The Wolff's Tale: Washington DC in Winter

Friday, January 12, 2018

Washington DC in Winter - Part I

Since I had quite a bit of vacation time that I needed to use up and the slowness of business over the winter we're spending this week in Richmond with my in-laws.

Since the weather forecast for Thursday was quite good we decided to head up to DC for the day. We left the girls with my in-laws and just headed up with the baby and Amy's youngest sister.

This was my third trip to the city since I visited with my folks in 1995. Amy and I visited in the spring of 2011 when we were engaged. We intended to visit various embassies but ended up walking around the Mall instead (read more here, here, here, here, and here). Then in 2013 we headed back to the city when Abigail was a baby in August (read more here, here, here, and here). Our primary purpose on this visit was to see the Museum of the Bible, but more about that later.

We started our day out at the Franconia-Springfield Metro station, the spot on the Metro furthest to the south and thus easiest for us to get to coming from Richmond.

Joanna looks like a very experienced Metro traveler.

We went past Ronald Reagan airport.

The route via the Metro isn't the most direct, but it is nice to not have to worry about parking.

The Federal SW Metro station is where you want to get off the blue line if you're heading to the Museum of the Bible.

After you leave the Metro station you turn left around the corner and are faced with this sight. Keep walking down the block and when you turn to the left you'll see the entrance to the Museum of the Bible.

Museum of the Bible even provided helpful signs on the outside of their building.

Entrance to Museum of the Bible. Since they weren't open yet (we'd arrived earlier than we'd originally planned on, though I had left some wiggle room in the schedule) we headed towards the Mall to walk around for a bit to kill time. Museum of the Bible is only a couple blocks south of the Mall.

Though the National Museum of the American Indian has existed on the Mall since 2004 I don't recall having seen it before--especially from this side.

The Smithsonian provides helpful maps outlining their various museums around the city.

This waterfall is located on the Mall side of the American Indian museum.

These totem poles were rather interesting. The title of the work is "We Were Always Here" and it was completed in 2012 by Rick Bartow. "In creating these two poles from a single old-growth cedar tree, artist Rick Bartow has drawn on patterns and symbols from his Northern California Native heritage. These include Bear's conscientious and protective role as a healer and Raven's playful and sometimes comical acts that shaped the world and human society. The pole bases' horizontal pattern references the changing tides of Oregon mudflats and symbolizes the flow of knowledge and inheritance--in Bartow's words, 'the movement down to generations or up through the generations...like little waves.' " --from exhibit signage

I found it very interesting that the land around the American Indian museum is being returned to native plants. This must be very interesting to see in the spring or summer.

Since we were on the eastern end of the Mall we walked towards the Capitol building.

The Capitol Reflecting Pool was frozen over, but made for a nice background for a photo.

We walked around the reflecting pool where we could see the Ulysses Grant Memorial. According to the Memorial's website it used to be cared for by the National Park Service but in late 2011 responsibility was transferred to the Architect of the Capitol. The signage indicated that a maintenance project by the Architect was underway behind the fence.