Washington, D.C. (Day 2)

Washington D.C. (Day 2) which is something like day 26 of our trip!

Smithsonian Castle!
Yep, this is where all the knowledge is kept.
(the statue is of the guy that endowed the Smithsonian)

Out front of the National Air and Space Museum

Either this is Rob in front of the National Air and Space Museum
or a picture of the whitest, most rhythm-less man in the world.

Hey! The capsule used in the first U.S. space flight!

Sputnik!
This is the satellite that started the space race.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo2MyIGZFkg
Found them!

Non-stop, non-refueled flight in this?
Around the world?
Man, took about getting the funk out.

First privately financed space flight took place in this.
You know,  forty years after the U.S. government did it.
Wow, I tell ya.
Gov'ment ain't good for nutin!

And this would be the Apollo 11 command module that was used in the first manned mission to the moon.
And if you don't believe we landed, Neil Armstrong will knock your ass out.
And that won't be a government cover up either.

Better shot inside Apollo 11 Command Module.

Tourists in D.C.

Never see any of those people on those new motorized velocipedes rolling on this bad boy. 

That's right steampunkers,
some crazy ass guy in the 19th century wanted to build this.
Now stop drooling on yourself.

The guts of a jet engine.
In case you should ever want to strap one to your car.

Go ahead.
Bitch some more about flying coach in the 21st century.

Some of the many planes in the Air and Space Museum.

Oh look!
An unmanned drone!

And another!
But this one deflects radar!

A model of an early aircraft carrier.
Seems safe.

A model of the USS Enterprise apparently.
I like this one better:
http://images.wikia.com/memoryalpha/en/images/b/be/USS_Enterprise_(NCC-1701),_ENT.jpg

OH!
That's where we keep that!
So glad we remembered that.

Air Mail the old school way!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mmyKiEJ9Ak

Welcome to perspective.

A WWI fighter plane.

This thing is digging up dirt on Mars.

This thing is carrying a gold record into interstellar space.
(Voyager I kids)

Model of the first hot air balloon!

Amelia and her plane.

The Spirit of St. Louis.
officially regained it's name after this guy left town:
http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/images_root/slides/photos/000/745/952/103532843_crop_650x440.jpg?1298482784

Imagine that, African-American women flew planes!

An real Wright Brothers velocipede.

Model of the Wright Flyer.

Propeller from the original flyer.

So if you have seen Apollo 13, this is the vest that Gene Kranz actually wore.

A model of a Saturn 5 rocket.

A full-size Saturn 5 rocket aft section.

Erica and the Saturn 5.

If you do not know what this is, just stop reading.
Seriously, stop now.

Missiles!

Awww...
The U.S. and U.S.S.R. are playing nice together.
In space.
Away from any actual countries or people.

Yep, first US. space suit.

First U.S.S.R. space suit (meaning earlier than the one above).
Wait?
A communist country (communism is based heavily on socialism) did something before a capitalist country?
Inconceivable!

First manned space flight reentry capsule (it's Soviet).

A mock-up of the Hubble Space Telescope.

This are early astrolabes!
Don't know what an astrolabe is?
Look it up!

HOLY CRAP!
Islamists do something else other than blow shit up?
Oh this is obviously fake.

A bicycle.

Hey look kids!
Ben Franklin's statue!

Ben Franklin's statue feeling slightly embarrassed by its company.

The Old Post Office

See?
You know, you would THINK they would give this a better name.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Kjh9lQXLWk

Post Office tower looking towards the Capitol Building

Towards the Washington Monument

Towards downtown D.C.

Towards the Lincoln Memorial.

Towards more confused trees.

Inside the Old Post Office.

Towards the floor.

The glass ceiling of the Old Post Office.

The FBI, they are running your ass down.

Ford's Theater:
Site of President Lincoln's assassination.

Abraham Lincoln was so worried about assassination attempts after his first election that he had these items on him when he arrived in the capitol.
That's right, the vampire hunter carried brass knuckles.

Lincoln was a theater critic as well as a president.
Awesome.

Lincoln't statue at Ford's Theater.

The gun that shot Lincoln.

Inside Ford's Theater looking to the balcony where Lincoln was shot.

The house in which Lincoln died.

So up the street from Ford's Theater we went to a rave

and met some cool people.

Like Ben Franklin (quite the hip-hop artist).

Thomas Jefferson played lead violin.

And Harriet Tubman.

I got into a staring contest with General Robert E. Lee.
He lost.
Again.

Lincoln is in the middle of offering some of his personal stash.

Teddy, looking fabulous!

Woodrow Wilson just kind of seemed fake to me.

Churchill and FDR just talked about the Battle of Britain all night.

Rosa Parks just sat in this chair all night.
Apparently her feet hurt.

MLK, Jr. spoke to us for a bit.

But Mal wasn't having it.

Fashionably late, as usual.

Bill and Hilary took off early.
Apparently Bill's had a curfew for the last few years.

Barack and Michelle stopped by,
but only after offering change to a homeless guy at the door.

This lady just kept staring at heads all night.

So Michael played a quick song.
We didn't tell him he was peeling.

Johnny Depp made this face after I asked him to talk like a pirate.

Morgan Freeman made this face after I asked him to play god.

Dylan was too cool to come out of his corner.

Duke Ellington played after MJ left.
The party got a shitload better for it.

He was backed up by Ella Fitzgerald.

Rob got drunk, as usual, and tried to knock out George III.

Oh, and this is where the party was held.

A fitness place next to a place called "Potbelly Sandwich Works."
One of these companies has brilliant product-placement teams.

The White House garden.

The White House.

Erica at the White House.

The IRS.
This is where the accountants live.

Here we have the National Archives.
In here we viewed one of the only four copies of The Magna Carta,
and originals of The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and The Bill of Rights.