Day 3 - Washington DC (🎄)

Day 3 - Washington DC (🎄) #dcjordan2022

Good morning! Still in bed but heading out soonish probably.

Today we're going to the National Museum of the American Indian and then a break then maybe the National Air and Space Museum but today is more flexible. Later we'll have a fishy dinner, apparently today is the Feast of the Seven Fishes which I'd never heard of but I'm intrigued

Still getting ready, but we did finish the Friday crossword, we're getting better even if Saturday is still too hard generally

We have arrived.

For some reason I'm extra focused on how things are laid out here now

The first section "Who We Are" focuses on i think 7 different people, with some details about their lives now and their creation histories, one interesting commonality i want to look into later is the geographically widespread association of colors and cardinal directions

The section for each group also adds in some real faces of people that belong to the groups *now*, this ties into a video they showed where the narrator mentioned "we are not trying to live an ancient fantasy" tying in that concept of the now versus the image people have

This one had the portion split into the 4 colors and directions with what they represented and items connected to each

The next exhibit is about the relationship of the new US state and various tribes and how the treaties with them went

They followed this pattern to give a pov from.wach side

And then specific treaties had a pattern showing what land was under the treaty, who negotiated, how the treaty went and then what happened after (usually broken by the US)

But again the same as before it's not just misery porn, there's stories about fighting against the system however unjust and using the oppressor's tools against them

Quick good break, same comments as yesterday's, not amazing, not terrible but at least it's easy

Next exhibit is about native tribes as Americans and their interactions

It's sort of set up with these little prompts for each section of a small section of history

I had only vaguely heard of the battle of little bighorn but it seems to have been perceived as a huge defeat at the time, one interesting thing they brought out is the origin of stereotype and cliche from machines that were starting to be used to spread this kind of info

Layout thing is that from the end of this one you enter the halfway point of the trail of tears section leading to a bit of a strange experience that isn't quite the intended one

This one is about the Indian Removal Act and the consequences, one more parallel to the other two museums...

This was a very cute little audio clip if you have mainlined NPR news for any period of time

Unlike Jefferson who was portrayed as flawed but not necessarily evil, feel like this museum doesn't play in calling Jackson out

This was an interesting observation in how language evolves and gets appropriated as the context for the original meaning and gravity get lost

The Pocahontas section had a funny (not haha) explanation of how people used to claim her as an ancestor for clout but then had to quickly figure out a way not to accidentally be racist against themselves

This was a nice visual effect

This was a story exhibit based on a shared story among many peoples, I'll post it without any comments

Hope you enjoyed, last exhibit was the attached picture but 0 interest so didn't even look at it

We had originally thought to go to the air and space museum but decided we were museumed out so wanted to walk to the Lincoln memorial, it was like feels like -18C and windy but we had bundled up properly this time, if nothing else thanks COVID for masks as jaw insulators

The walk passed through the Washington monument so we got some nice picturesque views that were not too crowded due to the day and the temperatures

Then at the monument itself

Then the reflecting pool

Lastly Abe himself

Then we went to a cute little independent bookstore for wife to get a book for the flight and to warm up before going to the hotel for a pre-dinner chill

Apparently the streetcar here is free

Capitol view on the way to the hotel

Now off to the feast of the seven fishes

Food was quite tasty but the company was the best part 😳 it was a birthday/Xlx-mas dinner

I think these three were among my favorites in the coursing

But i also really enjoyed the pasta dishes, the fish ones at the end we're good but fairly standard

Really enjoyed this tiramisu, the coffee ice cream was well made

Now I'm exhausted so time to sleep, app won't let us check in online so unfortunately have to go to the airport a bit earlier than we otherwise would tomorrow. Flight is at 5:30pm to NYC arriving just before 7 then the next is at 9PM to Jordan.