LAST WANDER IN WASHINGTON

Today is our last day here, so we set out for the National Archives, on Constitution Avenue, to see America's most sacred documents.  Beneath the soaring ceiling in a rotunda, in dim light to help preserve these fragile documents are displayed the Declaration of Independence, the four pages of the seven articles of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Nearby was a video explaining how the conservators mounted this display, in specially designed, argon gas filled boxes, to help preserve them.

This building was another one of impressive size and decoration, to underscore the importance of what is housed here.  One display was a desk with old black phones on it.  Lift the handset, select a button, and you could hear private conversations of Presidents.  We listened to John and Robert Kennedy talking to the Governor of Mississippi, trying to convince him to maintain law and order when the first black student enrolled in the all white university.  We saw early film footage of various Presidents as children.  There were digital copies of citizenship applications of famous individuals like Yul Brunner (born in Russian), Alfred Hitchcock and Albert Einstein.  Lots of interactive displays, it was so interesting.  Of course all the Presidential Libraries in their home states also come under the control of the National Archives.

We had exited the Metro at the Federal Triangle station, leading onto the Woodrow Wilson Plaza, right near the enormous Ronald Reagan Convention Centre.  We walked past the William Jefferson Clinton building, which I think houses administration offices.  I was keen to see another building, which was large but relatively unadorned, plain even.  It was the FBI headquarters.

 So when we approached the large columns and enormous steps leading up to the National Archives
building, I was surprised to find this simple plaque and behind it, a small, rectangular memorial.  It seems President Franklin Roosevelt had requested of his friend, a Supreme Court Judge, that any memorial to him should be placed in this spot of lawn outside the Archives building, and be plain and simple.

Below is National Archives.  The research entry is off Pennsylvania Avenue and the general admission round on Constitution Avenue.

 We then crossed the road to this Sculpture Park.  In the centre was this huge fountain.  No wading, but many people sat round the edge and dangled their feet in.

We decided to see one last Smithsonian Museum and chose Natural History.  Again, there were so many interesting displays.  There was a whole section on the Evolution of Man and this cast of a human skull dates back way, way before Neanderthal Man.  One video explained how mammals evolved.

There was a large collection of stuffed animals, including this hippo and brown bear.

Returning to the Metro, we saw this Farmers' and Artisans' Market.  Today was still hot but did not have the sticky humidity of other days here.  An easier schedule on our last day here in Washington, District of Columbia.