Washington DC, Day 2 - Buildings and Birds

 [[Again, this post was written a week ago. See "yesterday's post" for Day 1.]]

According to Scott, there is no internet. One assumes that he means there is no connection to the internet from our charming Washington DC address and not that the internet itself has been wiped out but how would we know? How odd, really, that something that didn’t exist a few dozen years ago should have become so central to existence.

  Our second day in DC—or our first proper day—was downright exhausting and after returning to the apartment and having a restorative cocktail, I took to the bathtub with some bath salts purchased at the L’Occitane outlet at Union Station which was quite the bustling spot—the train station, not the tub, which was as peaceful as one might wish. In the bath, I read this fine bit from Obabakoak:

Hunting has always seemed to me a cruel pastime and my habit of giving names to animals—something I’ve done since I was a child – prevents me ever doing harm to any creature, however repellent. Imagine, for example, that you have a cockroach living in your house and one day it occurs to you to christen that cockroach Jose Maria, and then it’s Jose Maria this and Jose Maria that, and very soon the creature becomes a sort of small, black person, who may turn out to be timid or irritable or even a little conceited. And obviously in that situation you wouldn’t dream of putting poison down around the house. Well, you might consider it as an option but no more often than you would for any other friend.

Me and my velo!

Today we saw no cockroaches. No, we walked and biked (hurrah Capital Bikeshare!)

 and then walked a great deal more about The National Mall which turns out to be a lot more extensive than I’d realized. We wrestled with the problem of getting the Washington Monument to fit into a frame when I’d brought only my long lens on today’s expedition, and we were somewhat moved by the Lincoln Memorial where I was exceedingly taken with a particular bit of the second inaugural address (see below) and Scott noted that Mr Lincoln likely wouldn’t be altogether comfortable with the Roman empire touches to his statue. We had as good a look as one can get at the White House and learned we were too late in the day to get into Congress and we admired the size of the Library of Congress and considered the bulk of the Supreme Court building. There are, it is to be noted, a lot of very large edifices in DC. It was comforting to find my old friends the Seven Burghers of Calais hanging out in the Outdoor Sculpture Garden.

Those pesky burghers

And, hey! Along with about a million American robins, two million European starlings, and three million house sparrows, I saw some new birds. One cardinal kindly put in an appearance as did a handful of what we finally identified as northern mockingbirds.

Cardinal--not as bright as I'd expected but I think it's a male

We saw an astounding number of some old childhood friends, the grackle, as well as a trio of what I’ve always considered to be “proper” blue jays. There was a fine example of a white-throated sparrow in the Enid A. Haupt Garden behind the old Smithsonian Castle, as well as a pair of mourning doves, and a great many brownheaded cowbirds. Flying over the Mall we saw a pair of what we’re currently classifying as a pair of golden eagles though I’m not entirely confident about that ID. So, two new birds, two old friends, some seen-them-before-but-not-often birds, and one somewhat dodgy ID with no photos to work with. Sadly, a dip on the Baltimore oriole. Scott says they’re on the road; I say, “Maybe tomorrow.”

White-throated sparrow

Northern mockingbird

 Tomorrow, however, is to be given over to museums, like as not, assuming our feet don’t go on strike after today’s endless march. Today’s epiphany, which maybe doesn’t count as an epiphany since it’s something Scott said over breakfast: Washington DC is a southern city. That’s why everyone is so damned nice and no one seems to be in a hurry. (Sadly, the latter remains true of the connection to the internet.)

My favorite bit of the second inaugural address

I end with a shot of today’s purchases:

Just a few of life necessities, rye and pistachios and bathsalts and a coffee press

 and today's constant companion:

Washington Monument over the Reflection Pool (as seen from the Lincoln Memorial)