Washington DC was a blast. We arrived early in the morning from Pennsylvania to sing for the Heritage Foundation. Many of our classmates from Hillsdale are working in DC for the summer, and it was good to see them again. We stayed with Jody and Jody's friend Curtis. Thank you guys!
We sang a barbershop arrangement of all the armed forces songs... the Marine, Navy, Army, Coast Guard, and Air Force anthems. When we learned the arrangement five days ago, I had no idea that our armed forces had such cool songs. They do. Thank you to all the men and women who have served for our country.
While in the District of Columbia we managed to do a lot of sightseeing. Even though the other guys make fun of me for it, I "got my tourist on" and kept taking pictures. It turns out that someone in the capitol decided that buildings should still be vaguely beautiful, and made sure that most of the government buildings are made out of marble. I like that we still treat some things with respect and honor.
...I'm not entirely sure that the "Department of Engraving and Imprinting" really needs as gigantic of a marble building as it got, but I guess when FDR added a ton of bureaucratic departments back in the 30's, they all got big buildings too. I liked the Library of Congress... that can have a big building. I'm down with that.
One thing we did like the government spendin
g our money on was the monuments to fallen soldiers. We sang some of our patriotic music at the World War II memorial on the capitol mall. Thank you again, brave men and women who have served your country.
The Smithsonian museums were a lot of fun to examine as well. Being four guys, we naturally found the Air and Space museum first, and looked at all the things that fly. The exhibits about space travel were fun, as were many of the planes hangared there. One of our favorites was too big to be housed there: the Spruce Goose. It was made in the 40's to carry cargo overseas to the troops.... but since metal was in high demand, they made the entire 218 ft by 319 ft cargo plane out of laminated birch wood. That's as big, if not bigger, than many of the 747's we fly around in today. And yes, it can fly.
After that we went to the American History museum and the Natural History museum. These were decent, although it's weird to go through a history museum already knowing many of the things on the signs.
Seeing many of the things from older times were interesting though... it's not every day you get to see and understand how big the cannons were in the revolutionary war, or touch a part of "old ironsides," or look at the dishes the Lincolns used while in the White house. Seeing these things and being to these places really helps a person understand a lot of the history they can read in a book. Movies just don't cut it... there's something physical about people where they want to BE somewhere to understand something. I'm glad we came.
One more thing we like looking at when we're in big cities... churches! Cathedrals! Call me a crazy conservative confessional if you like, but I like the liturgy and old cathedrals. Here's a picture of the "National Cathedral" in DC. There's something in the building, in the architecture, in the design and construction of these cathedrals that offers praise to God for His majesty. Good cathedrals draw our attention to God and His works, rather than just the workmanship of the building itself. This one had a lot of cool reliefs on the sides, just like some of the ones in New York. Sweet churches are all over the place, and for that I am glad.
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The Spruce Goose is in Oregon. Believe me, it is massive like no man's business.
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