Time Machine Travelogue Thirteen

A Capital Idea

My robot is ready for reinsertion into the past.  Because of nano-technology the robot is small enough not to be seen in the past location.  Luckily, we are returning to a previous location.  At a time, we have been to before.  We are booking reservations for our next trip to Washington D.C.  This was the last day of our field trip before moving on to the next location New York City.  So put 2008 songs on your iPod because we will leave immediately.  Sit back we are on our way again.

Not only did the Egyptins use Obelisks.

In Washington you are surrounded by history.  We have statues and monuments everywhere.  The Washington Monument was erected to honor our first president George Washington.  People often ask me how tall the obelisk is?  I have the answer for you right here. "It is this tall."

Seems taller doesn't it.

  Did you ever want to go some place and when you got there the line was so long?  Add to that the fact that you are on a tour and you have hard deadline's to adhere to.  Well that is what happened when we tried to go to the National Archive.  The National Archive is where all the documents that are important to our nations founding are on display.  The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are exhibited there.  However, with the line as long as it was, we opted to leave and explore other sites.  But we have a great picture of the outside of the building.  Watch National Treasure to see the inside.

The documents that created our country are inside here.

A freize inspired by the democracy of Ancient Greece.

We did have one more exciting place to visit.  Back to the Smithsonian and a visit to the National Museum of Natural History.  Let's all walk in the museum the admission is free.  As we enter the Rotunda, we are standing face to face with an African Bull elephant.

The African elephant in the Rotunda.

This elephant is eight-tons and 13 feet tall.

From the Rotunda you can branch out into different rooms.  One of the rooms is the Dinosaur Hall.  There are fossil remains of many different species of these ancient creatures that once were the Lords of the Earth.  During my life time dinosaurs have gone from slow plodding lizard like reptiles to fast moving elegant creatures.  They have been identified as the ancestors of modern day birds.  I wonder if dinosaurs taste like chicken.  Maybe we should ask Fred Flintsone if those Bronto ribs the car hop puts on top of the car tasted like chicken.  But how would he know.  Research exploded in the dinosaur field since the 1970's.  Search for these once magnificent animals has expanded around the globe.  Our natural curiosity won't let rest as long as there is still a mystery.  So walk this way and see a small sample of the dinosaurs.

Those small little mammals look delicious.

A face only a mother can love.

Doesn't he look like he's smiling?

The fossil collection is not only limited to dinosaurs.  That is why excavations of any fossil digs require a pain staking exactness.  There are clues to find in and around the place where these creatures died and were buried leading to their fossilization. Plants, insects, and gastroliths, stones swallowed by herbivores to aid in the break down rough plant matter in their stomach, are clues to how these creatures lived and what they ate.  Many fossils are produced in what were once ancient oceans and inland seas.

This display would take up a whole wall in the average size home. It is worth seeing in person.

Another hall contains mammals.  Static display of animals in museums have always fascinated me. When I was younger, I visited the Historical Museum in Helena, Montana.  There was a display of a white buffalo called Big Medicine.  It was incredible.  Also my great grandfather was a avid hunter and had a large display of taxidermied mammals and birds.  Some of which my brother still has in his home.

Looks like he is needing a dance partner, any takers?

The grizzly bear has held a special charm for the people of Washington since the time of Lewis and Clark.  These bears were ferocious and ill tempered.  They had no fear of humans and guns.  It was reported by Mountain Men that shooting them made them madder.  Another animal that I enjoyed is found along the California Coast.  They were hunted nearly to extinction and are only now coming back.  The sea otter was revered for its thick fur that kept them warm in the cold Pacific waters.

The Lord of the kelp forest.

The successor to dinosaurs.

It is hard to believe that the great hairy creatures of the globe evolved from something as small as this little mammal.
My wife and I both have an avocation of working on jewelry.  We use gems and minerals to create necklaces, bracelets, earings and rings.  We aren't Tiffany's but we enjoy working with the Earth's infinite and beautiful gifts.  I was unavoidably drawn to the National Museum of Natural History's Gem and Mineral exhibit.  They have displays of raw gems and minerals and exquisite precious stone jewelry pieces.

Aquamarine, the birthstone for March.

Looks better laying on its side.

Even the simplest quartz looks awesome.

The magic of jewelry is taking the raw miner's grade stones and cutting, faceting, and setting the stones into exotic pieces of art that increases the beauty and value. 

The Hazen diamond necklace by Harry Winston.

I'd buy it if I won the lottery.

Kunzite created for the 100th Anniverasy of Tiffanys

One stone that has undergone many changes is the famous Hope Diamond.  A rare blue diamond that has been labeled as cursed.  It was said to have been plucked from an Indian Idol.  It has brought death and misery to the people who own it.  Now it is in the Smithsonian and you could say it is owned by all of us Americans.  Feeling cursed yet?

A blue diamond a billion years old and still looking great.

The museums of the Smithsonian are too many to visit in a month yet four days on a field trip.  I would have liked to have seen James Whistler's Peacock Room, but there was no time.  From here, we took a bus to New York City.  On this time trip, we are coming to an end too.  So we are powering up for our reinsertion into our own time.  Funny thing about time is it is infinite and never enough at the same time.  Good bye for now look for our next time trip.

Time Machine Travelogue Twelve

"Here we go into the wild blue yonder"


I sure hope I'm getting frequent time traveler credit because I'm ready to go again. This time machine has logged a lot of time. No pun intended. So far since its first usage this year we have visited many locations at a variety of times. If you weren't fortunate to ride along on those previous trips it's okay we wrote about them and posted  the pictures and events.  We've been to Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore, Seattle, San Diego, Denver , Disneyland, and Washington D.C.  One of the most incredible places in our nations capital that isn't related to our government is the Smithsonian Museum. So bring your tray tables to their upright position turn off all electronic devices. You too Alec Baldwin. And sit back and relax because we are headed  back for that eighth grade field trip.   

The Smithsonian Castle

Smithsonian is more than a museum it is several museums and multiple buildings. You could spend days trying to investigate all that is offered. Because it was such a short time, we only could visit the Air and Space Museum and the Museum of Natural History.  I am an air and space junkie. My dad was a Naval aircraft mechanic.  He was an excellent "wrench man."  When I was a boy, we would build and paint all kinds of model airplanes.  After they were built, we suspended them from the ceiling of my brother and my bedroom using thread or fishing line.  Walking into the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum looked like a full replica of that childhood room.  Historic planes, World War II aircraft, even jets soared above me as I laid in bed waiting to dream of being a pilot.  A plane I remember having was the Spirit of St. Louis.  The plane flown from New York to Paris non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean by Charles Lindbergh in May, 1927.  I had seen a replica in San Diego, the city where it was built.  But there it was suspended as if from my ceiling.

Lindbergh's Moment of Gold

Propeller driven planes were at the end of WWII replaced by jet propelled aircraft.  America's first jet was the P-59 Airecomet.  It started the "pushing the envelop" for faster aircraft.

Suspended in time

 I was born shortly after the Bell X-1, "Glamorous Glennis, was piloted by my early aircraft hero, Chuck Yeager. When I was growing up, the  sonic booms of planes breaking the sound barrier were heard all the time. It almost meant safety in the early Cold War. 

Did you hear that?  That my friend was the sound barrier breaking.

The flights of the X-15 were always anticipated and seeing the higher and faster records fall was awe inspiring. Imagine being a test pilot.  Actually in command of the fastest thing on Earth.  Nestled the fuselage of a B-52 then released to fly free in your rocket powered plane.  Once clear soaring vertically toward the edge of the atmosphere.  Each time it is taken up it soars higher and faster.  In the early 1960's this was the scenario.  Test pilots "pushing the envelope" of speed and altitude.  How could a kid think of any job more exciting.  Some flights were focused on altitude and a record of 67 miles above sea level was attained on August 22, 1963.  For speed records altitude is secondary and 4104 miles per hour was achieved on July 26, 1962.  This legendary plane was even piloted by some guy named Neil Armstrong.

Records fell each time the X-15 flew.

Then came Sputnik, a man made satellite, launched by the Soviet Union. Changes happened at light speed as the Space Race began. To win this race fast planes fell away to rockets.  To escape Earth's gravity you need a lot more speed.  Rocket technology was not new during World War II but it was advanced by Germany.  The V-2 was reported to be the first man-made object to reach outer space.  However, it was a weapon used by the Germans against England.  Using this rocket both the Soviet Union and the United States used the design to create vehicles to propel a new age, the Space Age.

Nazi Germany's V-2 reached Outer Space

 A race that put objects into space moving men into space and culminating with Americans landing on the Moon.  Then the Soviet Union put a man,Yuri Gagarin into orbit around the Earth.  They called him a Cosmonaut.  The United States soon countered and we were in the Cosmic Age.  We would not come in second. President John F. Kennedy steeled our countries resolve when he said in September 1962,


        "We choose to go to the Moon.  We choose to go to the Moon in this decade 
          and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard..."

We all watched our television on that July night.

"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" Neil Armstrong

We came for all mankind

Now the Moon is not our only satellite.

Call it the Space Age or the Cosmic Age the age of man in  space had begun. It reached it apex with landing s man on the Moon. However, there has been a downward spiral since then.  We don't do things " because they are hard" anymore. We do things to give rich folks tax breaks. It doesn't matter what the side benefits might be. What can the technology do to assist the military not what might we discover.  We are now in the Age of Satellites. But unlike previous satellites like Voyager or Pioneer. Spy satellites are what are being launched.  While they are necessary, we need satellites to keep us safe, but exploration should be our major focus.  Some other uses are beneficial like weather and GPS satellites.  One of the most incredible objects put in space was the Hubble Telescope.  However, when it was found out of focus, the people who fund the space program didn't want to even spend the money to fix it.  Our best window on the Universe was thought to point in the wrong direction toward Outer Space and not spying on people on Earth.

High above us all.

The Hubble allowed us to see further into the past of the Universe.

Next time we take the time machine out we will still need to investigate the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.  But as you know the time machine is difficult to program for too visits to one location. However we need to get home now  so take two pictures because it is cheaper than coming back.