Where are the 2 FDR Memorials?

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who played a major role in winning WWII from a wheelchair, has not just one but two memorials here in Washington, DC. The most recent and largest FDR Memorial lies between the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials. It takes up 7.5 acres and has waterfalls, statues of the dog Falla, Eleanor and the President in a wheelchair.

This contrasts to a white stone block on the greens of the National Archives. FDR told his friend Justice Felix Frankfurter in 1941 that all he wanted was a memorial the size of his desk with just in memory of, his name and the dates 1882-1945.

A desk sized block of stone vs.  7.5 acres?

Gideon, President Obama, NFIB

I saw a well dressed man near the Washington Monument and wondered what his lapel pin meant. It was a Gideon lapel pin, as in those Gideon Bibles found in hotel room drawers. He had just given a Bible to President Obama.
How did you get to visit the White House?  I asked.
"I own a small business near Pittsburgh and won the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) Man of the Year Award and they called on me for this." he said.
So we had a nice chat about President Obama and how God is in charge and that all good things that happen to us are because of grace, not necessarily virtue. It was a short ride, he gave me quite a generous tip. So I called him back over and we prayed. "Thanks God, keep us safe, direct our thinking and use us for your highest good." Amen.

Hear Dr. Martin Luther King at Lincoln Memorial 1 and 5 pm

August 28, 1963 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King gave his famous "I have a dream" speech before 400,000 people on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
While taking a nice father and 7th grade daughter on tour yesterday, I saw a National Park Service Ranger with a small crowd listening to a boom box and heard Dr. King's stirring speech.

"No one moves as quick as he who walks." Henry David Thoreau

I can't blame the folks who would rather walk than take a pedicab. While I may change his language to he or she who walks, and these tourists or locals may not afford themselves the luxury of our historically informed banter, sometimes Washington is just a beautiful city stroll around.

tracking down the Longview Gallery Opening for Andrea

It was about 6:30 pm and close the 7 end of shift and I was near Gallery Place Metro when a senior citizen well-dressed, in cocktail attire, flagged me down. Andrea, new from San Antonio, was trying to find a "Long-something Gallery for an art opening that should have 900 people." So I Googled on my cell phone Longstreet Gallery and got something on 21st and R Streets, many blocks away. I suggested possibly the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery around the corner which was open until 7.

No good.

So I called my favorite trusty Washington Post 202 334-6000 using the ancient technology of the telephone and asked to be connected to the Style Section. Justin Moyer was fortunately still there working after their 6pm closing and kindly answered for me. He looked it up on their Calendar Events section.

1234 9th St., NW. We found a beautiful, exciting opening of amazing modern paintings and fancy people and fancier hors d'ouevres!

"War's legitimate object is a more perfect peace." Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman

William Tecumseh Sherman has a nice grand statue of himself on a horse next to guard gates near the White House. Many Southerners who still resent The War Of Northern Aggression aka the civil war, might choke on this inscribed quote,
"Wars legitimate object is a more perfect peace." Feb. 28, 1882.

And driving my wife to work this morning I hear Crosby, Stills and Nash quote some biblical physics,
"We are stardust, we are golden. And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden."

Back in the saddle again!

A few days of cold rainy weather has kept me off the pedicabs for a week. And while we had a frost warning, this week promises to be near 70 degrees F.
So I made my breakfast of granola, a scoop of protein powder, 1% milk and a few prunes. Gulped my vitamins with coffee and filled my water bottles and a "Make love not landfills" Swiss thermos my wife gave me with strong coffee and off I go into DC.
A little cool to start and it got quite cold again after about 4:30 but it was a good day. The last half hour was a quick tour of the monuments and White House for a pediatrician who is a member of the Congress from Montenegro, in the former Yugoslavia.   
All I knew how to say was, "Kvala" thankkyou.

Travel Quotes

"Nothing is more dangerous to prejudice than travel." Mark Twain

"I have traveled extensively in Concord." Henry David Thoreau

"I have been around the Beltway a few times." Paul Mazzuca

Jaleo

Once upon a time about 3 years ago, I had my first date with my wife at Jaleo. We've had many joyous, delicious meals there since. It is a tapas restaurant as good or better than what I found in Barcelona! I always recommend Jaleo to passengers in search of good food. Last week I had a couple celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary in my pedicab. I couldn't help but share our first date story of Jaleo with them. I asked them how they did it (40 years). They said they always go to bed saying "I love you" and "Goodnight" no matter how rough the day may have been. And the husband told me, "no matter how mean she gets, just don't pay attention to it and remember that you love her!"

Ventian honeymoon memories

A very windy day today. Saw a group of over a dozen mostly men with blue shirts with Polizia Venezia (Venice Police) on it and joyously practiced my Italian, recalling our honeymoon (viaggia di nozze) where we saw the best fireworks (fuochi d'artificio) at the (Festa di Redentore) Feast of the Redeemer. They built a church and made a Mardi Gras-like holiday in 1577 when Venetian prayers were answered for the end of the Black Death or bubonic plague brought by lice on rats from the new trading routes with the far east.

A Tale of Two Families

We had a 4 pedicab tour with a large family. The 3 little children rode in my pedicab and were so polite. A beautiful family, we raced to Jefferson, didn't stop to read my favorite quote, "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just." (and he said that in the days BEFORE we started pre-emptively invading countries), zipped over to the larger FDR memorial, then passed WWII to the White House. We ended at the Spy Museum where we have a family membership.

This family contrasted another family of 8 from Tennessee. I started to engage them at the Air & Space Museum and the wife didn't want to spend the money for 3 pedicabs but the husband did. I told her when I was in the 1988 Gore Presidential Campaign the password to get into the campaign headquarters after hours was Tinnessee, pronounced with an I. "Oh yeah, the one who invented the Internet", she smirked. "Would you vote for him if he was running today?" she asked. "Yes, and he also was one of the first to draw attention to the satellite data showing the seasonal hole in the ozone layer in Antarctica."

"Well, let's talk about history and science and culture and leave politics alone for a while." I smilingly suggested. We obviously had a different world view. Brian, my fellow pedicabber on this tour, shook his head and wondered how I could handle these rambunctious kids. They were screaming and wanted to bump the other pedicabs. All kids are by definition wonderful, even if the 5 year old did lose his shoe in fortunately VERY slow rush hour traffic!

Surrender? I have not yet begun to fight!

Today I start a sporadic habit of listing a few of the quotes I see carved in stone around Washington. This one is from the John Paul Jones' small, easily missed monument located on a sort of triangular island between the Washington Monument (el obelisco some South Americans described it) and the WWII Memorial (the only memorial I know if that has a searchable database to look up a soldier, an uncle, father, brother or grandfather perhaps who fought in WWII!)

Strong like bull?

Folks often say, "You must have strong legs and be in good shape to do this."
I tell them that's what I tell my wife, speaking in a Russian/east European accent,"I am strong like bull!" here's the punch line...my wife answers back, "Strong like something that starts with bull..."

Took a group of happy kids and their Mom on a short ride to their car today. As I often do with children, I asked them what their favorite subjects are in school. I was charged to learn they all liked science and math! Lucky for us we would be passing one of my favorite spots on the Mall where the solar system is proportionally laid out in a one to ten billion scale on oval metal signs. At each planet, there is information about how many moons, temperature, day and year length, chemical composition, distance from the sun, and many other interesting factoids.

http://voyagesolarsystem.org/

"one to 10-billion scale model of our Solar System—spanning 2,000 feet from the National Air and Space Museum to the Smithsonian Castle. The Sun and its system of planets—our Solar System—is portrayed at one 10-billionth actual size, and contained on 13 stanchions."

The first stanchions or oval metal sign starts with Voyager and I tell them it has actually gone out of the solar system, waving my hand up and out. Then there is poor Pluto. And I always tell the same joke. "Pluto has been demoted as a planet. People who have been laid off say they have been Pluto-ed."

And I keep pedaling past the Arts and Industries Museum undergoing asbestos removal with a stimulus grant, point out Neptune with its 8 moons. And keep pedaling past the Hirschorn Museum of Modern Art and entrance of the Air and Space Museum and see the local planets, Mars, Earth, Venus and Mercury and the sun we spin around. I try to instill a little reverence for the uniqueness of our little planet.

"And look how perfect this Earth is for life: water can exist in all three forms- solid ice, liquid water and gaseous vapor," pointing to the sky. " So life has a chance to evolve."

An Exotic Evolution - washingtonpost.com

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Because the history of Washington has been written by humans, nobody has paid much attention to the fact that 18 Canadian squirrels were released at the National Zoo during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.

In this job I get to meet all sorts of interesting people. Big Shots, housewives, actors, producers, lobbyists, street people and more. I noticed Homer, Alaska on one fellows T-shirt and noticed a little gold crab around his neck. Then I noticed Time Bandit and remembered that was the name of the ship on the cable show Deadliest Catch. So I gave Jonathan and his rather beautiful lady friend a disjointed ride, turn here, go there, a fun ride. He wanted phallic photographs staged with the Washngton Monument, saying, laughing and this is the reason why men shouldn't go on vacation.

National Pedicabbing in Washington, DC

So here now I start to type the reflections on many days as an observer and sometimes lucky enough to be a participant in the events in and around Washington, D.C. I have long called myself a Permanent Tourist in Washington.

And I have been pedicabbing - driving bicycle-powered rickshaws called pedicabs rented from National Pedicabs since mid-July. I've lost 30 pounds, gotten what Doonesbury might call a "competitive tan" and made a few thousand dollars.

I am exhausted but loving it. I am in much beter shaape than I have been in quite a while. It's like geting paid to work out. And I love tourists and love Washington DC. One nice lady from Pittsburgh today said it was like a spinning class all day long.