Or so we thought until Alexander started running a fever which will keep
Mommy and Daddy in Washington for a few more days until he can be
safely released without worrying about a U-turn right back into the
hospital.
But at least Grammy and Nicholas are getting to head home courtesy of a
lift from Gramps and Moby Dodge. I have to say that I was quite thankful
that Gramps drove that long-haul from Florida to Maryland because it
solved a logistical nightmare for us.
You see, three of us had come to Washington in Mommy's Escape but were
it not for him, five of us would have been returning. In the light of
hindsight, I probably should have hired a minivan for the trip but when
you've got less than twenty-four hours to be on the road following your
baby and Mommy who are flying to Washington, you don't tend to think
about those sorts of things. We'll do it better next time! So I was
prepared to hop a cheap flight from
Baltimore-Washington International (BWI) or
Dulles International (IAD) and grab a ride when I got to Raleigh.
Gramps made that hassle unnecessary by kindly returning Grammy and
Nicholas home to Zebulon. By this point, Nicholas has had pretty much
as he could stand of Washington and hospitals and not being home. Trust
me, we know exactly where he was coming from on that one (Mommy even more
so as she hasn't really had much time in her own bed since Alexander was
born).
Oh, we wish we were coming with you but for right now, we wish you a
safe journey and we hope to see you soon!
We had a welcome surprise in the form of Gramps who had driven all night
from Florida to Largo, Maryland to visit Alexander in the hospital.
He arrived in town a couple of days ago and got a room at his preferred
Hampton Inn hotel not too
far from that Sam's Club and FedEx Field that Grammy and I had discovered
earlier.
Once again, Moby Dodge had steered him successfully north and my hat's
off to him considering that the drive from Raleigh to the District
is long enough for me without adding another ten hours onto the trip.
But it was very nice to see another familiar face after being in
Washington for over a week and in such circumstances.
Our main destination today is
The National Zoo which is just
north of the Adams-Morgan district where our favorite Indian restaurant
is located. If you find yourself in the area of 18th Street NW
and Columbia, find your way a bit south of the intersection to
Jyoti. You will not be disappointed...and if you leave hungry,
well, there is just something quite wrong with you!
The Zoo isn't terribly far from the Ronald McDonald House (about fifteen
minutes) but I wasn't quite sure about the parking availability over
there. Then an idea occurred...why not kill two birds with the same
proverbial stone, hmmmm? Nicholas has had this thing about trains
for the longest time but the Thomas train set at the Ronald
McDonald house has got the boy positively hooked on trains and train
sets! What better way to solve the parking problem and let him ride
a train than to take the Metro to
the Zoo.
As it turns out, the Red Line was the train for us. We could have
hopped on at Brookland-CUA but Rhode Island Avenue was
a better choice as it had a big commuter park-and-ride lot and luckily
on weekends, parking there when riding the rails is free. Be advised
that if you want to park there during the week, you've got to have a
SmartPass card...there is no other way to get into the lot (but
you could park at the Giant Foods just up the hill from the
station...just make sure you're not in an area where they'll tow you!).
A friendly Metro employee showed us how to use the automated ticket
booths (not the most obvious process in the world, they could definitely
use a usability study on those machines) and pretty soon we had some
all-day passes in our hands. The tickets celebrated the Presidential
Inauguration...of 2001...but hey, they're only four years and
two months off, eh! The Metro guy also gave us a great hint for getting
to the Zoo...get off the train at Cleveland Park station to
walk down the hill to the Zoo entrance and then catch the return
train at Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan which is down the hill
from the entrance. It pays to listen to the locals, people! :)
There was a little bit of a wait for the train as they were single-tracking
Red Line for maintenance on the rails downtown. But suffice it to say,
Nicholas loved riding the train. Going underground near
Union Station took him by surprise but soon enough, he was riding
the rails like a seasoned pro.
Before long, we found ourselves at our stop and it was a relatively
short hike down the hill to the entrance. The longer hike was through
the Zoo itself...imagine a winding path down a fairly sizeable hill and
you get the picture. Speaking of which, we snapped plenty of pictures
of the pandas, giraffes, apes, and big cats. Unfortunately, the weather
wasn't the most cooperative...it was cool and overcast with occasional
periods of rain and that literally put a bit of a damper on the trip
because the animals were smarter than we were and stayed under cover.
But Nicholas enjoyed seeing the animals and all of us (Grammy, Gramps,
Daddy, and Nicholas) had a good time in spite of the weather.
I will confess that the Zoo was pretty disappointing...I think I was
expecting it to be much larger than it was. That was probably silly of
me as you'd think I'd be aware of just how little land there is in
Washington that isn't taken up by something. But still, I think the
North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro is
actually more impressive. And if you've ever been to the
San Antonio Zoo near
Brackenridge Park,
the National Zoo (nor the North Carolina Zoo, for that matter) just really
don't compare to that world-class facility.
But that didn't stop us from enjoying the day and the train rides with
Nicholas who doesn't know the difference between these zoos (yet!). Of
course, you'd think that being dragged all over Washington and having
ridden real trains, our little one would be tired from the outing.
Yeah, right!
As soon as we walked through the front door, he made an immediate
left turn for the choo-choo, all signs of fatigue banished from
view. That's the sort of thing that makes you appreciate the comedian
on the back of the parking lot tram at EPCOT Center in Orlando
who wryly observed that you have parked in the ENERGY
parking lot...energy is that thing that your kids will have at the end
of the day but you will not!
Truer words were never spoken...
Nicholas and I had a chance to do a bit more exploring round our nation's
capital today. We did a bit of sightseeing northwest of the White
House toward Georgetown and Rock Creek Park. The first one was the
National Cathedral
which is actually visible from Children's National Medical Centre
(you get a good view of it from the cafeteria on the west side of the
building). You could spend a day there just looking at all of the
gargoyles adorning the building which includes not only traditional
gargoyles but even such pop-culture icons as Darth Vader! I
kid you not! Those gargoyles actually serve a practical purpose other
than scaring off birds and unwitting visitors. Gothic cathedrals have
no gutters so the gargoyles and other architectural features serve as
water diverters to allow water to drain from the roof! Guess those
ancient engineers knew what they were doing after all which explains why
most of the cathedrals in the world are still standing and didn't have
their roof implode like Kemper Arena's did in Kansas City not long after
Daddy moved to Ft. Sam Houston!
Not too far from Children's and the Ronald McDonald House is another
beautiful cathedral on the grounds of the
Catholic University of America.
The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
is not a Gothic cathedral but rather a gorgeous building that would
probably be more at home in Spain. The tower in particular suggests the Moorish
influence commonly seen in Spanish cathedrals (the Moors were Arabs
who had conquered Spain from their base in North Africa until they were
pushed back to Africa by Ferdinand and Isabella). It is a stunning
sight, particularly at night when the basilica is lit to dramatic
effect!
Next along the way to the south of the Cathedral was a quick drive past
the US Naval Observatory. Not
only is the USNO home to the Navy's astronomical research divisions
and telescopes (the stars have always been important to sailors through
the ages), the nation's standard atomic clocks are housed here. The
grounds of the USNO are also home to the official residence of the
Vice President of the United States and you won't have a problem seeing
the part of the observatory grounds closest to Dick Cheney's house...it
is heavily fortified and can withstand an assault by even heavily
armored vehicles.
As you drive round the observatory, you start to get into some very
exclusive areas in the District leading into Embassy Row which, like it's
name implies, is home to most of the diplomatic corps based in
Washington. The US State Department isn't too far from here with the
headquarters located in Foggy Bottom.
A bit further along the Rock Creek Parkway (which is a gorgeous
way to see northwestern Washington!), we came upon the
Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts. It's a bit weird seeing that beautiful building
and developed Washington after driving through Rock Creek Park which is
about as unspoiled as the District is ever going to get. Approaching
the Kennedy Center from the north, you literally drive out from under
some massive oaks and then the building is right in front of you.
Not too far from the Kennedy Center is the
Watergate Hotel. The hotel
is also near Foggy Bottom which was home to the break-in that brought down the
presidency of Richard Nixon. The whole Watergate saga did have it's
unintentional moments of irony...the burglary was orchestrated by
operatives of the Committee to Re-Elect the President and one of
the two official acronyms was CREEP (the other was CRP).
I'm telling you folks, truth is really stranger than fiction! The
buildings are fairly unremarkable and it's easy to miss that you're
close to the site that would eventually be one of the reasons for our
only presidential resignation.
Of course, my ever-vigilant co-pilot Nicholas slept through all of these
sights! Oh, well...
Our real destination was the new
Smithsonian's National Air and Space Steven F. Udvar-Hazy
museum annex near Dulles International Airport which is well west of the
District and about a forty-five minute to an hour drive from Children's.
If you want to beat the tolls, get to I-66 and take the airport-only
lanes, do the loop through the airport and past that famous terminal
building, and then take exit 9 just outside of the airport toward the
south. Udvar-Hazy is about three miles from there on the far side of
the airport grounds.
Yeah, I'll admit it...this trip definitely a scratch Daddy's itch
trip but we figured Nicholas would probably enjoy seeing the planes.
After all, he's always looking to the sky when a plane or helicopter
flies near the house and is awfully good at zeroing in on where the
plane actually is. Yeah...that's my boy! And yes, you can well imagine
that at least one set of his flash cards in the future will be
aircraft profiles for identification. (Real aviation geeks can
tell the difference between aircraft types by listening to the engines
and ones who are seriously in need of a life (like Daddy!) can
tell you what airline the plane belongs to based on the sound of the
engine! I kid you not...the JT8-D engines on a Delta 727 sounded much
better maintained than any of American's 727's which always had that
high-pitched whistle coming off the exhaust sections indicating excess
air was being bypassed round the fan stages. Yeah, I spent enough time
listening to them landing at Orlando International and yes, I probably
needed a real life but hey, it was one of the cheaper forms of
entertainment available in Orlando to a college student on a limited
budget! And for a big fan of Boeing's commercial aircraft, the
observation area at Frontage Road just across the Bee-Line Expressway
from runways 18L and 18R was a target-rich environment and I've got the
pictures to prove it!).
Anyway, the building itself is an enormous hangar and control tower
located just south of one of the active runways at Dulles which made
it easy to bring in most of the aircraft. Admission to
America's Hangar itself is free but the parking is $12. It's
quite a bargain when you consider some of the most famous aircraft in
the world are housed in that building. By this point, Nicholas was
quite awake and he literally went into overload pointing at all of the
planes. It's one thing to spot a lone plane going over the house but
here was a fleet of them!
I'll admit that I'm a big Boeing fan and I knew going out there that the
Enola Gay
was on display at the annex. She's one of the exceptions to the usual
delivery method because she was crated after her last flight and put into
storage to protect the plane from the elements. This B-29 was our
first stop in the museum and it was somehow fitting to start with a
symbol of just what terrible things we as a species are capable of.
Of course, we all know what this Martin-built B-29's mission was over
Japan back in August of 1945. I think it's safe to say that the world
has never been the same since that atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima
and looking at the plane that was the delivery vehicle is more than a
little surreal. One cannot help but think about the stubborn pride of
the Japanese High Command that ensured that Enola Gay wouldn't
end WWII (it would take a second bomb being dropped on Nagasaki by
Bock's Car a couple of days later). Then there is the thought
of the Cold War that would last almost fifty years with the world
wondering who would be the next one to employ these terrible weapons in
war and the sad knowledge that the genie isn't ever going back into that
bottle again. Here is Nicholas pointing innocently at Enola Gay
and saying "plane" over and over and I was honestly wishing for
something that can never be again...that innocence
of not knowing what life is like where the threat of nuclear weapons is
a very real one (and one could argue that it's even more of a threat
now than it was during the darkest days of the Cold War!). I would hope
that anyone who would be of a mind to use these terrible weapons would
pause and consider Enola Gay and the fate of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
before doing something really stupid.
Twice should be enough for any species to figure out what a gift to future
generations it would be to give those generations the innocence of a child
who doesn't really know what humans are capable of doing to other humans
with nuclear (or other kinds of) weapons.
It never ceases to amaze me that the terrible ingenuity of man can also
achieve such great things in advancing the quality of life. One of the
examples of this ingenuity was a personal surprise for me because I didn't
think that the
Boeing 367-80 "Dash-80"
was on display here. Last I had heard, Boeing had flown her to Seattle
for restoration and display at the Seattle Museum of Flight. This bird
which was the prototype for the Boeing 707 that would revolutionize
commercial aviation was the stuff of legends, a flying testbed for all
sorts of new technologies. The most famous Dash-80 story is
Tex Johnston (one of Boeing's most famous test pilots) barrel-rolling
this big plane over the Gold Cup course at Lake Washington near Seattle.
Imagine for a moment...William Allen (then CEO of Boeing) was betting
more than the net worth of the company on this one plane and is watching
Tex roll the plane twice over the course. The legend is that Bill Allen
leans over to Larry Bell and asks him for some of his heart pills because
he needed them more than Larry did. Larry knew Tex Johnston (Tex worked
for Bell Aircraft before moving to Boeing) and told Allen that he didn't
know Tex and that Tex had just sold your airplane. He was quite
right because he wasn't the only one watching that stunt...Juan Trippe of
Pan-Am was in the audience and would ultimately order 707's after seeing
just how tough that plane was. Eddie Rickenbacker of Eastern Airlines
heard of the roll and ordered 707's as well (and talk about signs of the
times...neither Pan-Am or Eastern survived deregulation!). (As an aside,
Tex would later explain to Bill Allen and the other bosses that as long
as 1G is maintained throughout the roll, the forces involved are nothing
more than what you'd expect in level flight...
in other words, the plane never knows it's inverted! There
is a famous picture shot from the cabin windows that shows the engine
pods facing the sky over the lake...boy, would I have loved to be in the
jump seat for that roll!). Tex Johnston, Dix Loesch, Ed Wells, Bill
Allen, Tex Bouillion...these are some of the heroes of Boeing that were
my idols in my younger years. And a lot of them were working at Boeing
when Model 367-80 was on the drawing boards...the plane that would change
the commercial industry forever.
Another idol of mine was Lockheed's Clarence "Kelly" Johnson who
is also well represented in the annex with the
P-38 Lightning
and his most famous accomplishment with the fastest air-breathing
aircraft ever designed, the Mach-3
SR-71.
Kelly Johnson's famous Skunk Works (named because his design
shop was located next to a noxious plastics fabrication plant) would
also be responsible for the U-2 and the F-117 Stealth Fighter.
A couple of other notable aircraft are the
Aerospatiale Concorde (only supersonic commercial
aircraft ever deployed to passenger service) and the Space Shuttle orbiter
test vehicle
Enterprise (OV-101)
which was used to test
re-entry characteristics of the Space Shuttle (the conclusion, it's a
billion-dollar brick but it's design criterion to land like a conventional
aircraft was well satisfied even if it's unpowered flight after re-entry!).
I can tell you that nothing wakes you up as quickly on a Sunday morning
as a space shuttle does when you hear that characteristic double sonic
boom as the shuttle slows to subsonic speed over the Sanford (Florida) airport (where they
make the decision to press on to Kennedy Space Center or bingo to
Orlando International's 12,000-foot runways!).
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and it was time to
leave and experience the evening rush hour traffic which is a highly
overrated experience.
But I think it's a safe assumption that Nicholas loved looking at all
of the planes and rockets on display...and an even safer assumption that
Daddy really loved the experience. It'll be nice to go back to the
Air and Space Museums with the boys and share with them some of
the cool stories behind the hardware. Hopefully they've completed the
renovations to the original museum on the National Mall (home to the
Spirit of St. Louis among other things)!
Today's roaming about the District takes Nicholas and Daddy northwest
out of the District toward Chevy Chase and Bethesda in Maryland.
Yeah, it sounds weird but there is actually a town called Chevy Chase
just over the border of Montgomery County. Before you fans of one of the
most famous of the Saturday Night Live players start getting all
proud of yourselves, the actual
Town of Chevy Chase
was incorporated in 1918. That would be well before Cornelius Crane Chase
who was born in 1943 in New York...and I think you can see why he might
well want to requisition a new name. Oy vey! And besides, I
am Cornelius Chase and you are not doesn't quite work as well as
I am Chevy Chase and you are not!
Seriously, this is actually a very pretty drive from Children's through
Rock Creek Park to the west before you turn more northerly toward
Maryland. That's something that takes a bit of getting used to...because
the Distric is so small, you cross borders so often that it almost becomes
blase. Yeah, Maryland. Big deal. Virginia. Eh. Back in the District
again. Woo hoo. It wasn't uncommon for these trips to hit all three of
them in one trip. It just feels a bit weird, that's all. :)
This was obviously a more well-to-do section of town. But what was
surprising was that a six mile trip to Bethesda took about a
hour and a half. I'm not kidding...the roads, traffic, and
signals are just that awful. And it wasn't even rush hour, campers!
But it's a beautiful drive, nonetheless. Too bad Nicholas didn't stay
awake long enough to truly appreciate it!
We did a quick run for groceries at the Sam's Club in Hyattsville that
is literally right across the parking lot from
FedEx Field where the
Redskins play east of the District. We figured Sam's would be a good
place to stock up because the prices at the local grocery stores in the
District are pretty outrageous. You know, we'd never thought that
Lowe's Foods would look cheap by comparison but trust me, they
have nothing on the Capital Area Giant stores!
After getting provisioned, Nicholas and I got a chance to do a bit of
exploring round the Washington area mainly to give him a change of
scenery as hospitals have gotten really old, really quick!
We headed down North Capitol Street toward the east end of The National
Mall (North Capitol Street forms the dividing line between
northeast and northwest Washington where the Capitol building is the
anchor). From there, we drove past most of the major sites you'd
typically look for when visiting our nation's capital:
Well, it turns out that a few of them are heading to our nation's capital
via different means. Mommy and Alexander are already on their way via
medical transport from Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU for you
aviation geeks like Daddy out there) direct to Dulles International
(IAD) and then by ambulance to the hospital.
Nicholas, Grammy, and Daddy get to experience the joys and wonders of
I-95 and Capital Beltway (I-495) traffic to meet them there later this
evening. We had a quick stop at a McDonald's north of Richmond but
for the most part we proceeded direct to Washington. Memo to self:
traffic on the Beltway stinks most of the time but it's really awful at
rush hour! We had made good time getting to the District and then
spent the next hour and a half going from The Mixing Bowl (where
I-95/I-395/I-495 converge just southwest of Washington) round the western
bit of the Beltway to Georgia Avenue between Bethesda and Silver Spring
in Maryland right above the top of the District.
A little aside, if I may. I went walkabout in early 2001 to follow the
Hurricanes on a West Coast swing through Phoenix, Los Angeles, and
Anaheim. So I'm sitting in Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport
(geeks: that's PHX!) reading the Los Angeles travel guides and the two
books I have seem split on their opinions of Los Angeles traffic. One's
take was that it was no big deal at all and the other suggested that the
freeways in LA were a death trap. I managed to find an Angelino in the
departures lounge and decided to ask a local's opinion as to which guide
was correct. The conversation went something like this: