Tour de Florida: Washington, D.C.

These posts are supposed to be about cycling Florida, but on the drive home we stopped for a few days in Washington, D.C. Skipper has family there and wanted to see them, but it was also to allow me a chance to visit the city. I'd only ever spent a few hours on the National Mall and I think Skipper wanted to reciprocate for my guiding around Canada (and Ottawa). Also he's a good person! I wanted to make this post because I wanted to document all the incredible things we saw.

Monday, February 26th

There isn't much Washington, D.C. to tell about this day. We spent most of the day driving from Georgia to D.C. listening to the first volume of Robert Caro's biography of Lydon Johnson. The drive was uneventful, all highway driving. We arrived in D.C. in the afternoon/evening where we would spend the next four nights. And that's where we met I met our hosts: Susan and Kevin.

Susan has been a follower of this blog since I did my cross-Canada ride in 2023. And so she now gets to join that hallowed group of folks: "The friends we made along the way!"

I don't like to reveal too much information about those hosting me, and so it shall be with Kevin and Susan. Suffice to say they have a lot of adventures under their belts, are gracious hosts, and wonderful people. It was only a few days but I enjoyed every moment spent in their company!

We had dinner and Kevin opted to take Skipper and I to see one of their favourite sights in D.C. We drove down to the mall - the only part of the city I'm familiar with - and we walked up to the Lincoln Memorial. There was a full moon, and although I'd seen it during the day the sight of the Lincoln Memorial at night is stunning.

My first university career was spent studying history and politics, and I focused quite a bit of that on the United States. I also grew up English in a French province but along the US border, and so identified more closely with the people of Vermont than most in my own province. I also have many American friends and family. This all led me to being considered an Americanophile amongst most of my Canadian friends. Even an American apologist. I don't do as much apologizing as I used to - I'm writing this just after the 2024 Presidential election...words fail me - but as much as I appreciate the bad I also appreciate the good that emanates from our American cousins to the South.

The United States is not just a county. It is a civilization. They have given the world new forms of music, art, sport, technology, communications, food, culture. They have reshaped the world in their image. The world is neither good nor evil, it is both. They don't balance. They don't cancel out. And they should not be weighed against one another.

The first time I walked the National Mall I was in awe. This is the capital city of the most powerful country on the planet at this time, and it shows. The buildings make you feel small. They are emblazoned with words like "JUSTICE" and "LIBERTY" and while they do not always live up to their mottoes and maxims, it is a damn sight better than most superpowers of history have aspired to. The place made me feel like it was built as a modern Rome. Not just in its style and architecture, but in its scale.

The Lincoln Memorial at night is stunning. It glows. The scale of it matches the size of the statue that sits within, and so it feels like you have shrunk to about a third of your size as you stand in there. It is utterly silent. And I walked to one side of the room where I read the Gettysburg Address. And it's difficult to feel anything but humbled. People thought this person, his ideas, and his actions were important enough to memorialize. Millions have walked through this space and I hope felt the same way I did. On the steps of this building Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I have a dream" speech just 61 years earlier. And not far outside of this building a mob was incited to storm the Capitol building on January 6th, 2021. Remembering this while staring at the words "...and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth" felt deeply confusing.

Maybe it's because I studied history, but in places like this you can feel the footsteps of the giants who walked there before you. I walked over to one of the pillars and touched it.

We walked out and looked over The Mall.

We drove and saw some of the sights on the mall before going back to the house. On the drive back Kevin revealed that - like me - he had also visited the Alsmeer Flower Auction building in Alsmeer, The Netherlands. This isn't a huge tourist attraction, and the fact that we'd both made a point of visiting (and marveling at it) meant Kevin and I were going to get along just fine!

We hadn't spent very long out, but the National Mall is a special place at night and I have to thank Kevin for taking us to see it. I won't soon forget it.

Tuesday, February 27th

It's a funny thing to have written so much on my travels and to meet someone who has actually read it. I always feel completely at a disadvantage as the other person rattles off things they know about me after I've only learned their name! Susan is one such person, and she would occasionally mention things that I couldn't remember telling her...and then it hit me that she'd read it in the blog!

After being spoiled with good strong Cuban coffee in Florida, I thought my good coffee days were done but Susan surprised me. She brews her coffee with a Chemex coffeemaker which produces a really excellent brew. Susan and I immediately hit it off!

After a hearty breakfast we headed out for the day. Our first stop was Arlington National Cemetery. Part of studying military history is studying how we memorialize the events, people, and places. If you read about any of my adventures through France, Belgium, and The Netherlands you'll know I'm no stranger to military cemeteries and Arlington has always been high on my list. It does not disappoint.

I had visited many Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in Europe and made a special point of visiting the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial just above Omaha Beach while I was there. All are kept in immaculate condition and really help to underscore the sense of sacrifice of those buried there and the gratitude of those that maintain those places. Arlington is much the same. Over 400,000 people are buried in Arlington. Whole sections as far as the eye can see are just white headstones and crosses, row on row, as far as the eye can see. The sense of beauty, tragedy, and honour are overwhelming.

There were a few people in particular whose graves I wanted to visit and to pay my respects. I didn't take any pictures, but I'll link to the people so can read more about them if you'd like (I think they're all noteworthy!). There's too much to be said about each of these people, so I'll only give the briefest of comments about them and why I admire them.

First was perhaps one of the most famous grave sites in the entire cemetery: John F. Kennedy. His grave is a simple stone laid flat in the ground with an eternal flame burning behind it. I doubt I need to tell you anything about him, but it was important for me to go and see this place and take a moment there.

Next was the grave of Robert McNamara who was had chosen the site of JFK's burial and was himself buried not far away. To say that McNamara was a complicated figure is to downplay his role in some of the worst parts of U.S. history as he played a key part in the Vietnam War, arguably one of the worst chapters in US history. But I studied him closely in university and always admired him.

The third stop was the grave of James Reese Europe who was a pioneer of early jazz music and is partially credited with introducing it to Europe during his service in WWI. His military career, and the story his unit (the 369th Infantry Regiment, also known as the Harlem Hellfighters) is also worth reading about. He survived the war but died only a year or so thereafter when he was attacked by a band mate. One of the great "what ifs" I sometimes wonder about is what jazz music could have been if James Reese Europe had lived a longer life.

Our fourth stop was the grave of Grace Hopper. Best known as an early pioneer of computers and computer programming (most famously COBOL), she also spent 43 years in the U.S. Navy and achieved the rank of Rear Admiral. Nicknamed "Amazing Grace" and "Grandma COBOL", there are a long list of things named in her honour: ships, conferences, awards, schools, parks, and on and on. I've always thought the world of her and try to each others about her whenever I can. To be able to go to her grave and take some time to reflect on her life meant the world to me.

Finally, we visited the grave of Michael Collins. Most people can name two of the three Apollo 11 astronauts. Collins is the one they usually forget. He didn't get to walk on the moon and instead circled in the command module while Armstrong and Aldrin made their famous landing. He was one of the more reflective of that original group of astronauts and I've always admired him for his wisdom and reflections on his experiences. He died in 2021 but was interred near several other astronauts in Arlington.

After visiting these sites we walked to see a changing of the guard ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a solemn ceremony that I recommend seeing if you visit.

After leaving Arlington we were dropped off at the Library of Congress and spent several hours doing the tour of the building. Anne joined us and provided a lot of background and context for what we were seeing. The tour is self-guided and streams audio off of your phone. The building is wildly ornate and beautiful. They casually have one of the few perfect Gutenberg Bibles on display. Their collection is likely the largest on the planet (possibly 2nd). It is a temple to knowledge, fact, and learning. It seems I oddly didn't take any pictures while inside, I expect I was too busy gawking. We also got the chance to see the reading room (famously depicted in several films).

We parted ways with Anne as we were going to visit the Capitol Building and do their tour. Security precautions mean that you can't see quite as much as I would have liked, but we got to see the Capitol dome, Statuary Hall, and several other minor places in the building.

The statues were something I didn't know about and drew my attention. Each state is allowed to send two statues of people from their state and more recently has been allowed to switch out statues. Almost all of them were politicians from American history who had hailed from the state, but many of the newer ones are now honouring people outside the political field (more women and minorities!). A favourite of mine was seeing a statue of Norman Borlaug, perhaps one of the most consequential people of the 20th century and is estimated to have saved 1 billion human beings with his innovations in wheat production. I don't want to downplay any of the achievements of the politicians memorialized there, but Borlaug definitely deserves to be better known and honoured!

We headed back to Kevin and Susan's and had dinner with them, exhausted from a long day of walking and learning.

Wednesday, February 28th

I woke early because I had a mission. I'd done my research and found the local bakery I wanted to visit. Just before sunrise - on a cloudy morning - I was walked to the nearby Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe and found a little slice of happiness. Heidelberg is a German style pastry shop and the place is a feast for the eyes: cases upon cases of pastries, all overflowing from their trays, all under glass staring back at you.

And some of these were real European pastries that I haven't seen since I was overseas. Long story short: 11/10 would recommend!

I grabbed a box of sweet and fluffy goodness, a coffee for the cold walk back, and meandered through a quiet residential neighbourhood in Arlington, passing school children as they made their way to their daily lessons. When I got back Susan put on another pot of that wonderful Chemex coffee and we tucked in. Pure bliss!

At this point Kevin and Susan had to leave, they were heading out of town for a few days but still trusted us with their house! I made sure to grab a picture of us together as I wanted to remember the visit. It has taken me almost 9 months to write this blog post, but once again I want to say thank you to Susan and Kevin for giving me a chance to explore Washington, D.C., for being wonderful hosts, but most importantly for being such interesting and splendid people! Our time together was too short, but I hope to one day visit again. I'm happy to add them to my "rogues gallery" of "friends we made along the way"!

Anne returned and picked up Skipper and I and drove us back to the National Mall where we had our sights set on the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. I've wanted to visit this place since before I can remember. Anytime people would tell me they'd visited D.C. I would ask if they went here and - despite never having been myself - would get frustrated with them if they hadn't been.

Before I tell about what we saw, I think I need to tell you about what I now think of the "Smithsonian Institution". My feelings about the Smithsonian Museum system are difficult to put into words. I think I went into them thinking that I'd lived in a national capital (Ottawa) and knew what national level museums were, so wasn't expecting to be blown away by what the Smithsonian had waiting for me. God was I wrong!

The Smithsonian is on another level. I've never seen anything like it. Admittedly I haven't visited some of the best known or reputable museums out there...but I can't imagine them outdoing the Smithsonian. It's even difficult to describe what the Smithsonian Institution is. It's a collection of museums, education, and research centres dedicated to the "increase and diffusion of knowledge." The National Mall in D.C. has nine (NINE!) Smithsonian museums along it.

And the people that work there obviously take their work very seriously. I was stunned by the level of care, consideration, and the focus on context that they put into their displays. I suspect that those who work at the Smithsonian (there are almost 7000 employees) take their job as something more than just "work". Anne had worked at The Smithsonian for a time and still felt a fierce pride in the place. I think she was happy to see the depth of my appreciation and confirmed that the employees take their job very seriously. It shows. The Smithsonian is a marvel. Only a small (probably less than 1%) of their collection is on display. When we saw Anne later in the day and I struggled to find words for what I'd seen, Anne said it best: "Those are the crown jewels." Suffice to say, I was awed by the Smithsonian.

We started with Air and Space. Anne dropped us off (thank you again Anne!) and we started in. We started with an exhibit on the Wright Brothers and their first flight. It was fascinating. I'd expected a lot of "ra-ra America" flag waving and celebration of being first in flight, but the exhibit did an excellent job of pointing out others who had tried, and the milestones other had reached before the Wright Brothers. That being said, their achievement cannot be - and was not - understated.

I saw the Wright Flyer. The first powered airplane.

I stood and stared for a long time.

Another piece that I found almost as fascinating was a bicycle built by the Wright Brothers. They were bicycle mechanics. This is how they had the skills to build airplanes. It apropos and a nice connection for our bike trip we'd just finished.

After this we went upstairs and saw another crown jewel. Upstairs contained an exhibit on space flight. Included was the Apollo 11 Command Module (that had flown around the moon with Michael Collins inside and brought them back to Earth) and Neil Armstrongs space suit. The one he was wearing when he walked on the moon.

There were SO.MANY. pieces of Apollo and space flight history in this section, but these eclipsed them all. I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried standing there and staring at them.

Consider: It took 141 years from the first hot air balloon flight by the Montgolfier Brothers in France to the first powered flight by the Wright Brothers in American. It then took another 66 years for the first person to walk on the moon. There were people who were alive for both the Wright flight and the Apollo 11 landing. This is something I think about a lot, and it still boggles my mind.

We spent a few more hours at Air and Space. And there were some incredible planes and pieces of technology from history that I'd love to tell you more about...but I think it would be better for you to visit and see it for yourself.

Our next stop was the National Museum of American History. As I said, I'm something of an Americanophile and I studied America and they had some pieces I've always wanted to see. While the museum does catalogue things like the Presidents and politicians, democracy, citizenship, and technology it also has a focus on entertainment, music, and some other popular areas of American culture. Anne later told us that the museum never originally documented popular culture as it was thought to be unworthy of the museum but eventually this changed. The result is some prime pieces of American pop culture history!

A few highlights for me...

The section of the museum that focused on American food had something I've always wanted to see. This kitchen:

Why this kitchen?! Why is it preserved in the Museum of American History?! What makes it so special?! Why was Jeremy dying to see it and giddy with excitement knowing he was going to get to see it? Maybe you have to be of a certain age, but this was maybe the most popular kitchen in America in the mid to late 20th century because it belonged to one of my idols. And it was beamed into the homes of millions as they were taught to cook via a TV show. This kitchen belongs to one of my personal heroes and someone I've always been fascinated with. It belongs to...

Julia Child. That is the kitchen where she filmed The French Chef. She donated it to The Smithsonian and it was catalogued, documented, and then taken apart and rebuilt exactly as it was (literally, EVERYTHING is in the exact same place!). As for my personal fascination with Julia Child, I find it hard to explain. I've always enjoyed The French Chef and have watched more hours of it than I can count. So I was so happy to see a whole section devoted to Julia Child in the food section of the museum. I've always wanted to see that kitchen in person and was so happy that it holds a special place in the Museum of American History!

The next highlight for me was a in the transportation section. There is a car there I've always wanted to see. It is called The Vermont, and it holds the distinction of being the first vehicle to drive across the United States when it completed a "road trip" from San Francisco to New York City in the summer of 1903. There is an excellent Ken Burns documentary about the trip called Horatio's Drive - sample of it here -that I recommend. As someone who cycled across Canada, I had it far easier than driving across American in 1903. Remember that there were no roads at that time. They drove across open country for much of it in the West and Central parts of the United States!

Note the literal lamps. And no windshield. They regularly had to stop and get repairs from blacksmiths because there were no mechanics in most of the country. Gas was also difficult to come by and could only be found because farmers used it. Replacement parts could only be obtained from the car manufacturer and they had to wait days while the parts were shipped by train to them. What a wild adventure it must have been!

The next highlight was located in the more "pop culture" section of the museum (I think it was the entertainment section). Things like Dorothy's red slippers from The Wizard of Oz, Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves, one of Mr. Rogers sweaters (that was a big one for me), C3PO and R2D2 from Star Wars, one of Don Draper's suits from Mad Men, Prince's yellow guitar, a lab coat and bow tie from Bill Nye The Science Guy...on and on. But the highlight for me was two chairs.

I laughed because there was a Star Wars display across from this and it was being overwhelmed by spectators with hardly anyone admiring these two. Again I think most people won't know these anymore, but if you ever watched the show then the background image gives it away. All In The Family was a show my grandfather introduced me to and I've watched through it multiple times. All TV sitcoms for decades after were trying to be this show, or paying homage to it. Carrol O'Connor and Jean Stapleton are brilliant and the show broke so many barriers it boggles the minds. I think Archie and Edith are national treasures and their chairs deserve a place of honour, so I was happy to see them there on display!

We explored the museum until it closed but still missed entire sections of it. There are too many treasures to name, and many more than are more notable than what I've highlighted here...but there were the ones that I wanted to see!

We left the museum and took the D.C. Metro back to Kevin and Susan's house. And here a moment to appreciate the D.C. subway system. It might come across as a brutalist monstrosity to some, but I think it is the most beautiful subway system on the continent and I always admire it whenever I am in D.C.

It had been a long day, but more was to come. We went home and fell asleep.

Thursday, February 29th

Our last day in D.C. we decided to check out the "Udvar-Hazy Center" (also known as The Annex) which is the secondary location of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Turns out they have a giant hangar near Dulles Airport where they store more of their collection. Skipper and I arrived and spent the first part of the day exploring it. We had planned to go back into downtown D.C. to visit another museum in the afternoon but by noon decided that we could spend the rest of the day here and still only manage to see everything. And so we did.

I was floored by this place. You think to yourself "it would be great if they could preserve all of these old planes in a museum" but of course that would take so much space...but here they've done it! It's 17 acres of space and filled to the brim with incredible pieces of space and aviation history.

A highlight of this place was their docents. The docents are volunteers who spend months in classroom training and then work in the museum to help guide people around and answer questions. Almost all of them are pilots themselves, and so they have a LOT of particular knowledge about the planes in the museum. They provide free tours throughout the day and answered every question I had without looking anything up. I was so impressed.

Rather than a lot of typing, here are photos with some explanations of the highlights.

There were so many other aircraft in this museum (of note was an entire Concorde) but all I can do is tell you that you should visit. Perhaps the biggest highlight for me was this:

The Space Shuttle Discovery. We'd seen Atlantis when we visited Cape Canaveral about a week before, but this shuttle is different for me. I watched this shuttle blast off into space in 2009. To come face-to-face with it again was staggering. Again, I went back over and over and over to look at it more and it kept distracting from all of the other incredible pieces of space history around it!

I think it's probably easy to miss this museum as it is off by itself way out of town, but it is a gem. We also went to watch an IMAX film about the space shuttle program that was wonderful. But the museum itself is chalk full of treasures and incredible pieces of history.

It's difficult to put into words how overwhelming I found this place. Each of these planes were on the cutting edge of technology for their time. It might be easy to just see airplanes, but I see the history of human innovation and to have such a large collection so expertly preserved really humbled me. I cannot thank The Smithsonian enough for the amazing work they do. And for reuniting me with this dream machine...

We met up again with Anne and went out for Vietnamese pho for dinner (a first for Skipper!) It was cold and raining outside so it was the perfect meal. I think I must have spent the entire meal try to express my enthusiasm and excitement and she was very patient with me as I stumbled to find words to express myself. She also filled Skipper and I in on some of the behind the scenes details of how The Smithsonian works and it was awesome to have those insights!

The next day we packed up and prepared to leave D.C. We had breakfast with Anne one last time and traded stories and adventures before leaving. I cannot thank her enough for taking the time to guide us and give us behind the scenes info on D.C. I hope I get to see her again and am happy that she gets to join my travelog of "friends we made along the way". All the best Anne, until next time!

Skipper and I drove back to his home in Connecticut. The trip had taken the entire month of February, but it was so filled with adventure, learning, and discovery that I barely managed to catalog it all! The D.C. section in particular had been overwhelming for all the incredible pieces of history we had seen. I was emotionally exhausted. I cannot thank him enough for his time, friendship, and support throughout. I will never forget it. Thank you Skipper.