Our weekends are precious because they are the only daytime hours we have to run around and explore together. Last Saturday we started out early with our scheduled White House tour. The tour was booked through our Senator last February so we could have security checks, etc. It was scheduled for noon, but at the last minute we had it changed to 9 am. We zipped on over there and got in "line", which was actually a big crowd of people gathered around the visitors' gate. The entire area surrounding the White House is fenced now, and it's difficult to get very close even for a picture. I remember when we visited in 1998 we lined up right next to the East Wing and went through security--which was about the only place that had much security, then. As we were waiting I noticed a lot of people were wearing purple shirts and stickers saying something about wanting nationalized health care. Well that ticked me a little bit because I had worn my purple tank top, not knowing I would be making a statement that I probably didn't agree with. (I just wanted to wear a tank top so I could show off my awesome arms, just like Michelle's! Ha ha!) We finally formed into a line and had our names checked on the list with our photo ID's. We went through further security, metal detectors, etc., up ahead. We couldn't take anything in except for wallets and phones, turned off. Sadly, no cameras.
Finally, we made it in to the actual White House. I was expecting a tour, but it was really just a walk through a path of certain rooms. We started out on the lower level walking though a long hallway with photo displays of various presidents and first families doing different things throughout history. We also looked out the windows onto the south lawn and saw many beautiful flowers, as well as a bounce house--presumably for the kiddos. We overheard a little ways down the path that our tour had been moved from noon to 9 at the last minute to accommodate Sasha Obama's birthday party that day!
We enjoyed seeing a selection of presidential china and crystal, peeking into the library, and looking into the Vermeil room on the lower level. I learned that vermeil is a kind of silver plate that many of the furnishings in that room have. Upstairs we walked through the red room, the blue room, and the green room, as well as the East Room and the State Dining Room. All of these rooms are used for public events routinely, and you could see that the rugs were rolled up away from the visitor walkway and velvet ropes were put up on Saturdays for the tours. In fact, yesterday we saw an interview with the President (the one where he killed the fly) that was in the East Room.
The rooms are all, of course, elegantly decorated with antiques and artwork, even though they are still used. We learned that these rooms' decor is decided by the White House Historical Committee, which is a private organization. The First Lady will sit on the committee, but she is not personally responsible for decorating or re-decorating these rooms. Although we could not take pictures, I cheated---I stopped by the White House Visitors' Center and bought postcards, and took pictures of the postcards! Here is a glimpse:
The Green Room
The East Room
The Red Room
We exited and realized we were right on the North Portico, which I took a picture of later. There were lots of security out here as well, including officers with dogs. Directly north of the White House is a park and street where protesters often gather. There is a woman who has been living in that park for years as a peace protest. Later in the week I walked by and saw some protesters chanting about Sri Lanka, and others wearing "movable sculptures that play music", with the "music" being recordings of people screaming into microphones with rage about the economy. No joke. And it really was just screaming. So...hence the security.
We walked from the White House to the Mall area, where we planned to take in a few of the museums that Adam was more interested in during his free time. We stopped first at the Air and Space museum. We looked around a little bit, saw the Wright Brothers exhibit including the very first airplane, and then headed over to the planetarium. There we took in two shows. They play movies in the planetarium so that it is kind of like an IMAX over your head. We watched a film about black holes in this way, which was interesting--but I guess we were both tired because we both almost fell asleep! The second show was a night sky presentation with a live speaker, which really held our attention. Even though it was mostly basic astronomy that we already knew (having been to elementary school--yet again, I was struck by how much basic knowledge is forgotten by adults if they're not using it to teach) but the computer technology was still really neat. I enjoyed that one a lot, and guess what--it was the free one!
At that point we were getting hungry, so we went next door to the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian. This is the newest museum on the Mall, and was new to both of us. I had heard that it had a good cafeteria for lunch, and we weren't disappointed. The Mitsiam Cafe has foods from Native Americans ranging from Northeast woodlands, the Plains, Southwest, Northwest, and South America. Unfortunately it was all quite pricey, or we would have tried more different items. There were some really good looking foods! We both chose from the Plains area in the end. I had an Indian Taco, which was fry bread with buffalo chili and other taco salad ingredients on top. It was very good! Adam had a pulled buffalo sandwich, which was also good. Again, expensive, but a very good lunch stop as museum restaurants go.
The other surprise from this museum was that they were celebrating a Hawaiian Heritage Festival that weekend. What a treat! There were exhibits on all sorts of crafts, including weaving, cloth making, and lei-making. We watched a beautiful performance of the hula, which was really nothing like what I expected. For one thing, it was mostly men and two women. An older man sang and beat on a drum, which was the only musical accompaniment. The dancers were graceful and did many other movements than what you might expect from the hula, and they also chanted in response to the leader while they danced. Unfortunately none of it was in English, but it was still lovely to watch. They also all wore cloth--no grass or leaves, but they did wear leis. That was the other highlight for me. I went to the "advanced lei-making" workshop (no, I have never made a lei before, and therefore was probably not qualified to jump straight to advanced--but I actually did ok!). There was an instructor who, well, let's just say he seemed like the kind of guy who would enjoy playing with flowers all day. He showed us how to begin with a raffia base (although real hula dancers cannot use raffia leis because they cut into your skin, so they use banana leaves) and build onto it with ferns and flowers. It was a little difficult at first, but I got the hang of it and was really pleased with what turned out. We only made wristlets because of the time involved, and also they were running out of materials, but it was a great experience. I also learned that leis are meant to be ephemeral--they won't last, because they are a gift of beauty and the maker's spirit. That's what I read anyway. But I was still sad that mine won't dry nearly as beautiful as it was to start out with
We also toured the rest of the museum's regular exhibits. I knew it would be difficult to incorporate the huge diversity of the Native American populations into one museum, but they did a pretty good job. There were only three main exhibits: Our Spirit (on the many different religions and philosophies), Our People (on the history and culture of various groups) and Our Lives (on the modern lives of native people). It was all very interesting, and not quite as depressing as you might think. Some of these peoples are thriving quite nicely--although it's hard to forget the injustices that were done. There weren't as many artifacts as you might expect from a museum. It was really more exhibits and displays of pictures, video, etc. The museum itself is beautifully designed inside and out, too, all curves and natural substances.
As you might imagine, at this point we were pretty tired. We headed back to Arlington to rest for a bit, and then took the train to RFK stadium for a DC United soccer game. It was quite an experience! You know soccer hooligans can be a whole different breed, and they certainly were. We happened to be on the opposite side of the stadium from the truly rabid fans, who were waving huge flags, chanting nonstop, and bouncing the entire lower level of stadium seating with their jumping. I really thought it was going to collapse at any moment. In any case, the game was lots of fun--and DC won against the Chicago Fire. Since there's very little parking at the stadium, almost all of the crowd took the Metro home, including us. That was an experience, and not totally pleasant. It was hot, stuffy, cramped... I'm just glad I got squished up to Adam and nobody else! Thankfully we made it out in one piece. The funny moment of the ride occurred when some men who were quite visibly wearing their "pride" (our other entertainment option for the night would have been the DC Pride parade...use your imagination) managed to squish into our train car. They took a look around at all the sweaty soccer fans riled up about their win, had a whispered conference, and were off at the next stop. We were in pretty close quarters, but Adam and I both discussed later how that could have been a dicey situation! Maybe we're just Midwestern...
As you can see, we crammed a whole lot of culture into one very fun day!
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