Tuesday 4^th December

Re-acquainting ourselves today with Washington DC we both agreed that a 2^nd time around with anything has less impact than a first experience.  While we both want to be here those memorable gasps when first seeing the Mall two years ago were missing – it was a bit like coming to see something familiar. We were blessed with a perfect autumn day with the temperature being about 21 degrees C.  (Winter doesn’t start in the northern hemisphere until about 21^st of December) if you were wondering why I referred to “autumn”. We took our time looking through the main building of the Smithsonian Institute named the Castle and were able to view a photo exhibition commemorating the 150^th anniversary of the Civil War. The exhibit features a range of Civil War-era photographic materials from Smithsonian collections, including cameras, stereoviewers, albums and portraits, alongside photographs of soldiers and battlefields.  Highlights included an ambrotype portrait of an African American washerwoman, carte-de-visite (a type of small photo) album of Civil War generals, an 11-by-4-inch-view camera and equipment and an examination of the emergence of battlefield photography and photojournalism.

 

We walked toward the Capital building (Parliament House) and a building we had not noticed before caught our attention due to the fact it had “railway” written on a banner outside.  It turned out to be the United States Botanic Garden Conservatory. 

Constructed by the Architect of the Capitol in 1933, this historic greenhouse contains two courtyard gardens and 10 garden rooms under glass, totaling 2690 square metres of growing space.

Behind the scenes is a state-of-the-art completely automated environmental control system. Computers monitor the outside weather and automatically control misting, shade cloth, fans, air-handling equipment, heat and window vents to achieve a perfect range of day and night temperatures and humidity. Within we discovered a kaleidoscope of colours, particularly the orchid garden. Other gardens and displays included Hawaiian, desert, medicinal, rare and jungle plants.

The train referred to a children’s display of trains entering, disappearing and re-emerging through a ‘fairy castle’.  The little ones certainly were impressed and very excited each time they found the train travelling towards them.

Following our horticultural experience we walked along the mall to see a policeman driving a horse float.  He stopped a few metres from where we stood and gave us a demonstration of how to get a horse to walk backwards from the float – you pull its tail!!!