5/15/18: We had a bunch of rain overnight.. which always wakes us up since we sleep in the bow of the boat. There isn’t anything to soften the sound of rain pounding on the fiberglass above us. When I went to bed last night, my pillow was wet. Darn – the leak is back. And then, sometime in the middle of the night, the wind shifted to be coming right at our starboard bow, so we had a steady flow of little waves bouncing us up and down all night (and all day). It wasn’t awful, just constant motion and sound.
I was pretty sure Kenny wasn’t going to tag along with me today. He wasn’t into another 6.6 miles of walking. So I got up and got all my stuff ready to go. The weather was already in the upper 60’s, with a high forecasted in the 90’s. He said he’d stay at the boat and do some mechanic stuff. I gave him my basic itinerary, and off I went. I summoned an Uber ride to take me to the Washington National Cathedral, which is about 4.5 miles away. OH MY! What a magnificent place! This is the front view. Notice how small the people at the base near the door are.
This is the side view. Yes – it has ROWS of stained glass windows on every level!
And this shows some of the scaffolding that is in place to stabilize the tower until they raise enough money to fix it. There was a 5.8 magnitude earthquake in 2011. Although the quake lasted less than a minute, the tower swept back and forth and some of the pinnacles spun around and others fell. There was damage to the tower, the roof and the pinnacles.
There is work being done to repair, but there is still much to do. They estimate over $30 million is needed to make all the necessary repairs.
The inside is absolutely spectacular! This is the view up the center of the main ‘Nave’ level. There are many alcoves and small chapels. There are several levels of stained glass windows – too many to see them all!
This is looking back toward the entry, from the ‘Great Choir’. Look closely – on both sides there are pipes for the organ. The carved wood was exquisite. Interesting that the Choir has benches facing each other, and is located between the primary Nave and the High Altar.
This is the High Altar. There are 110 figures carved around the central figure of Christ, showing the redemption of mankind through Him.
Here’s a closer look:
While I was there, a string quartet with a tenor vocalist was practicing. Oh my word! The sound filled the entire cathedral with clear beautiful music. The acoustics were amazing. At noon, I joined a few others downstairs in the Bethlehem Chapel for the Holy Eucharist. Getting to the chapel was a bit of a treasure hunt, and it felt like I was in a secret hallway underground. I was sort of – only it wasn’t really secret.
The Eucharist is done here nearly every day. It included readings of scripture, liturgy, a short message, and communion. I didn’t get to worship here on Sunday, but this was good, and filled my heart with gladness to be able to participate. This is the Bethlehem Chapel.
These are a couple more chapels on the main level. St. Mary’s was on the port side (ha! the left side) of the High Altar. The altar depicts scenes from the life of Mary the mother of Jesus. The windows here depict the parables of Jesus.
This is St. John’s chapel, which was on the starboard (right) side of the High Altar. The carvings and stained glass here show the last supper, the crucifixion, and the miracles of Jesus.
These chapels are a more manageable size for some weekly worship gatherings. The Sunday morning 8:00 service is like what I did downstairs, and it is held in the St. Mary’s chapel. Interestingly, the 9:00 service which includes all that plus music, is held in the Great Choir! The 11:00 service is the primary go-to service, and it is held in the Nave. I probably spent three hours here and really enjoyed it.
From here, I saw on my google map that the National Zoo was only about a mile away, and I knew from my Uber ride here that it was pretty much residential nice neighborhoods around here. So I decided to walk! And it was a very nice neighborhood.
I was hot and dripping sweat like a construction worker in Florida in August. But alas! A STARBUCKS on my side of the road, right before I cross the street to the ZOO! So I got myself an amazing..cold..icy..venti..coffee..latte, and went to the zoo! Admission is free, as it is part of the Smithsonian Institution.
I didn’t plan to spend a lot of time here, but I wanted to see the critters that you just don’t get to see at any ol’ regular zoo…. the PANDAs! I got there right at lunch time, so they were up and moving about. I don’t know if this is Tian Tain the male, or Mai Xiang the female.
So adorable! And eating is such hard work! HA!
I also stopped in to see the new baby gorilla Moke, born April 25.
OK – more to see, time to go. Time to Uber up! I had my Uber take me back to the mall and drop me off at the National Archives Building. And this is all you get to see, because there is NO photography allowed in the building. And they mean it. There are guards standing watch everywhere. While inside, I saw the original Delcaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. All under lock and key, despite Nicolas Cage in National Treasure. 😉
There was more in this building, but there were very large groups of teenagers everywhere, so I decided to spend my last hour before everything closed over at the Museum of Natural History. This reminded me of the movie Night at the Museum with Ben Stiller, where everything comes to life after dark. 😀
The Hope Diamond, 45.52 carats, known for it’s flawless clarity.
There was a huge section on gemstone and rocks, which my rockologist friends would love. I loved all the colors.
There is sooooo way much more in this building than can be absorbed by one brain even in a whole day. I just walked through everywhere to see what all was here, but didn’t really stop and look at much of anything very closely along the way.
On my walk back to the boat, I went past the Smithsonian Castle. This was the first building built with the large sum of money left to the United States by James Smithson to establish the Smithsonian Institution. It was completed in 1855. It is currently the Smithsonian visitors center and administrative offices. It is quite a unique building among all of the Roman style column buildings!
Not long after I got back to the boat, the clouds started rolling in, and we had another big thunderousboomus lightening storm. But just before that happened, we got a nice sunset to thank us for visiting Washington DC.
Looking at the weather for the rest of the week has been a real crap shoot. And I don’t even gamble! The forecast calls for thunderstorms every hour, all day long. Now in the summer in Florida, that often means that there could be a thunderstorm here in this block and it’s going to rain bathtubs for 5 minutes, but it will still be dry 2 blocks over. In Washington State, it means that it’s going to rain on half of the state for 5 weeks, and there will be some thunder making some noise somewhere. We don’t know what it means here. We have plan A, which is to go about 30 miles, or plan B, which is to go about 70 miles. We’ll leave before 7 in the morning, because most of the forecasts, even when they change, say there is less chance of lightening activity early in the morning. We’ll see how it looks when we get out there and then make our plan! Oh – my walking mileage counter app thing on my iphone that bounced along in my little backpack for the last four days says: Saturday – 4.3 miles, Sunday – 7.3 miles, Monday – 6.7 miles, and Tuesday – 6.4 miles. I’m sure Kenny would have enjoyed everything I saw today, but probably not the additional miles!