Thursday, February 26, 2009
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Well, Bob and I are planning another trip. This time we are going to Colorado. Bob is going to Denver on business in April and I am going with him. Only, I'm going to spend most of my week in Durango--about a 7 hour drive south of Denver. I'm going to visit Maryanna, Pat and family. I'm SO excited. I have never been to Colorado before and I haven't seen Pat and Maryanna for such a long time.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
A DAY IN DC
What a great day we had yesterday!
Bob and I did one of our favorite things -- went into DC for the day.
We took the metro and arrived downtown just about 9:00 when the museums open. Today we chose to go to a new museum called the Newseum. It is a museum dedicated to guess what--the news. When you walk into the main lobby, there is a news helicopter hanging over the lobby. The building itself is very modern looking, lots of windows and very bright inside. Great views of the city out the windows. They have newspapers from the 1600's to today--the front pages covering all the big stories of the day. They have a room dedicated to the FBI--famous cases such as the arrest of Dillinger and the Lindberg baby kidnapping.
They have a room dedicated to journalists, such as Daniel Pearl, who lost their lives while reporting the news. In that section there is a white Chevy pickup riddled with bullet holes -- it protected the reporters who rode in it. There is a 9/11 room with a piece of one of the transmitting antennas from the towers of the World Trade Center and a piece of the fuselage from flight 93.
They have a piece of the Berlin wall and one of the watch towers the East Berlin guards used. Lots of footage of the wall coming down. There is an interactive news studio where kids of all ages can pretend they are reporters and their image show up on the TV monitors. Film clips of the biggest news events over the years.
The door from the room that was broken into during Watergate is there.
On the 6th level there is a wonderful outdoor observation deck with terrific views of the city. We could see people ice-skating, planes landing at Reagan National.
All in all, a great museum. Very helpful employees. The cafe was very good. Kind of pricey to get in. It's not part of the Smithsonian--so it isn't free. My one word of caution would be for folks with younger kids--while there were quite a few things for them to do and see -- some of the film clips could be disturbing. It was very interesting, but I did feel that I needed to do something cheerful after being reminded of one sad story after the other.
For anyone who is familiar with DC--the Newseum is located right behind the National Gallery of Art. It can be reached from several metro stops. We walked from the Smithsonian stop--which is a good long walk--which was what we wanted. The Smithsonian stop comes out right at the Mall.
We got to the Newseum just as it opened and were done by around 1:00. So, we walked over to the American History Museum--which used to be my favorite. They shut that one down for about 2 years for renovations/remodeling. It just re-opened in the fall of 2008. I was expecting something spectacular and have to say I was somewhat disappointed. It may just have been because we were there in the afternoon, when the museums are more crowded--but it seemed like there were long lines for all the exhibits when there never used to be before. We never did find my favorite exhibit---the MASH martini glasses, Fonzi's jacket, Dorothy's ruby slippers and so on. But we did have a nice time. We found the transportation exhibit--that shows transportation from horse and buggy to now. I have always liked that one and enjoyed walking around it a few times. Fortunately, we live close enough to be able to go back to find the stuff I wasn't able to find today.
Bob and I did one of our favorite things -- went into DC for the day.
We took the metro and arrived downtown just about 9:00 when the museums open. Today we chose to go to a new museum called the Newseum. It is a museum dedicated to guess what--the news. When you walk into the main lobby, there is a news helicopter hanging over the lobby. The building itself is very modern looking, lots of windows and very bright inside. Great views of the city out the windows. They have newspapers from the 1600's to today--the front pages covering all the big stories of the day. They have a room dedicated to the FBI--famous cases such as the arrest of Dillinger and the Lindberg baby kidnapping.
They have a room dedicated to journalists, such as Daniel Pearl, who lost their lives while reporting the news. In that section there is a white Chevy pickup riddled with bullet holes -- it protected the reporters who rode in it. There is a 9/11 room with a piece of one of the transmitting antennas from the towers of the World Trade Center and a piece of the fuselage from flight 93.
They have a piece of the Berlin wall and one of the watch towers the East Berlin guards used. Lots of footage of the wall coming down. There is an interactive news studio where kids of all ages can pretend they are reporters and their image show up on the TV monitors. Film clips of the biggest news events over the years.
The door from the room that was broken into during Watergate is there.
On the 6th level there is a wonderful outdoor observation deck with terrific views of the city. We could see people ice-skating, planes landing at Reagan National.
All in all, a great museum. Very helpful employees. The cafe was very good. Kind of pricey to get in. It's not part of the Smithsonian--so it isn't free. My one word of caution would be for folks with younger kids--while there were quite a few things for them to do and see -- some of the film clips could be disturbing. It was very interesting, but I did feel that I needed to do something cheerful after being reminded of one sad story after the other.
For anyone who is familiar with DC--the Newseum is located right behind the National Gallery of Art. It can be reached from several metro stops. We walked from the Smithsonian stop--which is a good long walk--which was what we wanted. The Smithsonian stop comes out right at the Mall.
We got to the Newseum just as it opened and were done by around 1:00. So, we walked over to the American History Museum--which used to be my favorite. They shut that one down for about 2 years for renovations/remodeling. It just re-opened in the fall of 2008. I was expecting something spectacular and have to say I was somewhat disappointed. It may just have been because we were there in the afternoon, when the museums are more crowded--but it seemed like there were long lines for all the exhibits when there never used to be before. We never did find my favorite exhibit---the MASH martini glasses, Fonzi's jacket, Dorothy's ruby slippers and so on. But we did have a nice time. We found the transportation exhibit--that shows transportation from horse and buggy to now. I have always liked that one and enjoyed walking around it a few times. Fortunately, we live close enough to be able to go back to find the stuff I wasn't able to find today.
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