1,001 Words

Saturday, May 12 - 4:00pm - Reagan National Airport, Arlington VA

So I had to go to the airport today to pick up a ticket.  These are the hassles which come with utilizing a ticket voucher for someone else.  I went to the United counter, just as 90 5th graders on a trip to DC from Denver were getting ready to check in.  The frustrated people behind the counter suggested I come back in a few minutes if that was okay.  I gladly obliged.

It’s funny to have time in the airport to kill, and not be frustrated because you’re delayed or eagerly awaiting picking up someone.  I’ve written before about my love of airports and their people.  I never really had a chance to wonder around National.  The B/C terminal is amazing.  Opened in 1997, it’s a piece of modern architectural genius, while also having Jeffersonian touches.  There are mosaics on the floor and windows (seen above), and amazing open spaces.  Oh, and the control tower looks like it’s flipping off the city.  But if walk towards the A Terminal, you find the original National.  It’s a huge open room with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on the runway.  It has beautiful, intricate stonework, and some neat art deco touches like the "Passengers Only" sign above.  It was on a door, and for a simple handle on a door, it quickly reminded you of a time when travel was regal and formal.  As Sideshow Bob put it, "back before Joe Sweatsock could wedge himself behind a lunch tray and jet off to Raleigh-Durham."  By the time I got back to the counter, the kiddies were gone and the United people were happy to help me.  But I was glad I had time to kill, and the minor hassle was worth flying for free!

Title is from the song "Watching the World Go By," composed by Cole Porter

Saturday, May 5, 2007 - 11:00am - National Cathedral, NW Washington DC

The Washington National Cathedral is an unassuming building, as cathedrals go.  It’s in a residential section of Northwest Washington.  It’s not near the Metro.  It’s not a tourist site, really, unless you go looking for it.  Yet it is, elevation wise, the tallest building in Washington and a pretty impressive piece of cathedral architecture, if you ignore everything in Europe.  A few times a year, the cathedral lets you climb up to the Bell Tower, which is the highest point open to the public.  I got some tickets, and invited Meredith to go along with me.  She’s a lifelong Washingtonian, and I thought she’d enjoy the view (which she did).

The climb to the top is best described as dizzying.  They start you off in the crypt, just so you get the thrill of climbing every inch to the bell tower.  There are several narrow staircases - each one more narrow than the other.  Most of the way up is a spiral stone staircase, which is like a giant concrete tomb in which to climb up.  Good times, good times.  Then you get into a few open areas - essentially the attic of the Cathedral - and you start climbing up a few metal spiral staircases.  It was dizzying to look up, dizzying to look down, so it was just best to stare straight ahead.  Like my younger days in climbing up and down Barnegat Light, going up was much easier than going down.  There were some giant bells in the Bell Tower, oddly enough, and I’ll just say they were big.  The top room was the bell room itself, where people were ringing bells by pulling on these purple cords. 

I really wasn’t interested in that.  I wanted to see the view.  There were these precarious ledges you were allowed to climb out on (yes, that sentence just ended in two prepositions).  The view, needless to say, was amazing.  Sure, it was a cloudy day across the DC area.  But you could see from the Cathedral all the way out to Sugarloaf Mountain in outer Montgomery County, Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George’s County, and Old Town Alexandria.  I think I could even see my house.  The views were awesome, even if you did have to hold your breath to lean over the ledge.  Yes, it would have been nice if the day were sunnier.  And yes, because the Cathedral is near nothing and DC doesn’t have that many tall buildings, you couldn’t peer onto The Mall or into the Pentagon.  Still, the view was incredible and a rare glimpse of the Nation’s Capital from its highest point.

Below are some pictures I like from the day.

1) Meredith & I on the ledge outside the Bell Tower.  Taken by some nice lady.

2) This is a great shot by Meredith of the huge stained glass window, framed incredibly well by some of the stone work in one of the Cathedral’s balconies.  I took about 20 shots like this, but Meredith’s is head and shoulders above any I took.  Way to go.

3) This is a close-up of a stained-glass window.  I think it might be my favorite shot from the whole day, just because the colors are so bold.  The Cathedral is worth checking out just for the stained-glass windows.  I’m a fan of those.  Even the crummy painted-on ones I grew up with at St. Andrew’s.

4) This is what an out-of-focus Arlington looks like from the Cathedral.  I live near the building with the pointy top.

5) Caught this piece in a stained glass window on the way up.  It’s some dude falling.  Not exactly what you want to see while climbing 300 feet.  I’m sure it’s some Biblical story, but I have no clue what it is.

Title is from the song "Top of the World" by The Carpenters, which I only know because Sideshow Cecil sang it just before he tried to blow up the Springfield Dam.