{"id":48,"date":"2007-09-11T10:19:15","date_gmt":"2007-09-11T18:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tranzoa.net\/~alex\/blog\/?p=48"},"modified":"2007-09-11T10:19:15","modified_gmt":"2007-09-11T18:19:15","slug":"washington-dc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tranzoa.net\/~alex\/blog\/?p=48","title":{"rendered":"Washington DC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We had good luck with the weather in DC. It was hot but not stifling.<\/p>\n<p>The camera partially croaked so almost all outdoor pictures were badly exposed. Bad timing, that.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s been a long time since I&#8217;ve been in DC. It seems like each time yields a couple of distinct moments. And they are always unexpected.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, I remember from the first visit as a teen the wow feeling when standing inches from unrecognizable brush strokes of a famous painting. And I remember Eric and I running up and down the Washington Monument.<\/p>\n<p>The last time there left only the memory of how poorly signed the roads and streets were. To be fair, a lot of roads were being worked on at the time.<\/p>\n<p>This time around it was an amusement park ride and two memorials that hit the spot.<\/p>\n<p>The ride was in the Air and Space Museum. Heather and I went on one of the flight simulator-ish things. The idea is you&#8217;re flying a fighter jet of some sort. The machine has a target you can shoot at. Oddly enough, we scored no kills (enemy kills, that is) with our full-speed, tree-top barrel rolls.<\/p>\n<p>The plan for the last day in DC was to wander on down to the Lincoln Memorial. But I&#8217;ve seen it. Nothing new there, right? And, the big-deal, tourist things in DC had already given me a feeling of stand-off aloofness. The feeling was enhanced by people in the hotel elevators polishing their pitches for largess from the <del>Royal Court<\/del> government.<\/p>\n<p>Right.<\/p>\n<p>Ah, but this was enough to make the last day&#8217;s walk worthwhile:<\/p>\n<p><a HREF=\"http:\/\/www.tranzoa.net\/~alex\/pictures\/pictures_by_date.htm#honest_abe_breaking_all_the_rules_01\"><img SRC=\"http:\/\/www.tranzoa.net\/~alex\/pictures\/honest_abe_breaking_all_the_rules_01.jpg\" ALT=\"Abe Lincoln - taking a break from skateboarding?\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Toss in the 2nd inaugural address etched in the wall of the memorial. Here, we have a major presidential speech given in the middle of the Civil War and it&#8217;s shorter than current politicians introducing public relations photo-ops. Bobby and Mr. Carpenter seemed quite nearby.<\/p>\n<p>Then there was the Korean War Memorial. What was the deal? Someone screaming how much he hated the US side of the war? This thing was truly baffling.<\/p>\n<p>Every figure seemed dejected. Zombie sad sacks. Defeated.<\/p>\n<p><a HREF=\"http:\/\/www.tranzoa.net\/~alex\/pictures\/pictures_by_date.htm#zombies_of_the_Korean_War_01\"><img SRC=\"http:\/\/www.tranzoa.net\/~alex\/pictures\/zombies_of_the_Korean_War_01.jpg\" ALT=\"Korean War Memorial zombies\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>And no wonder:<\/p>\n<p><a HREF=\"http:\/\/www.tranzoa.net\/~alex\/pictures\/pictures_by_date.htm#how_is_the_Korean_War_going_soldier_01\"><img SRC=\"http:\/\/www.tranzoa.net\/~alex\/pictures\/how_is_the_Korean_War_going_soldier_01.jpg\" ALT=\"Shoot the sculptor, not your buddy!\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>All in all, though, it was a good trip. The wedding was great. Fascinating on many levels. Visiting David was also great: Terabyte data sets that are more complex politically than technically. Egad.<\/p>\n<p>We really should have hit the road with the kids when they were younger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We had good luck with the weather in DC. It was hot but not stifling. The camera partially croaked so almost all outdoor pictures were badly exposed. Bad timing, that. It&#8217;s been a long time since I&#8217;ve been in DC. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tranzoa.net\/~alex\/blog\/?p=48\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bloggy-things"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tranzoa.net\/~alex\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tranzoa.net\/~alex\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tranzoa.net\/~alex\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tranzoa.net\/~alex\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tranzoa.net\/~alex\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tranzoa.net\/~alex\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tranzoa.net\/~alex\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tranzoa.net\/~alex\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tranzoa.net\/~alex\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}