Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Capital scenes (Washington DC)

In May this year I had to travel to Washington DC for a conference and took a few hours to see the sights:

Washington Monument, Washington, DC
The Washington Monument.  Impressive. 

peaceful White House
The White House.  I wonder how many spy cameras that are in the flower beds. 

hot dog stand next to the White House
I wonder if the President ever sends out Secret Service to get him a Polish dog?  This cart was right next to the White House.

anti-war vigil 24/7
This anti-war tent vigil has been going on for three decades, every day, every hour, every minute.  It is right in front of the White House, and is more of a statement than a disturbance.  I wish we lived in a world with more peace.

parsley in the flower beds in front of USDA
Outside the US Department of Agriculture they had planted parsley in the flower beds, and it was flowering nicely and greenly. So appropriate and unusual.

Inside the USDA was a small museum about food history, which included this great quote:

 "...the most valuable of all arts will be the art of deriving a comfortable subsistence from the smallest area of soil." Abraham Lincoln
They also had a lot of old posters from World War I and II.

"Food- Don't Waste It". circa 1914-1918
Don't waste Food.  We need these posters for today's consumers.

"Lick the Platter Clean - Don't Waste Food". 1944
Lick the Platter Clean - I remember us kids saying we could lick our plates because our grandpa did it too.

Ice trains, historical photos
There was also a little tiny exhibit about the old ice trains that transported blocks of ice for refrigeration around the country.  I am glad there are electric refrigerators nowadays, I wouldn't want to get back to a time when you had to handle 50 lbs (25 kg) ice blocks. 

3 comments:

PP said...

you didn't have to handle them, that's what the iceman did.

When you needed more ice, The Iceman Cometh.

EH said...

We only licked the plate after eating ice cream, the dogs licked the plates after main course dinners, do you remember?

LS said...

I only remembered that the dogs licked the plates after you reminded me. Yes, icecream and some other desserts were lickable food.. :)