The 29th brought us back into DC to see the Cherry Blossoms blooming and to visit the National Museum of the American Indian. The Cherry Blossoms really are very pretty and to see the entire area peppered with cherry trees is something special. We got up really early and 
drove in really early. I’m glad we did since we were able to see and take pictures of the trees without t
housands of people milling around. It’s gets really crazy, really fast in DC. I don’t really know what to say about our last days in the DC area. Virginia is beautiful and DC is an awesome place, it’s just a shame that the people ruin it. 
Everyone is so busy running the rat race to get more stuff that they are more likely to die young of a heart attack than to enjoy all the crap they spend so much time accumulating. Even the air in DC is busy; I’ve never experienced anything like it. What a shame, it truly is a beautiful place otherwise.
After seeing the Cherry Blossoms and visiting the Jefferson Memorial, we moved the truck (that damn 3 hour parking limit) to in front of the National Museum of the American Indian and went to check it out. The building itself is beautiful especially considering the structure itself was built to resemble so many different aspects of the Native American and their beliefs. The displays inside were a bit disappointing. They have an amazing collection of artifacts
from just about every tribe that ever inhabited North America and some from South America, but they don’t tell you the significance of any of it. They tell you it’s a bowl, or headdress, or whatever and what general time period it’s from, but nothing about what significance it held to the Indians. They had walls and walls of artifacts without even that much information, I was really disappointed. I don’t have any interest in visiting a museum just to look at crap; I’d like to actually learn something while I’m there. What I learned was that the building itself is more impressive with it’s meaning and the thought put into it than any of the displays they have inside.We visited Mount Vernon on the 30th. http://www.mountvernon.org/ Yet another wonderfully historic and magical place that is ruined by the amount of people that think it’s an amusement park or fun house. I
swear, the youth of America today is going to be our downfall in the very near future, I don’t want to go into that other than to say I was a pain in the ass when I was a teenager, but I was never that outwardly rude to the general public.After our trip through Mount Vernon we did the driving tour of the Fredericksburg Battlefield that we didn’t even know existed when we first visited it when we first arrived in the area. The driving tour was cool and Bill got to see and experience stuff he never had before, I love it when that happens.
That pretty much ends our DC trip. I spent Friday with a friend of mine who lives out there and Saturday we moved from that area into Gettysburg. I really enjoyed DC and the surrounding areas, but I could never live there. I don’t even think I’ll be ready to visit again for a good couple years…if even then. But I’m really glad I’ve had the experience. This last picture is one that Bill took out our back window at the park we stayed at in Fredericksburg.
;-)K
