Monday, 5/8/06: The weather forecast last night looked so bad that we decided not to leave for PA today. Instead, we did a little research and figured out that we were near a Metro station (D.C.’s subway). So we decided to visit the new American Indian museum. We waited until rush hour was over and drove about 10 miles, parked at the station, and had a very nice trip to downtown. Every major city should have good public transportation. The stations and trains were clean and safe, information regarding routes and schedules was clear and the personnel were helpful and polite.

The museum was different from any I’d ever been to. The focus was not on artifacts, but on people. There was extensive written documentation about different groups of the people of the Americas, with a few artifacts to represent the cultural and spiritual attributes. I thought it was too much reading. I’d rather read a book than stand in a crowd and read. We did enjoy the movie, though. We left earlier than planned, and went to the national botanic gardens. It was rainy and cold outside, but we felt like we were back in FL in the gardens! The orchids were fantastic, and there were a number of plants we’d never seen before.

We got our second winds in the gardens and decided to take the Metro a little further to Alexandria. We enjoyed a long walk (about 18 blocks) from the Metro station on King Street to Old Town. We started at the Visitor Center and got maps and information on a walking tour. I wish I hadn’t forgotten my camera—Alexandria is a beautiful and historic city. We saw “flounder houses,” which have a flat, featureless and windowless wall on one side, where the roof is steeply pitched. The other side has two windows way up at the top that look sort of like the eyes on the side of a flounder. We also saw “spite houses,” which were built in the alleys between two existing buildings. They’re very narrow, and stick out into the alley, which is why they were called spite houses—they slowed down traffic in the alleys, thus thwarting or “spiting” a perceived nuisance. There were some cobblestone streets, which were paved with the ballast stones of 18^th century ships. Many of the houses were built in the early 1700’s, some by sea captains when Alexandria was as important as New York and Boston as a port of entry. We saw several places that George Washington frequented, including his town house and church (Christ Church). When I was a kid growing up in Washington, D.C., I had the Revolutionary and Civil wars all confused in my mind, because there is extensive history of both wars in the area. It’s a fascinating place, and we had a good day exploring.