Destination Unknown 23: Washington

Day 162

With light rain expected throughout the day, it will be perfect day to spend exploring the Smithsonian. I was still unsure of driving into Washington and decided to look at the parking situation before we set out. Much to my surprise the Smithsonian does not provide parking, there are parking meters along the streets but that’s it. I did not want to find myself aimlessly driving around looking for parking, so I began looking into possibly taking the Washington Metro. As I was doing this, Lori went to the KOA office for additional alternatives on getting to the Smithsonian.

I found the Washington Metro had a stop only twenty minutes from our location and would take us directly to where we wanted to go. As I was looking for departure times, Lori returned from the KOA office and learned the Metro had been closed due to construction and we would need to take the Marc train to Union Station in Washington. The office provided Lori with: a time table, instructions on how to purchase tickets online, location of the station and where to get off; it couldn’t get any easier.

The drive to the train station was only ten minutes, we parked the truck and headed to the station. The stations platform is a basic cement walkway with a digital sign mounted above the platform scrolling the arrival time for the train to be eight minutes late from the schedule. We had some time to spare so we took a seat on a covered bench to wait. Within a short period I heard a train sound its horn, I began to turn my head to the sound when a train blasted past us going so fast that the rush of air hitting us in the booth was a holy #&@$ moment. Within seconds the train blew past us…. Pretty sure that was not ours 😂. I had to look up Marc trains and was amazed that these trains run at a speed of 125 mph (201 km/h).

The scheduled time for our train arrived, and so did the train. This time the train rounded the corner and came to a slow stop at the platform. We boarded the train and took a seat. The train was extremely clean and the seats were amazingly comfortable, this relaxed us a little as I envisioned a smelly train filled with plastic seating and creepy passengers surrounding us. The trip took only twenty minutes to arrive at Union Station. We filed out of the train and headed into he main hall of the station, the station itself was stunning. Opened in 1907, Union Station is Amtraks headquarters and is the railroads second busiest station with the annual passenger count being just under five million. The station connects north through the major cities of Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City and Boston.

From Union Station to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History was 1.5 miles. The rain was light so we decided to walk, allowing us to look around as we went. We walked past the Capitol and headed down Maddison Dr. towards the Washington Monument. The Smithsonian is comprised of eleven museums lining the green space between the a Capitol and the Washington Monument. We made it to our first museum pick, the National Museum of Natural History and headed in. The inside of the museum was filled with amazing artifacts, items and people… lots and lots of people, I actually became concerned about Covid as we worked our way through the crowds.

After the Natural History Museum we headed over to the Smithsonian Castle, which is more of a visitors centre than a museum. Here is where I finally learned the museums origins. Created from the wishes of a British scientist James Smithson (1765-1829) left most of his wealth to his nephew Henry James Hugerford. When Hungerford died childless in 1835, the estate passed in accordance with Smithson’s will.

“to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institute, an establishment for the increase and sharing of knowledge among men”.

The government officially accepted the legacy bequeathed to the nation. To this day all Smithsonian museums are free to enter. By the time we finished with the Visitors centre it was time to begin our trek back to the train station.