Saturday 22 November 2014

Washington DC road trip in September

September 27th - a very busy day in Washington DC 

Washington is an amazing place, so much to offer we took advantage of the Smithsonian museums, I know more museums but we only scratched the surface there are 19 museums, art galleries and a zoo, some were closed and now they are building more. Each one is free and funded by huge companies, thousands of items donated by families and various organisations.

We went into the American Indian Museum which has old and new exhibits, another place that tells very moving stories about the way the Indians were hounded murdered and robbed of their lands.

The building outside is very impressive.


The beaded detail must take a long time to do

Poor bird must have been bald after they took its feathers for this head dress


A peace pipe tomahawk  
Children's clothes
Walking in between the museums theres so much to see.

I'm afraid we had a major computer blip which wiped hundreds of photographs I had taken from the sd card on the camera, everything from Washington, New York and Nashville. Unfortunately the ones taken outside the White house have gone forever but I managed with some recovery software to recover most of them.


Big guy,  Abe not Don





Can you imagine all the discussions and debates going on in here 



Abraham Lincoln's home at the top with the memorials in the foreground, I'm afraid we lost those photographs too


The lost Parakeet outside a very old Smithsonian museum

Ok enough about Washington DC, such a shame we lost the photographs but at least we have the memories.

BFN
Don and Glenys on the USA road trip.
Next stop "The Big Apple" New York

Agua Therapy in Grenada sitting out the hurricane season

Washington September 27th more fun

It was a very busy day in Washington, you can spend so much time there, how we managed see what we did was amazing but maybe one day we will return to see more.

After the Indian museum we went to the Natural History and Science Museum too. There are 3 floors each divided into different exhibitions.
This poor elephant was shot for the exhibition a long time ago and "re built, its in the main hall.

What big teeth you have!


One of the areas is devoted to early transport, below are cars that did the original "route 66" across America from the East to the West coast.


An early caravan
A very early fire engine






This was "Googles" first "cork" server from 1999, not that long ago really
One of the damaged supports from the world trade centre
A mummified bull
A scene from the war they chose to hide in Vietnam 


The boy would have been a little snack for this shark





Yes he was alive, there were lots of live insects spiders and butterflies on display


The worlds oldest rock
The world most expensive rock, The Hope Diamond I thought it would have been much bigger.
The story goes that the Hope diamond was much bigger but it was stolen recut and disguised. Thought it was on quite a scruffy support, there was a one security guard in the room and wasn't really paying much attention. Then again it is in a glass case and think there maybe a sensor if it was lifted up from its support.   

BFN
Don and Glenys on the USA trip
Agua Therapy was in Grenada for the Hurricane season

Thursday 13 November 2014

Another day in Washington September

Another day in Washington DC. September 26th 2014

We took the subway into the city, an excellent way to get about.

Sometimes a challenge buying a ticket at the machines though
We found the National Museum of Crime and Punishment so here is another one, it was very good but we had to pay to go in this one which is not so good.

Bonnie and Clyde's car riddled with holes

The hat they had to wear in the electric chair, bet it was a "hair raising" experience 
This guy must have been there a long time, no I don't mean Don
The gas chamber chair 
Fancy Butt
A head cage
Jesse James and Wyatt Earp are said to have used guns like this
"Old Smokey" the original electric chair
Clever rustlers shoes but come on a 2 legged horse!
Wyatt Earp had one of these too
The mobster stories are all there the "St Valentines day massacre"  Al Capone, mentioned is president Nixon. A death mask of John Dillinger, a mock cell for Al Capone, he didn't have a bad life in prison from what we saw. There's a crime scene which you have to figure out like the TV series CSI, easy really.

Al Capone had a cushy time in prison
Ted Bundy's car, they caught him driving in this
John Dillinger death mask you can see where the bullet came out under his eye, 

Charles Manson now aged 80 still in prison
It was worth the admission fee, Don did well on the shooting range simulator and shot some criminals then had 2 goes of driving a police car simulator.

Go and see the Museum if you are in Washington its not quite as gruesome as you think. If you can't go you can always look at the website, the link to the crime library is here http://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library

Ok time to end this page and onto the next part of Washington DC.

BFN
Don and Glenys back now in Grenada on Agua Therapy