after supping at a sports bar that turned out to be next door to a gay bar. Which explained why the pool table of vaguely mary bears next to us kept giving us "the eye", though I got all internally 'phobic and thought it was the proverbial "the stink-eye" at first.
Anyhow, after a restless night of minimal sleeping (oh how I love that first night in a new bed) we woke, dressed and took the Metrorail into DC proper. The rail was quite cool and I found myself wondering yet again why Seattle can't get its act together and install a comprehensive and useful public transportation system. I did have a lovely "woah, I'm on the East Coast" moment as I ambled across the station platform at a Seattle pace and was nearly trampled by a sudden stampede of recently disgorged commuters.
From the Metrorail we walked to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. The Air & Space Museum was pretty cool, though it seemed kind of outdated in spots. Scottland was quick to note how dusty the section on the lunar landing related stuff was and I have to admit that he was right. Even I noted it, and the gain on my Dustometer is set WAY below his.
Still, it was cool to see replicas (and in some cases the real deal) of the various probes and craft from the US space program. I had no idea that Skylab was SO HUGE. The International Space Station must be just enormous. Scottland and I both agree that our favorite exhibit was the one dedicated to the history of air travel. There were a lot of different displays that explained how the industry has evolved since the beginning of the 20th century and much of it was quite entertaining.
For example, I didn't realize that before deregulation, the only way for airlines to differentiate themselves was via sexy (or "memorable") stewardess outfits and the quality of in-flight service. As you can see, Southwest Airlines (on the left) and California Air (on the far right) were quite aggressive in their pursuit of "sexy" and "memorable."
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My favorite part of the museum had to be "Cosmic Collisions," the 24 minute long planetarium show. It was essentially about the different types of space related collisions that are going on around us all the time. Things like the creation of the moon, huge meteor impacts, nuclear fusion, the Aurora Borealis and collisions between galaxies. I was pretty familiar with the subject matter of the show, but to see it all rendered out in super high detail and projected onto the dome of a planetarium is something else entirely.
After that, we were done with the Air & Space Museum. On the way back, Scottland had to take a long phone call so I amused myself in the Hirshhorn Museum, which is one of a handful of modern art museums at the Smithsonian. Some of it I liked, some of it I didn't get and some of it I thought was just plain ugly. Three pieces in particular really captured my imagination.
Milk Run, by James Turrell is actually a darkened room that you go into. As your eyes adjust the piece resolves itself. Sure it's just a bunch of lights, but I really liked the concept and thought it was about the act of appreciating art.
Round Rainbow, by Olafur Elliason was also really interesting. I honestly don't have a clue what it MEANS. However, the concept of light refracting through a rotating, beveled acrylic hoop that creates a variety of different types of mathematical curves on a wall was just too cool. The link to the image of the piece on the Hirshhorn page is broken, but I was able to find it via a google search.
The Way Things Go, by Peter Fischli and David Weiss (II) was definitely my favorite though. Essentially it's a giant "Rube Goldberg Contraption" captured on film. For some reason the Hirshhorn doesn't have an entry in its collection database, but I found a short section of the half hour long film on you tube.
After this, we took the Metrorail back to Crystal City, got in our ultra-sexy rented minivan, fought traffic nearly all the way to Warrenton, VA and spent our next night at Scottland's sister Lynn's place.
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