Brian in DC

Brian had to got to go to Washington, D.C. for a work trip a couple weeks after getting home from Greece. Since he has always wanted to go to the National Mall, he stayed an extra day for some sightseeing. He was like a kid in a candy store.

This is the path(s) he took around the Mall. Including museums, it was about a 10 mike walk that day.

{Rebecca tried to convince him to take the camera, but he insisted that his phone would be fine. Here are some blurry photos of his adventures:}

Brian loves him some old maps, so his first stop was the Library of Congress to see the Waldseemuller map (map at the left side of this picture). It's from 1507 and we (the U.S.) bought it from Germany in 2007 for just $10 million. It's the only know original print in existence.

(There is a copy in our basement if you want to come see it! We paid less than $10 M.)

For the history buffs, here is the background of the map and why its so important:

In 1492, Columbus sailed (the ocean blue) to the other side of the world, landing on some islands in the Caribbean. He thought that he had landed on the islands off of India. Columbus returned to Spain, and of course told of his great adventures. Another explorer named Amerigo Vespucci heard the tales and set sail for the West (or maybe the East as they believed). Amerigo sailed past the islands Columbus reached, and landed somewhere in South America. He returned to Europe and met up with a German map maker named Waldseemuller. He told Waldseemuller that he actually found a new world: an entirely new content! Waldseemuller created a new world map with the new content and named it America, which is the feminine form of Amerigo (all contents have feminine names).

Here is bad close-up picture, the lighting in the room was terrible.  The new world is shown west of Africa, and labeled "America". The first map ever printed with the name.

Next stop: The Capital.

This is the "Center" of DC (inside and under the dome of the capital building). They have to rope off the center stone because is dips down from so many people touching it and now it's a tripping hazard.

Every state gets a statue to put in the Capital.  Here is Brigham Young.

On to the Natural History Museum.  Brian took lots of pictures in the National Rock and Gem collection area because Rebecca loves rocks!

(❤️❤️❤️Awwww!❤️❤️❤️)

A collection of pretty gems.

There were lots of beautiful jewelry. Brian liked this Indian Emerald Necklace (from Columbia). It's was one of the least blurry pictures he took.

Besides cut stones and jewelry, there were many natural stones.

A fancy aquamarine with its own bling.

The big green rock on top is Variscite.

A great, big, purple geode for Rebecca.

A Triceratops skeleton.

(The dinosaurs skeletons were awesome.)

The T-Rex skeleton was one of Brian's favorites. It was huge!

Fossilized (not fresh) T-Rex poop!

Rrrrar! T-Rex skull.

The WWII memorial with the Washington Monument in the background.

Inside the Lincoln Memorial (obviously).

Looking from the Lincoln memorial to the Washington Monument. Walking along the reflection pool from the WWII memorial to the Lincoln memorial was a lot longer than Brian expected.

(The pool is a mile long!)

You have to get a ticket to go to the top of the Washington Monument. When Brian got there, they were sold out. Brian looked sad, so the Park Rangers had pity on him and sneaked him in. There are four small windows on each side of the Monument, so Brian took pictures out each window. This one is looking South at the Jefferson Memorial.

Now looking West at the Lincoln Memorial

Next looking East at the Ellipse and the White House

Looking North across the Mall with the Capital at the end (lots of construction that day).

After seeing the White House from the Washington Memorial, Brian had to walk over there for a closer look.

Last stop was to the National Air and Space Museum. Brian went there to see two specific planes, and they were right above his head as soon as he walked in. This is Bell X-1: the first plane to break the sound barrier (on accident).

This is the North American X-15: the fastest plane (not the SR-71 like many mistakenly believe, to Brian's annoyance).  Its top speed was nearly 7 times the speed of sound, about 4500 mph.  It used hydrogen peroxide as fuel (amongst other things). Bet you didn't think that you have high performance rocket fuel in your bathroom!

(View from Brian's hotel window. See the Washington Monument?)

After touring the Mall, Brian drove the 2 miles back to the hotel. It only took him 30 minutes. The D.C. traffic is the worst Brian has ever driven in.

View of the Pentagon (top left) from Brian's hotel room.