Capital Trip - Part Two

Continued..

Day Three - Art Gallery, Archives, White House, Kennedy Center

We began with a train to the Navy Memorial stop. The initial plan was to start with the National Archives that houses some of the most important and famous documents in the world. However, there was quite a crazy queue that went around the building, so we decided to go somewhere else first - the National Gallery of Art.

Now the last time we went to an art exhibit was in San Francisco (SF Museum of Modern Art), and we were left perplexed yet never excited by any stretch of the imagination. We prayed this wouldn't turn out to be such an experience, and fortunately we weren't left disappointed. The massive building has an excellent display of paintings from different ages, including the works of Rembrandt, Raphael as well as one Da Vinci piece - the only one in the Americas (and it is a two-sided one).

The gallery did quite a collection of sculptures as well, but they certainly pale in comparison to the artwork. Next we headed over to the National Archives, where the crowd had subsided to an extent. Make no mistake though; the small size of the building meant not many people could be inside at one time so the queue can be deceiving, although ours was relatively shorter than it was earlier that day. Almost an hour's wait later, we were finally admitted into the building. This is where my eyes set sight upon a few famous original documents, that till today remain sacred to the nation, and the world for that matter.. The Declaration of Independence, The United States Constitution as well as the first few amendments to it, known as the Bill of Rights. It was certainly a moment to revel in for me. The only drawback was, albeit a significant one - the no-photography rule within the building as a means of protecting the documents from light, that destroys the documents over time.

Within the archives I also saw a few actual Supreme Court decisions that I had researched and referenced in my Philosophy of Law class during my final semester. It really was a shame that I have no photographic proof of ever being in the presence of such powerfully written words, yet we wouldn't want to deny the future generations a chance of still being able to read off these originals..

After that we headed west towards the Kennedy Center. It was a long, long walk yet there were quite a few interesting stops in between..

We reached the Kennedy Center just in time to catch the Taiko Drummers from Tamagawa University perform as part of the ongoing Cherry Blossom Festival. After the performance, we headed out to the balcony to view the Potomac River.

The weather began to get really chilly, as we walked down to the Lincoln Memorial against the setting sun along the long memorial pool. We finally managed to deploy the tripod for some night shots of the Lincoln and Washington memorials, before we headed back for Pizza Hut near the hostel.

Day Four - Sakura Festival, Memorials

We started the day with the Cherry Blossom Festival Parade - a two-hour long event that was amazing, plus the huge sidewalks around the National Mall area and the distance covered by the parade meant that everyone got a great view of the proceedings (unlike a certain St. Patricks' Day Parade in Chicago.. hmphh). Here are a few photos and vids for your viewing pleasure. :)

(Videos)

Right after the parade we grabbed lunch at Mc Donald's (we're cheap like that wth) before heading over to the Sakura Street Festival which was a display of Japanese culture, at least to the American eye. They pretty much had everything 'Japanese,' including mangas, Cosplay, sake, samurais, ikebana, origami and J-Pop.

After that we walked down south to the Holocaust Museum, though unfortunately the general exhibit tickets were out so we could only go for the special exhibit: The Rise of Nazi Propaganda. After that we walked further down along the Tidal Basin to the Jefferson Memorial and the thousands of cherry blossom trees planted along the basin.

After that we walked through the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, and finally reached the Lincoln Memorial for some daytime shots of the incredible building.

With the little time we had left, we walked back east to the Air and Space Museum to finish touring the exhibits. With that, yet another long day in DC drew to an end, as we went home to prepare for our one day trip the following day to - Philadelphia!