POINTS OF INTEREST IN WASHINGTON D.C.

DICK DARCY, a very prolific writer and a member of the reunion committee in charge of tours has written the articles in this section.  We will run two or three new articles a week and will keep all the articles on the web for you and new visitors to the web site to peruse until close to reunion time.  Our express intent is to give you compelling reasons, other than fellowship with comrades, to visit Washington, DC and the Reunion 2000.  The pictures and web site links will give you a chance to delve deeper into any site and make plans for your free time.

If you have a favorite place and do not see it here, there are hot buttons to the Webmaster all over this web site.  Just click on one of them and tell us what you would like to see covered.  We hope that you enjoy this page as much as Dick and I do as we put it together.

- The Webmaster

Washington Pub Crawl (5 pubs)

 

This page covers five of the better Pubs in close proximity to your RAFINO reunion hotel.  This index is linked to the article for each pub.  There are other pubs, surely, in this city of solons, lawyers, and accountants.  If you've been to DC, you may have your personal favorite(s).  We've listed five where we have done personal research.  They are:
   Capitol City Brewing Company
   The Dubliner
   Hawk 'n' Dove
   Post Pub
   Sign of the Whale

Post Pub



There's a neighborhood-like bar in downtown DC, on the south side of L Street, NW, between 15th Street and Vermont Avenue.  It's a good place to start a crawl, as there is a Bank of America ATM just next door to the east and it's just 2 blocks from reunion hotel.  It's appropriately called the Post Pub probably after the Washington Post, which is just diagonally across 15th street at L.  'Tis a dim place-just one or two windows in the front with neon beer brands lighting the way.  The restroom's a closet and you hang your coat where you can find a hook-if you have a coat and if you're fussy about removing it.  Popular at lunch, there is usually a wait, particularly hump-day and after.  There's a no smoking section, but regular customers prefer the bar and ignore the smoke.  A three-hour happy time begins at 4 every day.  Look for the food and drink special on the sandwich board out front or the blackboard above the bar.  Most of the food is grille-ordinary yet tasty, but not heart healthy.  The waitresses are friendly and fast (with the drinks).  Dress is very casual and their draft selections are good.  Friday's special drink is "vodka anything."  It's a good idea to take the bus or ride home with a designated abstemious friend.

Sign of the Whale

Sign of the Whale

Walk west on M Street, west of Connecticut Avenue, west of fashionable clothier Burberry and newly arrived competitor Brooks Brothers, and you will almost miss it.  You have to look up to see, literally, The Sign of the Whale.  It's next door to Camelot--what Washingtonians euphemistically call a "gentlemen's club", and the invitation to enter by the ever present doorman might cause you to miss 1825 M Street, NW.  Climb the six steps and pass through the vestibule to a long and narrow bar-restaurant with a feint, but not unpleasant, odor of stale beer.  Lone diners are seated at the bar under Tiffany-like stained glass fixtures while couples, or more, are seated at tables lining the right side on either side of an oversized fireplace, or are taken to the modest dining room up two steps and to the rear.  Separating the two rooms is a waist high to ceiling partially frosted glass window into which has been expensively carved the namesake's logo.  The walls, on both sides, are floor-to-ceiling old brick and are covered with taxidermy relics as varied as the business end of a water buffalo and a bison's sadly proud and shaggy face.  The atmosphere, despite the bison's reproachful look, is warm, the food is good (try the gazpacho, if you like cold soup), and the menu sufficiently varied to accommodate most short-order tastes.  Lunchtime prices are standard for Washington-soup and a sandwich, beverage, tax and tip is $11 to $15--depending on the beverage.  An appetizer and dessert will be extra (and, perhaps, unnecessary except for the big eater) and will drive up your tax and tip (15 percent is de rigeur, 20 percent if you like your treatment-for large groups, expect to be assessed 15 percent on the bill; further gratuitous giving at your discretion).  (Washington has a high year round restaurant sales tax (9 percent) and during the tourist season they push it to 10 percent (tourist  don't vote).) See www.thewhale.com.

The Dubliner

The Dubliner The Dubliner

Breathes there a RAFINO member with soul so numb that s/he would not be stirred by the sound of authentic Irish music and the thirst slacking taste of an Irish brew?  If this rhetoric stirs you to involuntary lip-smack and eyebrow raising, fail not to plan a visit to The Dubliner, at 520 North Capitol Street, NW, where Massachusetts Avenue crosses F Street.  Opened in 1974, its owners opine, in the words of the late Irish statesman, Daniel O'Connell, "The hospitality of an Irishman... springs, like all his qualities, his faults, his virtues, directly from his heart."  Whether you're from Cork or Kerry, North or South, or any of the six continents outside Erin, you'll be enthralled by the charm, nourished by the food, and warmed by the refreshments served in this authentic Irish pub attached to the Phoenix Park Hotel.  Shepherd's Pie and Beef O'Flaherty are perennial favorites and the summer outside patio seating is just a short walk after your visit to Union Station.  Consider being there after 9PM when live Irish entertainment regales the faithful with storied songs and music from the olde sod.  The prices are upscale (Washington Post reports: drinks, appetizers and dinner for two can run up to $50), but this is Capitol Hill, and the entertainment is free.  Besides, you're on vacation.  You can see the details at http://yp.washingtonpost.com/E/V/WASDC/0020/22/29/cs1.html. 

(Editor's note: Dick has confirmed that $50 is the tab for two.)

The Dubliner

Hawk 'n' Dove

Just diagonally across Independence Avenue from the Thomas Jefferson  Building, where Pennsylvania Avenue, temporarily interrupted by the Capitol, continues its southeastern journey out of the District of Columbia and into southern Maryland, there is a bar and grille that has been around since the middle of the Vietnam War (1967).  Appropriately called the Hawk n' Dove, it resides at 329 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE.  It's considered a Capitol Hill place and when Congress is in session, you're likely to find freshly scrubbed and earnest Senate and House staffers elbowing their way to the bar and being jostled by an eclectic mix of lobbyists and tourists.  They advertise as "the last stop before dawn" and a midnight breakfast (three eggs w/ ham, bacon, or sausage, plus English muffin and French fries) at $6.95.  It's a good place to visit if you stumble out of the Library of Congress, after a long day of reading and research, with a dry throat and a growling stomach.  Listen carefully (not to your stomach) and you may pick up some gossip on your favorite solon.  And then, maybe not.  Next: Capitol City Brewing Company.  Get a menu at www.dinenwine.com/washington then select "Restaurants and Bars" and then select "Hawk 'n Dove-Capitol Hill".

Capitol City Brewing Company

           

Diagonally across the street from the Grand Hyatt Washington hotel on the northwest corner of 11th and H Streets, NW, RAFINO reunion brew-seekers will find that which bills itself as the "only micro brewery in the Nation's capital."  Enter through the H Street entrance and find yourself in a world of serious adult beverages.  Names like Bull Run Bitter, Amber Waves, and Pale Rider Ale greet you from the chalkboard above the bar.

                                    

There is a current status annotated on each as "in" or "out". The bar itself is a racetrack oval dominated at each end by two huge copper vat covers, a motif that reminds the forgetful that this is a brewery, albeit micro.  Above the bar runs an industrial red grill catwalk linking an open keg storage area above the H Street entrance and the Production Office of the Brewery.  Stairs, protected by a copper-banister against a far wall lined with graphic art and text describing the "Art of the Brew," lead to the bar's raison d'etre.  Three large television sets are tuned to the obligatory ESPN.  On a late Tuesday afternoon, the crowd is generally young and limited to 245 souls by order of the Washington Fire Chief.  One wonders if the barmaid, comfortable in two languages, is really old enough to serve.  The "beerismylife.com" site recommends Kolsch Ale--good malt and German hop aroma, but faint.  The rating is 16.5 points out of twenty.

        

Dining in the District (Most a walk from the hotel)

      

Once a sleepy, back-water, swamp-drained town at the confluence of two rivers, DC has metamorphosed into a modern, sophisticated city with fine restaurants; impressive public buildings surrounding a mall stretching from Ohio Drive on the Potomac to the west steps of the Capitol; awesome marble memorials; and centers of art and culture.  Fine dining abounds.  Attendees are alerted to bring their appetites and enjoy everything from the haute cuisine of Lespinasse (the recently opened flagship restaurant of the St. Regis Hotel), to the equally impressive (and historic) Morrison Clark Inn, a Victorian Mansion (within walking distance of the reunion hotel) whose restaurant is on the Washington Post's top fifty list.  In the case of the latter, there is the convenience of charging the bill to your reunion hotel room.  Beyond these Epicurean centers of gastronomic delight, we recommend nine other fine restaurants, many of which are within walking distance of the Washington Plaza hotel.

   Fran O'Brien's Steak House
   Georgia Brown's
   Henley Park Hotel
   Hotel Lombardy, Cafe Lombardy
   Jefferson Hotel Restaurant
   McCormick and Schmick's Seafood Restaurant
   Morrison Clark Historic Inn & Restaurant
   Old Ebbitt Grill
   Palm Restaurant
   Sea Catch Restaurant

McCormick and Schmick's Seafood Restaurant

       

Located at1652 K Street, NW, south side, east of 17th Street, "generation X" haunt, upscale fern bar, private cubicles for parties of 6 plus, shoe shine stand, reservations desirable but can wait for table in generously large bar.  Upscale casual dress.  Richman opines in her dining guide:  "Where chain restaurants falter is in the kitchen, and fish restaurants are particularly vulnerable.  When ownership is spread among several sites, the first impression is often far better than the last bite.  But a plate of pristine raw oysters and a glass of Markham sauvignon blanc could convince me that McCormick & Schmick's is just what I need three blocks from my office.  The Dungeness crab, though, has been a letdown, with the crabmeat tasting only of salt."  Read more at http://yp.washingtonpost.com/E/V/WASDC/0020/05/92/cs1.html.

Georgia Brown's

Georgia Brown's

On the west side of15th street, NW, at # 950, facing McPherson Square, valet parking, pricey, Southern-tint cuisine. Richman says: "Washington no longer seems like a Southern city, but its roots are in the South.  Georgia Brown's keeps the old traditions alive even as it invents new ones.  How wonderful to find a full-dress expense-account restaurant that offers fried chicken gizzards, fried green tomatoes, grits and gumbo and she-crab soup.  It's a convivial restaurant, its service finely honed with a gracious Southern lilt."  Read more at yp.washingtonpost.com/E/V/WASDC/0000/77/86/cs1.html

Old Ebbitt Grill

Old Ebbitt Grill

The Grill is at 675 15th St. NW, Washington 202/347-4800, Dress unclear,
ask your concierge.  "Deservedly mobbed," this handsome Downtown "institution" is virtually a White House "annex" filled with a "who's who" of "journalists" and "wide-eyed out-of-towners" who find that its "celebratory" mood, "polished" manners, long hours and "serious" all-American Food fit any occasion; it's "quintessentially DC" and "considering the quality," "you get your money's worth."  (Zagat Survey, 1999).  Richman says: "What's amazing is that this high-intensity chain of restaurants, with its predictable pub fare (fried calamari, buffalo wings, chili, Caesar salad, the usual pastas, barbecue, crab cakes), comes up with some wonderful seasonable surprises.  The few days of halibut season in Alaska mean fresh halibut on the menu . . . at the Old Ebbitt.  In the summer, the Old Ebbitt Grill is probably the only downtown pub serving fresh corn on the cob, local green beans and new potatoes, as well as pies and cobblers made with berries from nearby farms.  Even so, we'd all like to retire on a dollar for every burger the Old Ebbitt sells.  What once was Clyde's (Georgetown) claim to fame is now the Old Ebbitt's: a thick, handsome patty of juicy, coarsely ground and loosely packed beef, as crusty outside and as pink inside as you want, on a seeded bun with lettuce, tomato (ripe in season), pickle and utterly indifferent french fries.  Ask for the green beans instead."  Read more and see exterior photo at http://yp.washingtonpost.com/E/V/WASDC/0000/94/22/cs1.html.

Fran O'Brien's Steak House

    Fran O'Brien's Steak House     Certified Angus Beef     Fran O'Brien's Steak House

Fran O'Brien's Steak House - downstairs at Capitol Hilton, 16th Street, NW, entrance steps on L Street, pricey, sports motif, reflects taste of late owner and former Washington Redskin star.  Steaks and chops are the favorites, dressy casual, but tie not unheard of.  Reservations suggested.  See pictures and details at www.franobriens.com.

The Palm Restaurant                     

This fine restaurant, at 1225 19th Street, east side, just north of M Street, NW, is very "in" with politicians, lobbyist and their following.  Place to be seen.  Not inexpensive.  Cambodian-born chef was featured on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."  Restaurant walls lined with pictures of celebrity diners.  Open for lunch and dinner.  Large menu of seafood, poultry, and parts of farm- and ranch- raised quadrupeds.  Wine list is extensive and appropriately downtown Washington priced.  See details at http://yp.washingtonpost.com/E/V/WASDC/0020/27/34/cs1.html

                                                                 

Jefferson Hotel Restaurant

Jefferson Hotel Restaurant

At 1200 16th St. NW, in the Jefferson Hotel, 202/347-2200.  Charming hotel unfairly damaged by the "L'affaire Dick Morris."  Richman complements the restaurant with her left hand: The L-shaped dining room has the look of burled wood, as if it were the interior of a cigar humidor.  It's luxurious and sedate.  The service is formal, if a bit awkward, but tradition stops at the kitchen door.  The food takes off in adventurous directions.  Expect the dishes to be complicated weavings of ingredients - star anise and New Orleans' tasso ham electrify a butternut squash soup.  Sumptuous pan-roasted sturgeon rests on a ragout of two kinds of beans, but the chef  has them a bit backward: the fish is overcooked, the beans are undercooked.  Read more and see exterior photo at (http://yp.washingtonpost.com/E/V/WASDC/0002/89/78/cs1.html)

Sea Catch Restaurant

Here's an interesting trivia question for the Information Technology gurus among us.  Where can one enjoy gourmet fruits of the sea while dining in the reputed birthplace of the original computer?  (Hint: In the late 19th Century, Herman Hollerith converted a shipping warehouse into a factory for manufacturing punch-card tabulating machines.)  Long ago recognized by IBM as an historic site, the Canal Square building at 1054 31st Street, NW, once Hollerith's factory in the virtual heart of Georgetown, is the current home of the Sea Catch Restaurant and Raw Bar.  Enter this below street, canal-level, restaurant from the land side of the square and be momentarily distracted by the fresh-water lobster tank before being stunned by the beautiful gray-white carrera marble raw-bar that bedecks the left side of the restaurant.  Above, rare ironwood beams supporting the upper floor are themselves supported by two-foot by two-foot columns of stacked red brick topped with a slab of granite.  The granite, a visitor is told, keeps the beautiful but sturdy ironwood from crushing the brick by spreading the weight over a larger area.  The overall restaurant theme is nautical, of course, and is reinforced by the view of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal seen through large windows set in the original and exposed stone walls.  For fair weather, al fresco, diners, there is an outdoor deck on the building's south side facing the rustic canal and beside the mule path that accommodates in-season, picturesque pack animals pulling quaint canal barges toward the Potomac.

Dine on the Canal             Hollerith Tubulator/Sorter Box


Inside or outside, RAFINO reunion attendees can enjoy Executive Chef Jeff Shively's luncheon menu that will challenge even the fussiest bivalve consumer.  All farm-raised, try the Iced Shucker's Combo of oysters, shrimp, clams and mussels.  As an appetizer, the Seafood Ceviche "Martini" (so named because it is served in an oversized stemmed martini glass), combines marinated lobster, shrimp, and other fruits de mer with chopped vegetable garnishes to the delight of all crustacean lovers.  The lobster sandwich (fresh croissant under chunks of l'homard en sauce mystere), while food-for-the-gods, is deftly challenged by the Maryland Crab Cakes with Vegetable Slaw and Remoulade Sauce.  As with the Morrison-Clark Inn, reunion attendees can charge their Sea Catch meal to their Washington Plaza Hotel room.  Learn more at http://www.cchotels.com/sc/index.htm.

Morrison Clark Historic Inn & Restaurant


Walk away from the reunion hotel on Massachusetts Avenue in a southeasterly direction and stop after three blocks at 11th Street.  On the northeast corner, next to an ethnic Chinese church, is a remarkable mid-nineteenth century (c.1864) structure that is a curious mixture of oriental and occidental architectural design.  (Local-born Washingtonians, with a taste for District of Columbia history, will tell you that the building is the only Washington inn listed on the National Register of Historic Places.)

    Front of Hotel            The Courtyard

Observe the corner situated sign, announcing the "Morrison-Clark Historic Inn and Restaurant", before climbing the 11th Street steps to the double glass doors that reveal a modest but warmly decorated lobby.  Enter this former residential mansion and, for 57 years until 1980, the site of the Women's Army and Navy League's Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen's Club.  Be greeted by an over-sized oriental vase of fresh-cut flowers somehow enhanced by the tastefully warm plum-colored wallpaper. While the area is public, the feeling is quiet intimacy.  On the way to the dining room, note the inn's past, preserved in wall hung framed memorabilia of service persons at recreation and rest far from their homes and families.  (It is said that First Ladies traditionally presided over the club and held teas and fund-raisers to maintain the club's operations.  Grace Coolidge was the first and both Mamie Eisenhower and Jacqueline Kennedy are said to have been active in the organization.)  As you arrive at the threshold of the high-ceiling dining room, you may be attracted to the floor-to-ceiling draped windows, which brighten the room from two sides.  Yellow pastel-papered walls, carved marble mantles, an enormous ornate gilded mirror, situated between two windows, and varied chinoiserie complete the setting.  Chef's cuisine is nationally acclaimed, as attested by the ample framed testimonial reprints, from well-known gustatory-rating publications, lining the basement corridors and stairways.  Your committee recommends the "Romaine-Roquefort Salad with Walnut Foccacia", as first lunch course, followed by a main course of "Grilled Eggplant Napoleon with Chipotle Sauce and Sautéed Vegetables."  The latter is nicely presented and heart-healthy.  No smoking in the dining room, please.  Learn much more about this national treasure, its original owners, and its varied selection of 54 chambres a coucher at: www.cchotels.com/mci/index.htm.  Then, see it yourself during the RAFINO reunion.  For your convenience, you may charge this sister hotel experience to your reunion hotel room.

Henley Park Hotel

                

Did you say tea?  Oh, Afternoon Tea!  Well, you could go to Glen Eagles just a short train ride north of Edinburgh.  Or, you could do as well (and, perhaps, more conveniently) just three short walking blocks from your RAFINO reunion 2000 hotel.  At 926 Massachusetts Avenue, step into a decidedly English Tudor setting and feel as if you are to the manor born.  From the flower garnished stone-paved foyer, step to the right through a faux-stone arch into the octagonal-shaped Wilkes Room where, promptly at 4 of the clock, your taste will be pampered a la mode anglaise.  Too early for tea, cucumber sandwiches, and Devonshire creamed blueberry scones?  Try lunch in the Coeur de Lion restaurant where Chef’s menu of appetizers, soups, salads, entrees, and desserts changes daily.  On a recent day we enjoyed Baby Spinach and Strawberry Salad with Sesame-Poppy Seed Dressing and Blackened Mahi Mahi with French Beans and Ginger Broth.  We were sorely tempted by, but did not succumb to, Wild Mushroom Sauté with Brandy Cream in Puff Pastry Pillow or Warm Montrachet Goat Cheese Tart with Tomato Vinaigrette.  Still, one of us did yield to the Apricot Currant Bread Pudding with White Chocolate Sauce and only polite company prevented one from licking the plate.  To get to these connoisseur’s delights, pass through French doors from Marley’s lounge--where on Friday and Saturday evenings a jazz trio encourages dancing and a jazz pianist accompanies the daily cocktail hour--and enter the Lion Hearted atrium.  Here, there is a sense of dining al fresco while remaining indoors—the feeling fostered by the glass ceiling that passes the light from the National Capital sky.  In the evenings, spotlighted gargoyles, on the exterior wall surrounding the atrium, inertly and non-judgmentally observe one’s table etiquette.  This is the Henley Park Hotel.  There’s more to this experience but space constrains.  See for yourself.  No need for cash. C harge your pleasures to your reunion hotel room.  Such a deal!  More at: (http://www.cchotels.com/images/hph/index.htm).  Take the virtual tour.  We think you’ll want the real thing!

Hotel Lombardy, Café Lombardy

                 Hotel Lombardy            Cafe Lombardy

Summer has come early to Washington and, on this particular May day, the lobby of the Hotel Lombardy at 2019 Eye Street, NW, is particularly welcome.  If “only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noon day sun,” (apologies to playwright Coward) your RAFINO reunion 2000 committee members confess to former-like persistence in our pursuit of gourmand delights to test both your palates and your spirits.  Situated at the confluence of Pennsylvania Avenue and 21st Street, the Lombardy shares the neighborhood with the recently infamous World Bank, the George Washington University, and the Foggy Bottom home of the Unites States Department of State.  While the neighborhood may be a comfort to the tony-conscious among us, the real draw is the hotel dining rooms (choose the Café Lombardy with a light and airy view of the petit parc separating the hotel from Pennsylvania Avenue, or the more intimate Venetian Room whose classic northern Italian motif rouses the soul to memories of Adriatic waters and nearby glassworks).  Our choice of the latter was not disappointing as couch-like seats and tres chic pillows pampered our street weary and lunch-ready corpora. Klebert, our French-lingual wait-person from Cameroon, served Vegetable-Wild Rice Soup with Grilled Chicken and we wisely chose a Seafood Salad (shrimp, scallops, smoked salmon and olives with roasted garlic dressing) as an entrée—wisely because the basket of oven fresh olive-bread and raisin-bread, which we had to request the bread-person to cease offering, was almost an appetite-spoiler. Intriguing entrees that would bring me back to this Epicurean oasis include Seared Polenta (with wild mushrooms, wilted spinach and balsamic reduction), Salmon Filet (with mango-white bean salsa, sautéed greens and honey-mustard BBQ sauce) and Grilled Chicken Eggplant Salad (with eggplant-olive relish, sun dried tomatoes and goat cheese).   A healthy respect for my growing waistline aided in my resistance to a tempting dessert menu which included, among others, Chocolate Ammaretto Cheesecake and Tiramisu.   As with the Henley-Park Hotel and the Morrison-Clark Historic Inn described elsewhere on this page, you may conveniently charge your meal to your Reunion hotel.  Take a virtual tour at (http://www.cchotels.com/hl/index.htm).   It’s another excellent reason to come to the reunion.

Annapolis

           Street Scene - St. Anne's Church - Annapolis                 Government House - 1969 - Annapolis

Thirty-two driving miles due east of your RAFINO reunion hotel is a former capital of the United States (1783-84) and the long time and only capital of the Free State (c. 1694).  Ask any proud Annapolis-born school child and s/he will tell you that it was here that General George Washington resigned as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Armies, and here the Treaty of Paris was ratified, ending the American Revolutionary War.  First settled in 1649, Annapolis boasts some of the finest 17th and 18th Century buildings in the country -- including the residences of all four Maryland signers of the Declaration of Independence.  Annapolis is the only Maryland city whose charter was issued under the Royal seal (Queen Anne, c. 1708).  Visitors promenade along the city’s beloved waterfront or sit at the City Dock (at the top of ego alley) and likely imagine what Annapolis must have been like 300 years ago, when it was a lively seaport.

 City Dock - Annapolis   Harbor

Others watch sailboat races in the harbor and understand why some Annapolitan boosters call it America’s Sailing Capital.  [Of course, most know the City is the home of the historic U.S. Naval Academy campus since 1845 resulting in thousands of parents and other midshipmen relatives crowding the town in the fall (parents’ day) and the spring (graduation).]  Annapolis offers many shops, fine restaurants, and scenery to the welcomed visitor.  Take a sightseeing cruise or a walking tour of its brick-lined downtown streets and learn why Annapolis is a great place to visit, and, for one of your reunion committee, a nice place to live.  But first, take The Three Centuries tour at: (http://www.annapolis-tours.com/) or click on (http://www.visit-annapolis.org/) to learn more.

                                       

Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

             The Basilica         The Altars of the Holy Rosary

The ecclesiastical history of 20th Century Washington DC includes the construction of two of the larger churches in the North America.  Getting a considerably later start than their European counterparts, American churchmen nevertheless can point to medieval design imitated marvels started in the 20th century, one of which is a Romanesque basilica work-in progress at 400 Michigan Avenue, NE. RAFINO reunion attendees will remember from their high school ancient history course that the Romanesque style reached its peak during the 12th century.  The style was so named because it made use of several Roman architectural building types, such as the rounded arch and the barrel vault.  Romanesque churches were usually elaborate basilica plan/cruciform buildings.  In that tradition, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is the largest Catholic church in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth largest in the world.  Inspired by the great Pilgrim churches of central and southern France and northern Spain, it measures a total length of 153 yards and covers an area of 77,500 square feet or 8,611 square yards.  The Knights' Tower, completed in 1959, rises 329 feet from ground level.  The interior of the Great Upper Church’s interior extends 399 feet in length, accommodating more than six thousand mass attendants.  The Crypt Church, 200 feet long by 160 feet wide and below the Great Upper Church, can seat more than 400 persons.  Compare and contrast this overwhelming beautiful Marian shrine of chapels, crypts and oratories to that of the equally awe-inspiring Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (Washington National Cathedral).  Romanesque versus Gothic.  Join the debate.  Decide for yourself.

Washington Harbor

                               

Are you a land-locked water-lover, who retired in Colorado or North Dakota because, among other things, you wanted to be close to earthy cloven-hoofed bovines--and now find you truly miss those strolls along the Rhine, the Arno, or the Moselle?  Looking for a fresh waterfront breeze?  Would an intimate connubial stroll at an outdoor waterside setting along the picturesque Potomac River capture the magic of another time?  Would an estate bottled white burgundy, Grand Cru, or a celebratory Champagne Francaise, after the stroll, chilled for two, titillate your imagination and your appetite?  Then come to the RAFINO Reunion 2000 and remember this address: 3000 K Street, NW.  It’s the beautiful Washington Harbor and it’s located in “historic” Georgetown, one of the better known and tonier neighborhoods in your nation’s capital.  (It’s a $6 cab ride from the RAFINO reunion 2000 hotel.)  “This architectural masterpiece, with its boardwalk promenade, fountained (sic) courtyards, and waterfront dining affords a spectacular view of the Potomac River.”  (Quote from Washington Harbor web site.)  You’ll be in the area if you go to the highly recommended Sea Catch Restaurant and Raw Bar on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (see review elsewhere).  Just walk south on 31st Street (that’s downhill) and turn left on K Street.  Learn more about this locally well-known site at: www.washingtonharbor.com

Dupont Circle

      

It’s a rare municipal and geographic phenomenon when three avenues and two streets cross in Washington, DC.  When they do, something special happens.  (See Circles and Squares.)  When you walk away from your RAFINO Reunion 2000 hotel and stroll up Massachusetts Avenue in a northwesterly direction, you’ll pass General Scott (surveying the White House some 6 blocks south on 16th Street) and a statesman-like Daniel Webster keeping a watchful eye on the Australian Embassy located just behind Scott’s equestrian posture.  Further along you’ll pass, among other structures of obscure origin, the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, the Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (ironically founded in 1910, four years before the Great War).  Dally not, for shortly past 18th Street, Massachusetts Avenue unloads you into Dupont Circle—the intersection of Connecticut, New Hampshire and Massachusetts Avenues and 19th and P Streets, NW.  At 6 o’clock, on a spring Friday evening, it is controlled chaos.  Traffic flows in two defined double lanes whose outer ring provides entrance and egress and whose inner ring confounds the tourist-driver and condemns some—like some latter-day “Charlie(s) on the MTA”—to a seemingly eternal circular drive.  The pedestrians, and there are many (and mostly youthful), are better off.  One is immediately aware of the Washington Club, number 15 Dupont Circle, thank you very much, whose polished brass plate mutely announces its stately presence.  Its unlikely neighbor is Crown Book who shares a common wall and fronts on the circle at New Hampshire Avenue.  Cross the avenue and note Blood Mulligan, the bar part of the Claddagh Restaurant where dining this evening is, under European-like umbrellas, alfresco.  Moving past the almost obligatory, and certainly ubiquitous, Starbucks coffee house, one is aware that Connecticut Avenue northbound traffic is emerging from a tunnel that was fortuitously buried beneath the circle long ago.  Get closer to the circle center.  Cross where you can and enter past park benches that form a locus of points equidistant from the fountain-center.  “Samuel Francis Dupont, Rear Admiral, United States Navy, 1803-1865.  This memorial fountain replaces a statue erected by the Congress of the United States in recognition of his distinguished service.” announce the carved letters in the marble fountain base.  One walks 360 degrees to read its entirety.  The fountain statue, commissioned in 1921 by the Dupont family and designed by Henry Bacon, (see Lincoln Memorial), replaced an earlier statue of Dupont that was erected in 1884.  There’s more, much more; too much to write here.  Suffice to understand that this is the social and cultural center of the downtown for which locals bristle with unabashed pride.  “The Dupont Circle neighborhood contains Washington, DC's greatest concentration of cafes, bookstores, art galleries, think tanks, embassies, and street performers -- plus an impressive array of restaurants, stores, museums, libraries, private clubs, and historic residences,” boasts its principal web site.  Learn more at (http://www.dupont-circle.com/) and (http://www.arch.virginia.edu/dcplaces/massave.htm).  Then come to the RAFINO reunion and mingle yourself with an assorted and diverse societal mix of the Washington population.

FDR Memorial

           

In was just 6 days shy of the 52d anniversary of Victory in Europe (V-E) Day
that the 42nd President of the US dedicated a memorial to the commander-in-chief responsible for the celebrated event.  This latest memorial to a US president was just the third dedicated in this century and certainly among the more controversial.  Although history students know that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was severely stricken at age 39 with poliomyelitis and spent the last 24 years of his life unable to stand or walk without assistance, he chose to obscure his disability as he pursued successfully both state and national public office.  Those who witnessed his presidency knew he was a well-photographed smoker who did not attempt to hide his habit—his trademark cigarette holder mouth-held at what has been described as a jaunty angle. T hat the dominant FDR-statue sculptor (one of five that contributed to the memorial park) did not portray Mr. Roosevelt in a wheel chair is an open issue among some disabled Americans; and, that he did not include the oft present cigarette and holder is considered by some as a victory of present-day anti-smoking activists over those who favor a more literal historical representation.

The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial is one of the most expansive memorials in the nation.  Yet its shade trees, waterfalls, statuary, and quiet alcoves create the feeling of a secluded garden rather than an imposing structure.  The 7.5-acre park memorial is divided into four outdoor galleries, or rooms, one for each of FDR's terms in office.  The rooms are defined by walls of red South Dakota granite and by ornamental plantings; quotations from FDR are carved into the granite.  Water cascades and quiet pools are present throughout.  Each room conveys in its own way the spirit of this great man.

Memorial designer Lawrence Halpern uses water as a major park theme, heavy symbolism for the honoree’s 1882 birthplace on the Hudson River at Hyde Park; his life-long love of sailing; his association with the Navy as a one-time Assistant Secretary (1913-20); and the life-changing disease he contracted in 1921 after swimming at Campobello, his New York State summer home.  Learn more about the memorial park to this man whom many historians describe as the greatest American leader since Abraham Lincoln at:(http://knowtheweb.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/tours/fdr/fdrarch.htm) ; then you can plan on making it a stop on the RAFINO Tourmobile rounds as your free time allows.  See www.nps.gov/fdrm/index.htm for tour details.

FALA

National Archives

National Archives

Walk down Washington's Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, eastbound, away from the White House, away from the Willard Hotel, where President Grant used to sit in the lobby and greet favor-seekers, and stop at 7th Street.  Look across the avenue at the traditional monument to the Grand Army of the Republic and the modern memorial to the US Navy.  Take a deep breath; turn right on 7th Street and walk to the next intersection where you'll be in front of the building that holds the American family history of every RAFINO reader.  Enter the Rotunda of the National Archives though the appropriately located Constitution Avenue entrance, and, perhaps, be aware that you are where, each year, more than a million visitors come to see the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.  "We hold these truths to be self evident. . .We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union. . .Congress shall make no law. . ." familiar phrases to each of us.  View the original documents on which our liberties, some taken for granted, are displayed and preserved for you and posterity.  From 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. except during the winter months (the day after Labor Day through March 31), when it closes at 5:30 p.m.  (Guided tours for special groups or individuals may be arranged in advance with the Office of Public Programs, telephone 202-501-5205.)  See more at www.nara.gov/exhall/charters/charters.html.

Oriole Park at Camden Yards

             

Quick, who were the Baltimore Orioles before they came to Baltimore?  Where did the Orioles play before they moved to their current site?  If you know the answers, you are probably a hopeless baseball addict and might just consider coming to the reunion early to witness a contest between the Orioles and the Detroit Tigers on Aug 29, 30, or 31 2000, in Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore's relatively new (April 6, 1992 although they played an exhibition game on April 3) home for its only baseball team ever.  A little history:  When former Baltimore mayor Schaefer became Maryland governor, he helped push plans for a baseball-only stadium through the state legislature.  Construction on an 85-acre site began in June 1989, took 33 months and cost $110 million.  The success of Oriole Park at Camden Yards inspired other cities (Cleveland, Denver, et. al.) to build their own versions of this new Retro style ballpark.  Eli Jacobs, who owned the Orioles when the ballpark was built, wanted to call it Oriole Park.  Schaefer preferred Camden Yards.  They agreed on Oriole Park at Camden Yards.  The Park has a seating capacity for 48,079 loyal and enthusiastic Baltimoreans and nearby wannabees.  Just 37 short miles from the RAFINO reunion hotel, at 333 Camden Street, it is a major feature of downtown Baltimore and its famed harbor at the top of the Chesapeake Bay (about which James Mitchner readers know so well).  Games start at 7:35PM.  Come early and enjoy the Harbor.  It's a major visitors attraction in itself.  So what are you waiting for?  Tour buses run from DC.  Play ball!

Supreme Court

  Supreme Court    Supreme Court

On the north side of Washington's East Capitol Street and across the street from the Library of Congress, stands one of the more impressive structures in this capital city.  When opened in 1939, not everyone was convinced of its architectural value.  One occupant at the time remarked that the structure was "bombastically pretentious...wholly inappropriate".  Architect Cass Gilbert designed the gleaming white marble building while the Corinthian and Ionic columns and the tympanum sculpture at the front of the building are the work of Italian sculptor Cavalori Rudolfo Nolli.  In the tympanum sculpture, Nolli's central figure represents Justice; to the left is a person begging for mercy, and next to him are the legislators.  On the other side of Justice is a figure showing gratitude, followed by a man and a bull and two children holding a stack of wheat representing the prosperity and abundance that is obtained where Law and Justice prevail.  You've probably deduced that this awe inspiring building, with "Equal Justice Under Law" carved into the frieze, is the home of the branch of Government established by Article III of the US Constitution.  There is more to see and know.  Stop by 1st & E. Capitol Streets NE while at the RAFINO reunion 2000.  Admission is free.  Hours: 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM.  Prepare for the visit by taking a virtual tour at: http://oyez.nwu.edu/tour or for more information see www.kreative.net/cooper/TourOfDC/tours/SupremeCourt

FBI Building

G-men!  The lady in red!  Dillinger!  Scar-face Al!  What RAFINO member or spouse doesn't have her/his own memories of when s/he first heard these words and phrases?  What excitement still lingers as phantasmal specters of bad guys and gals past and their nemises?  Fantasy?  Reality?  Both? Come to 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, by getting off the Metro at the Archives-Navy Memorial station, or getting off the Tourmobile tram at this stop, and see for yourself.  Tour hours are Monday to Friday, 8:45 AM to 4:15 PM daily except weekends and federal holidays.  For RAFINO reunion attendees, that means you'd better come early or stay after the reunion to see this very popular and free attraction.  "On the tours you start out with a little video tape that is about five minutes long.  That video is basically about crimes, drugs and some FBI history.  After the video, the tour guide lets you look at some exhibits like fingerprints, maybe some guns, and other neat things.  Most of the time tours are so filled up that people have to come one or two hours early."  So says one of the web sites at: (http://www.ee.liverpool.k12.ny.us/EE/staff/team_5/Cappelli_DC/FBI.html) Dare to relive the excitement but bring your heart meds!

The Kennedy Center

                                        The Concert Hall

The idea for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was born during the Eisenhower Administration.  In 1955, Ike appointed a commission to look into establishing a national center in Washington, DC. By 1958, after passage and enactment of the National Cultural Center Act, private fundraising for an independent and self-sustaining performing arts center began.  The Center, designed by Edward Durrell Stone, was constructed, using 3,700 tons of Italian Carrara marble, on a Potomac Riverfront plot of 17 acres, eight of which are the Center itself.  President Johnson conducted groundbreaking ceremonies in December 1965 using the same gold shovel used to break ground at the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials in 1914 and 1934 respectively.  This modern and stunning 10 story behemoth has delighted theatre-goers since its opening in September 1971 by both its elegance and grandeur and the artistic entertainment it has provided to its loyal following.  Learn more about this national treasure at: http://kennedy-center.org and then tell your spouse to pack his/her gala rags.  Let the show begin!

  The Grand Foyer

Washington National Cathedral

Washington National Cathedral


Where Massachusetts Avenue and Wisconsin Avenue cross in Northwest
Washington, RAFINO Reunion 2000 colleagues can pause in ecclesiastical, perhaps reverential, wonderment before the twentieth century constructed-- fourteenth-century English Gothic designed--Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.  Medieval-architecture aficionados of portals, flying buttresses, gargoyles, and pinnacles may weep at the purity and majesty wrought on this site of stone and stained glass by principal architect Philip Hubert Frohman.  Although L'Enfant conceived Washington's National Cathedral (as it is popularly known) in his original city plan (see circles and squares), construction was only begun in 1907, when Teddy Roosevelt  oversaw the cornerstone laying.  Eighty-three years later, George Herbert Walker Bush spoke at the September 1990 ceremony setting the southwest tower's final finial.  Appetite whetted for more?  Take a virtual tour  (http://www.cathedral.org/cathedral/) and then plan some time during the reunion to experience this Old World wonder at a New World site.  You are dared to be disappointed!

The Cathedral is administered by the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation and is the chief mission church of the Episcopal Diocese of  Washington.  It is the seat of the Episcopal bishop of Washington, the Rt. Rev. Ronald H. Haines, and the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church USA, the Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold III.  Despite its connections to the  Episcopal church and the Anglican Communion, the Cathedral is open to all and is frequently the site of interfaith and ecumenical services.  Persons of all faiths and denominations are welcome to visit and to worship here.

                                   The Nave

 War Memorial Chapel

Mall Shopping
Shopping In DC and Environs - five stops to satisfy the tastes of the
fussiest shopper.

Mazza Galleries is one of two malls that face each other across Wisconsin
Avenue in the largely upscale and tony Chevy Chase shopping district that straddles the border of D.C. and Maryland.  Most of the stores specialize in expensive apparel, accessories and home furnishings.  Take the Metro Red Line at Farragut North and get off at the Friendship Heights station.  It's at Wisconsin & Western Ave NW. Chevy Chase Pavilion at 5335 Wisconsin Ave., NW, is the other mall.  You get two for one on this trip.

Georgetown Park Mall -- if you're accustomed to quaffing complimentary mineral water at boutiques with foreign names, you'll feel at home here.  Georgetown Park has few stores for the price-conscious, but reasonably priced items are there to be found.  Besides, this historic building - which looks more like a Victorian-era botanical garden than a mall - is a beautiful place to window-shop.  3222 M St NW.  Three levels of exclusive shops and restaurants in the heart of historic Georgetown.  No metro stop. It's a quick cab ride.  See your concierge.

Crystal City Shops:  Featuring the Underground and Plaza Shops, this subterranean shopping experience is unique in the area and is connected by a climate-controlled walkway.  Over 125 specialty stores, including a food court and restaurants, offer a tantalizing array of quality, value and service to meet every need.  Arlington, VA, Metro: Blue and Yellow Lines; connected to Crystal City Station.

Fashion Centre at Pentagon City:  Anchored by Nordstrom, the area's largest fashion specialty store, as well as Macy's, this four-story shopper's extravaganza boasts 130 upscale stores able to provide just about everything for a deluxe buying binge.  Arlington, VA; Metro: Blue and Yellow Lines; connected to the Pentagon City Station

Union Station--With 200,000 square feet of retail space, Union Station is one of the largest urban retail projects ever developed, comparable to Faneuil Hall in Boston and larger than Baltimore's Harbor Place.  Fine stores, restaurants and large food court.  50 Massachusetts Avenue, NE. Metro: Red Line, Union Station.  (http://www.unionstationdc.com/directory.html)

Leo the Dinosaur

He’s moved again.  His footprints are fresh.  The tracks on 16th Street NW, north of the White House and the Capital Hilton, give him away.  He's been gone from 16th for a while, but now he's back.  If you follow his current tracks you will find him patiently standing outside the University Club between the American Chemical Society and the Russian Embassy.  He is ankle deep in the Club's flower garden.  He's no trouble, really.  He stays only as long as he is welcome and then he moves on leaving bright green, three-toed footprints on the cement sidewalk.  His name is Leo and he's a dinosaur.

His owner, WVSA arts connection, only allows him to go where he is invited and for a price, a donation really, as an act of sponsorship and support of WVSA arts connection.  He's a whimsical creature and his oversized presence, in unlikely places, makes locals and tourists alike smile and take notice.  Track Leo yourself when you come to the RAFINO 2000 reunion.  You'll smile, too.

WVSA arts connection

Founded by Dr. L. Lawrence Riccio, WVSA arts connection (formerly Washington Very Special Arts) has served the community as a non-profit, arts-in-education organization providing educational arts programs to children and youth with special needs in Washington, DC since 1981.) Learn more at www.wvsarts.org.

Vietnam Veteran's Memorial

On the north side of the Washington Mall, south of Constitution Avenue and
just west of the Washington Monument, in a place called Constitution Gardens, are two statues that embody the personal sacrifices of and the human suffering endured by thousands of uniformed American men and women.  At the Vietnam Women's memorial, sculptor Glenna Goodacre depicts two combat zone angels of mercy ministering to a wounded GI cradled in the arms of one, while another anticipates the approach of a red-cross emblazoned Huey.  Nearby is Frederick Hart's statue of three young servicemen, clad in contemporary jungle fatigues, perhaps returning  from patrol, perhaps alert for a coming firefight.

These statues complement the, at first controversial, but now revered, Vietnam Veterans Memorial--a polished black granite wall inscribed with the names of more than 55,000 mothers' sons and daughters who gave their country, what Abraham Lincoln described as, the last full measure of devotion.  Much has been written about this memorial to the millions who fought in America's longest conflict.  Little new can be added.  It is sufficient to say to RAFINO reunion attendees that this is a must-see.  Start with a web site visit to http://thewall-usa.com  or http://www.nps.gov/vive/index2.htm.

                                         

Fort Myer

  Fort Myer   Fort Myer

Across the quiet Potomac River from our Washington RAFINO reunion site, in the rolling hills of Northern Virginia, sits Arlington National Cemetery's distinguished military neighbor-the home of the 3rd U.S. Infantry (Old Guard) and the United States Army Band (Pershing's own).  It also quarters, among other senior Army staff, the Army Chief of Staff and the Sergeant Major of the Army.  (Many RAFINO members know that it is also the home of the Army and Air Force Mutual Aid Association - an organization helping surviving spouses since 1879.)  But it is for a reason other than its well-known residents that this Army post is truly distinguished.  On any day, from its unpretentious chapel on the edge of the cemetery, a veteran service person begins a final caisson-borne journey accompanied by crisply blue-dressed young men wearing painstakingly polished, overbuilt shoes whose heels collide with a bark.  The precision of their steps, the snap of their arms, the crack of their rifles, the clarion call of their bugler, lend dignity and respect to an ancient ritual whose ceremony comforts the bereaved and dampens the eyes of even the dispassionate observer.  This is Fort Myer, Virginia.  Need a reason to come to the Washington reunion?  Need more be written?  See www.mdw.army.mil/welcome.htm for more information.

Fort McNair

 National War College  National War College

ICAF and National War College graduates need not read further.  They know well about the small Army post located at 4th and P Streets in southwest Washington.  Others, who haven't seen it and would not expect a military fort within the borders of a major metropolitan city, read on.  Fort Leslie J. McNair, Headquarters for the Military District of Washington, is indeed unique and may be the last of its kind.  (At one time known as the Washington Arsenal, history buffs may recall it as the site of the hanging of the convicted Lincoln assassination conspirators-one of whom was a woman.)  Situated on prime Washington real estate waterfront, it is a trip into another world.  Walk past the beautiful period fin-de-siecle-built general officers' quarters and matching Officers' Club on the Washington Channel, down past the micro golf course to the National Defense University building and beyond.  You will feel a sense of serenity not unlike some readers may have experienced while standing in front of the Officers' Club at the top of the parade ground on the Presidio of San Francisco.  So tranquil is the scene, you may compel yourself to whisper.  Don't expect to find a PX or commissary here-they're across the Potomac River at Fort Myer or across the Anacostia River at Bolling Air Force Base.  This isn't about shopping.  Come to the RAFINO Reunion 2000.  See for yourself.  For information see http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg and http://www.ndu.edu/inss.

Union Station

Union Station

Where can you go while at a RAFINO reunion and be inside one of the finer examples of architecture Beaux-Arts (that's "beautiful arts"-for those of us not from Louisiana)?  Your reunion committee suggests Union Station, at the time of its construction in 1907-1908, the largest train station in the world--covering more ground than any other building in the United States.  Even sophisticated city slickers (and Texans, used to big) will be stunned at its size--the Washington Monument, if laid on its side, could fit within the confines of the building's concourse.  Try this--seventy pounds of 22-karat gold leaf adorn the 96-foot barrel-vaulted coffered ceilings.  And there is more.  Impressed?  Want to personally experience this twentieth century marvel which was renovated in the late 1980's at a cost of $160 million into a bustling retail center and intermodal transportation facility?  Then come to the Washington, DC, RAFINO reunion on Labor Day weekend, 2000, and use your free time to share its glory.  You won't be disappointed.  We hype you not.  For more information see: http://home.digitalcity.com/washington/visitorsguide/venue.dci?vid=38977

Old Post Office Tower

Old Post Office Pavilion

Imagine the New York Times describing a turn-of- the- (nineteenth) century Washington building "as a cross between a cathedral and a cotton mill!"  When it was built, the Old Post Office Tower at 12th and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, was the largest government building in Washington, D.C., and had the first clock tower.  It was the city's first modern "skyscraper," over 12 stories tall, with a steel frame covered by a skin of granite to make it
fireproof. (They were learning something from the Great Chicago Fire.)  Cotton mill, indeed!  The tower, to many people a fine example of Richardsonian Romanesque Revival architecture, is a monument to preservationists' success in sparing historical sites from the contemporary wrecking ball.  It's a fun place to visit, part of the city known as the Federal Triangle.  Bring your appetite, because the restaurants in the 160 foot high and 184 foot long by 99-foot wide courtyard (one of the largest uninterrupted interior spaces in Washington) will surely tempt your willpower.  Operating Hours - Summer: 8:00 a.m.- 10:45 p.m. (Approx. Mid-April to Labor Day).  Come to RAFINO reunion 2000 and judge for yourself the architectural acumen of the Times.  For more information see:  www.nps.gov/opot.

Note:  Dick has a personal fondness for this building which he passes virtually every day on the way to work.

Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Institution

When describing Washington's Smithsonian Institution, it's hard to know where to begin.  Start with the first building, finished in 1855.  It is called "The Castle" and it is right in the middle of the Washington Mall.  A Norman-style red sandstone building designed by James Renwick, the designer of New York City's St. Patrick's Cathedral, at one time, the castle was all there was.  One hundred and forty-five years later, 15 museums and 140 million artifacts await your visit.  So, come to Washington and go to the Castle, which houses the information center.  Start your tours here.  (A short film describes the general lay-out of the Smithsonian, and displays give information on specific exhibits.)  It opens at 9 AM, an hour before the 15 museums open.  You'll need the hour to plan your day.  Day?  You'll need a week.  Read that again, 15 museums-housing moon rocks to mastodons.  You want the "Enola Gay"?  You got it!  You want "The "Spirit of St. Louis"?  You got it!  The exhibits speak for themselves.  You'll be overwhelmed.  See http://160.111.100.190/index_new_browser.htm for much more about The Smithsonian.  Do you need 140 million reasons to come to the RAFINO Reunion 2000?  You just got them.

Bureau of Engraving & Printing

                            

As a wartime disbursing officer, did you ever get to see the source of those Military Payment Certificates (script) you traded with the GIs for his/her greenbacks?  If not, here's your chance!  Your RAFINO Reunion 2000 site
shares the same town with the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP), the
United States Treasury's very own money maker since August 1862.  Would you believe public tours of the Bureau are available between 9AM and 2PM, Mon-Fri?  Reach it on the Metro, Washington, D.C.'s above and below ground rail rapid transit.  Get off the Orange or Blue lines at Smithsonian Station just 3 stops from the Washington Plaza Hotel, your reunion site.  (We're going to include "Metro's Family Guide to the Nations's Capital" in your welcoming packet.)  History buffs may be interested in the special sliding and loading platform, located in the Bureau's Annex Building basement, where Franklin Roosevelt's Presidential railroad car was shuttled to allow the polio disabled 32nd president to load with appropriate security and privacy.  Colleagues, come for the reunion, stay for the sights.  This one is right on the money.  Use the web site www.bep.treas.gov to read all about the Bureau.

Holocaust Museum

When then Secretary of State Warren Christopher spoke at the Washington, DC Holocaust Museum Dedication, on April 21, 1993, he said in part:

"The Holocaust Museum. . .brings home the terrible cost of intolerance and
indifference; the cost measured in priceless people, lives shattered beyond
comprehension, communities consumed by the fires of hate.

"This extraordinary museum, which we have come to dedicate, compels us to reflect on the sanity of our own time, the insanity of another time, the sanctity of human life, and on our duty to protect the dignity of all human beings."

Located at 14th and Raoul Wallenberg Place, in Southwest Washington, the museum tells the story of the Holocaust through artifacts, films, photos and oral histories.  Due to the graphic displays of the atrocities, the museum recommends that children under the age of 11 not visit the main exhibit; the Holocaust Museum has created two exhibits, the Wall of Remembrance and Daniel's Story, specifically for the younger group.  The museum is open daily: 10:00 AM until 5:30 PM.  RAFINO Reunion attendees take note: Tickets are required for main exhibition.  For tour planning purposes, please note this museum is nearby the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.  For details see, www.ushmm.org/visit.

Rose Garden

Distant Drums  White House Rose Garden  Pearlie May

"I never promised you a rose garden" sings 1970s recording artist Lynn Anderson.  Unlike Lynn, your RAFINO reunion committee doesn't sing that  tune.  In fact, we promise you'll find the most photographed rose garden on the planet in the northwest quadrant of the District of Columbia, at the intersection of Connecticut and Vermont Avenues, adjacent to an almost 200 year old mansion which is within walking distance of your reunion hotel.  British soldiers in the early nineteenth century so badly smoke damaged the mansion itself, (seems they had not quite gotten over Yorktown-a late eighteenth century debacle), that the owner painted it white to cover the stains.  Want to know more?  Take a tour during your free time at the RAFINO reunion.  See www.whitehouse.gov/WH/Tours/visitors_center.html  for tour information.  See the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden Sculpture Exhibits at  www.whitehouse.gov/WH/Tours/Garden_Exhibit.html.

Hina  Bird Effigy  Flag Song

White House

         The White House       The White House

If you want to visit the White House during the time you are in Washington, it would be a good idea for you to contact your Representative or Senator to get a pass.  See www.whitehouse.gov/WH/Tours/visitors_center.html for tour information, or see www.kreative.net/cooper/TourOfDC/tours/WhiteHouse. 

Senate Tours

  The Capitol   Senate Chamber

The Capitol Guide Service conducts free guided tours of the Capitol Monday through Saturday throughout the year.  During the non-peak visitor season (September through February) tours are offered every 15 to 30 minutes, from 9:00 AM until 3:30 PM.  Visitors may obtain gallery passes from their representative or senator.  www.senate.gov/visiting/index.html offers a virtual tour of the Senate building.

House of Representatives

House Chamber

The Chamber of the United States House of Representatives is the largest room in the Capitol.  It is used for daily sessions of the House and occasional Joint Sessions and Joint Meetings of the House and Senate.  The House first occupied this Chamber on December 16, 1857, moving from its previous location now known as statuary hall.  Today the room appears as it was when renovated between 1949 and 1951.  The gallery level, the area above the rostrum with wooden benches, is reserved for members of the media.  Other gallery seating is reserved for Members' families, Congressional staff, the Diplomatic Corps, and members of the Executive Branch.  The remaining gallery space is open to the public upon presentation of a gallery pass obtained from a Member of Congress.  See www.house.gov/house/tour_services.html for more information and Links to many areas of the house.  Use www.house.gov/writerep to contact your Representative for passes.

The Capitol

Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln Memorial       Lincoln Memorial

Here's a challenge for any retired disbursing officer.  Take a penny from your pocket and look for the statue of the 16th President of the US on the back.  Can you make him out?  Even with an electron microscope, you probably couldn't make out what sculptor Daniel Chester French has him doing with his  right and left hands.  You've got to see it in person.  Intrigued?  Come to the RAFINO reunion 2000 and take a tram tour of the Washington Mall.  Stand before this magnificent statuary, forever seated in Henry Bacon's Greek Parthenon-inspired building, dominated by 32 Doric columns and engraved with such eternally haunting prose as "shall not have died in vain" and "shall not perish from the earth."  Do an about face and view the US Capitol some 23 city blocks away, a view only slightly obstructed by the 550 foot obelisk monument to our first president.  Are you trembling, yet?  Are you signed up for the reunion?  A penny for your thoughts. See www.nps.gov/linc/index2.htm for more about the Lincoln Memorial and www.nps.gov/linc for Park information.

Ford's Theatre

Ford's Theatre  Ford's Theatre

"Sic semper tyrannis."  The infamous shout, which accompanied the shot that fell the 16th President of the United States, is known to most grammar school children of a certain age.  Most know that it was on Good Friday, in the spring of 1865, that a bullet from the chamber of a pistol held at point blank range pierced the skull of the author of the Gettysburg address.  (He had recently addressed the nation at his second inaugural calling for "malice toward none" and "charity towards all.")  Abraham Lincoln slumped, and as history records, never regained consciousness.  Aides carried him from the theatre to a house across the street, where he lingered until he was called home in the early hours of Saturday morning.  Ford's theatre still stands (and is active for play-goers) as does the house in which the President expired.  You can touch this piece of history during the RAFINO reunion in Washington.  Don't miss the chance!  The story of the assassination by John Wilks booth is at http://home.att.net/~rjnorton/Lincoln75.html.

Tourmobile Stops



There are 40 major sites on and around the National Mall and in Arlington National Cemetery--all serviced by Tourmobile's narrated shuttle tours, which take you right where you want to go with unlimited free reboarding.  You choose where to stop, stay as long as you want, then reboard and ride to another location.  Here are the 25 stops (some stops service more than one location):

Arlington National Cemetery Visitors Center
Kennedy gravesites
Tomb of the Unknowns
Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln/Vietnam Veterans/Korean War Veterans Memorials
White House
Washington Monument
Arts and Industries Building (Smithsonian)
Air and Space Museum (Smithsonian)
US Botanic Gardens
West Front of the US Capitol
Union Station/National Postal Museum
East Front of the Capitol/Library of Congress/Supreme Court
National Gallery of Art
National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian)
National Museum of American History (Smithsonian)
Bureau of Engraving and Printing/Holocaust Museum
Jefferson Memorial and the Tidal Basin
FDR Memorial
White House Visitor Center
Old Post Office Pavilion
Ford's Theatre/FBI Building
US Navy Memorial/National Archives
National Law Enforcement Memorial Visitor's Center/
National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian)/
National Museum of American Art (Smithsonian)

There are essentially two tours: the American Heritage tour ($13.50 is our price), daily, departs continuously from any of the above 25 sites with final reboarding 1 hour before closing (0900-1830 hours), tickets will be available at registration.  The Three Hour Twilight Tour: See Washington by Night, same prices, departs daily from Union Station at 1930 hours.  www.tourmobile.com/tour/index_tour.html

For those with more time there are also tours to Mount Vernon ($22), Cedar Hill (Frederick Douglas Home)($7), and Arlington National Cemetery Tour ($4.75).  All three with appropriately reduced prices for children ages 3-11.

Washington Monument

   Washington Monument                             Washington Monument

"We have taken oblongs and placed them upon squares.  This is our triumph, this is our consolation."  The poet author of that quote could easily have been inspired by the 555 foot, five and one half inch Egyptian obelisk anchored to the Washington, DC, Mall about 17 blocks west of the US Capitol.   Surrounded by a locus of 50 equidistant flagpoles flying an equal number of wind driven, smartly snapping stars and stripes, the Washington Monument is arguably the quintessential symbol of our nation's capital since its public opening in October 1888-some 40 years after the cornerstone was laid on Independence Day, 1848.  Although its current weight is 81,120 tons, its original design, by architect Robert Mills, was much more elaborate, following a 19th century neoclassical design.  All but the obelisk were later discarded as too costly.  Want to know more about the site honoring the man whose engraved portrait is in every disbursing officer's vault?  Come to RAFINO Reunion 2000 and take the tour.  You'll be uplifted.  From the top tool bar of this web site you can see all of Washington:  www.nps.gov/wamo/index2.htm.

Tourmobile

Tourmobile Sigtseeing - Daily Narrated Shuttle Tours

When you come to the RAFINO Reunion 2000, you'll want to take advantage of your location in the Nation's capital to visit some of the sites.  The National Park Service has contracted with Tourmobile Sightseeing to provide open-air trams to take visitors to historic sites in the city and Northern Virginia.  There are 25 different sites on the route and you can get off at any site and get back on the next tram to continue your journey.  Visit  Tourmobile's website (http://www.tourmobile.com) and get familiar with what's available.  Plan your visit now so that you will be ready to visit your favorites when you arrive.

Jefferson Memorial

Jefferson Memorial

By now we hope you've signed up for the RAFINO Reunion 2000 and require no further urging.  For the holdouts, consider the experience of viewing architect Rudolph Evens' heroic, standing statue of the political philosopher of the American Revolution, and our second president, enshrined in architect John Russell Pope's classical design memorial.  The Pantheon-inspired building is made up of a superstructure of white Imperial Danby marble.  The central circular room has interior walls of Georgia white marble while the floor is made of pink Tennessee marble.  The building, overlooking the Washington Tidal Basin around which flourish cherry blossom trees, has a domed ceiling of Indiana select silver gray limestone.  (The flowering trees, of course, were presented as a gift from the city of Tokyo to the city of Washington in 1912.)  Washington is a city of monuments to great events in American history.  Certainly among these is the creation and signing of the document that begins "We hold these truths to be self-evident."  Although it wasn't until well over 160 years after its writing that Americans honored its author with an appropriate expression of their gratitude, they made up for their tardiness in beauty and design.  See it for yourself.  It's reason enough to join us in September 2000.  See www.nps.gov/thje/index2.htm for the history and www.nps.gov/thje for Park information about the Memorial.

Pentagon Virtual Tour



The Webmaster invites you to take a virtual tour of the Pentagon for about 25 minutes.  This will whet your appetite for attending the Reunion 2000.  

Mount Vernon

 

Mount Vernon, the home of President George Washington, is in Virginia and just a short drive from the Reunion Hotel.  Information on this historic landmark can be seen at www.mountvernon.org.  Take a look in preparation for the Reunion.

Norman Rockwell Display



The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC will show "Norman Rockwell Pictures for the American People" during the RAFINO reunion.  This great exhibit will only happen in six American cities.  Who among the retirees can forget the weekly covers of the Saturday Evening Post that displayed the resonant images of everyday American life?  (Rockwell did a total of 322 covers for the magazine.  Seventy of his oil painting will also be on display.)  This is for touring during your free time.  Visit the web site here.

Circles and Squares
Your RAFINO reunion 2000 site is a town of circles and squares-literally.  (No metaphor implied nor should the reader infer.)  Paris-born architect and engineer Pierre L'Enfant (roughly translated: Rock Child) laid out the city like a Finance Corps diamond (but with more equal vertical and horizontal axes) and divided it into quadrants with the capitol building at the center.  Lettered streets run north and south of the capitol while numbered streets run east and west.  (So if one says to a friend, "Meet me at the corner of 6th and D Streets," s/he better add NW, SW, etc.  Do the math.  Without the quadrant suffix, the odds are that the friend will show up at the right intersection in the wrong quadrant.)  To break up this rather monotonous design, L'Enfant overlaid the city with broad avenues connecting major focal points.  The most famous is Pennsylvania Avenue connecting the White House and the US Capitol.  OK, but why the circles and squares?  L'Enfant put them where the avenues cross.  They not only help control (some wags would say impede) traffic but provide open urban space uncluttered by residential parallelepipeds.  For example, the reunion hotel is located at #10 Thomas Circle where Vermont Avenue crosses Rhode Island Avenue at 14th Street, NW.  Take a look at the Washington Plaza at www.washingtonplazahotel.com/wp/resrvtns.htm  and then quickly register your desire to occupy a room on September 1, 2000 and thereafter.

Gen. Thomas on Horse - Plaza Hotel behind him        Pool Party place

 

  Transportation

RAFINO member John Stose provided the following information on ground transportation from the three (3) airports serving DC.  These two (2) web sites have very good information on this subject.

A. For the Baltimore Washington International airport:
Go to www.bwiairport.com.
Click on Ground Transportation.
Click on Washington, DC.

B. For the Dulles International airport:
Go to www.metwashairports.com.
Click on Washington Dulles International Airport.
Click on Ground Transportation.

C. For the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport:
Go to www.metwashairports.com. 
Click on RONALD REAGAN WASHINGTON NATIONAL AIRPORT
Click on Ground Transportation.