Museum of African American History

I scored a ticket to the African American museum!  Who knew a museum could be so popular?  I was finally patient enough with their website on the morning of my long run and snagged a 1:30 pm entry.  Perfect timing - a few hours to run, ending up inside here:

The museum is worth it.  It's well designed, thought-provoking, interesting to people of all ages and backgrounds, and absolutely crammed full of things to see.  There were several things I wanted to find, so I couldn't dawdle on any one floor with only 4 hours to work with.

We Beards seem to appear in unexpected places:

The section on food influences from around the world included a nifty red beans and rice piece:

The hat on this sculpture from Nigeria inspired the building design:

I super enjoyed the music section, build around Chuck Berry's Cadillac:

So many artists filling the space, with stories, photos, and actual items they owned:

The artifacts they collected!  I supposed I shouldn't be surprised, it's the Smithsonian.  For example - here's a pair of shoes from James Brown:

Louis Armstrong's trumpet:

Little Richard's jacket, guitars from Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry, Marian Anderson's dress, outfits from Michael Jackson and Prince, and many more.

Callback to when music came on albums, and a neat way to display a lot of information in a compact form:

Then the movie/TV section, another place to spend a lot of time.  They are showing a bunch of clips from old shows and I managed to catch this from one of my favorites:

Lots of great movies to reference:

One section is an art museum, with this interesting piece that includes wood from President Obama's 2009 inauguration platform:

Ah, here's one of the things I was looking for - it was referenced in a program I saw toward the end of the most recent Olympics that described what happened in Mexico City:

While watching the program in California, I was surprised to learn that there's a similar (much larger, actually) Black Power statue on the San Jose State campus.  Wait, what?  I had run within a block of it previously, so I had to go back and find it.  Quite impressive:

I got a kick out of the sports section.  Carl Lewis's uniform from the 1984 Olympics in LA:

Jackie Joyner-Kersee on a Wheaties box:

Muhammad Ali's Olympic torch and a glove:

Oops, the Williams sisters are a bit fuzzy, I need to go back sometime and get a better photo.

Signed baseballs plus cards for Satchel Paige, Hank Aaron, and Willie Mays:

I started looking for the way down to the lower floors but couldn't find any stairs.  I did find this beautiful contemplation room with a vertical fountain:

It turns out you have to take the elevator down to the bottom level, and that's part of the experience.  The dates on the walls count backwards as you "go back in time" and the feel is like descending into the dark bowels of a ship.

There is a ton of history on the lower floors, as you weave your way through the maze and try to figure out how to climb out.  Amazingly, there is Harriet Tubman's shawl and hymnal on display:

The train car I was looking for - last seen (by us) in 2013 being lowered into the museum before the building was erected.  You can't go inside it yet, but the signs say they are working to open it up eventually:

The guard tower from Angola prison, which we last saw in 2013 as well:

 A lunch counter where everyone (regardless of race) can now sit together and talk:

A training plane from the Tuskegee Airmen:

Good memories:

We might be in this photo (near the Washington Monument) but it would need to be much higher resolution and lots of zooming and enhancing to tell:

Hey, it's Stephen Colbert again!  In this clip he and his guest (whose name I'm not finding) switched seats to talk about ways to learn from each other and continue to have conversations about race in this country:

The museum felt amazing, inspiring, and packed with things to see and read and experience.  I look forward to going back and spending more time there.

Long run in DC/Arlington

Scenes from my long run while visiting Kathy and Bob - it's always fun to explore new places and take a camera along.

I took the metro to DC and started at Union Station:

DC's Liberty Bell is right outside:

It's cherry blossom time!  And a beautiful morning for blossom viewing (OK, it was a little chilly for just standing around looking at them, but great weather for running):

The Capitol looks much better now without scaffolding:

Every good run through DC should probably include the Mall:

This box was sitting by itself in the middle of the Mall with an interesting old car inside.  I found out later that a few days prior the box had contained the car from Ferris Bueller; that would have been neat to see too:

Iconic DC:

The pool on the way to see Lincoln:

Good morning sir!

I wasn't very selfie-inspired that day, but I do like the view from the Lincoln Memorial:

New running territory for me - heading across the bridge toward Arlington:

The excellent bike path going north along the Potomac:

The Potomac Heritage Trail continues along the river:

It's a real hiking trail, narrow and fun (with a few rocks and roots), with the added adventure of briefly running near the highway:

Back to the quiet of river level, with a nice view of the Key Bridge:

An excellent little bridge over the drainage:

Awesome rocks and a wilderness feel, even being relatively close to the road:

I headed up the large drainage called Donaldson Run:

I ran several of the park trails and discovered a solar covered shelter, nice!

Running over to the overlook:

As promised in the above sign, there wasn't much to see, but at least I had just come from the river and didn't really feel cheated by this view:

Hey cool!  Seems like a good reason for a selfie:

Fun trail design, on my way back out to the street:

A few more miles of streets and I was at my next target - a bagel for second breakfast!  My favorite bagel chain outside NYC.  I only wish I could have carried some out with me.

I didn't see much street art, but this mural rather made up for some of that:

I was looking for Taft, hmm, I don't think that's exactly what I meant:

Tulips starting to bloom - on my way to the side entrance into Arlington National Cemetery:

Time to walk for a bit and respect this place.

Ah, here's William Howard Taft.  We had been to the cemetery previously but at the time I wasn't actively looking for dead presidents (just running across them randomly).  So it took a bit more focus to find this, now I can say I did:

John and Jacqueline Kennedy:

Beautiful magnolia trees:

Down the hill, figure out how to exit the cemetery on foot, across back to DC, and a brief visit with Martin Luther King:

Joining a large number of people walking around the Basin taking pictures of lovely cherry blossoms:

So very pretty:

Exploring cities, one of my favorite ways to log running miles.