We woke up on a Sunday morning in a quiet street in Washington DC across from the Museum of the Bible, and we could see the silhouettes of our fellow campers across the road still getting ready for the day. Setting up our e-bikes and Sheila's trailer again, we first stopped by the Culture House, built in 1886 as a church, and now a brightly-painted, welcoming-looking community arts, exhibition & private events venue.
Quiet and Closed
It seems that we enjoy being by the water in Washington DC, because we found yet another waterfront place that we hadn't been to called The Yards, a major development on the Anacostia River waterfront in that's part of the larger Navy Yard neighborhood. It was rather quiet when we rode around there, but it's a really lovely place to simply hang out, with grassy lawns to sit on, a riverwalk trail, cafes, and the pretty Yards Park Bridge that we'd imagine would also look nice lit up at night.
Then it was off to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, which was established in 1946 and dedicated to human flight and space exploration. The building is a huge, grand structure that's up a several flights of stairs, centrally located by the National Mall which meant that we could see the Capitol Building across from where we stood. Unfortunately, we were only one of several people walking around here, because all of the Smithsonian buildings were closed due to the government shutdown! We were so bummed about this, because the Smithsonian in particular was one of the places we were looking forward to seeing in DC. So our estimated time in the nation's capital would definitely be much shorter, since we wouldn't be able to visit a lot of places this time.
Still, the grandiose buildings are rather impressive to look at from the outside, including the National Archives Foundation, which seemed to be inspired by the Parthenon in its architectural design, and is a nonprofit with a mission to preserve, protect, and share America's stories. Since it was a Sunday, they were also closed.
May As Well Eat
The Old Post Office was a 270-foot observation deck where visitors can view the Capitol, White House, Washington Monument, and more, with views spanning up to 12 miles on a clear day. The building was completed between 1892-1899 as the US Postal Department headquarters, and while it no longer exists today, it's now part of the Waldorf Astoria hotel. We could still go inside to see the redeveloped property, and the tall, glass ceilings letting in the gorgeous sunshine down into what's now the lobby. Looking up, we could still see the distinct tower that made up the Old Post Office building.
It was still relatively early, and despite our ramen dinner (and the fact that we'd had breakfast!), Lisette was getting hungry, so we had an early lunch at the nearby Shake Shack, a popular burger chain that we hadn't eaten at so far on this trip. They are one of the few chains though that has a number of vegan and vegetarian burger options, including Lisette's go-to order 'Shroom Burger order (portobello mushroom stuffed with muenster and cheddar cheese, topped with lettuce, tomato, and sauce). We don't plan to eat fast food much, if at all, after this trip, so we may as well take advantage of how easy and convenient the US makes it!
Not Much to See, Unfortunately
We stopped by the White House again, taking a closer photo this time, before heading to Ford's Theatre and the Petersen House, which are in the same building. Ford's Theatre, which opened in 1863, is best known for being the site of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, when John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln while he was watching a play sitting at the presidential box inside. The Theatre is still functioning, with performances, and tours of the historic theatre. Meanwhile, the Petersen House was named after the Petersen family, immigrants from Germany, who lived in this home and also ran it as a boarding house. It was here where President Lincoln died. We arrived there...only to find that yet again, the Theatre and House were closed due to the government shutdown! Ugh, how disappointing!
So it was back to Chinatown to see The Barnes Dance, an intersection in Chinatown that has a unique traffic pattern, with perpendicular zebra stripes are alternated with images of the zodiac, and large colorful dragons. We arrived at the intersection where we could see a Dragon Gate that's a quintessential entrance to Chinatowns around the world... but the colorful crossing was nowhere to be found! It seems that it's been removed, and now just looks like ordinary roads. We weren't having much luck with attractions...
Fortunately, we had more luck at our next stop, the Carnegie Library of DC (which Apple likes to call the Apple Carnegie Library because there's randomly an Apple store on the ground floor). The Carnegie Library opened in 1903, and was a public library until 1972, before morphing into being the home to the DC History Center and Apple. It's one of 4 Carnegie Libraries, and today includes the Carnegie Gallery in the basement level, which has a lot of historic photographs and artifacts about the history of the building.
Our last stop was getting closer to the Capitol Building on the other side to where we'd seen, which had 1,000 US flags pinned to the lawn in front, making for a pretty cool pic! It turns out that these flags were planted to represent the US veterans who die each year from cancer, and there were additional signs and posters nearby providing more educational information about the disease.
North of Washington
Arriving back to our RV, we left downtown and headed north of DC to check out Reservoir Park Recreation Center, which had parts of it under construction to make way for new homes and development. The park that's there is new and there were a few folks hanging out, but previously this site was the McMillan Sand Filtration Site. The McMillan site was built in the early 1900s as a slow sand-filtration plant to clean the city’s drinking water, which was important because typhoid epidemics regularly occurred at the turn of last century. After being decommissioned in 1986, the site sat unused for decades until it was redeveloped into Reservoir Park, with some original structures like the silos and underground filter cells now incorporated into the new recreational space.
In an Alamo Drafthouse movie theater, there's a "Hall of Presidents" that displays portraits of these leaders with a twist: the portraits are of celebrities who have acted as US presidents in movies. There's Morgan Freeman from his role in "Deep Impact", Harrison Ford starring in "Air Force One", Peter Sellers in "Dr. Strangelove" and many others. There wasn't really anywhere for us to park, but we had enough time to quickly hop out, run into the lobby of the movie theater, and pose among the portraits, standing behind a lectern with a President of the United States seal, created specifically for this photo opportunity!
Our final stop in Washington DC was The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the largest Catholic church in North America and the tallest habitable building in DC. As we drove up to it, we were intrigued by the fact that it was very Eastern-inspired in design, constructed in a Romanesque‑Byzantine style that would have been customary of early Christian churches. This included a massive main dome that's only slightly smaller than the U.S. Capitol’s dome, covered in colorful, symbolic tiles of blue, red, yellow and grey. Inside, there were more richly decorated mosaics, especially within the domes and chapels, depicting luminous iconography, along with vivid stained glass windows. There was a mass wrapping up in Spanish when we went, so we quietly shuffled along the the church from the back to the altar, before making our way downstairs, which had a gift shop, cafe and restroom, as well as displays of artifacts, statues, and prayer altars with candles, plus thick columns with the names of the faithful engraved on them.
To drive across the border to the state of Virginia, we had to make our way back to Washington DC, which was cool because we had a straight road at one point that led directly to the Capitol Building! We're sure this road would have been used as part of a shot from a movie or documentary that we'd seen before, because it's such a great depiction showing the road to the nation's capital.
Hello, Virginia
We crossed to nearby Virginia, and while we've driven through Virginia earlier on this trip, this was the first time that we'd be exploring the state. We counted this state earlier as state #35, but if we were basing it on actually stopping and seeing places, then this state would be #46, with Maryland and South Carolina the other two remaining! Which would you count?
With only 30 mins to spare ahead of closing time, we arrived at Arlington National Cemetery, which was open despite the government shutdown. It is the largest cemetery in the United States National Cemetery System, one of two maintained by the United States Army. More than 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres, including those who fought in the Civil War, and today, there are still about 25 funeral services that occur each weekday. After driving up to the parking lot and seeing the additional ID requirements and parking costs that we'd need to arrange before walking into the cemetery with very limited time left, we decided to do a quick drive along, seeing the distinct and simple white gravestones that stretched across the cemetery.
We drove along the highway that ran parallel to the Pentagon, the headquarters building of the US States Department of Defense, which was was built during World War II and is the world's second-largest office building, only recently being surpassed by the Surat Diamond Bourse in India that was completed in 2023. As its name suggests, the Pentagon has 5 sides, with 5 floors above ground, with over 25,000 people working inside. Tours are available to see it in more detail, that need to be booked in advance.
As we continued on our way, we were befuddled as to why it seemed to be getting dark so quickly... only to realize that sunset for some reason was happening an hour earlier, at 5.30pm! It then clicked: overnight, the clocks had moved forward for daylight savings time! So our days would be getting shorter with less sunlight. We scoured for a place to stop for the night, getting away from the busy DC and Virginia roads to find a Cracker Barrel in the Virginian suburb of Montclair. Cracker Barrel and its dedicated RV parking spots come to our rescue again!