Museums, monuments and the Bill of Rights...

Today we walked a lot. To begin with we went to see the Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights and the Constitution. All very impressive. They also had one of four originals of the Magna Carta. I find it interesting that I spent several years in Merry Olde England and had forgotten that it was drafted in England, but seeing it in person was part of the joy of this day. I thought it sad that the Declaration of Independence was so faded by time, but my wonderful son said that the most important thing was that democracy was all around us.  The document itself, although important, was only a vessel for the wonder of this country.  

The Constitution was in better shape - and there were also two guards watching over it. Some people were grumbling about not getting enough time to look at it, and I gave them a wide berth. After that, we went to the National Art Gallery.  

Mahesh's wife Sara hadn't gotten a chance to see the only DaVinci painting in the U.S. from a previous trip to D.C., so one of his "missions" was to see that painting.  The painting itself is beautiful, and I gave my son a brief lesson in art history about how DaVinci used chiaroscuro (the use of light and shadow) and how, essentially, he created photo-realistic paintings when such creations were unheard of.  I prefer the Post-Impressionists myself, but I enjoyed seeing this one-of-a-kind work of art. Next we went to the Air and Space Museum, and I got to touch a moon rock, which was really cool. It brought back my memories of watching the original moon landing live on television, with my brothers and sisters in London.  

We also saw the original Wright Brothers flyer from 1903, and it still looked like it could fly. The next museum was the Museum of American History, and I found this to be a slight disappointment.  While I did enjoy seeing Archie Bunker's chair, the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland and the original Star Spangled Banner that flew over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812, I wished there had been more variety.  Although I did get a few pictures of my son with C-3P0.  

At night, we ate a great authentic Mexican restaurant (Oyamel), and afterwards walked off the heavy meal by walking all the way to the Washington Monument.  Of course we ended our day at the backyard of the Nation's House as is our routine for DC.  All in all, it was a busy day, but I enjoyed seeing all the places I'd read (and heard) so much about.  The most priceless thing, of course, was getting to spend it all with my son.