New Year’s Day in Washington DC

Posted on Saturday, January 5th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

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I have just arrived home from Washington, DC where Josiah and I spent three days.  I am not much of a traveler, preferring to spend time at home, but I must say that this was one of the most enjoyable times that I have had in quite a while.
It was enjoyable first, because Josiah and I were able to spend so much time together.  I am really proud of both of my children, but Josiah’s interests parallel mine in many ways so we spent our time going to museums.  Since DC is such a compact city, we walked nearly everywhere, putting on about ten miles in the two and half days.  The only uncomfortable part was the cold weather.  With the wind chill the temperature dipped down into the zeros.  This is not the kind of weather that two Florida boys are used to walking around in.  I had to purchase a ski cap to keep my head warm, and was wishing that I had not worn my ever-present “Crocs” because my feet were really cold.
We were able to visit some great places.  We saw the house of Lincoln’s death, right across from the Ford theatre which was closed for renovation.  We visited the national archives where we saw the camera that took the “Zapruder film” (film of JFK’s assassination); the declaration of independence; bill of rights; and a variety of other things.
After the national archives we went to the International Spy Museum.  This was a fascinating look at spy craft from Biblical times all the way up until today.  We saw an actual “enigma;” a variety of listening devices (including a “dog-poop bug”); many different kinds of devices used by spies in the II world war as well as tools used by the Soviet Union to spy on the US only a few years ago.  This was one of my favorite stops.
The next day we set out a little earlier, first to visit the Museum of Natural history.  This had some fascinating animals, many of which I had not seen before.  A few floors up we were able to see the Hope diamond of legend and supposed curse.
After this we walked to the Holocaust Museum which was an incredibly moving experience.  One comes face to face with evil in seeing the actual bunks from camps at which millions met their death.  This was indeed an experience not to be missed, with the sign “Arbiet mach frei” cast from the original.  Walking under that sign, and seeing the thousands of things that those in the camps brought with them, only to have them confiscated, was almost surreal.
After this, we took a cab to the Arlington Cemetery.  Here we saw the grave of JFK, the tomb of the unknown soldier (with the changing of the guard as we stood freezing), and the house that had belonged to Mr. & Mrs. Robert E. Lee before it was taken by the government for back taxes.
From the cemetery we walked back to downtown (about three or four miles) and walked past the Lincoln Memorial (where the reflecting pond was freezing over), the Washington Monument, the White House, and a beautiful view of the Capitol down Pennsylvania Avenue.
All in all it was a great time; a great time with my son and a great time of seeing some amazing things.  It was a time for refreshment (a long brisk walk can do much to clear one’s head) and re-centering.  I look forward to what God has in store in this year for Knox Theological Seminary as well as for Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. I think that I will look back at this year and will say what I said when I saw so many of the things this week: “Wow!” God is doing some great things; the problem is that he often works through pain and difficulty.  We don’t always like that, but like a long, cold walk, it just makes the room seem that much better when we get there.

Walk on . . .

SamLam