A Trip Back to the United States – The Perennial Pilgrim

I had a chance to spend a few weeks in July visiting friends and family throughout the US: my youngest brother in Indiana; my aunt, uncle and cousins in Pittsburgh; my middle brother in San Diego; my mom and stepdad in Spring Valley Lake; and a bunch of friends in Hermosa Beach. It was great to see everyone again after almost a year of being away.

I only did a couple of touristy things during my trip. The first small one was to take the Amtrack Surfliner train from Oceanside to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles.

The ocean just south of San Clemente from my train window.

My fully consumed free snack pack and small bottle of wine that came with my seat.

The second, and more extensive touristy thing I did, was to spend my last week in the Washington DC area. I had a bunch of Marriott points that would expire in December if I didn’t use them. So I took advantage of this by getting a great deal on a hotel in Alexandria, near a metro stop with an easy access into the city.

I really wanted to do the traditional tours of the White House and Congress, but those are closed in this Covid environment. I at least got some pictures walking by them.

The White House with a few thousand people in front marching on behalf of the current Cuban protests.

And to finalize the three branches of the US government; the Supreme Court building.

The Washington and Jefferson Monuments from a Metro train crossing the Potomac.

One of the most interesting museums I visited was the National Building Musuem which is is housed in what was at one point the largest brick building in the world. It was originally built to host large pageants and is still used today for that purpose. As you can see it’s a beautiful structure. The exhibits in the rooms around the sides were fascinating.

The outside of the National Building Museum.

I also got a chance to visit the African American Museum, the American Indian Museum and the American History Museum.

A view of the unique African American Museum building and the Washington Monument from a window within the American History Museum. They were both very interesting museums to visit.

A view of the American Indian Museum from the grounds of the National Botanical Gardens.

I made it out to the Rock Creek Park area to visit the National Zoo.

The famous pandas doing what they do best…sleeping.

A tiger checking out the visitors as we walk past.

The zoo does an incredible job with its orangatangs. They have different enclosures throughout the zoo and the orangatangs can commute to each one via a system of overhead wires. The one here started to make a journey on the wires, but decided to stay put.

The Kennedy Center looking out over the Potomac

Walking down Q Street in a quiet, typical Georgetown neighborhood.

Walking down the C&O Canal in Georgetown.

A random church east of the Adams Morgan area

A typical street in the Dupont Circle area.

As many of you know, I lived in Kenya in the early 90s. I saw that there were excellent Ethiopian and Swahili restaurants in DC. I hadn’t had any East African food in at least 10-15 years, so I definitely wanted to try them.

With the Ethiopian food you use the spongy bread to eat everything with your hands. It’s really fun, and great tasting.

Some nyama choma and ugali, which I ate a lot of in Kenya.

Just so I can remember it, here’s the room I stayed in.

My favorite museum in DC and one of my favorite museums in the world is the National Gallery of Art. It has a huge selection of paintings starting in the 1300s through the early 20th century. Since I don’t know when I’ll be able to visit it again, I took some pictures of the more famous paintings there, or ones I particularly liked.

I don’t remember who this artist is, but I was struck with how colorful the clothing is.

A fantastic life sized sculpture of the 54th Infrantry in the Civil War, which was a black Union regiment.

I really liked the colors and detail of this John Sargent painting

And the type of Picasso painting we are more familiar with.

And here are some of the family and friends visits I had during my trip. I forgot to take pictures for some of these, I was just having too much fun catching up.