Daniel & Julie's East Coast Trip

Introduction

This is an album of a trip my wife and I took to the United States East coast from Saturday, April 2, 2011 to Sunday, April 17, 2011. Leaving out of our home city of Houston, Texas, we visited Washington D.C., New New York, Providence, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and several other places in 16 days. I was already scheduled to speak at the American Humanist Association's annual conference in Boston, so we decided to plan a wider vacation around it and make it a road trip. Neither of us had ever been to these areas and had long been interested in going.

So, CLICK HERE to be taken along on our trip and see the pics (you can click on any of the pics on this site to enlarge them and use your Back button to return), and feel free to leave comments! :)

Entire trip route at a glance.

Air & Space Museum

So then we went over to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. When we entered the first thing I did was ask someone where the gift shop was. Julie didn't know why I wanted to go to the gift shop, but I had heard of a display they had there. As I walked past the (rather cool) Star Wars merchandise in the gift shop, she was wondering, 'where is he going?' Then we saw it!...

Yes! This is the model of the U.S.S. Enterprise they used
in filming the original Star Trek series. If you're watching
the original Star Trek (untouched FX), then this is the model
you're seeing.

It is a very large model because they didn't have as good of
cameras then to be able to photograph smaller models and
still have them look huge.

I wanted to get several very close up shots since you don't
normally get a chance to see that much detail.

Note the 4-digit numbers near the back (left) and just under
the pilon (upper right). Interesting.

Note the small tabs and screws holding the bulb of the
Bussard collectors on. Even though this was likely just a
model anomaly, modern CG artists still include those in
their reproductions.

I got this angle specifically because it was a common
angle shot in the show.

Had to hold my camera as far over my head as I could to
get an overhead shot.

I had read of this and knew to expect it. The left (port) side
of the ship has no windows or details! It was never
completed because it was cheaper to just film the other
side and flip the film is a left-side shot was essential.

Ok, now on to the real things at the Air & Space Museum lol...

The Spirit of St. Louis, next to Space Ship One (the first
privately funded vehicle to take humans into space).

A replica of Skylab which we went inside of (the original
was allowed to burn up in the atmosphere when its mission
was complete).

Although several replicas have been made, this is the
actual plane the Wright Brothers originally flew for the first time.

We got to see two neat shows about the universe while there in the Einstein planetarium.

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American Art Museum

YES, this is still the first day in D.C.! Almost dead, we zombie shuffled over to the Smithsonian American Art Museum next...

Adams Memorial (1886)
"Clover" Adams, wife of the writer Henry Adams, committed suicide. Adams commissioned Augustus Saint-Gaudens to create a memorial that would express the Buddhist idea of nirvana, a state of being beyond joy and sorrow. This reflects the search for new insights by Adams, his wife, and their circle of friends, after the violence of the Civil War and emerging theories of Darwin cast doubt on their traditional beliefs.

No idea why this was
here, but an Elvis Head
Jug. Funny.

Oddly enough, we don't have many pictures from the American Art Museum. There were some neat things, but not as much as one might expect. Some of the areas did not allow photography. For the REALLY cool art museums, wait till we get to New York!

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