(I wrote most of this last night, but our paid internet connection ran out like a 1-cent pony ride before I could post it. I add this note because I don't feel like going back through to change all the time references.)
After one more quick trip to the ALA stacks this morning, Veronica and I took the Metro to Cleveland Park, the closest stop to the Washington National Cathedral. Did you know that the Cathedral is an Episcopalian church, not a Catholic one? I didn't. I also didn't know that I'd have to walk a mile and a half, all uphill, in 180% humidity to get there. It was a long haul, but all of a sudden, the Cathedral popped out from behind some houses, and it was all worth it.
The Washington National Cathedral, as I see it, is far more a church dedicated to the worship of America than to God. The vast majority of the subjects of carvings and stained glass depictions are American heroes or American folk. The statuary above the doors in the front of the building depict man being generated out of a sea of chaos, and of the globe surrounded by swirls of chaos-stuff. It's actually like the depictions come from Moorcock instead of Moses.
We arrived at the Cathedral just as the Eucharist service was starting, so we decided to save the interior of the Cathedral until last. Veronica was asleep, so I should say I made that choice. We took the elevator to the 7th floor observation gallery inside the St. Paul tower. The Darth Vader grotesque is supposed to be on the St. Paul tower, but it can't be seen from inside, and there is no mention of it inside, or even on a postcard in the gift shop. But there are a few reproductions of the stranger grotesques in an exhibit in the gallery, including a face in a gas mask and an old-timey movie camera. They're weird.
From the gallery, we went down the elevator and around the building to get into the gift shop, since we couldn't find the elevator inside. There are as many books about Islam and Buddhism in the shop as there are about Christianity. There are LOTS of gifts - I remember, when I visited the Cathedral with my senior class, being amazed at the gall of a gigantic gift shop in the basement of a church - but now I just think it's neat. I was a bit of a jerk in high school. Of course, I'm a bit of a jerk now, too; that's beside the point.
We found the elevator to take us directly back to the nave from the gift shop, which spit us out just outside the children's area in the Cathedral - it's a child-sized chapel, with child-sized chairs, with happy baby animals cross-stiched onto the kneelers, with child-Jesus preaching to children. And a small statue of St. George on the wall. Veronica woke up when we came in, so I let her walk around a bit which she enjoyed until the organ started playing, loudly. She ran back to me, and I carried her for a while. We walked through the various vestibules and areas, taking in the American history, seeing the resting place of Woodrow Wilson and the statue of George Washington. On the base of the statue is inscribed the words "First Citizen", like the title "Princeps" that the Roman Emperors used.
We left the Cathedral and walked through the heat to Adams Morgan. We walked, and walked, and walked until we got to a restaurant called The Diner, where Veronica had eggs, and I had an omelette. They were yummy. Veronica also wanted to eat her crayons, but I wouldn't let her. So she'd take two crayons, one in each hand, and act like she was going to put them in her mouth. When I'd give her the parenting look, she'd run them just past her mouth, around her neck, and hold them behind her head and just laugh and laugh.
As an aside: Dear restaurant owners and managers, if you're going to bother putting a changing table in your bathroom, put one into the men's as well as the women's. It sucks when a dad has to prop open the door to the women's just to change his baby's diaper. Why the daddy-hating?
From there, we walked through Adams Morgan, shopping and sweating (I typed 'swearing' the first time, which was a bit right too), until we decided that it was impossible to wait for mommy to join us to go the zoo, as we had originally planned. It was just too damn hot and humid. So we started to the Dupont Circle Metro stop. Then, once I realized that Veronica was missing a shoe, we ran back two blocks on our quest to find it (which we did), then turned back and made it back to the Metro and our hotel.
Lori and I went to Au Bon Pain to eat while Veronica slept. Then, we went back to the room, Veronica played, I packed up 250 lbs. of books, Lorin came to visit, Veronica broke down, and Lori put her to bed while my sister and I went down to the bar to get out of the way.
Previously: