Washington D.C. 2018–#6–Supreme Court, Conservatory, Air and Space

IMG_6737

Our first tour of the day was at the Supreme Court.  It was a lovely walk from the Metro to the building, and I was awed at the sheer size of the columns in front of the Supreme Court.

IMG_6747

This is a model of the room where we had a very informative tour, once again reinforcing many things we had studied in preparation of our visit.  The woman in charge did a great job explaining the process involved with the Supreme Court and cases that were heard there, and I was delighted with the whole thing.

IMG_6744

Upon a tip from a reader, we ate in the cafeteria at the Supreme Court.  It was great!  It was much quieter than the cafeteria at the Capitol Building, decorated up in a fashion that we knew which building we were in, and the food was delicious.

IMG_6740

We spent quite a bit of time peering up into the spiral staircase.  There are 2 of them in this building, and they are amazing.  A kindly worker who was passing by informed us that there are only 5 of these in the world, and 2 of them are in this building, and yes, indeed, he climbed up and down every day.  We didn’t see anyone climbing, but the staircases were not open to the public, or I would have gone up!

IMG_6761

Our next stop was the United States Botanic Garden Conservatory.  I could have stayed there for the rest of my life.  It is divided into sections, with plants from every region on earth, and the orchids are SO beautiful.

IMG_6767

IMG_6782

The center section is a huge greenhouse, with a catwalk that allowed us to view it from above.

IMG_6781

There were many full-sized trees growing.

IMG_6778

We had an amazing time before we headed down the street some more to the Museum of Air and Space.

IMG_6805

 

We had checked the website, and read that the museum would be open until 7.  Sadly, it closed early that day for a private event, and we only had about an hour and a half/2 hours there.  Still, we saw what we could and enjoyed it very much.

IMG_6804

Michaela’s favorite was Amelia Earhart’s plane.  She even found a t-shirt with a picture of it, and bought it in the gift shop.  After all of that, we went back to the townhouse.  We had quickly slipped into a pattern of calling an Uber from the Metro station so we would not have to navigate the streets in the dark, and because our legs were tired.  This day was no exception, and we once again ate dinner using the groceries we had ordered in, and the things in the suitcase we had brought, plus a few odds and ends from the fridge.  By this time, though, everyone was beginning to drag (ya think?), and we decided that the next day would be a little less action packed.

 

6 thoughts on “Washington D.C. 2018–#6–Supreme Court, Conservatory, Air and Space”

  1. The gardens look so much better in your pictures than we saw! But it was SO HOT that we couldn’t spend much time there. I’m so enjoying hearing about your visit!

    1. I was just wondering how hot it got in there during the summer. That does not surprise me, except that I would think they would cool it somehow so the plants didn’t cook.

  2. The Air and Space Museum is our favorite. We have never been to the gardens. Will have to go next time we are in DC. There is too much to do on one trip. The flowers are beautiful.

    1. Right now, on the outside, there were many bulbs blooming. I’ll bet during the summer, there are many more flowers in the outside part than there were at this time of year. It was pretty toasty in there, even though the weather was not super hot, so I wonder how hot it would get in the middle of the summer:) They probably have to cool it down or the plants would cook!

  3. Oh wow, the Conservatory sounds wonderful and I am with you that I could have stayed for a long, long time! The catwalk would have terrified me though.

    1. It wasn’t so bad. There were sturdy metal railings and fences, etc. Also, there was one much higher than the one we were on–that I would not have wanted to be on no matter how sturdy!!!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *