The Whitehouse & other big buildings

 

We’d reached our limit with Smithsonian Institution museums for the day, so we wandered our way toward the White House. Along the way, we were struck by how many huge, extravagant buildings flank the National Mall, many of them lined with long rows of stone columns across their front façades.

The famous Waldorf Astoria hotel.

We stopped by the White House Visitor Center, which features a full-scale Oval Office replica, exhibits on the history of the White House, and a gift shop.

The view of the White House from Pennsylvania Avenue is definitely less “fencey” than from The Ellipse. The expansive gardens are nice, but they also partially obscure the building, which sits quite a distance from the viewing points. To be brutally honest, it felt a bit overrated.

Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum

The next museum on the agenda was the National Air and Space Museum. Like the National Museum of Natural History, entry was free, but you still needed to book a timed ticket. The line to get in was pretty nuts. It thinned out a bit once inside, but it was still fairly hectic. The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, holding the world's largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft, is the institution's most-visited museum.

Unfortunately, about half the floor space was closed off due to upgrades and construction. What was open was well presented, with the original Wright Flyer (above) being the clear highlight.

America by Air has exhibit and aircraft that lay out the history of U.S. commercial aviation. It features iconic aircraft, including a Ford 5-AT Tri-Motor, Boeing 247-D, and a Douglas DC-3.

Also featured is a full Boeing 747 cockpit. 

Some of the floor exhibits in America by Air include turbofan engines such as the Rolls-Royce RB211-22 (above) and the GE CF6 (below), both widely used on commercial airliners, along with the massive C-5M Galaxy.

The Spirit of St. Louis is another of the unique aircraft in the museum. Charles Lindbergh flew it solo across the Atlantic in 1927, a landmark achievement in aviation history.

The Destination Moon exhibit includes a number of key artifacts from the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.Above is the command module from the Apollo 11 mission that famously was the first manned mission to land on the moon.

 The rocket motors are also incredibly impressive pieces of engineering; massive, complex, and a real testament to the power required for spaceflight.

Neil Armstrong’s space suit is a unique piece of history, offering a tangible connection to the moment of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing.

The full-sized X-Wing T-70 was never part of any real space program, but it’s still an iconic movie prop from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

The Air & Space Museum didn’t quite measure up to the Museum of Flight in Seattle, which left Harry pretty disappointed, though for Kerri, the smaller, more concise layout was perfect.

The Capitol Building

 

The vast lawn stretching between the Washington Monument and the Capitol is lined with numerous buildings, including several Smithsonian museums and the Smithonian Castle (below) which is the administrative headquarters and primary visitor information center for the Smithsonian Institution.

As we walked the expanse of the National Mall towards the US Capitol, we couldn’t help but be distracted by the numerous squirrels. Among them was a white one, which was bossing its neighbours around.

We made it as far as the United States Capitol Reflecting Pool, where we could get a decent view of the seat of the U.S. Parliament. Like the White House, it’s surrounded by multiple layers of tall fencing.