School on a Bus (a.k.a. Radical Sabbatical)

Kevin: Today we went to the National Zoo, and by all of the signs, it looked like the Giant Pandas’ cub was the biggest part of the zoo. There were so many animals! I was amazed. There were the red pandas, which actually looked more like foxes, but they were asleep. There were some otters, short-clawed otters, but they were asleep too. They were actually all piled in a nice neat row, which made a cute picture. There was a fisher cat, which had a movie on it and how it caught its fish. There was a sloth bear, but that was sleeping. We ate a quick lunch, and then saw the giant pandas. They were very cute, but I hold otters as my personal favorite, because of how they are so acrobatic and cute. Before we left, we were able to fit in the elephants, the gorillas and chimpanzees, and a small animal place. The small animal place held numerous small animals such as armadillos, porcupines and many different kinds of monkeys. My favorite, as I said before, was the otters.

Adam: Today we went to the zoo at Washington D.C. and we saw the pandas and Kevin got a stuffed otter. We saw red pandas they were sleeping and the otters were sleeping too and we saw elephants and gorillas and we had lots of fun.

We were not in D.C. while the Supreme Court was in session. However, the Supreme Court cases are open to the public. If you are willing to get in line early in the morning, I believe it would be well worth the time to witness one of these high court cases in person.

Kevin: Today we went to The Supreme Court of America, and the first thing to see was the main court room. We took a tour, which went into the main court room, and we heard a bit about the process of a case. First the case comes in as a document about 50 pages long. They get about 7,000 of these, but only 100 are accepted. To be considered, any case has to be a government affair, not state. A case is presented in front of nine judges, all with their own trail of thought, asking the lawyer questions. This would go on for one hour, with the lawyer presenting his case, until that hour was done. Then another lawyer from the other side would come up and talk for an hour. Remember, the judges already know both sides’ case. After the trial, they would take it and write up a report, and send that report to each judge, and they would rewrite it again and again to their own thoughts. Sometimes, to be able to submit it, one or two of the judges would change their opinion to agree with the others. This process takes an average of six months to a year.

While touring Washington D.C., we are camped at Greenbelt National Park – hidden amongst the suburbs to the northwest of the city. It’s an 1100 acre wooded sanctuary that’s less than 2 miles from the nearest metro station. Each day, we would drive to the metro station and use our metro pass to travel to that day’s sightseeing activities. D.C. has a modern subway system that is the best I’ve experienced. If you are amendable to camping, Greenbelt Park is a thrifty way to experience D.C. while also escaping the congestion of the downtown area.

When we arrived, it was sunny and warm. During our stay, cold weather moved in and presented us with snow one morning. Unfortunately, the snow did not extend to the D.C. mall area where I had hoped to get pictures of snow- covered cherry blossoms – a rare event.

Sarah: Today was very chilly, with cold gusts of wind. It was not very crowded until we entered the Natural History Museum, which was stuffed full of milling tourists like sardines in a can. We, after quickly scanning the map, decided to head up to the Insect Zoo. It turned out it was closed, so, despite the large crowd around it, we decided to see the Hope Diamond.

I found that by standing near the edge of the crowd around it, you slowly worked your way in until you were standing right next to it. It was very beautiful, inlaid in silver and surrounded by diamonds, on a sparkling diamond chain. I just can’t imagine wearing it, since it seems… overpowering. I told Kevin if I chanced to own it I would split it in two and make earrings. Reading its history on a sign, I was amazed to discover that it originally begin more then twice its size, but its owners kept polishing and re-cutting it, until it ended up the size you see today.

Continuing on we saw a lot of fossils, and ended up eating outside of a café for lunch. Then we split up into pairs, since this makes it easier to navigate the crowds. Mom and I spent a lot of time in the museum stores, which they have a lot of and contain many interesting things. We briefly saw an exhibit on an artist that does his photography by scanning flowers on a scanner, then editing on a scanner. The results are amazing. We walked through the orchid exhibit two times. I think it was Mom’s favorite part.

We finally found our way back to the rest of the family at 3 o’clock, and got back to camp just in time to rest before making dinner and toasting marshmallows.

Kevin: Today we decided to go to the natural history museum, recognizable by its golden rotunda. We entered to see a giant elephant placed in the African savanna. The Hope Diamond wasn’t nearly as big as I thought it would have been, but it had been cut three times. It is now 45.52 carats, but it used to be 110.5 carats. There was also the mammal’s exhibit, which talked about different kinds of mammals and how they survive in their habitat. There was also a part about evolution, and how these animals evolved to fit their environment. The main thing I liked was probably the orchid garden, which had many beautiful flowers.

Kevin: Today we went to the Air and Space museum, a famed place in DC. There wasn’t a very long line to get through the metal detectors, which was nice. When you entered into the building, there were different kinds of space and air crafts. There was the first craft to make a single orbit around the world. There was the spacecraft that held Neil Armstrong and his crew. There was the first aircraft to go into space. There was the first airplane that went beyond the speed of sound. We all split up into groups of two, Caleb and I, Adam & Sarah, and Mom and Dad split up. I and Caleb first went into the missile and space rockets. The first space station was there, and, later on we were able to go inside it. Another exhibit talked about the V2 rockets and how they were used in World War 2. There was a picture that someone had taken right after a missile hit. It was pretty sad to see.  We saw a bit more, and then we met outside on the lawn to eat lunch;  it was pretty warm.

After lunch, Mom and I went through the American Treasures exhibit. There were many famous items, which I will try to recite a few of. The MASH signpost, Thomas Jefferson’s original bible, which he made from Jesus’ teachings, Benjamin Franklin’s cane, which he later gave to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson’s writing stand where he wrote the Declaration of Independence, C3PO and R2D2 were there (the real things), Meriwether Lewis’s compass, Dorothy’s ruby red slippers, the camera that shot “The Wizard of Oz”,and the Scarecrow’s costume. The three most popular items in the exhibit are:

1. Kermit the Frog
2. Lincoln’s top hat
3. Thomas Edison’s Light bulb

Adam: Today we went to air and space museum. Me and Sarah (we went in groups) went to explore the universe, treasures of American history, Great War in the air pioneers of flight, early flight, how things fly, and looking at earth. Treasures of American History had George Washington’s sword and coat and the R2D2 and C3PO (the real ones in the movie) and Lewis & Clark’s compass and Abraham Lincoln’s hat that he wore when he was killed.

The Old Post Office provides one of the best views of D.C. It is the home of the Congressional Bells, modeled after the bells of Westminster Abbey. Unfortunately, we were not able to schedule our visit while the bells were being played – a weekly event. We did tour the clock tower and a museum explaining the art of ringing the 10 bells using ‘change ringing’ to change the order of the bell ringing while dealing with each bell’s momentum. The pavilion provided a great place to eat our P&B sandwiches while we were entertained by a high school band – one of many scheduled performances taking place there.

The building was D.C.’s first steel framed sky scraper built in the 1890’s prior to a comprehensive plan for D.C.’s architectural  theme for the mall area. After several years of disuse and lack of appreciation it was remodeled in the 1960’s into what is now a beautiful open interior.

Kevin: Today we went to the Old Post Office, which is the third largest building in DC. (Next to the Washington Monument and a Cathedral.) It has a long history, but it started out with the name it has, the post office. It is the only structure in DC that uses steel beams to support it. The people in the area didn’t want it, because they thought that all the buildings in DC should be made out of stone and have great Marble Columns. So they wanted this to be torn down. But thankfully, the government didn’t have enough funds to tear it down.