Guess where we are? No, it is not Stormont, there is actually a working government in this one...
Having yachted into Annapolis I take a mooring bouy for $35 a night and take a greyhound bus to Washington DC and check into the hotel Shirley has booked to have a bath and a wee lie down on a real bed, luxury... before heading to the airport to pick up Shirley. At this point you should note that Washinton airport (BWI) has shared itself with Baltimore - and placed itself about 9 mile from Baltimore and 32 mile from Washinton. Hence it takes me 27 dollars of Amtrack fare to get there and 100 bucks of taxi to get back with Shirley (late at night so mucking about with trains and Metros would be tedious. Not dangerous in Washinton I think (unlike Baltimore where I would not like to be out after dark in some areas - have you seen "The Wire" - we used it as preparations for being a tourist in Baltimore, this may have been a mistake... )
And so to Washinton the next day -
A lovely city, well worth a visit, our hotel is on Pennsylvania Avenue (same as The Whitehouse) and is easy walking to the Georgetown District which has nice restaurants and shops. Also easy walking to the Potamac river, Lincoln, Washington Monument and the collections of Smithsonian Museums on the National Mall. We do also use the underground, simple and cheap.
There's a big stick in the background.
And some geezer in a chair photobombing us.
I think the foreground is much better.
We visit the Smithsonian Air and Space museum and it is full of really good stuff. I am surprised I get around it in a couple of hours. I mean the Louvre has 15 km of corridors to walk and must be much bigger. The Smithsonians are a number of museums, all set in nice buildings, all on either side of a long road - the National Mall. All easy walking distance and all free (at least the Smithsonians are free, there is a museum of Indian Culture that you need a ticket for, apply the day before on the internet if you are visiting it as it was booked out when we arrived.
It is in this building
I think I prefer the older architecture - most of the Smithsonians are in buildings like these, proper museums!
Walking between the buildings there is the odd park - we went through one with nice sculptures.
Spiders are getting to be common subjects for sculptures - can my regular blog readers recall the sculpture outside the Guggenheim (the Spanish/Bilbao one?)
Does my bum look big in this?
En route to the Smithsonian, we had gone down to the Potamac river and walked along it. Nice but a bit too warm and humid, thank God buildings are air conditioned. We do not know how people coped with the climate without it. That has been true the whole way from Georgia to DC. Hot, Damned Hot. People live (exist?) in little bubbles in their Cars and buildings. Might as well be on Mars. Anyway - some shots from our walk
Nice river, at least people go out and do things on it.
I have seen board paddling before and various variations of up and down pedals, kayaking and canoes, rowboats, windsurfers, kitesurfers and more in my time, never a water bicycle until know.
Maybe someone will cross the Atlantic in one someday.
Pirate ships are commonplace in America we see brilliant examples in Annapolis, full of kids and energetic guides. I can see these in Castleward Bay someday, under clear skies?
Shirley and I skipped alone singing.
"Going this way , that way, forwards, backwards, over the Irish Sea
A bottle of rum to warm your tum, and thats the life for me"
I recommend Pilar's rum from Key West, Hemingway Distillary, or Havana Rum from Cuba.
The park between the Lincoln memorial, the Washington monument and onto the National Mall where the museums are is a good walk, it passes a water feature where we come across representatives of the armed forces presenting themselves to some war vets, there was a band too. We arrived a bit late. No Doubt next year there will be Space Marine (Trump's Spacers?) as well.
And then onto the Air and Space Museum
Space sort of started the year after I was born
The lunar lander was interesting too, bascially I could make one of these if I had enough Bacofoil.
The Mars Lander was cool too -
Not much for the Martian to use but perhaps if he scienced the sh1t out of it he could prevail. (I recommend the book and/or film of "The Martian" by the way, though if it was up to me I would have titled it "Interesting things to do with Duct Tape and Survive" <spoiler alert>)
The first Communication Satellite was interesting too - Telsat
Nowdays we send up (get sent up) things called "Cubesats" that are about 9 inches square - they often have ham radio stuff in them and are so cheap some secondary schools have built them. The kit to receive their transmissions is under $200 (Google "Funcube Dongle" if interested)
More ominous is the Rockets of TinTin
Oh, my mistake, everyone knows TinTin's rocket was red and white. This is actually a V2 german rocket. A really disturbing part of the history of this is how prisoners of war were used as slaves in their manufacture.
As a rocket they paved the way for space travel. As a bomb they were ineffective - they had very little space for a payload. Interesting that the pschological effect of dropping bombs on England from the Continent was devastating to the British Psyche. It could never happen again could it? The bombs are political - Brexit anyone...
Here is the instructions for building your own.
I was also impressed by the spacelab (sorry - photo has disappeared into the fog) and the Hubble telescope, it had some trouble with distorted bits that they sort of fixed and then replaced. I mean this was inevitable, everyone knows, hubble bubble, here comes trouble.
This is a Bacofoil mockup as they didn't feel like going and getting the original.
I was also much taken by this model of an Apollo spaceship french kissing a Soyez lander. Makes me reflect on the relationship at the presidential level between the US and Russia.
There were other interesting things in the museum - the planes looked cool and they even had one of the Wright brothers first airplanes - I reckon I could build a nice plane with my 3D printers! And I thought the Wright brothers just made buses, just goes to show...
In fact they even had a copy of an inventor's den. Shirley was gobsmacked as it resembles my "study" also known as my "Man Den". Those that have seen it know I have about 8 times more stuff. (and seriously - I have about 80% of the same books as this guy, some identical test equipment and then a lot more besides.)
Ah gadgets, I can't wait to get home and build some more.
There was also a special exhibition on time - you may recall my friend John Henshaw enjoys making clocks. Keep going John - if you can find the time.
They had mockups of flight consoles for machines and i was interested in the design of these. They are far too complicated and could be simplified down to a very minimal "user interface". Audio should be used more - maybe have AI whisper in your ear. An interesting scenario. Maybe based on Marvin from the hitch-hikers guide to the Universe?
Of course electronic displays that can be projected "Heads up" are common - and the displays can change their format to suit what the pilot needs - the different radars for Weather and to look around, to spot ground features etc., Must be an interesting job designing that stuff... Google glass and an AI parrot sitting on your shoulder whispering in your ear would be class...
We see other museums and have a really interesting time being a tourist. All too soon it is time to head back to the boat - this time using a special commuter bus to take us to Annapolis, a 3 dollar fare which is slightly better than my 16 dollar greyhound bus - which I had to meet on the outskirts of Annapolis at its park and ride. The commuter bus dropped us right in the centre, slightly diverted because the centre was being used for a street party - appears to be an American thing this - second one I'd seen.
Here is a parting shot of underground carvings found in the first World War trenches in France, an Amateur photographer took these, We which we had more time to explore, maybe next time.
I guess prayer was pretty important down there.