I flew from San Diego to the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. International airport on
September 15th, 2004. The grand opening of the Smithsonian's National Museum
of the American Indian (NMAI) was scheduled for September 21st. The NMAI is
billed as the last major museum to be built on the Mall in D.C. As a Cherokee
and an author/historian, I was very interested in the museum. I had never been
to Washington before, so this seemed to be the perfect time for a visit. I flew home on the 22nd.
I visited almost all of the museums on "The Mall" in D.C. I also saw many of
the monuments, memorials and other historical features of the area during my week
there. Prior to leaving home, I rebroke one of my toes. This and some blisters
which formed, left my feet very sore. Considering that I walked
over 20 miles during this one week visit, my feet were very tired by the end of
my trip. I stayed in the Foggy Botton area. My hotel was located in the middle of
George Washington University's fraternity/sorority row. The hotel looked like
something out of the movie Animal House. It was old and run down. Thus, it was
one of the cheapest places to stay near the Mall. This did not bother me. I have
often joked that Motel 6 is too fancy for me. The hotel was two blocks from the
Kennedy Center, and about five or six blocks from both the Lincoln Memorial and
the White House. It was also just a couple of blocks from the Metro subway
system. I used this excellent transportation system quite often.
During past trips, I often felt that I was taking lots of pictures. Then, when I
got home, I thought I had not taken enough. This time I made a point of
taking many pictures. In fact, I took over 1,300 pictures with my Sony Mavica-91
digital camera. The Mavica stores its photos on a 3.5 floppy disc. This limits the size
and number of photos you can take. This means the quality is less that most cameras
made today. The camera has seen lots of wear having gone through several trips
through the U.S., and literally through the jungles of Central America twice. The
autofocus has now started to perform less well than when the camera was new. Many
museums in D.C. feature low lighting in order to preserve fragile, or old material.
Some of these digital photos had to be manipulated by software in order for them
to be seen. With flash photography being against the rules, I relied upon this
post-vacation manipulation to make these photos presentable, at least. I had mixed
results doing this. Taking photos out of a commercial airliners window has always
been sketchy at best. Getting focused & the colors right is a challenge.
I have posted an index at the bottom of each page. You can click any of these lines
in order to go to a page which interests you.
And so, here we go...Click on any photo below to see a much larger version of it. The page index is at the bottom.
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