Smithsonian Castle

The Smithsonian Castle, with its cafe and large information desk, is the central gathering spot for visitors to the Mall. It also has some exhibitions. I visited it on a few separate trips, all days on which I started my explorations before the museums opened at 10:00am. (The castle opens much earlier.)

I took a few pictures while at or in the castle.

Its West Wing has small displays with example items from every Smithsonian museum. It showed me I was more interested in the Air & Space Museum then I thought. Sadly, I never made it there.

The Pentagon

On Wednesday, October 16, 2011, Di Yin and I took a tour of the Pentagon. Though it required making reservations in advance, the only information requested was our names (no social security numbers or anything) so I can't imagine they did much of a security check other than perhaps looking to see if we were on the do-not-fly list.

It's definitely a high-security place. Two different people checked our IDs as we entered. This makes the "I Made It Inside" t-shirt for sale in the gift shop more humorous.

It's also not surprising that cell phones and cameras are prohibited for visitors. But it's interesting that these aren't allowed for anyone else either. Indeed, not only can one not take pictures inside (minor exception: within the visitors/press center it's okay), one cannot take pictures of the outside of the building either. There's even no photography allowed inside the nearby metro station!

In addition, visitors aren't allowed to use the bathroom or even dispose of garbage in a trash or recycling bin.

Furthermore, the Pentagon tries to limit the information one can acquire and transit to others. It prohibits note-taking on the tours! I think this is the first place I ever been that's done that. Thus, the majority of this entry comes from my memory with no assistance from notes.

Finally, a sign by the tour's starting location lists four rules, some of the aforementioned ones plus more. One rule is no translating allowed. I guess the Pentagon is worried about people coming on the tour and talking all the way through (under the pretense of translating) while plotting how to blow up the Pentagon. The sign listing rules was translated: it was posted in six languages.

But how about the tour and the Pentagon itself?

What struck me the most was how much more the Pentagon is than simply an office building. It's like a mall inside: a pharmacy, a bank, a chocolate store, a flower shop, a video rental shop, a cobbler, etc., and even something as large as a grocery store! All of these are only accessible to Pentagon employees. I asked the tour guide if I could buy something in the chocolate shop--I already knew what I wanted from the shop, and it's the only location of this chain in the Washington D.C. area--but the guide said no. The Pentagon also has restaurants, both fast-food and upscale. I glanced at a nicer restaurant we passed and the prices were reasonable. I guess all this support structure makes sense--twenty-five thousand employees work in the complex every day.

I glimpsed a map while walking around. It looks like the Pentagon has a complex address system. It's big enough to deserve one! I found a description of the system online.

Tidbit: despite its size, the Pentagon was built in about a year (in the early 1940s).

Many of the halls we walked through have exhibits. We didn't have time to read any of the displays, but the tour guides described each exhibit briefly as we walked. One hallway, for instance, honors General McArthur; another recognizes people missing in action.

Some hallways have paintings, including one with some by John Trumbull that have his self-portrait in them. Congress commissioned paintings of historic events but told the painter that he couldn't sign his paintings. Hence, he instead painted himself into the scenes in subtle ways. An example is Trumbell's Declaration of Independence. As the tour guide explained, Congress eventually got wise to this strategy and Trumbell's likeness became more camouflaged in his later works for Congress.

We spent the last third of the tour visiting the indoor Pentagon memorial. To get there, we walked down the corridor where the plane hit. Interestingly, although the plane damaged twenty percent of the building, it killed only about a hundred employees, not twenty percent of the building's population which would be several thousand. The hit section of the Pentagon was under renovation and most people had been moved elsewhere. Furthermore, the Pentagon was built originally without steel reinforcement, but this area under renovation fortuitously got steel reinforcement before the attack. Without the steel, the plane probably would've penetrated into the center of the building, not merely the outer three rings. This section was also the only area of the Pentagon with a sprinkler system.

By the way, the tour guides loved a story about the restaurant in center of the grassy area in the center of Pentagon. (They loved it so much that each of the two guides told the story, not realizing the other guide already did.) During the cold war, the Soviets, watching from their spy satellites, saw so many people entering and leaving the small central building that they assumed it must be the entrance to a secret underground part of the Pentagon and that the rest of the building was merely a distraction/cover for this section. In reality, the building was a hot dog stand.

Other interesting facts:

• The Pentagon has a speed limit: brisk walk. I bet this becomes significant during a crisis. It probably also prevents military folks from running loops for exercise.
• The Pentagon microwaves its incoming mail to eliminate pathogens.

The Library of Congress

I explored the Library of Congress in two trips. I took pictures.

On the first trip, I took a tour of the Jefferson Building and saw some exhibits. The Jefferson Building is said to be the most beautiful building in Washington D.C. I can believe it. The interior is richly packed with mosaics and sculptures and more, so many that they're impossible to digest. One is merely aware of their plentiful abundance.

My tour guide was excited, enthusiastic. After a professionally-made intro video, she showed us around, showing us the highlights of the exhibits as well as the famous, incredible, grand Reading Room that sadly we were not allowed to photograph.

I learned some odd facts. For instance, the Library of Congress's attic had a high school for congressional pages. (The pages needed their own school because the hours they work would preclude a normal school.) For budgetary reasons, it closed in 2011. Also, despite continually acquiring new buildings the Library of Congress doesn't have enough space. They get 22k new items a day. The Library is an omnivorous history-documenting machine.

On the second visit, I saw more exhibits in the Jefferson Building and also visited the Madison Building for yet more. Over the course of my visits, I saw:

• The Bible exhibition.
  • It includes a Gutenberg Bible--yes another (as if I haven't seen enough)--but this one is special: it's one of only three complete ones on vellum.
  • It also has the Giant Bible of Mainz, another large, old bible. The draftsman has amazing handwriting--the text looks printed. Also interesting: the tour guide told stories about how the monk dropped words to stay within the lines. This was probably not the best thing for readability.
• An exhibit on creating America. This exhibit shows rough drafts and final printed version of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It's also about important documents/events from the time (such as Thomas Paine's Common Sense and the peace treaty with the British), the first three presidents, and America's relationship with the French revolution.
• Thomas Jefferson's Library, which he sold to the Library of Congress to re-jump-start its collection in 1815. I saw re-jump-start because the original Library of Congress collection was mostly burnt by the British in 1814. Though some of his books were lost to various later fires, the Library of Congress acquired replacements (identical editions) of the burnt books. The books are organized according to Jefferson's scheme. The Library of Congress hopes to complete the collection.
• An exhibit on exploring the early Americas. It has books, paintings, and objects about explorers in America, focusing on indigenous people (including the Incas, Aztec, and Mayas), Columbus's voyages (with documents by and about him), the Spanish conquest of Mexico, and the fight over Florida.
• An exhibit of old maps (technically part of the previous exhibit), including the first map that used the term America (1507) and the first map created in America of America after independence. Regarding the former, it's surprising that the cartographer's later map (1516) covering the same region is less accurate.
• A fun exhibit of cartoons ("graphic arts") in a variety of styles from all ages. Technically this is composed of three small exhibits: on the history/growth of comic art, on Herbert L. Block's political cartoons, and on using cartoons to explore human nature or simply cause laughter. Regardless, the exhibits are done well, with detailed and intelligent commentary.
• The Bob Hope gallery on entertainment and politics and the connections between them, with a video introduction by Stephen Colbert. Most of the displays cover people in and changes to the entertainment industry and news media before my time, but I connected with and enjoyed the recent clips in the video displays.
• An exhibit on I Love Lucy.
• An exhibit of false-color bird's-eye maps presented for their artistic effect. See the pictures. (This was the only exhibit where I was allowed to take pictures and wanted to.)
• An exhibit on the Gershwins that I didn't find particularly interesting, probably because I don't know much of their work.
• A display of drawings of Americans in Paris in the nineteenth century.

I spent three hours at the Library of Congress on my first visit and another two hours on my second visit.

Diplomatic Reception Rooms

The Diplomatic Reception Rooms are the fancy rooms the State Department uses when it wants to have formal meetings with foreign dignitaries. One day I arranged a tour. I took pictures on it.

The Diplomatic Reception Rooms are on the eighth floor of a nondescript State Department building that houses the diplomatic corps.

The rooms are lavishly decorated and meant to impress: America is important and can show off and we're honoring our guests by inviting them to such a place. They include a lot of antique furniture, paintings, and decorations from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Although some items were made in America, many were made overseas because the quality at the time was better. For instance, the rooms include hand-made Persian, Turkish, and neoclassical French rugs, Chinese porcelain, British chandeliers, and various types of secretary desks including Bombay and Oxbow. In terms of paintings, most are portraits of early Americans. As for the landscapes, it felt like the majority were of Niagara Falls! I guess it's a quintessential American site that was often painted during the time period in question.

Interestingly, a security guy followed us around on the tour with the tour guide. This didn't happen at the Pentagon (but those guides worked in pairs and were both military). This didn't even happen at the White House.

The White House

Early one cold winter morning, Di Yin and I walked the six blocks or so from our apartment to the White House. I'd arranged a tour through my congresswoman's office a few months prior as required. As we walked, the sun's early glow rose above the Washington Monument.

I didn't take pictures because cameras weren't allowed in the complex, so I didn't have mine with me. On other days I took pictures of the outside of the White House.

Security is provided by the "uniformed division" of the Secret Service. They look and act much like regular police. We passed through three explicit checkpoints, two where they checked our IDs and one with an x-ray machine. We also passed by multiple spots where guards simply eyed us as we walked by. I think they watch every intersection, every place where someone can deviate from where he or she should be.

On the White House grounds, our constrained route passed by the General William Tecumseh Sherman Monument. I liked the monument not for its main statue but rather for the life-size statues of guards standing watch at each corner of its base. It seemed appropriate. Here are other people's pictures of the monument from a distance, a close-up of a guard, and more pictures of the monument.

We entered the White House through the East Wing. Its hallways are lined with photos of White House events. One set of pictures are of White House gingerbread houses!

Our tour guide explained the East Wing has a movie screening room because it makes life easier for the Secret Service than letting the president go to a public movie theater.

The tour mainly focused on five important rooms in the central wing.

My overall impression is that the White House is the American equivalent to European royal palaces, though on a much smaller scale. Its decor is old-fashioned, with ornate (sometimes Persian) carpets and furniture that looks uncomfortable. The rooms are usually in eighteenth-century or French-Empire style. They all have twenty-foot ceilings.

I'm sure part of the reason it's old-fashioned is for historic reasons and historic sentimentality. The President has little say in how the public rooms are decorated. He can redecorate the private rooms such as the Oval Office at will. He even has the right to borrow art from the Hirshhorn Museum and the National Gallery of Art. Changes to the public room, on the other hand, have to be approved by committee (the Committee for the Preservation of the White House).

The East Room is a grand ballroom with reliefs on the ceiling and walls, three large hanging chandeliers, and many candelabras on columns and attached to walls. We noticed the windows have the old-style wavy type of glass.

The Green, Blue, and Red Rooms--all appropriately named--are smaller, more of a normal size. They all have surprisingly nice wall coverings (wallpaper, satin, or silk). When I read about the wallpaper, I assumed it would be ugly. I was wrong; these wall covers don't attract attention.

I like the artwork in the Green Room; it's a good variety from early American through the twentieth century. I liked a few paintings in this room, but the only one of those the tour guide mentioned the name of is Independence Hall in Philadelphia by Ferdinand Richardt. I also caught the name of two nice Red Room paintings: Rocky Mountain Landscape by Albert Bierstadt and The Indian's Vespers by Asher Durand. All these three rooms have fewer portraits than the East Room, though still at least half a dozen each.

In one of these rooms, Di Yin spotted a really nice looking paper quilled vase (as in quilling).

The State Dining Room, though the same size as the East Room, is, in terms of decorations, no East Room. It has one painting--of Abraham Lincoln--that was donated on condition that it hangs as the focal point in the room. Putting forth such a strong condition to the President of the United States takes chutzpah! Also, I was impressed in this room by the wooden tables with carved eagles as legs (picture).

We didn't get to go into the West Wing.

Curious fact I read in a guide book: in 1818, white lead paint replaced limestone whitewashing for the exterior of the White House. I think lead paint is still used. I can't find any evidence to the contrary despite extensive research on the web and in books.

At other times, I visited the White House Visitor Center. It houses a large display exploring many aspects of the house and life in it. Over the course of visits, I probably spent two and a half hours in it.

There I watched a good thirty minute video about the history of the White House and the many objects within it. Given the topics, you might be surprised to see me write that the video was interesting throughout.

The visitor center has large panels with pictures of the presidents' families and information about how they lived. It explores, for instance, what did their kids do in the White House, how do they make it their home, and what impact did they leave on it. There's lots of text here, but the stories are personal and interesting. I came back to read this stuff in depth.

There are also lots of panels on how the White House architecture and decorations have been renovated / redesigned over time. I thought it was neat to see before/after photos, as well as photos of the Oval Office under each president for the last fifty years. By the way, even if the White House decorations don't change much in style, much of the furniture is replaced regularly because it gets so much use.

The center has a display of large, vibrant paintings by Peter Waddell of his vision of White House interiors and exteriors at various points in time. They're both historic and artistic. They're lavishly painted with wonderful texture.

The Capitol

One day I visited the Capitol, taking pictures along the way.

I'd arranged a tour. After an introductory video, we walked around the complex. There are many statues around, mostly of presidents. Naturally, the highlight of the tour was the rotunda.

Our tour group peeked in the original Supreme Court chamber. The Supreme Court used this chamber for sixty years, and was housed in the Capitol building for over a hundred years. So much for supposedly temporary quarters.

We also stopped by the crypt room. Originally it was intended that George Washington be buried there in the center of the Capitol. However, it took too long to build the Capitol--by the time it was done, no one wanted to disinter him to move him there.

I learned a decent amount on the tour and liked the rotunda but overall found the tour none too exciting. I was disappointed that we didn't get to see the current House or Senate chambers. Also, I noticed lots of informative signs around. We didn't get to read them because we were shepherded around by our tour guide. I wonder who gets to read them beside legislators and staff. It's too bad, as judging by their number they must have more information than conveyed by the guide.

After the tour I explored the exhibition hall. It has exhibits on the Capitol and its history, as well as on the evolution of policies within the House and Senate. Some of the stories about debates, bills, compromises, amendments, parliamentary activities, investigations, corruption, and power brokering were quite interesting. For instance, the Senate was originally a closed-door body until the state legislatures--who at the time often directed how their senators should vote--protested the lack of visibility and accountability.

I also learned about the jobs of people in the building, and about the short subway connecting the Capitol to its associated office buildings.

In exhibition hall, there are lots of models showing details of parts of the Capitol building, and models of the building at various points in time. These latter models are smart because they also show the the buildings near the Capitol. For instance, one can see when Union Station and the Supreme Court Building showed up.

The exhibitions are well done. Because I read everything, I spent a long time in the exhibition hall.

Memorials and The Mall

I walked and biked across and around The Mall--Washington's long strip of grass from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial--many times. Sometimes it was to play host to visitors; sometimes it was to explore museums; sometimes it was to examine monuments; sometimes it was simply to walk or jog or run. The Mall was an easy destination because I lived so close to it.

I collected the pictures I took in various visits to the Mall. Some visits were short one-offs; others were day-long sight-seeing of memorials. The pictures are in chronological order, which means that often sites near each other are adjacent in the album but sometimes they're not if I visited them on separate days.

Annoyingly, the Mall gradually closed. When I arrived in Washington D.C., the area around the reflecting pool near the Lincoln Memorial was entirely off-limits as it was being rebuilt. After I arrived, as winter approached the Park Service shut more and more grassy segments to do rebuilding or at least replanting over the winter. Though I laud the goals, I want to complain that these construction sites blighted the landscape. February became worse with more construction as building started for the African American Museum. The spring wasn't much better; if anything it was worse, with huge mounds of dirt of being dug up on the eastern half of the Mall in order to rebuild grounds for better drainage and more sustainable lawns.

Washington D.C. Neighborhoods

Here are several short descriptions of my impressions of neighborhoods in or near Washington D.C. Some neighborhoods deserved longer write-ups: Penn Quarter and Chinatown, Dupont Circle, Georgetown, and Old Town Alexandria. Those neighborhoods are not included here. For general impressions of Washington D.C. as a whole, see my overview post.

Adams Morgan
Adams Morgan is quirky and eclectic. The commercial streets have some unusual shops. Residentially, the housing consists of densely packed row houses, mostly all individualized (i.e., different from their neighbors').

Cleveland Park
On a blustery, surprisingly warm (for being post-Thanksgiving) Sunday, I found myself wandering around Cleveland Park. It's an upscale neighborhood, perhaps even more so than Dupont Circle. Both these neighborhoods have embassies, but Cleveland Park consists of nice single-family homes and a relatively smaller number of apartment buildings whereas Dupont Circle is mostly townhouses. This means the majority of buildings in Cleveland Park are larger and more expensive. That said, Cleveland Park's commercial area isn't anything like Dupont Circle's.

Indeed, many months later, I had a reason to further explore Cleveland Park's commercial strip. I found it's a charming neighborhood center, several blocks long, filled with single-story, densely packed shops. Some of the charm comes from its older feel, including for instance an old-fashioned movie theater. The commercial area has everything you'd want; as such, it could be a small town's downtown. But, it actually has too much stuff for a small town--its density and variety could only be supported by having the density of a city around it.

After writing this section, I read more about Cleveland Park. I agree with its tagline: "A small town in the city." It has the feel of a small town center yet is more than a small town center.

U Street
U Street is an up-and-coming neighborhood. I understand it's been up-and-coming for a decade or two now. It seems a bit stagnant; there's no obvious new developments. It's fairly hip, at least judging by the restaurants, but it could use more, or at least more shops. There are occasional gloomy, closed buildings.

Di Yin and I liked the look of an modern apartment building nearby and its many big plate glass windows.

Further away from the main commercial section, U Street is edgy. For instance, off the eastern end (near the Shaw metro station), all businesses have bars in their windows. This area has lots of African stuff. For instance, one short block had three African (including Ethiopian) restaurants. I heard lots of a language I didn't recognize. There are also lots of fences in this neighborhood for construction/repair zones. We were in that east end for dinner (Ethiopian, naturally), but it's not really a destination. U Street itself is a destination for some people however, though not for us. Over the course of the year we didn't find ourselves there very often.

Columbia Heights
I stopped by this neighborhood twice, only briefly for pizzas. It seems like a nice, modern, yuppie neighborhood, with many upper-middle-class chain restaurants and big-box chain stores. Everything looks new. It reminded me of Clarendon except this neighborhood is built up. Around the metro station are high-rise residential buildings with commercial establishments in the first story. Meanwhile, Clarendon is relatively flat, with few buildings more than a couple of stories.

On my second trip (for pizza at a different place), we left the town center. The older residential section was mostly well-kept-up townhouses with deep, attractive front gardens. We found neighborhood restaurants and bars on some corners. They felt like community places. I could live in this area.

Indeed, the town felt like an integrated community. We saw evidence that whites, blacks, and hispanics all lived in the area (walking dogs, carrying groceries, etc.). Di Yin guessed that the white people are newer folk, gentrifying the neighborhood, and the big name retailers are coming with them.

H Street
H Street NE is a neighborhood we kept hearing about, the new up-and-coming neighborhood replacing U Street. On various bus and driving trips that passed through this area, we saw fast food joints and an intriguing restaurant or two but not much of anything overall. We weren't impressed.

It was only near the end of our stay in D.C. that we made it there in person, for a Japanese (ramen) restaurant. By this point, I had tips from various people for half a dozen restaurants in this neighborhood. We walked the eight or so blocks of the main commercial strip eying stores. It definitely seems like a hipster destination, certainly more so than U Street. It's funkier. I felt more comfortable on H Street than U Street. (Don't take that to mean I'm claiming to be a hipster.) I think it's that H Street shops tend to sell food or items that people became interested in over the last five years whereas U Street shops moved in years earlier and thus tend to be for things that interest me less at the moment.

The Mall
When friends visited, we'd take them on strolls around the Mall, sometimes at night. I wrote more about the Mall in a different post.

Southeast
Not everything one hears generalizing about good and bad neighborhoods is true. For instance, one day I walked from the Capitol through SE D.C. to the Navy Yard / waterfront. (Some guides warn visitors against traveling outside NW D.C., saying the other sides are unsafe. For what it's worth, all the neighborhoods in D.C. listed above are in NW.) The southeast is a perfectly nice area. I first passed townhouses then, across the highway, perfectly respectable apartment buildings. Many people I saw wore suits and/or government badges. I spent another half an hour walking in SE circumnavigating the Navy Yard, and thought the neighborhood was fine.

Crystal City, Arlington (VA)
Crystal City is a neat place. We went to a restaurant there for dinner one evening and were impressed by the area's extensive underground malls and tunnels. Stretching more than half a mile in length, these passageways connect numerous apartment buildings, hotels, and office buildings with about two hundred shops (including several dozen restaurants covering a breadth of price points and cuisines), a metro station, and even a theater. One could get anything one needs without going outside, a great boon in cold weather. A bonus: the mall's/tunnel's walls were decorated with a huge photography exhibit. It was fun to gawk and walk. I'm led to believe that there's usually some sort of exhibit on display.

Clarendon, Arlington (VA)
I liked the feel of Clarendon on my first visit there years earlier and I still liked it on my first trip this year. It's a nice, walkable neighborhood center, filled with many shops, restaurants, and grocery stores. The architecture and especially the store selection reminded me more of California than another neighborhood in the Washington D.C. metro area. The Pinkberry shop perhaps drove that comment, but the area also has both Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, two stores one doesn't tend to see close together except in California.

Eden Center, Falls Church (VA)
One day when we had a car, Di Yin and I stopped by Eden Center in Falls Church. Like San Jose's Little Saigon, it's the Vietnamese center of the metro region. In a couple small indoor malls and large strip malls, Eden Center has dozens of restaurants, cafes, bakeries, and bars. It's a panoply of Vietnamese dining. It's clear the landlord doesn't enforce any variety in types of shops; there are many places competing with identical business models. Besides these restaurants, there are many jewelry shops, a few salons, a grocery store, and a handful of other types of shops.

Interestingly, the parking lot flies the American flag and the flag that South Vietnam flew before the Vietnamese war (and lost to the communists).

Alexandria (VA)
I wrote about my impressions of Old Town Alexandria in another post. During another visit, this time in the evening between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we observed Old Town's main street was nicely decorated for the holidays with lights in every tree.

One day Di Yin and I met a friend with a car (E) for lunch in Del Ray. Del Ray was a town near Alexandria built mainly in 1895-1930. Annexed by the town of Alexandria, Del Ray is now considered a historic neighborhood within it. Although we didn't walk around Del Ray, I feel I got a good impression of the neighborhood from our drive through it.

Del Ray is a nice middle-/upper-middle- class town. Along Mount Vernon, the main street, are a selection of quirky, fun shops and restaurants. The coolest thing about the street, however, is its architecture. The stores are either in row-shops, small stand-alone buildings, or converted single-family houses. It's a nice medley of styles, and all have a built-a-while-ago historic feel (though all are well-maintained). Not as densely packed as a modern urban street, nor with large-scale shops like modern suburban streets, it feels like an old-fashioned main street. Meanwhile, the residential areas nearby are similarly low-scale, with small-ish, old-ish single-family houses and townhouses.

Bethesda (MD)
Bethesda's town center is large. I biked through the town on multiple occasions and took the metro there on other occasions (mostly to eat) and rarely went down the same street twice. On every trip, I discovered new streets with blocks of restaurants and shops. At every time of day, there were always people on the streets. Maybe not as many people as in Georgetown, but it was always happening. One evening we found a professional band performing in a square.

The buildings are relatively tall in this vicinity, many a dozen stories. They look residential. I'd guess Bethesda has a higher population density than the area around most other metro stations.

The whole area feels new/modern and clean. It's definitely one of the nicer suburban destinations compared to others around D.C. and around most other cities.

Rockville (MD)
I twice made the trek to Rockville for Chinese food. (It has a large Chinese population.) Rockville is definitely suburban. I visited its town center, which seems like a smaller version of Reston's town center, including the central plaza / performance area and nearby library. The analogy to Reston's town center stretches further, as the roads around Rockville's town center are likewise large, high-speed roads, sometimes traffic-clogged. Outside the town center, it's not a town meant for walking.