Museum Day in the Garden

Last Saturday was Smithsonian Magazine’s Museum Day. The weather was too good to be inside, but they count the Desert Botanical Garden (DBG) as a museum, so we took advantage of the free admission and spent the afternoon walking garden paths.

I guess a botanical garden is kind of like an outdoor museum with living plants and animals.

We saw a hummingbird and bees buzzing around the Garden’s flowers and a big lizard was just hanging out on a rock next to the bench where I was sitting.

Since the DBG no longer allows picnicking, we ate our lunch at a nearby picnic area in Papago Park and were entertained by ground squirrels scurrying around and birds attempting to carry off pieces of a pizza someone had left behind.

Maybe they’re the reason DBG banned picnicking. You really don’t want grackles flying through your museum and dropping half-eaten pizza slices.

September 25, 2017September 25, 2017

Around the Baggage Carousel

We definitely thought we’d sleep on the overnight flight from L.A. to Paris.

But we were mistaken.

Instead, we arrived at Paris-Charles De Gaulle airport in an exceptionally groggy state with an hour to get through the passport line, collect and re-check our baggage, and catch our connecting flight.

But we were misinformed.

Our bags wouldn’t be coming down the luggage conveyor we were watching so intently. By the time we realized they were booked through and already on the plane for Madrid, we almost didn’t make the flight, arriving breathless at the gate as final boarding calls were announced.

The plane took off, and we could see the Seine below us through breaks in the clouds.

A couple hours later in Madrid, we found ourselves once again staring down a baggage carousel, so we could switch airlines for our last flight.

It was around 11pm when that flight landed in Rome, and we went – one more time – to wait for our bags.

And that is how you tour three European capitals’ baggage claim areas in one day.

September 21, 2017September 19, 2017

Smithsonian: Air and Space Museum and Mitsitam Café

Cafe at National Museum of the American Indian

While I could have easily spent a full day at the Smithsonian American History Museum, a D.C.-area friend had recommended the Mitsitam Café at the Smithsonian American Indian Museum as a “little known gem.” I decided to make my way there for lunch.

The cafeteria serves native-inspired foods that span the American continents. I got a buffalo burger and fry bread.

The menu also includes options like wild rice and ceviche.

This is definitely a place I’d like to come back to and try more things!

National Air and Space Museum

When I walked down Independence Avenue to the south entrance of the Air and Space Museum, I was discouraged to see a line over 100 feet long to get in. I had started back toward our hotel, when I looked back and saw that the northern entrance – along Jefferson Drive – didn’t seem to have a line! Sure enough, about five minutes later I was in the museum!

So keep in mind that there is more than one entrance, especially since, as Stephanie later told me, the Air and Space Museum is the most popular of the Smithsonian museums.

Immediately upon entering, I saw display spaces festoooned with replica and original air and space craft – a lunar landing module, the “Spirit of St. Louis,” the front half of the fuselage of a 747, rocket nozzles as big as my living room.

In the past I had wanted to be an astronaut, so I was particularly intrigued by the exhibits showing relics of the U.S. space program in the 60s and 70s – toolkits, suits, windowed hatches, flight manuals, and the like. There’s even a very official and ornate “certificate of merit” presented to the first chimpanzee sent to space by the U.S., which I found both ridiculous and moving. While I was certainly impressed by the spacecrafts themselves, oddly, it was these historic bits of ephemera that captivated me the most.

The guided tour moved a bit too slow for me, so I bailed out to cover more ground.

Marty met up with me about an hour into my museum visit, so that was a nice surprise. We toured the World War II fighter aircraft exhibit together. I especially appreciated the naval aircraft display that replicated both the deck and interior of an aircraft carrier.

Unfortunately, our time soon ran out at the Air and Space Museum. We went to the food court with the biggest McDonald’s I’d ever been to. There was a large seating area and lots of windows to let in light. Fortunately, we went as the day was winding down, so we didn’t have to wait in line long.

I enjoyed sitting in the gradually-emptying mega-McDonald’s and debriefing the museum sights with Marty.

September 18, 2017

A Hike in Le Marche

At about the halfway point in our Italy trip, we took a break from museums and city streets and headed to the country.

We went to Le Marche, a region east of Tuscany that stretches to the Adriatic Sea.

One morning, we hiked up a hillside to some ruins of a city that had been abandoned there hundreds of years ago.

Coming over one ridge, we spotted a pair of horses grazing. One had a bell around its neck (like a cowbell – apparently it keeps porcupines away).

They seemed as curious about us as we were about them, both parties making our way cautiously toward each other bit by bit.

We stared at each other awhile until, finally, Phillip and I turned to scramble up the next hill to see the crumbling stone houses there. The horses continued to mosey down their path.

September 7, 2017September 5, 2017

Smithsonian: American History Museum

I arrived at the National Museum of American History just in time for a guided tour. The group was small – only me – but the docent/tour guide was still more than happy to take me on the full tour.

It started with a walk through the first floor exhibit on the history of transportation in the US with early trains and automobiles on display.

My tour guide mentioned that, at any one time, there is way more stuff in storage at the Smithsonian than there is on display.

One thing that’s always out, however, is Julia Child’s kitchen, rebuilt piece by piece. It reminded me of the end of the movie Julie and Julia, where a scene in this historic kitchen fades into today’s museum display.

Combat Zone

One standout section for me was the display on the history of war in the United States. It was more realistic than idealistic, providing insight into the enormous human toll war has had on our country.

I was also profoundly moved by a display of items left at the Vietnam Memorial including notes from loved ones and friends. I looked at the dates of the “boys” that died. Some of them were born about the same time as my father. I thought about all the friends, fathers, and uncles that those in my generations never grew up knowing.

Counter Protest

A section of the lunch counter from the Greensboro sit-in during the Civil Rights era of the 1960s was on display, somewhat unceremoniously, in a clear space between larger exhibits. If I hadn’t known it was a display, I might have just thought it was a closed (and very dated) snack stand.

When I saw the placard and description, I stood there a long time, trying to imagine how it would have been to sit there in protest years ago.

It’s easy to idealize the moral stands of the past; with the benefit of reflection and history, most would agree the Greensboro sit-in was necessary. However, in the moment, with hostile people around clamoring for “peace and order” and to “stop trespassing,” it would have been easy to flinch or doubt oneself.

History doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s made up of the mundane things of life, uncertainties and all. I stared at the lunch counter and marveled in its reality. It was gathering place with ugly pastel-colored seats. A place where people sat down to eat and drink coffee. A place where people sat down to protest a kind of oppression I will never know.

With the voices of so many marginalized populations still asking for a place at the table to speak, it doesn’t feel like it was all that long ago.

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