Like a Thief in the Night

My train left Charlotte at 1:45am. My plan was to sneak out of Blair's home like a thief in the night (albeit in a taxi), but Blair's husband, Craig, drove me. Since he had to go to work the next morning, this was very, very nice of him. This is your official, public, and very heartfelt thank you!

I was on my way to St. Louis, via Washington, D.C and Chicago. I had a 7-hour layover in D.C., which was perfect. I slept really poorly on the train, but it was about 60 degrees and sunny in D.C. I was so excited to see that I had this layover, because I really had been wanting to see the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. D.C.'s Union Station is just a block from the Capitol, so I arrived right downtown. After hours on the train, I appreciated the 2-mile walk to the MLK Memorial. I would stop periodically to sit on a bench and read or just look around. The Mall is so beautiful. Anyway, the Memorial was amazing. It was SO much bigger than I realized from pictures. He was 28 feet tall! And the Memorial's location on the Tidal Basin was beautiful. I'm so glad I got to see it. But I did have a few thoughts I'd like to share:

1) As many of you probably know, the artist who created the Memorial is Chinese. There was a big issue after it was unveiled about MLK looking Chinese -- in particular, his eyes. I am here to tell you that MLK does not look Chinese in any way. If you look at pictures, his eyes are almond-shaped. Maybe because the Memorial is made out of solid-colored granite his eyes stood out more. I don't know, but he looks like himself.

2) I thought it was a bit ironic that MLK looks out across the Tidal Basin directly at the Jefferson Memorial. What with Jefferson having slaves, and also having an affair with one of his slaves, Sally Hemming, who bore his children, well, it was strange. Huh.

3) I went to buy postcards of the new Memorial, and they were SOLD OUT! That is some seriously poor planning, I must say. I mean, wouldn't they have planned to sell trillions of them at the dedication, and then trillions more as the public flocks to see it? And if they unexpectedly sold out, wouldn't they put in an emergency order for more? That was really disappointing.

As I had left Union Station and was spinning in circles orienting myself, I saw the National Postal Museum! I had never heard of this Museum, and since I am a little obsessed with the Postal Service, I made plans to see it after the MLK Memorial. Luckily I had a bit of time, so in I went.

Allow me to put a little appreciation here for all of the free museums and things to do in D.C. The Smithsonian is just a force, and the fact that anyone can go see any of the museums for free is just remarkable to me.

Anyway, I loved the Postal Museum. It was interesting and very kid-friendly. There is a lot to see and do, to walk through and touch and play with. I highly recommend it! But the thing I loved the most was learning the story of Owney. To summarize, one day in the late 1800s, a little stray dog wandered into the Albany Post Office, where he was adopted by the employees. He soon took to riding on the delivery wagons. One day, a sack of mail fell off a wagon, but the driver didn't notice. Owney hopped off and guarded the sack until the driver returned. At that point, he became the unofficial postal dog of the Albany Post Office. Eventually, Owney started traveling the entire country with the mail, and even went overseas! The Albany Post Office made him a little tag so that if he ever got lost, he could be returned. As Owney traveled the world, every post office he visited gave him a little medallion that showed where he had been. By the end of his life, he had an entire doggy jacket filled with medallions proving his travel! Isn't that an excellent story?

Then it was time to get back to Union Station and board the train for Chicago. It was an uneventful ride, it was pouring down rain in Chicago, and I was tired from a poor night's sleep again in coach. Once again, I must be a huge train snob, because sleeping in coach just doesn't work for me. So I spent my layover in a Starbucks working on this blog.

Which leads me to a final observation. I love Starbucks. Here is why. I arrived in Chicago, and all I wanted was Starbucks. I wanted yogurt, hot chocolate and wifi. Amazingly, the train station didn't have one. So I walked outside, slowly turned around, and saw two homey green Starbucks signs beckoning me. Thank you for being everywhere, Starbucks.