I got up early, around 7 am (after a bit of restless sleep early in the morning) and as was decided yesterday, after having breakfast and taking the lunch box, headed off to DC with Nagesh - he dropped me off to the bus station and I got into route # 950. Seeing a ‘big’ city on a working day gave an altogether different perspective of life - unlike yesterday, the bus was full and lot of people were even standing. The traffic wasn’t smooth either.

I got the 9.30 am train and got off at Rosslyn to change over to the Blue Line. I then went to The Pentagon around 11.15 am. One of the security officers (fully armed) told me how to go about walking and that photography was prohibited. After searching for a minute or two, I realized that the big building right next to me was The Pentagon! After walking for some distance and near the southern entrance, another officer (K. Kocher) voluntarily explained the construction process (of a 9/11 Memorial) and I continued to walk. It looks like none of my vacations will ever be complete without running into a Security Officer. This time around, I entered the protected area and an officer kindly asked me to turn back. I also realized how big the Arlington Cemetery was - it stretched all the way up to the rear side of The Pentagon. While walking back to the station, one of the officials thought I was a Pentagon employee and was waiting for me to get into their bus! I did speak to one other officer (Crabtree) while waiting for and in the train, about what I do and I like.

Then onwards, I came to Smithsonian around 12.30 pm, had some very tasty food (AvarekaLu Upma) and hot chocolate, walked around a lot, accidentally discovered the place where President Lincoln was shot (Ford Theater, 10th Street, between E and F Avenue) and died (an old house in the opposite lane), cancelled my visit to the Air & Space Museum and went to Ford Museum, seeing Archives on the way. I saw the pistol that was used in the assassination and read about the plan too. Everybody whom I saw on the street was very smartly dressed up and looked busy. The desi attitude continued for the second day in a row. After seeing some more important buildings (FBI, Internal Revenue, Justice, …), I got into (accidentally, again) The National Museum of Natural History around 2.15 pm and the collection of gems and minerals was a bit too good.

I came out around 3.30 pm, had pizza and hot chocolate (at the same place where I had hot chocolate yesterday), and headed back to West Falls Church. After waiting for a while, I got the route # 950 and got off at the Clock Tower Building, reached home around 5 pm. Next three hours were very fruitful - Nagesh gave a practical demonstration of some of the camera applications (aperture, shutter, manual, and multiple exposures, etc) and I updated my web-page (a bit) and diary. We then went to Woodlands in Germantown for dinner! The food was good and tasty