The day after Memorial Day, we headed to the Mall to take photos. Many of the mementoes left at the Vietnam Memorial were still there reminding us of the MIAs as well as the more than 50,000 American lives lost there.
The Washington Monument, now repaired from damage inflicted in the 2011 earthquake, towers over the memorials and tributes along the Mall.
The Lincoln Memorial is always crowded with visitors.
The next day, we lunched at Old Ebbitt Grill, the oldest saloon in DC, with friends Don and Barbara. We had not been together in a couple of years so we were pleased that the restaurant let us talk for hours.
The Old Ebbitt has an interesting history. It was founded in 1856 and has been in many different locations. Such notables as Presidents Grant, A. Johnson, Cleveland, T. Roosevelt and Harding have been served there. Supposedly McKinley lived there when he was in Congress.
It now calls itself “a virtual saloon Smithsonian.” It has collections of such items as beer steins, animal skins and heads (maybe bagged by Theodore Roosevelt), and antique gas chandeliers.
On the wall is a painting by Czech impressionist Kamel Kubik celebrating V-E Day and inspired by Truman’s words, “The flags of freedom fly over Europe.”
Our last Mall stop of the day was to pick Bennett up from his preschool located in Natural History. He and his friend stopped to talk after school. The three of us hopped the Metro to go home and let Mom and Dad have a date night.
The next day we toured the Library of Congress. The Library receives two copies of every book, photo, song, fabric, etc, that require copyright. Twenty thousand new books arrive daily. During the last shutdown, semi trucks were lined up outside the building. The beauty of the building itself is worth the trip.
We especially enjoyed the reproduced Jefferson Library and looking at his own books filling the shelves. Those with white covers represent books lost due to earlier fires.
The statues lining the balconies above the reading room represent the many fields of knowledge while paintings show the changes man has gone through from primitive communication to literacy.
One of the featured exhibits was an original Guternberg Bible and a Mainz Bible, two of the greatest treasures in the Library. One is hand written and one is printed with movable type.
What hasn’t changed much is the way government continues to function. Five lunette paintings done in 1898 by Elihu Vedder show the effects of good vs bad government, ranging from Corrupt Legislation and Anarchy to Good Administration with Peace and Prosperity. The paintings show industry polluting the air and water as people suffer on one side and everyone working together and benefitting on the other. It shows that we are still fighting the same issues one hundred years later.
Needing a bit of repast we went deep under the Library of Congress to a coffee shop. This is the what the warren of tunnels looks like. Check out that rambling romex.
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