And now we are home. From 80 degrees, rain, and humidity we have returned to the prairie where we woke to snow flurries and 35 degree temps this morning. Our last day in Washington was as jam packed and fun filled as all the rest.
We started out walking to the National Spy Museum but a block away from our hotel, the rain began to fall hard enough that we thought it best to flag a cab. We arrived on our spy mission ahead of our scheduled time and were admitted. This meant that we had the first 30 minutes inside to ourselves. Soon, hordes of visitors packed the exhibits. Our first assignment was to choose and memorize our false identities. Before we could enter the main part of the Museum, we had to clear customs by answering questions about our "new" selves.
The exhibits were all interactive and ranged from spying throughout history (think Trojan horse), to the World Wars, to present day. There was also a great section on the villains from all of the James Bond movies. In one room, we watched a movie in which real life, US agents recounted "James Bond" moments. One agent told about the time he needed to leave a sector of a city in Afghanistan. Driving down a side street he saw a road block and swung his car around to head off in the opposite direction. As soon as he turned, a very tall (7 feet), large man--dressed in white robes and a white turban--stepped into his pathway. The man was snarling and held a huge rock over his head. "I thought I was done for, but slowed down and began to pull over toward the side of the road as if I was going to comply and stop." This relaxed the man a bit and he lowered the rock. As soon as he did that I floored the car and sped off. Behind me he raised the rock and hurled it toward my car. I heard the rear window shatter. Glass tumbled all over the inside of the car, but I did get away safely."
Below you'll see some pictures from our time as working spies. We wanted to visit Ford's Theatre, but the line was almost two blocks long, so with a look across the street to the house where they carried the dying President Lincoln, we walked off to find the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian. We had lunch in the atrium. It is a beautiful, peaceful space. No spies (well, as we learned--probably there was a spy or two. There are more spies in D.C. than anywhere in the world), no sirens, no big crowds.
Pam and I anticipated a quick look at an exhibit or two, but these amazing kids were very happy to go from room to room asking questions, studying, and taking pictures. They loved the beauty and the variety of the many pieces of art: painting, drawing, photography, and sculpture.
Olivia said she thought it was really interesting how one piece of art could be seen and interpreted in different ways by different people. "Art," she observed, "can be in so many different styles and made of so many different materials instead of all coming from one way. There are so many things to see in just one picture or one sculpture."
I took a side trip to an alcove where a video featuring judges for the current portrait exhibit were talking about portraiture. "It is an intimate experience between the subject and the artist. The artist represents the outside but if he/she is good we get to see part of what is going on inside of the person as well..." We spent another couple of hours in the Museum and then it was time to head back to the hotel to get our bags and await the shuttle to the airport.
On the way back we walked through crowds, sirens, secret service, barricades, busses, business people, and Army vehicles and guards. Cars honked insistently, sirens screamed near and far away. Helicopters passed overhead. At one point, we had to make our way around and through protesting Chinese people. One group yelling (in Chinese) against the communist government and one group yelling back in support of the government. Standing on a street corner, I overhead a protester asking a traffic cop, "We must go from this corner soon?" "No," said the policeman. "You can stay here as long as you like as long as you are peaceful. No fighting." He looked down the next block at the other group of milling, flag waving protesters. "And that goes for the other group too."
We crossed the street and on that corner, there were some Chinese people sitting on a low wall in front of their tour bus which was blocking traffic. Having just completed my spy training, I could tell it was their bus by the Chinese writing in red on the signs in the front window. One man was yelling and screaming at the top of his voice. He looked very upset. A bus driver from the tour bus tried to calm the man but to no avail. Another guy, a big guy, jumped off the bus and tried his luck. At that point we were through and beyond the group.
We got our luggage and sat waiting for our shuttle in the hotel lobby. We recounted favorite memories, stories from the day, and then Olivia and Daric wrote out their final impressions. We all tried to write down some memorable moments--funny, serious, curious, whatever. Here they are:
(Mainly) Olivia:
-Looking at Bobby Kennedy's grave we were wondering why there were coins strewn in the grass. The little kid standing in front of me said to his Dad, "Can I have a quarter?" The Dad answered, "This Kennedy was killed by a Muslim."
Note: I don't know that we answered Olivia's question, but I'll give it a try here. In the Jewish tradition, visitors leave stones on graves as a way of paying respect and saying, "I was here." The tradition of leaving coins on grave sites, especially for military dead seems to date back to the Roman Empire. The belief was that the coins would be used to pay Charon, the ferryman who carried the dead into the underworld. In the United States, the custom of leaving coins on graves began during the Vietnam war. It was a way for comrades to visit a fallen friend and let the family know they had been there.
-Bonnie, often repeating something Grandma Pam had just told us because she (BB) wasn't paying attention or hadn't heard Gma Pam tell us.
-Bonnie, looking at a display of license plates--one from each state--where the letters and numbers spelled out the preamble to the Constitution and not realizing it all meant something. We all got it and Bonnie only realized what it said about 10 minutes down the road.
-At the Korean Monument we were looking at the soldiers. A little girl went running up to her Mom, stamped her foot and demanded, "Well, did we win this war?"
-When we were in the Holocaust Museum, there was a guy leaning against a railing by a very sad exhibit loudly talking on the phone to his tax adviser.
(Mainly) Daric:
-The lady who took the picture of a log and thought it was a crocodile in the Zoo. I had to tell her, "Nope. That is a log. See it over there? Here, up close by the glass is the crocodile."
-Looking at the Komodo Dragon we watched it flick its tongue in and out. A kid next to me said, "Mommie, will the dragon breathe fire for us?"
-Most of the trouble we got into on this trip was Bonnie's fault: She told us to run up the stairs of the Supreme Court building so she could take our pictures. The guards stopped us and said we couldn't be on the stairs. Also we got escorted out of the National Cathedral because she found an open door and said we should all come in.
-Our guide at Gettysburg was explaining how the different canons worked. A parent at the same group of guns told his kid, "These all go Boom-Boom."
We were all tired when we arrived home last night, but Mark reports that the kids stayed up past midnight regaling him with story upon story. Pam and I would like to thank Olivia and Daric for being the best traveling companions ever. We would take you anywhere!! Great thanks to Mark, Jessica, and Michael for giving permission for these kids to come on the D.C. odyssey during spring break.
We also want to thank Great Grandpa J, Lee and Mare, and Lyn for texting us as soon as they knew the Capitol was locked down, both days. Turns out, they knew before we did.
Now, back on the prairie we rest. The snow blows and the wind whips the naked trees about under gray skies as we foment the beginnings of some future adventures.
Starting out in the rain
Can you tell where signs are that might indicate a spy has left something at a drop site?
One person (female), many disguises
How passengers were hidden in order to cross over from East Germany to West. There is also some-one draped over the engine behind the front grill.
Daric hard at work in the listening room.
Liebinskioff--Rusky agent
Bond. James Bond and companions
The house where Lincoln died.
The Atrium...National Portrait Gallery. Olivia and Daric taking pictures
Four 4 the Supreme Court from top (l to r): Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, (bottom): Sandra Day O'Connor, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Wooden sculpture of the arrest of Rosa Parks
A piece of metal from the twin towers attack on 9-11
This is the one Bonnie couldn't figure out until 10 minutes after we left the Museum. "Ohhhh, I get it. Did you guys know...??" "Yeah. We all got it while we were looking at it."
And so it goes.
