dpk4588: Meet Our Nation's Capital

[dpk4588]

Sunday - October 26, 2014 - Day 1

The day started with a pleasant train ride from New York to Washington, DC. My travel options were Amtrak for 8,000 UR roundtrip or the US Air Shuttle for 9,000 Avios R/T. I decided (with a little help from my friends) to go with the train. The hassle of traveling by plane outweighed the extra hour and a half it saved over the train. The cash price is on the ticket (at least the one on my phone) and it said $125 each way making the 8k UR worth over 3 cents a point.

For my first two nights, I stayed at the Park Hyatt Washington. Since I am not rich and I am a DDF’er I did not pay the $382 a night that they charge. I used my 2 free nights from my Hyatt Card.

After getting a little lost on my way from the train to the Park Hyatt. I got there and when I went to check-in I was given an upgrade to suite due to my Diamond status (making my free nights worth even more). The room is overall gorgeous, at least by my standards. The coolest part of the room is the wall between the living area (chairs, coffee table, desk, TV) and the bedroom area. The TV swivels! I can turn the TV from the living area to the bedroom area! I can’t figure out a good way to get a picture of it.


Park Hyatt Living Area Chairs Table


Park Hyatt Bed


Park Hyatt Tub
 
After checking in and settling in (including eating lunch, nowhere glamourous, just the sandwich I brought for the road), I headed off by Metro to the Newseum. I had heard great things about it so I was excited. Outside the museum they have an exhibit where they show you headlines from today’s newspaper from a newspaper from each state. As I was about to walk in a woman stops me and asks if I have a ticket, and upon telling her I was gonna get one inside she told me to take this one and she hands me a ticket (FOR FREE!). And the Newseum is a 2 day ticket so I get 2 days for FREE!
Since they recommend that you start in the basement, one of the first things you see if a section of the Berlin wall. Its amazing to see the differences between the two sides of the wall.


Newseum - Berlin Wall (West side)


Newseum - Berlin Wall (East side)

Since I didn’t get to the museum till around 3, I only got through about half the museum today because like most DC museums it closes at 5pm. The 9/11 exhibits were intense and a little hard to handle. One of the funniest parts of the Newseum is in the bathroom. They have tiles that are either mistaken or amusing headlines.

Newseum - Media Errors

Among their changing exhibits, they currently have an exhibit on the FBI and its relationship with the media. The exhibit deals with cases in which the media played a major role, from 9/11 to Waco, and the Unabomber.

The next item on my schedule was the Jefferson Memorial, so I googlemapped, how to get there and after it told me it was 2 minutes on the train and 25 walking I figured I could handle the extra few minutes of walking. Although the walk was a little long it was nice to get some nice views of the Washington Monument and some nice views of the Jefferson Memorial from across the title basin.

Jefferson Memorial (from cross Title Basin)


Jefferson Memorial (Jefferson Statue 2)


I then walked to the Franklin D Roosevelt Memorial. Its really nice, they have lots of waterfalls and FDR quotes carved into the stone. I’ve heard that its even nicer at night. The only problem that I, as well as most history buffs (not that I’m a history buff), would find upsetting is that the monument of FDR is of him in a wheelchair. While he was in a wheelchair for most of his life, he almost never allowed himself to be photographed while in his wheelchair.


FDR Memorial (Quote 12)


FDR Memorial FDR Statue

After that was the Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial. That memorial is a series of MLK quotes with a monument of MLK. The interesting part is that the monument of MLK is designed as if it is cut out from another piece of stone and on the side has the quote “out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope”.


MLK Memorial (Quote 7)

It hit me today, as someone who sees the Empire State Building every day, I take its awesomeness for granted. The history associated with the buildings and memorials here in DC is just amazing.
After the memorials, I ubered it to DC Char Bar (formerly Eli’s) and picked up dinner. I got “The New Yorker” which is Corned Beef and First-Cut Pastrami with Russian dressing and Coleslaw on Grilled Rye, with fresh chips on the side. The sandwich was pretty good but the fresh chips were awesome. I’ll be back there Monday night for a burger.

[lunatic]

Nice to see a good experience with eli's

[dpk4588]

Monday - October 27, 2014 - Day 2

Today started with my breakfast. As a Diamond member of Hyatt I am eligible for complimentary breakfast. I had contacted the hotel manager and arranged for Kosher breakfast (after a little confusion) which I found out is provided by The Shalom Group. So I looked on their website to see what the options were for breakfast and I assumed that I was getting the continental breakfast, which consists of a bagel, cream cheese, yogurt and a pastry. I go down to the dining room and tell them that I’ve had kosher food arranged for me and the manager comes over and tells me that its being prepared and will be brought to me soon. I was a little worried when they said being prepared, because what needs to be prepared about a bagel, cream cheese, yogurt and a pastry? They come up a few minutes later with the bagel, cream cheese, yogurt and a pastry, AND a hot option of an omelet and homefries! AND it was actually delicious!


Park Hyatt - Hot Kosher Breakfast

After my delicious breakfast, I used the Park Hyatt’s (free) sedan service to take me to the Newseum for the 2nd day of my free ticket. I did the rest of the museum. They have sections on different ethnic newspapers in America, including the Jewish Daily Forward.


Newseum - The Jewish Daily Forward

They also have a section where they go through history using major headlines.

Newseum - Creation of Israel

And some where they got it wrong…Whoops.


Newseum - Media Gets it Wrong

The final thing I saw before I left was their exhibit on Pulitzer Prize winning photography. Along with the pictures were descriptions of the situations in which they were taken and sometimes it shows how much these photographers are willing to risk to capture that important moment. While some of those pictures are very emotional, there is a quote at the start of the exhibit which I think perfectly expresses the sentiment of the exhibit.


Newseum - Eddie Adams Quote

After the Newseum I walked to the Holocaust Museum. I can’t find the words to describe it. Its powerful. It was mostly stuff I already knew, but just reading the articles and hearing the personal stories. There is a room (I think its called the hall of remembrance), that is filled with candles and has names of all the places Jews were killed during the Holocaust. I wonder how people who have no connection to the Holocaust other than its place in world history feel when going through this museum.

After the upsetting morning/afternoon, I was behind on my schedule by over an hour and so I decided to cut and paste my plans, and I went to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. As a lover of planes, I found the number of planes and the stories and history connected to them very cool. The space stuff I wasn’t as much of a fan.


Air & Space - USAF Stealth Plane


Air & Space - Lockheed U-2 Surveillance Plane Camera


Air & Space - US Navy Pilot Jumpsuit


Air & Space - Predator Drone

For those of you who love planes like I do (we’re not talking planes with First & Business class, sorry), there is an annex to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum near Dulles Airport which is a hangar full of old planes. I’ll have more about that after Wednesday when I plan to go there.

After the museum closed at 5:30 I headed (via uber) to the Lincoln Memorial, which is not only interesting itself with the great role Lincoln played in US history, but the view of the Washington Monument across the Reflecting Pool is just awesome.


Lincoln Memorial  - Statue


Washington Monument Reflecting Pool


The Gettysburg Address


Lincoln Memorial Penny

I ubered it (after a disaster where the driver couldn’t/wouldn’t find me) back to DC Char Bar for dinner with a friend. I got a Western Burger which has Grilled Pastrami, Sautéed Mushrooms, Caramelized Onions. It was delicious.

[Yaalili]

More pictures of the food please, thats what were interested in here - Nice TR.

[dpk4588]

More pictures of the food please, thats what were interested in here - Nice TR.

I forgot to take pictures of the burgers. To be honest they didn't look particularly good, they just tasted good, which I guess is what really matter.
Other than the hot breakfast the first day (which I had the same hot breakfast the last day) the continental breakfast was nothing special.

[dpk4588]

Tuesday October 28, 2014 - Day 3

My day started out, as it did yesterday, with my free diamond breakfast. Unfortunately, they did not have a hot meal available for me today so it was the boring bagel, cream cheese, yogurt and a cherry Danish. It was ok, but it was not the hot breakfast I had on Monday.

Tuesday was the day I had to switch hotels, and since I didn’t want to carry my stuff all over DC, I had contacted the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill to see if I could either check in early or if not to see if there was somewhere I could store my stuff. I had also emailed them about Kosher breakfast, and they told me that I should be able to check in early in the morning but if my room wasn’t ready, that I’d be able to check my bags at the bell desk. When I got there my room was ready (no upgrade this time ), so I went up and dropped off my stuff and headed out for the day’s fun.

The activities of the day began with a tour of The Capitol, the home of Congress. My tour guide was awesome, he was a little old man, who spoke more languages than I could count. He knew more facts about both The Capitol and the individual states of the US, than I could ever remember. As part of the tour I got to see the old home of SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States), which was a comparatively small room, which was referred to as the dungeon.


The Capitol - Old SCOTUS Court


The Capitol - Rotunda


The Capitol

There was something very cool about the room with the statues. If you stand in one spot on one side of the room and someone else speaks towards a certain spot on the opposite side of the room, the conversation can be heard completely clearly. Amazing acoustics.

After the tour, the tour guide pulled me aside and gave me passes to get into the House and Senate galleries (something which I didn’t know needed to be attained through your Congressman or Senator and was not part of the standard tour). Unfortunately, Congress isn’t in session so I didn’t get to see any action, but it was still cool to see where our nation’s laws are debated and actually created. Interestingly, there was more security to get to the House gallery than the Senate gallery. There is also no assigned seating in the House unlike the Senate.

The next stop was the Library of Congress which is connected via underground tunnel to The Capitol. The Library of Congress, in addition to being the largest library in the world, is also a magnificent work of art itself. The architecture, the paintings and the mosaics are unbelievable.


Library of Congress - Great Hall

The Library of Congress began with Thomas Jefferson’s personal library, which is part of the Library of Congress. They actually have most of the books that Jefferson had in his personal library and even the same editions.

Next up was SCOTUS. The building similar to The Capitol and Library of Congress the Supreme Court building is architecturally stunning. Other than that, and the governmental and historical significance, there wasn’t much to the building, meaning there are no interesting aspects to the building, oh except the regulation size basketball court above the Supreme Court Room, dubbed the “Highest Court in the Land”. There were some exhibits about the history of the building but I was a little disappointed. Especially because the docent who gave the lecture about the court didn’t seem to know what she was talking about, she was literally reading off a script. One interesting fact, the phrase “Equal Justice Under Law,” which is written above the entrance was a suggestion of the contactor not of anyone related to the court itself. It’s a perfectly appropriate quote for the court.


SCOTUS - "Equal Justice Under Law"


SCOTUS - Court Room


Next up was the International Spy Museum. With a hefty admission, at least compared to the free admission at most DC museums, I was hoping it would live up to the price tag and the reputation I had heard from others. Although it was cool seeing the history of the tools of the spy trade and there were some other interesting exhibits but I left feeling a little disappointed. There was also an exhibit on the villains of the Bond films for the 50 year anniversary which was cool too.


Spy Museum - Bond Car


Spy Museum - Spy Tools


Spy Museum - CIA

For dinner I met up with a friend and we drove out to Rockville for dinner. We went to Moti’s and I got the burger. I had heard great things about Moti’s and while the burger was good, it wasn’t special in any way. There was nothing that made it stand out, which disappointed me a little. Sorry I forgot to take a picture (to be honest I'm not such a foodie so the pictures of food aren't as important to me, but as a favor to my fellow DDF'ers I should have made an effort). I enjoyed the burger from the Char Bar more.

[AnonymousUser]

Awesome TR!

[dpk4588]

Awesome TR!

Thanks. I've got the last few days coming soon, I'm just working on putting the pictures in. I tried to write most of it while still in DC so it was fresh in my mind.

[dpk4588]

Wednesday, October 29, 2014 – Day 3

Today was my first morning at the Hyatt Regency. They had been kind enough to let me check in Tuesday morning despite the fact that check-in time is usually not till 3pm. I go downstairs to the restaurant, and I mention to the host that I had arranged for kosher food, and he instantly knew who I was, by name! That was something I didn’t expect and didn’t get at the Park Hyatt. He seats me, and the restaurant manager comes over (who also knows my name) and tells me that the food which was arranged for me will be available in a minute, but unfortunately for today it was not the hot option, they only received that for the next day. So it was just a bagel, fruit, and a Danish, which was ok with me. That manager also told me that he was also Jewish and that his brother was religious and his way of proving it to me was mentioning that his brother waits 6 hours between meat and milk.

Then I was off to the Money Factory, aka the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. This is where the day started to go south. I decided to uber to the BEP because it would have been like a 30 minute walk or a 4 minute train ride and a 22 min walk (the metro in DC is pretty useless IMHO). We’re driving along and he accidentally makes a wrong turn and we end up in some traffic, so he says that since it was his mistake and we would have been there by now, he’d officially end the trip and would take me the rest of the way for free. Doesn’t sound too bad, does it? Well it got worse, that little wrong turn turned into 10 minutes of traffic and then HE MADE ANOTHER WRONG TURN! We ended up getting on a highway going near the airport! What should have been a 10-15 minute ride turned into a 45 minute one. My attempt at a 9am tour became a 945am tour. This wouldn’t be such a big deal except for the fact that I had a Zipcar reserved for 1030am, that was 15 minutes from the BEP. I didn’t end up getting to the Zipcar till almost 11am, so I lost half an hour right there.

The BEP itself wasn’t really that great. They weren’t doing a full run because there was scheduled maintenance on the machines that do the first step in the process.  But it was kinda cool seeing how the process should work and we did get to see the 2nd-4th steps. I did learn something interesting, there is apparently a law which prohibits the redesigning of the One Dollar bill. It’s amazing how much money gets printed daily, and this facility is one of two.

After the BEP I got to my Zipcar and drove out to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum’s annex, which is basically 2 hangers full of old planes and space shuttles/capsules/other space vehicles, including the Shuttle Discovery. The person who had the Zipcar before me left me with just ¼ of a tank so I knew I was gonna have to leave time to fill up. I get there and there is a tour just starting, which I join. The guide seems to really know his stuff, but since the group is kinda large they get another guide and split the group and I get put with the new guy. The new guy, doesn’t seem to know as much and ends up going super slow telling us random stories that I don’t think anyone cared about. In an hour and a half we’d gone through 5-6 planes and a few space things. I had to get away because I only had a set about of time there because of the Zipcar so I slipped away to see the rest of the planes. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to read all about all of the planes, but I did get a bunch of pictures and read about some of the cool ones, including the Enola Gay and the Concorde.


Air & Space - Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird


Air & Space - Vought F4U-1D


Air & Space - Concorde


Air & Space - Boeing B-29 Superfortress - Enola Gay (2)


Air & Space  - Grumman F-14D (R) Tomcat

The drive was supposed to be about 40 minutes so I left myself an hour because I needed to get gas and you never know. Despite my 10 minute detour for gas, I made it back with 6 minutes to spare before the end of my reservation.

After the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum’s annex I had planned on going to the Washington Monument, but since it was raining and gross outside I figured I could move that to Thursday (when it was supposed to be sunny) and I decided to fill with an activity planned for Thursday, the National Archives.

The National Archives, which is home to original copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and Bill of Rights, also has exhibits that change every once in a while. The exhibit now is about rights, it goes through the history of rights beginning with the Magna Carta and going through all of the different changes in rights which different people have been afforded of the years, including Blacks, Women, and other minorities. Then I got up to the big stuff, the original documents. It’s pretty impressive the condition the Constitution is in. The Declaration of Independence is in pretty bad shape because it had been displayed publically for years and was affected by the elements. I think it’s cool to see these documents which literally made the country what it is. I guess its part of the whole theme of DC that this is the city which revolves around the history of the creation of this nation. Unfortunately the National Archives doesn’t allow pictures even in the exhibits, which is a shame because there was a lot interesting stuff


National Archives & Records Administration

The last thing I did Wednesday was a little Dansdeals housekeeping. I went to the Walmart a few blocks from my hotel and I unloaded a $200 Visa GC I got at staples.

I've got plenty more pictures of a lot of the things I've done and when I get a chance to organize them I'll post a link to the albums.

[dpk4588]

Thursday October 30, 2014 – Day 4 – The Final Day

The day had originally not been planned as such a light day but I was just exhausted, so I decided I needed to scale it back a little. I had planned to start with Ford’s Theater there President Lincoln was assassinated. I got there just in time for the 930am Ranger talk, where he tells the whole story of the assassination. Well, the talk didn’t start till closer to 10am and I had planned on being at the Washington Monument at 1030am, so after his talk I rushed through the Petersen house, where Lincoln died, and the attached museum.


Ford's Theater (2)


Petersen House - Bed Where Lincoln Died


Petersen House Museum - Tower of Lincoln Books

Rushing through the museum turned out not be necessary because when I got to the Washington Monument I found out that the next available tour was at 130pm and I had planned on going to the tour of Nationals Park (home of the Washington Nationals) then, so I said to myself that it was fine and that I’d survive even if I didn’t get to go up into the monument.


Washington Monument


Washington Monument (2)


US Capitol From Washington Monument

My next stop was supposed to be an 1140am IMAX showing of a D-Day documentary at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. That’s one of the few things that didn’t go wrong today. It was pretty interesting. Even more interesting is the price, a 3D IMAX movie, for $9. In New York you can’t see a regular movie for $9 so that was pretty nice.

While waiting for the documentary to start I decided to go online and get my ticket for the Nationals Park tour. I went to the website and it will only allow me to buy tickets from tomorrow (Friday) on. I call the tour office and get no response so I call the general Nationals Park number and they transfer me to someone, who tells me that the tour is sold out! Just my luck.

After the IMAX I decided to just go to my last planned stop and if I had time when I was done with that I’d just relax at the hotel for a little while. They gave me 6pm check out for the same reason they let me check-in at 830am.

My next and final stop was the National Museum of Crime and Punishment. Although a bit pricey, I think it was worth it. It goes through different types of punishment that was handed down through the ages. The next part of the museum was the crime part. It goes through all of the great American criminals and their history. It has some of their weapons and other accessories include the Ford that Bonnie and Clyde were killed in. There are also sections on the lawmen who are tasked with keeping these criminals in check, the prisons where they went once they were caught, and even the different forms of capital punishment. I thought it was pretty cool, although there was some overlap with the Spy Museum, I thought this place was cool. Its also where they film America’s Most Wanted, so they had some stuff about that too. This museum ended up being much cooler than I expected, so it was a nice way to end the trip.


National Museum of Crime & Punishment - Thompson (Tommy) Submachine Gun (2)


National Museum of Crime & Punishment - WIllie Sutton Quote


National Museum of Crime & Punishment - 1934 Ford in which Bonnie & Clyde were killed


National Museum of Crime & Punishment - Al Capone Alcatraz Cell


National Museum of Crime & Punishment - Deadwood Prison Quotes (1)


National Museum of Crime & Punishment - John Dillinger Death Mask

After the National Museum of Crime and Punishment, I grabbed some snacks from a Walgreens (tap & pay!) and headed back to the hotel to pack up and relax a bit before I headed back to Union Station and eventually New York.

Although there were some things that I missed out on that I would have liked to see like the White House, the view from the Washington Monument, and the Nationals Park tour, I think what I did get to see was pretty good.

[SOS]

Very nice trip report
The first one I read on ddf that you don't have to wait for part 2

[AnonymousUser]

This just keeps getting better and better. You're making me jealous.

[skyguy918]

National Museum of Crime & Punishment - Al Capone Alcatraz Cell

It was actually his Eastern State Penitentiary cell.


See the caption for this photo on the right side.

Only reason I remember this is because my first vacation/trip with my wife was to DC, where we saw that exhibit at the Museum of Crime and Punishment. And then our next trip was to Philly, where we saw the actual cell, and I remember thinking, that looks awfully familiar, where have I seen it before?

ETA - Moved the link to Wikipedia from the photo to the caption.

[dpk4588]

It was actually his Eastern State Penitentiary cell.


See the caption for this photo on the right side.

Only reason I remember this is because my first vacation/trip with my wife was to DC, where we saw that exhibit at the Museum of Crime and Punishment. And then our next trip was to Philly, where we saw the actual cell, and I remember thinking, that looks awfully familiar, where have I seen it before?

ETA - Moved the link to Wikipedia from the photo to the caption.

I've been to Eastern State also, right after they opened it, you needed to wear a hard hat and sign a waiver.
According to this picture which was below the the picture in question, its his Alcatraz cell, but maybe he had the same designer for both.

National Museum of Crime & Punishment - Al Capone Alcatraz Cell (Details)

[dpk4588]

Very nice trip report
The first one I read on ddf that you don't have to wait for part 2

Thanks. Having read other TRs where I needed to wait for part 2, I figured its better to do it all at once. (pretty much all at once).
At some point when I'm no longer lazy, I'm gonna finish organizing the pictures into albums on Flickr and I'll post links to all the pictures I took.

[SOS]

Thanks. Having read other TRs where I needed to wait for part 2, I figured its better to do it all at once. (pretty much all at once).

At some point when I'm no longer lazy, I'm gonna finish organizing the pictures into albums on Flickr and I'll post links to all the pictures I took.

But now there is no suspense as to what happens next like some other trip reports

[dpk4588]

But now there is no suspense as to what happens next like some other trip reports

You don't have to read it all at once...I leave you with the option.
You're welcome!

[skyguy918]

I've been to Eastern State also, right after they opened it, you needed to wear a hard hat and sign a waiver.
According to this picture which was below the the picture in question, its his Alcatraz cell, but maybe he had the same designer for both.

National Museum of Crime & Punishment - Al Capone Alcatraz Cell (Details)

Read the text in your picture. It describes the fact that because he was living it up at Eastern State, they sent him to Alcatraz where the warden made sure he received no special treatment.

[dpk4588]

Read the text in your picture. It describes the fact that because he was living it up at Eastern State, they sent him to Alcatraz where the warden made sure he received no special treatment.

I stand corrected.

[morgs]

Great tr-you did quite a bit in just a few days-thanks for the write-up!!