Washington, D.C., city of museums

The number of museums in downtown Washington, D.C. is shocking.  We had already visited, with Frank Hyatt, two magnificent collections: the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery of Art, which we rushed through and look forward to revisiting in the future.  But those were only the beginning.

Later that week we went to the Newseum, which is devoted to tracing the evolution of communication, especially the news business, and promoting the first amendment.  On the day we visited, there was a display of the Pulitzer prize-winning photos throughout the history of that award, and surprisingly, we were familiar with almost all of them.

Among the many other exhibits was one of special interest to me - a photographer's record of "The Battle that Changed the Course of the War".   The images were of the Marines fighting in the South Vietnamese city of Hue during the Tet Offensive of 1968.  At that moment in time I happened to be stationed as a Navy medical officer at the hospital in Phu Bai, only about twelve miles from Hue, and there was a steady stream of choppers bringing wounded Marines and South Vietnamese soldiers to our emergency room, where they were treated, or stabilized before being transferred to a surgical suite.  That brought back some pretty rough memories.

On another day we went to the National Museum of American History, which displays various specific aspects of American life, including sports, art, music, science, technology, communication, and so on.  For example, this is a mural of Leroy Niemann's homage to American jazz.

We also visited the National Archives Museum, which displays original copies of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights, along with other documents important in our history.

One negative to our little museum tour that day was the presence of huge numbers of school kids, with their piercing voices and constant random motion.  (That's the curmudgeon in me raising its ugly head.)  I assume that these were field trips for middle and high school students near the end of the school year.  Presumably there are other seasons when the lines may be shorter and the sound level more conducive to quiet contemplation.

We barely scratched the surface of the pantheon of museums.  Here are a few of the others we would have liked to visit but didn't have time: the National Air and Space Museum, the International Spy Museum, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of the American Indian, the National Museum of African Art, the Museum of the Bible, and dozens of others.  Many of them are free.  And these displays are housed in the monumental architecture that is characteristic of the entire National Mall section of Washington, which also includes the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument and all the other famous monuments and memorials.

Annapolis, the capital of Maryland, is also nearby.  Its state house is historic in that it is the oldest continually operating state capitol in the United States.
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That building is where George Washington, at the conclusion of the War of Independence, officially resigned his commission as commander in chief of the Continental Army, in order to become the first American president, thus setting the precedent of keeping the military separate from the executive branch.

Annapolis is also the home of the United States Naval Academy, and while we were there, fighter jets were constantly screaming overhead at incredible speed, looking to me like the greatest fun available to human beings, at least for those whose stomachs can tolerate it.

It's not news to anyone that the Washington, D.C. area is one of the great travel destinations, but the variety and extent of its attractions were even greater than I had understood.