Short Day

Oldest Carousel in the World

Sculpture at the Hirshhorn Gallery (that I wasn't supposed to take a picture of)
Public Service Event on the Mall

I was so exhausted from yesterday that I slept until 9 am this morning. Then the elevator at the Metro station was broken so we lost 45 minutes or so trying to figure how how to deal with that. We normally park on level 5 of the parking structure but that was obviously not going to work with no elevator. We found a spot luckily on level one when somebody left.

We tried to go to the Arts and Technology museum but they had it closed for refurbishing. I was sad because the last time they had some really old computers which was really funny. We did go by the oldest carousel in the world (merry-go-round) and then we went in the Hirshhorn Gallery. We discovered that we really don't care much for modern art but there were a couple of pieces there that I really liked. Luckily, I took pictures of them before anybody told me that I wasn't supposed to take pictures. There was a sculpture of this fat, naked old guy that was absolutely uncanny ... it looked so real.

We had been watching them put up tents and things on the Mall all week. Today, there were all these booths from different government agencies. It is Public Service Week. It was very interesting. Everybody was there from the IRS, Coast Guard, Forest Service, you name it... they were there. They were all giving stuff away ..so we loaded up on pens, pencils, notepads etc. (Our tax dollars at work). We also talked to a young man from VA that was sure that Donnie could get his prosthetic legs and wheelchair etc from VA. He even gave us his email address in case we have any problems when we get home. That could end up saving us a small fortune.

You hear all the time about Postal Worker Week or whatever. It appears that these things are actually celebrated here in Washington. There was something else going on down by the Washington Monument. It's nice to see the public places being utilized. Also, there is a large plaza down toward the White House that is apparently used for public demonstrations. It is called Freedom Plaza. There were a bunch of protestors there the day that we went to the White House.

Donnie and I both agree that this place really makes you appreciate the country and its history. It makes you very proud.