Washington, Day Two

Got kind of a late start on day two. First stop was the Newseum. This is a new museum, about the news media, and it is a gem. We started off at the lower level, where we saw an exhibition of photographs by Neil Leifer, who has about 200 covers of Time and Sports Illustrated to this credit (most famous one- Ali standing over Sonny Liston after knocking him out). You then take an elevator up to the top and walk around the the atrium and down a level at a time. This seems to be the standard arrangement these days, and I think it started with the Guggenheim in New York, which spirals down in such a manner as to tempt even the most hypothetical of skateboarders.

I grew up not so much a news junkie as a newspaper junkie. Breakfast for me has always meant sitting with a daily newspaper, starting with the sports section and then moving on to whatever looks interesting. Today, for instance, the New York Times had an article about how online retailers are targeting people who have been drinking because they are more likely to impulse buy. In any event, this place was like heaven for me. It's the history of news, starting with printing presses and up through citizen journalism. In between they have hundreds of newspapers in drawers with headlines about every important story since the Civil War. I could have spent hours there and probably will some day.

They have a bunch of other cool stuff too, from a bullet-dented-but-not-penetrated armored truck that protected a journalist working in Africa, to a piece of the Berlin Wall and part of the antenna that sat atop World Trade Center building number 1 against a backdrop of dozens of newspaper front pages.

We needed food at that point, and after yesterday, when we'd walked for almost 3 miles without passing any sort of food-selling thing, (Washington is very strange that way. Many of the buildings are so huge that they block out all street life), we were concerned if we'd find something, especially since it was pouring. But fortunately, there was a Cosi across the street where we huddled and ate, during which time the rain stopped and a rainbow appeared.

From there we scurried inside the National Archives as they were closing their doors and saw the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights, things I hadn't seen since I was a kid. They're pretty badly faded but still recognizable, especially the big "We The People."

Then we spent a couple of hours in the Natural History Museum, which is always fun. Then back to drop some stuff at the hotel and then over to a place called Blues Alley. This is a small Georgetown Club that has live jazz most nights. I'd never heard of the guy who was playing. He's an 80-ish pianist who's a fixture of the DC jazz scene. He was very good and the rest of the band too, especially the guitarist. The set was too short (exactly 70 minutes, just like Yelp reviewers had said) but enjoyable.

And that was pretty much it. We had a good time with almost everything. I have a bit more to say about the hotel but will send that along tomorrow.