I should have known that going to bed at 2am would force me to have a late start this morning -- and unless I get this posted, I'm going to repeat the cycle tonight, so this will be much briefer. But despite my laziness, I had another excellent day. I managed to make it out the door by noon, and I had a great sandwich at Lawson's in Dupont Circle. It wasn't in the top five of sandwiches I've ever had, but I think part of that was my ordering mistake -- a Californian turkey sandwich sounded great, but the avocado here can't possibly be as fresh as the avocado in SF, which was a shame. However, the turkey was outstanding -- it was freshly carved off a still-warm turkey roast. And, I do love me some sandwiches, so it was the perfect lunch.
After lunch, I headed back to the National Archives. Ironically, the line was in exactly the same place that it was when I aborted my attempt yesterday -- but, it moved quickly, and it was very well worth it. I saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights on a previous trip with my family in the 1990s, but it was cool and v. moving to see them again. Then, since I didn't have my family with me, I took the time to peruse the rest of the exhibits and read every placard in the place. They have some very cool stuff, and because it's the 75th anniversary of the Archives, there were a few things out that usually aren't (such as the original 13-foot scroll of the Articles of Confederation). I have a feeling that there's a bit of a turf war between the National Archives and the Library of Congress, since they preserve somewhat similar things and are only a mile away from each other -- I would love it if their staffs occasionally get into gang-style street fights over black market documents.
Next, I went to the Sackler Gallery, which is a Smithsonian museum focused on Asian art. They had a special exhibit called "Tsars and the East," which highlighted gifts that the Russian tsars received from Turkish and Iranian delegations in the 16th-17th centuries. I've seen fabulous Russian treasures before, but because these treasures were created by some of the best artists and artisans of the Islamic world, it was all quite different from some of the more classically Russian pieces. There was a lot of interesting merging of traditional Iranian/Ottoman design (curved watered-steel sabers, Arabic verses, and geometric patterns) with elements that would appeal to the tsars and Orthodox patriarchs whom the items were destined for (crosses, opulent embroidery, even a couple of icons and a gorgeous box designed to hold the communion wafers/wine).
Seriously, while the Russian nobles lived a fairly backwards (by our standards) existence and engaged in levels of brutality against their serfs and each other that make modern people cringe, they did have some amazingly opulent stuff. One of the items was a mace, which looked quite lethal, but the head of the mace was pure gold. There were ruby-encrusted stirrups (that were actually used in processions), saddle blankets embroidered with gold thread, a gem-covered waterskin with a rock crystal stopper, a drinking horn banded with gold and stones, fabulous bejeweled daggers, swords, and scabbards, and one sword whose hilt and scabbard were covered with so many precious gems that the item was once considered the most expensive and valuable item in the entire Kremlin collection. It's no wonder most of the tsars were so insane -- if you live your life surrounded by such extreme wealth in the midst of a poverty-stricken country, venerated by all and never, ever crossed, it must be easy to treat others' lives carelessly.
After getting my fill of the tsars and seeing some of the other exhibits, I made my way back to my hotel, chatted with my parents, and took a quick, restorative nap before getting ready to go out again. I met up with some of my fellow Golden Heart finalists for dinner -- I've interacted with many of them online, but this was the first time I've met anyone in person. I had a really lovely conversation with the woman sitting next to me, and also chatted with some of the other people around me. Then, I walked back to the Metro station with another woman who was sitting farther down the table, and we had a nice discussion while waiting for the train. All in all, it was great to put some names and faces together, and I'm looking forward to meeting many, many more people in the coming days.
When I got back to my hotel, I took the last opportunity I'll have for awhile to put in some downtime, talking to one of my best friends while painting my fingernails. But now, I really must sleep -- tomorrow I have to repack and move to the conference hotel, and then things really take off! Wish me luck -- and if you're at the conference, say hi!
