A quick trip to Washington…

Last weekend I made a quick — four night — trip to Washington, D.C.  The goal was to attend the 2017 Equality March.

Adam in front of the White House during the 2017 Equality March.

Although I’ve become quiet politically, I still have strong opinions about being liberal. With the election of Donald Trump, I’ve decided that silence isn’t appropriate at this point in time.  Trump is going to prove to be the worst president that the the US has ever had. As was pointed out by Nancy Pelosi, Trump is going to self-impeach. Unfortunately that will leave us with President Pence, whose chief virtues are that he isn’t Trump and that he understands that nuclear war is bad.

Enola Gay – I’ve been to Hiroshima and Tinian; now I’ve seen the plane that connected the two.

Given that I was going to D.C., I packed in as much as I could: a trip to the Air and Space Musuem’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, a Washington Nationals baseball game (my first baseball game in America in about a decade — the Nationals ), the new National Museum of African American History and Culture, a wander down the National Mall to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, as well as some shopping.

Underbelly of the Space Shuttle Discovery.

Space Shuttle Discovery

Some of the planes at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

Of course, there was also the Equality March. Which was worth it, despite it being 34° out — 93F. Before the march started, I was in the hotel lobby pondering what to do about water, when a grandmotherly type walked past and told me, “hydrate, be sure you hydrate.”

I was also joined — as planned — by friends, including two bloggers (who don’t blog any more, not that I really blog that much). Then, after they left, I discovered that another friend happened to be in town. He’d been unaware of the march and was surprised to stumble upon it.  We ended up having dinner and wandering through DC for a bit.

I found the shadow of the Washington Monument to provide relief from the relentless sunshine. It was hot Monday morning!

Although the trip was short, it was by far one of the best long weekends that I have had in recent years.

I think the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is probably the most powerful and effective memorial on the National Mall. It’s probably the only memorial that I’ve visited on every single trip I’ve ever made to D.C.