Another full day in Washington for your 'umble blogger. Slept in this morning, as I was thoroughly knackered from yesterday's adventures. Did catch Casino Royale on pay-per-view at the hotel--and if you haven't seen it already, you should. May be the best Bond flick yet--keeps you guessing right up to the very end. (And Daniel Craig is a hunk o' burnin' love.)
In part of my travels yesterday, I took the time to visit a sacred shrine. And thanks to its being late in the afternoon in the middle of the week during the off-season, I didn't have to wait two hours in line to get in to see some really cool shit, like this:
That's the original fair copy of the Bill of Rights, though unfortunately (because people didn't know any better at the time and put it where the sun could get at it) you'd hardly know if I didn't tell you. They're re-remodeling the display, so I couldn't snap a picture of the Declaration of Independence, but I did get shots of all four pages of the Constitution, President Johnson's proclamation ending the Civil War, Ben Franklin's notes on a draft of the Articles of Confederation, and a copy of the Magna Charta, all courtesy of the National Archives, God love 'em.
Today I got to play tourist a little more before settling down to business. I hiked back down to the Mall after breakfast, and scored a ticket for the 10:00 tour of the Washington Monument--again without having to wait two hours to get in, or to be packed into the place without room to move or breathe or see anything. I also lucked out in that when I was ready to head down again, one of the rangers was starting a walking tour down the staircase, which has been closed to visitors since the late 1970s due to increased vandalism. Follow me below the fold for a few more shots from my touristic wanderings.
Looking east toward the Capitol.
Looking west toward the Lincoln Memorial. That empty thing in between is usually the Reflecting Pool, but they drain it for the winter. The oval in the foreground is the World War II Memorial, which is really quite stunning. It, too, had all of its water drained for the winter, alas.
The man himself, God be good to him.
Looking southeast toward the Potomac and the Tidal Basin. The structure in the left foreground with the hexagon at the right and the four peaked roofs split down the middle to the left is the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, where I spent most of yesterday afternoon.
Illinois' memorial stone inside the Washington Monument. One of the earliest ones placed, it's in the first section to be completed, and was obviously commissioned before the Civil War, because it still shows the old state motto ("State Sovereignty. National Union."). After the war, the order of the phrases was reversed.
I did actually do some work today, as the conference that's the real reason for my presence in the nation's capital got underway this afternoon at 2 p.m. A couple of useful sessions, and a full day on tap for tomorrow and most of Saturday.
Played hookey (or should I say "hockey"?) tonight, though. Once the welcome reception wound down, I was off to the Verizon Center to take in a Capitals game. Good game, though unfortunately the home team lost it in a shootout, 5-4. On the other hand, we got a good 10 minutes of bonus hockey for our admission fees, since they played the full five minutes of overtime and had to run through I believe 11 shooters for both teams before the Lightning scored the winning goal on Brent Johnson. And thanks to one of my instructors, I had a fantastic Thai meal beforehand, for the ridiculously low price of $15. I think I'm going to try out the German restaurant/Konditorei that's literally right next door to the conference location on New York Avenue tomorrow, and I'm meeting up with a friend for dinner on Saturday at a place to be determined.
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