Spring Bloodroot Moon
Of the next three days here in DC today will have middlin temps and 
modest winds. That means today is a good day to walk past the Whitehouse, out onto the mall and onward to the Lincoln Memorial. I haven’t been there in a long time.
In my focus on the pre-Raphaelites and my upcoming shift away from the MIA I forgot I was coming to DC. Oh, I’d thought about going to the Supreme Court and/or the Library of Congress, yes, but only vaguely.
When I got here, I saw the Capitol building from afar. Oh. That Washington, D.C. This is the nation’s capitol, the historic and present locus of US power. And I haven’t been here for any length of time in a long while, since our family honeymoon back in 92 or 93.
In Penn Quarter, the name some urban planner cum tourism official has given the neighborhood of the Harrington Hotel, there is quite a bit of history within 2 or three blocks. 2 blocks away is the Ford Theatre. Up another couple of blocks is the National Portrait Gallery. In the other direction is the Old Post Office and the Navy Heritage Center. 3 blocks west is the Whitehouse.
The revolutionary era is a time period on which I’m weak, having spent my US history reading largely on the Civil War, the West and the period of the Transcendentalists. As a result the early history of D.C. is fuzzy for me. Someday I hope Kate and I can do a driving tour of Revolutionary War sites and, at the same time, visit the Hudson River school of artists along their namesake river.