Washington DC April 2010, post 3, Library of Congress and National Cathedral

Marcy and I spent Tuesday together. After driving around the Tidal Basin, we headed to the Library of Congress.  I had never been there nor at the National Cathedral where we made the next stop.

The Library of Congress, the largest library in the world, is housed in 3 buildings.  It was established in 1800 and after most of its original  books were destroyed in the War of 1812, Jefferson sold his entire personal library of 6400+ books to the government in 1815.  While the library can be used by anyone, only members of government can check out items. Today more than 10,000 new items are gathered by the library daily.

  National figures are carved into the building.  You can see Benjam  in Franklin in the center of this photo.

The main Jefferson building is stunning.  I had no idea that it was so beautiful.

  

We also enjoyed looking at an exhibit of documents from early America.

The National Cathedral is away from the center of town.  it is a cathedral of the Episcopal church.  Congress has designated it as the "national house of prayer" and more secular services have been held here too, such as a memorial service for the victims of 9/11.

Front of the Cathedral.

Main Hall and amazing ceiling.

There are stained glass windows on both the left and right sides of the cathedral.  Some represent biblical figures but others represent national heroes, etc.     

                                                             

Celestial skies with a moon rock in the "eye"                    

Memorial to soldiers from each state who died in the Civil War

President Woodrow Wilson's casket--the only person buried in the cathedral

To see more pictures of the stained glass windows, go to this website:  http://www.tabblo.com/studio/stories/view/209230/

There have been many international leaders and religious figures who have spoken at the Cathedral and for a short period of time, a Jewish synagogue met in the cathedral.

Washington, DC Apr 2010, post 2 FDR Memorial

The FDR memorial is one of the newer memorials in DC and one of the most striking ones. I was there 13 years ago, in June 1997,  just a bit more than a month after it had opened.  I traveled to DC with my mother to see my son Nadav receive the Presidential Scholar award for the male from Washington State.  It was an exciting time.

There is an inside gift shop/explanation area where we read a bit about the history of Roosevelt and saw a few items of importance.

For example, we saw the facimile of the wheel chair that FDR designed, using a kitchen chair together with the wheels of a regular wheel chair.

We also read about a planned community near DC, one of 3 established during FDR's earlier years as President and the only one that still exists today.  It sounds great!

The memorial is divided into 4 outside "rooms," which depict the era during each of Roosevelt's 4 terms as president.   Each one has a water exhibit and they all have quotes of the president.  A total of 41 are listed at http://www.nps.gov/fdrm/memorial/inscript.htm

Here are a few.  I wish the government of the US had been careful to follow these, especially in the past decade. 

                                                                                                                                                                                        "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much.  It is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

"Men and nature must work hand in hand.  The throwing out of balance of the resources of nature throws out of balance the lives of men."

"No country however rich can afford the waste of its human resources.  Demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance.  Morally it is the greatest menace to our social order." 

When I was at this memorial with my mother in 1997, I took a photo of her saluting this statue of Eleanor Roosevelt.  Mom really respected Mrs. Roosevelt.

President Roosevelt and his dog Fala.  When this statue was first unveiled, many Americans with disabilities were upset that Roosevelt's wheelchair was not seen, but that was the way that Roosevelt himself would have wanted it.  (He contracted polio at age 39 and never really walked again.)At the last "room," steps had a brief chronology of FDR's life.

Cherry trees with white blossoms here were gorgeous.

For more detail on the memorial, read about it at its official website:  http://www.nps.gov/fdrm/memorial/memorial.htm#

Travels in DC, April 2010, Part 1 NATURE and old synagogue

The first week of April, Howard and I were in Washington, DC. It was only the 2nd time for himg to be there and the first was a short visit (1 day of touring) around Leah and Nadav's wedding in August of 2008. My last time in DC, except for Aug 08, was 13 years ago when attending the ceremonies for Nadav and others to be Presidential scholars. I invited my mom to go along, and she had not been to DC since World War II! It is a wonderful city from many viewpoints, and I was delighted to go there when the cherry blossoms were in their glory. In March, 1912, the mayor of Tokyo gave DC a number of cherry blossom trees. The first were planted on the banks of the Tidal Basin by the Potomac River. In response, the US government gave the Japanese a number of dogwood trees. We took the bus from Connecticut, and our daughter-in-law's Mom, Marcy, picked us up in Bethesda, MD and graciously hosted us until Friday morning when we took the train to the Newark airport for our flight home.

Monday we walked about 8 blocks to the Metro. Although we were told the cherry blossoms had peaked the Thursday before, the ones closest to Marcy's the American University area were gorgeous. The tree that I am standing under is by the school that both Marcy and her daughter attended and where her older daughter now teaches.

On the way to the Metro, we saw lots of flowers including magnolia (or "tulip) trees, cherry blossoms, a reddish flowered tree, and dogwoods beginning to blossom and azaleas some just beginning to open and others like the one below..

and took the subway to the central area of DC. The Metro is quite good, clean, fast, and reasonable. We first got out at Dupont Circle. You can see the steep escalator entry to that station in the photo below.

In the area we spotted a brightly painted donkey in front of the Women's Democratic Party headquarters. Marcy later told us that statues of donkeys and elephants were painted, exhibited around town outside, and then auctioned off for charity. Seattle twice had something similar with statues of pigs.

We walked around Union Station,

then walked past the Capitol to the Botanical Gardens. On the way we saw a huge memorial, before passing the Capitol. We were suprised to see that it was for President Taft.

It was nice to see all of the foliage around the Capitol.

All week it was in the 80s (30 to 40 degrees warmer than Seattle) and the sun was shining brightly. We really enjoyed the weather.

The tulips were in their peak, and the bright colors and their shapes delighted me. The next day Marcy drove me by a small tulip garden with many varieties, all in bloom.

double tulips, still lovely when fully open

Note the unusual shape of the petals of this fully-opened tulip and how none of the petals drooped

Tulip garden in front of the original Smithsonian building

These pansies were right outside the Botanical Gardens. There were many pansies in a variety of colors in the neighborhood.

Inside the garden, while many flowers were not visible yet, there still were a number that caught our attention, including the following:

Unusual cactus flower poking out of a strange place

Inside the entry of Botanical gardens building, there was a lovely display of orchids. You can see some of the diversity of those on display in the following pictures.

Howard noticed that this Nile lily was the same kind we had in our garden last summer, just a lot taller. Maybe we needed to water it more.

The Mall was filled with visitors as many children were on spring vacation (like Howard was). You can see I enjoyed taking pictures of the flora.

A final close up shot of cherry blossoms.

We also saw the Adas Israel Congregation which was reinvented as the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue.  This building was dedicated in 1908, but the congregation actually began in 69 members of the Washington Hebrew Congregation who objected to that congregation's move towards Reform Judaism.  Sermons were given in German until the congregation dedicated its first building in 1876 at Sixth and G streets. That building has been restored and is now the Lillian & Albert Small Jewish Museum.

In 1898 it hired Rabbi Morris Mandel, the first rabbi ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. The congregation did not, however, join the Conservative Movement until 1948.   Later, when the Adas Israel synagogue moved out of the center area, this building was sold to a church. A few years ago, the church was going to sell it to someone who was going to turn it into a bar.  A group of concerned Jews found out and bought the building.  it is now a focus for Jewish Young Adults in the area and has different services at different times, Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform.

The ceiling of the synagogue
There are tours daily at 1 and 2.  We didn't know that and arrived at 3:15.  Luckily, they were kind enough to let us in.  The security person, an Israeli, gave us a brief tour, mostly in Hebrew!