usa: washington d.c.

our adventure continued onwards to washington d.c.! after a pleasant trip there that involved our crazy but absolutely delightful friend devony (thanks for driving all the way to canada to see us!! and for making my uncle dave and tanja fall in love with you in one evening - they couldnt stop talking about you), a couple nights in pennsylvania and lots of music, new friends (and old friends) and a double-decker train ride, we arrived in d.c. one of the things i really enjoy in d.c. is the architecture. its hard to describe, but even normal public buildings are touched with grandeur and class - hence the train station below...

for some reason, i really like black and white for all these architecture pics...you'll just have to put up with it. heres another of the train station - you'd think it was fancy hotel...

there are several other things i especially like about d.c. one in particular is not a large thing - i discovered this gem of a garden in 2005 wedged between 2 smithsonian buildings on the mall - the most perfect beautiful little garden ever. it was great to share it with sandi and we are planning our new system house with a similar garden out front!

heres another shot, but you have to go there and sit down and eat your packed lunch to appreciate it.

the second thing i like is the museums - the smithsonians: air and space (they have the spare hubble, the apollo moon lander, the wright flier to name just a few awesome things), african art (a bit creepy this one was), natural history, the holocaust, the spy museum (yes, the SPY musem) and the national art gallery. totally awesome. all free. what more could a person want? so we started off with the holocaust because it is kind of depressing, but you have to go at least once in your life. then on to the smithsonians - this shot below is some administrator of the smithsonian in one of the perfect little gardens they have. i just read that again and it came out wrong. its a statue of some administrator.

some important parts of the museum of american history:

t-rex. that would be the one on the left.

 an important part of my education came from this guy :)

on the subject of museums we went to the national portrait gallery where we serendipitiously (is that a word?) found an awesome exhibition of norman rockwell paintings. i have always been an admirer and seeing his actual real life painted-by-his-very-hand original paintings that had way way more detail than any reproduction was wonderful. unfortunately they didnt allow photos so i cant share.

coming back to the posh architecture. washingtons subway system deserves a word here. first there are these extremely handsome subway stations, with its vaulted concrete roofs.

its an amazingly clean and orderly subway - there is even carpet in the trains. but on the other hand, the authorities are a bit uptight about their carpeted cars and no food and drink is allowed. i think they probably went a bit far when they arrested a 12-year old for eating fries in 1850, sorry actually 2000. but the subway is definitely cool. apparently its an example of 'brutalist' architecture, characterized by blocky shapes, exposed concrete and repeated motifs - popular in the 70s (think kencom house if you are from kenya).

a special mention must be made of gallaudet university. the only institute of higher education in the world specifically catering to the deaf. even the guard at the gate was deaf. thomas gallaudet was a lawyer whose life changed after befriending the deaf daughter of a neighbour. after teaching her to read, he traveled europe and learned sign language. after coming back home he started a school for the deaf. his son, edward founded the college that eventually became gallaudet. his words: "Deafness, though it be total and congenital, imposes no limits on the intellectual development of its subjects, save in the single direction of the appreciation of acoustic phenomena."

anyway, i messed up this picture below - its thomas gallaudet but on the other side (away from the camera) is the little 9 year old girl - alice cogsworth - that he befriended and got him interested in deaf education. maybe next time i should do my research before i go there and not after, hey?

of course, the washington monument dominates the city. completed in 1884, it enjoyed the title of tallest bulding in the world for 5 years till the eiffel tower was built. it actually still is the tallest stone obelisk in the world. it is, of course, built in honor of george washington, first president of the u.s.

how could i forget to mention this: lovelyn took us on her famous grand night tour of washington d.c. most of the monuments are lit at night and look rather spectacular. thank you lovelyn!!! apparently d.c. is one of the few cities that were designed from the outset rather than growing organically, and as a result it is laid out in a nice organised fashion with 6 major streets radiating outwards from the capitol. designed by the french born architect charles l'enfant. he was thereafter fired for micromanaging its building, but his plan was retained.

the lincoln memorial is rather cool...urban legend has it that he is holding his hands in the american sign language letters 'a' and 'l' for his initials. BUT the dude who designed it did have a son who was deaf and knew sign language. also, lincoln signed the legislation that gave funds for gallaudet university so....maybe its true...apparently many artists, including da vinci put such secret signs in their work since they were not allowed to sign their creations.

on one side of the statue is his famous speech - the gettysberg address. in reality the main guy who actually gave the gettysberg address was a different man called everett who gave a 2 hour long speech. boring! lincolns came after and was just 2 minutes. i think there is an important lesson here, see whos speech got remembered?

to end our trip, dawn, our gracious hostess drove us down to baltimore harbor and we enjoyed a real nice evening on the baltimore harbor...AND took us for supper to the cheesecake factory which i totally recommend. thank you dawn!

our last day was spent at a get-together at dierdres place - it was great to see so many who have visited us in kenya - jason and alexis, divonne and kenny, devony (again - always fun), lovelyn, maya and her mom cassandra (it was great having you here, btw - come back!!), louis (came all the way from ny coz he missed our company so much). i am not mentioning you here wanda and sandy because you are actually kenyans who occasionally visit the states. thanks all for a great time. you guys are all welcome back - we need more help in sign language!!

so we sadly drove back to new york penn station to catch our bus back to canada...

and so, as our trip draws to a close, i will subject you to one last blog....TORONTO (and maybe a bit of oshawa) coming up next.