First day actually in DC.

Smithsonian Castle

So yesterday was scheduled to be a nice crisp sunny winter day, and thus I planned my first excursion into the city.  I got my brother-in-law to drop me at the nearest metro station and took the metro into town.  Coming up out of the metro tunnel, I only knew basically where I was.  I was somewhere near the national mall and a couple blocks south.  My directional sense can get messed up down in those tunnels on the train, so I follow the crowd to the outside world.  I head in what I think is a northernly direction, only to discover that it was actual east when I caught a quick glimpse of the top of the capitol building.  Woohoo now I was oriented.  And I made my way to the national mall and the Smithsonian Castle.  It had a small sampling of a little bit from all the different museums which was somewhat nice, also since it was a bit before ten yet the other places weren't open.  Then I started down the mall, the first museum was the Hirshhorn Museum.  It had an interesting display about The Art of Destruction.  I was slightly disappointed in that a lot of it was more Destruction as art.  I find that there is a large difference here, the first is the looking at an accidentally destroyed piano and seeing the art to how it fell and the second is going out and destroying a piano with a sledge hammer and calling it art.  I like the first much better than the second.  It did have an interesting display about Hiroshima.  Unfortunately half of the museum was closed for renovation.

So on down the mall I want.  I spent the rest of the day here (close to six hours):

Air and Space Museum

They have some interesting things from the Wright brothers original flyer to an entire exhibit on the history of navigation; The parts I enjoy the most are of course are space related.  Just outside there was a group of volunteers looking at sunspots.  Unfortunately the clouds were not cooperating, although I did catch a quick glimpse of some nice spots.   I was reminded of why museums on weekdays are not necessarily a good thing; all those children running around.  I very much giggled at all the little changes that they made to their exhibit on the planets after Pluto got demoted to a Dwarf planet.  Only some parts of the exhibit have been completely reworked, and it is much less noticeable, whereas others have just had a sentence added or the spot at the front of the exhibit where there are pictures of all the planets plus an empty space for Pluto.  One spot it looked like they decided to add all the other dwarf planets and remake Pluto's tag, as these parts appeared much newer. I really tried not to giggle out loud.  Also the scale model outside still includes Pluto, now as a dwarf planet; I hope they add more about the Oort cloud.  Overall a great day was had.  Also we need to make it more socially acceptable to wear layers on our legs, as my legs were cold from where my sweatshirt ended, all the way down to the tops of my socks when I was outside, but if I had long underwear on I probably would have been too warm while inside.
 
After I was finished I appreciated the pretty sunset from the mall, realized I had had enough standing and walking for one day (plus the other museums I want to go to are closing soon) and took the metro back to my sisters.

Capitol Building at sunset

Washington Monument at Sunset

Clearly I like sunsets, but the temperature was dropping fast, and my nose was cold.

Today has been spent as a quite day at my sister's letting my feet recover and curling up under the covers with a kitty and a book.  There is just enough rain to make me not want to go out in it.