More from Saturday

Yesterday evening, a few folk from the hostel where I’m staying were going on a bar crawl around the Dupont Circle area, and invited me to join them. On entering the first bar, I was challenged to prove that I was old enough to drink alcohol, for the first time in about 30 years. We were turned away, because another member of the party had no such ID, even though she has a son in his twenties. Madness.

Sadly, though that bar had an interesting beer list, the next two served mass produced keg lagers and ales. I had a Samuel Adams Summer ale and a Sierra Pale ale, and I’d rather have drunk water than either. They were very poor. After my second drink I made my excuses and left, with a couple of the others, but a few hardy souls carried on, and only retuned from their nightclub visit at 3am, apparently!

Sunday

Yesterday, while we were out birding, Cyndy Parr encouraged me to try Washington’s “City Bikes” (they’re the same as London’s bike share scheme, known colloquially as “Boris Bikes”). I’m glad she did. I used them several times today, to go down to the Washington Monument, to the Jefferson Memorial (where I saw my first Ring-billed Gulls (Larus delawarensis)), over the Arlington Memorial Bridge (and so across the state line into Virginia, briefly), to the Martin Luther King Memorial, and back to the Washington Monument. I even managed to cope with riding on the right, and the other differences between the US traffic system and ours.

As I returned over Arlington Memorial Bridge, a large helicopter flew past at low height — Marine One (or the same under another call-sign). En route, I passed a recreation ground where turf had been recently laid and seep hoses and sprinklers were in use to keep it alive. Taking advantage of the water were big flocks of birds. Nothing new, but I got very good close views of some I’d only seen fleetingly, including another Mocking Bird.

I also saw a fantastic, huge yellow Swallowtail-type butterfly, but it was too fast for me to get a picture. I then had close views of a crow, but it was unhelpfully silent — DC has two species, which are hard to differentiate unless they call.

On my return to the Washington Monument, I lay on the grass to rest a while, and noticed distant spec very high overhead. I grabbed my binoculars, and discovered it to be a large bird, probably a Turkey Vulture. I tried, but couldn’t, to make it a Bald Eagle, but the shape was wrong.

I had a stroll though a “Folklife” festival on the Mall, where various organisations have pitched Marquees to exhibit on various topic related to the environment, and cultural projects. From an outlet from Florida, I had an “Arnold Palmer“, a very refreshing mix of equal parts of lemonade and iced tea. I also had some chicken from the same place, with delicious “collared greens“, a type of green cabbage, but much less bitter than those we have at home.

I ended up at the Natural History Museum, where the collection of stuffed birds was very useful in helping to reinforce my recognition of what I’d seen in the flesh. I also saw the Hope Diamond (sorry, Mom, it wasn’t for sale), and a really impressive and well-displayed collection of animal skeletons.

However, either at the museum or just before entering it from the Mall, I lost my beloved Tilley Endurables hat (or it was stolen). I’ve reported it missing, to the museums security office, and it has my business card in a pocket in the inside, so I hope it will turn up. I’ll have to get a cheapo substitute, tomorrow, to keep the sun off.

Also while I was in the museum, one of my trainers split from end-to-end (luckily I brought a spare pair) and it started to rain heavily as I was leaving. I guess that place is a jinx!

Postscript

I can’t believe I forgot to mention one of the highlights of my trip so far, during Friday’s visit to the National Air and Space Museum — I got to touch the moon! Well, a small piece of it, brought back on an Apollo mission. But still…

Looks like it’s brighting up, now 😉