A Place of Reverence and a Place of Clanging

Kinsey and I decided to go to Arlington National Cemetery last weekend and didn't think we'd spend much time there. We figured we would go to JFK's grave and the Tomb of the Unknowns and that would be it. We were not aware just how vast Arlington National Cemetery is. It's over 600 acres and contains over 290,000 graves. And it is really beautiful. All rolling hills and trees.

All those stark, white marble gravestones make for some gorgeous pictures. We didn't realize that not all the tombstones at Arlington are in the typical marble style. There are some really ornate ones, including many shaped like the Washington Monument.

One of our first stops was John Fitzgerald Kennedy's grave with the eternal flame. He's buried next to his wife Jackie and two children who died at less than a year old.

The Tomb of the Unknowns was quite the interesting sight to see. They have the changing of the guard every half hour, so Kinsey and I stuck around to see it with quite a large crowd of people. I thought it was pretty interesting but Kinsey said she wasn't much of a fan of military pageantry.

There was this huge marble amphitheater right by the Tomb of the Unknowns. I guess they use it for state funerals or something?

Like I said earlier, the cemetery was really hilly and at the top of the highest hill was Robert E. Lee's home. It provided quite the view of DC.

The grave of William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States and the 10th Chief Justice of the United States. Taft and Kennedy are the only two presidents buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

This is the Netherlands Carillon (just north of the cemetary), which was a gift from the Netherlands to the United States for their help during and after World War II. Kinsey and I came across it when we were visiting the Iwo Jima Memorial. We saw a schedule for concerts (its a bell tower) and decided to come back for one of them.

The concert was kind of neat. We were able to climb to the top of the carillon and watch the lady play the bells. She said it was very similar to playing the piano and that if you could play the piano, you could play the bells. McKinsey, being a piano player herself, offered to take over for awhile, but the bell lady didn't seem to keen on the idea.

A video of the rockin' bell concert.

In order to climb to the top, you actually have to pass within a foot of some of the larger bells. It was loud, but quite the experience.

Looking back on Arlington National Cemetery from the Netherlands Carillon.

Art, Part 1

This week our "See Every Museum and/or Art Gallery in the Greater DC Area Tour" brought us to the National Gallery of Art. Its quite an expansive collection, housed in two buildings: the West building, a John Russell Pope building finished in 1941 and the East building, an I.M. Pei designed building opened in 1978. The West Building, which houses more of the classic art and sculpture, was all that we got through on this first trip.



Symphony in White, No. 1: the White Girl by James Whistler - I'm sure most of you are familiar with the painting Arrangement in Grey and Black: the Artist's Mother, more commonly called Whistler's Mother. Well, its not at this art gallery, but this other portrait by Whistler is. Its quite interesting, maybe a little unnerving. The way Whistler paints the forest context gives the girl a ghost-like, eerie quality.

The Thinker by Auguste Rodin - When I first saw this sculpture, I thought "no way, the Thinker is in DC? I thought it would be in Europe somewhere." Well, it turns out it is, at some museum in Paris. This is one of twenty casts made of the original sculpture. Still pretty neat though.

The Four Dancers by Edgar Degas - My big discovery at the National Gallery of Art was Edgar Degas. I had been somewhat familiar with his ballet themed paintings, but what they had here blew me away. And they had a lot of Degas, probably ten finished paintings and dozens of sculptures and drawings. This Four Dancers painting is particularly enchanting. Its mostly an impressionist painting until you get to the figures in the foreground. There Degas outlines them with a dark, wide line both heightening their realism and their kinetic poses.

Little Dancer of Fourteen Years by Edgar Degas

Woman with a Parasol by Claude Monet - The interesting thing about this Monet painting is what the artist chose to do with the subject's face. Its as if the simulated wind drew the brush across her face. Or maybe she's just homely.

This whole room was just Monets. Probably about a dozen or more of them. Now think about the recent auction at Christie's of a Monet painting for $80 million. Quite the expensive room, isn't it?


Self Portrait by Vincent van Gogh - This is one of the many self portraits painted by van Gogh. This is one of those paintings that is fun to see in person because you see it so often in books.

The van Gogh/Gauguin room was a popular place to be.


Roses by Vincent van Gogh - Kinsey's big discovery at the National Gallery of Art was a new appreciation of van Gogh. We had seen a couple of his paintings at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago, but this collection really set him apart as the great artist that he was.

Kinsey was quite taken with the textural quality and depth of his paintings.


Self Portrait by Paul Gauguin - Gauguin was an artist that I was really unfamiliar with. The National Gallery's collection was both wide ranging in artistic style and a little out there. I still don't know what I think of him.

Seascape at Port en Bessin, Normandy by Georges Seurat - This painting by Seurat, or as my Mom likes to call him "Seurat the Dot," isn't as intriguing as the famous Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grand Jatte that we saw at the Art Institute of Chicago, but it is always fun to look at pointillism.
Portrait of a Gentleman with a Tall Hat and Gloves by Rembrandt van Rijn - There were several rooms full of the works of the famous portrait artist. Kinsey thought he was overrated and that we should pile all his paintings onto a huge bonfire and dance around the cathartic burning like a bunch of crazy people. Well, the first part's true anyway.


A Lady Writing by Johannes Vermeer - McKinsey much prefers the rich interpretation of light by Dutch painter Vermeer. There were a couple of surprisingly small Vermeer paintings at the gallery.

We took a coffee break about midway through our excursion and discovered this interesting fountain in the lower level concourse connecting the East and West buildings. The fountain is actually outside, then cascades down a slope and ends up running against the floor-to-ceiling glass.

This video of the fountain has a surprise guest appearance at the end.

The obligatory Wade and McKinsey self-portrait, this time it's a reflection!

While we were at the gallery we thought we found the Holy Grail! But it turned out it was just a beacon, which unfortunately was grail-shaped. And there's only one punishment for lighting the grail-shaped beacon...

Ginevra de Benci by Leonardo da Vinci - The piece de resistance. The only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the western hemisphere. On first viewing, it seems to be nothing more than a plain ol' portrait. But on closer inspection, it's depth is revealed. It's detail, precision and portrayal of light create an almost 3D effect. Like the entire National Gallery of Art, quite impressive.

An Unexpectedly Big Memorial

When we first got to DC and were driving from the airport to our apartment, Kinsey caught a glimpse of a giant sculpture. It turns out that it was the Iwo Jima US Marine Corps War Memorial, and we've been very excited to get a closer look at it.


You probably know that the Iwo Jima Memorial is modeled after the iconic photo of the Marines raising the flag on Mount Suribachi during the WWII Battle of Iwo Jima. What you may not know is how big it is. This thing is huge. Its 32 feet tall with a 60 foot long flagpole.

The flag on the memorial flies 24 hours a day, one of only a few official sites where this happens.

The detail on the sculpture is amazing. I read online that it took nearly 3 years to complete.

Its highly recommended that the memorial is seen at night, so Kinsey and I stuck around till the sun went down. It was definitely worth it. At dusk, you get these beautiful views of the sculpture silhouetted against the darkening sky. And then when it gets dark, the sculpture is lit and you can really see all the tiny detail put into it.



There's no direct bus from our apartment in Foxhall Village to the memorial in Arlington, so we ended up walking, which meant that we had to cross the Potomac River via the Key bridge (as in Francis Scott Key). It looked really peaceful at the sunset.

Autonomy, Justice, Beneficence, and perhaps Nonmaleficence

For the first week of my fellowship I attended the Kennedy Institute of Ethics' Intensive Bioethics Course. Since I didn't actually register for it like the other attendees, I was pretty clueless to what I was getting into. I received the schedule of speakers about a month beforehand and was impressed to see that even with my limited background in bioethics, I had read books or articles from every ethicist on the list. What I realized quickly after starting was that this wasn't just a bioethics conference, but the bioethics conference. There were a little less that 150 people in attendance, and I would estimate that a third of them had flown in from other countries just for these lectures. I met people from South Africa, the UK, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, and even a tribal prince from Cameroon with over 600 siblings. The majority of individuals were physicians, RNs, chaplains, or philosophy PhDs, and then a few in specialities such as social work. To my knowledge I was the only genetic counselor.

The entire week was absolutely amazing. The format worked well to really stimulate the education. An ethicist would give a lecture on a particular topic and then we would break into small groups to discuss. These small groups were assigned, with about 15 people in each and lead by an ethicist. LeRoy Walters was the leader of my small group; he is the co-editor of the bioethics textbook that I used in my first bioethics course in undergrad! (He's a fantastically nice and intelligent individual.) My group was so diverse that all the perspectives were very intriguing, a wonderful mix of diverse professions (physicians, a lawyer, even a face transplant surgeon) and cultural backgrounds. It was fascinating to hear how medical systems work in other countries and the problems that were unique to a particular regions and how many problems were universal. It was funny, I was so interested in how everyone else was practicing medicine, yet most were extremely interested in genetic counseling. All week, during these small groups or at meals, I was frequently being questioned on "what a GC would do if..." or "how a GC would handle..." It seemed the ethical dilemmas that genetics often presents with were of great interest.

Another great thing about the conference was the food. Being that I still fall in the "financially challenged" realm of a student, any free food is fine with me, but the entire week breakfast and lunch were catered with the most amazing fare. They also hosted two social events, a cocktail party on Monday and a farewell dinner on Friday. Wade was able to attend these with me which was really fun. While I was one of the youngest attendees, we did become good friends with a group not too much older than ourselves. They were mostly physicians and PhDs from a variety of different states, as well as two great guys from Ireland (one of whom taught Wade and I some Irish euphemisms). We did some socializing with them which really added to the week. The last night we all went to Martin's Tavern on Wisconsin Ave (actually some of the bioethicists came drinking with us as well). Every president since Truman has visited Martin's Tavern, and we actually sat in the booth where JFK proposed to Jacqueline Onassis.

Overall the week was great. My knowledge, both intellectual and practical, of bioethics was greatly increased. I also met some amazing people whom I hope to keep in contact with.

A Chuck Hagel Republican

Last week, I was lucky enough to attend a book reading by Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel at the Cato Institute here in DC. Sen. Hagel was discussing his new book America: Our Next Chapter. Kinsey and I have been ardent supporters of Chuck Hagel's work in the Senate for quite some time now, so it was quite a treat to see him speak. And I've never heard a politician speak with such candor. He really just says what he truly believes, which doesn't seem like a big deal, but when you're talking about a politician, it's a huge deal. I put a link to his talk below. It's a little over an hour long, but well worth the listen.

http://cato.everyzing.com/viewMedia.jsp?dedupe=1&res=266584658&index=2&num=10&col=en-all-pod_cato-ep&e=20158541&start=0&q=chuck+hagel&expand=true&match=query,channel&filter=1



I gotta be honest, I was a little nervous meeting him.

The cover of his book.

"For Wade and McKinsey- To my fellow Nebraskans, Chuck H."

Elephants, Both Real and Stuffed

Last weekend, we decided we'd head down to the National Mall to check out the National Museum of Natural History. After we got off the bus, we cut through the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center and we came across two guys walking an elephant, which struck us as kind of odd. Turns out someone had rented the Reagan Building and the elephant for an Indian wedding.



I don't know if you are aware, but Kinsey loves elephants. I mean, a lot. She wants a pet one. Although she was a little freaked out when the elephant laid its head on her shoulder for this picture.

Kinsey's elephant eating ice from a cooler.

The first thing that greets you when you enter the National Museum of Natural History is one of those stone statues from Easter Island. Seems like a good way to start off a museum.

Here's the antithesis to our earlier morning elephant experience: a dead one.

A leaping tiger that for some reason makes me think of Calvin and Hobbes leads into the mammal exhibit. This mammal exhibit was different from other museums because the animals weren't placed in pseudo-habitats, but were instead on finished stone slabs. Its like having a lot of taxidermy in your kitchen.

Let me explain this picture. When we saw this open-mouthed hippo I told Kinsey she should pretend to stick her head in its mouth. McKinsey must have a problem with simulating circus tricks with stuffed animals because she declined. So I stepped in and for some reason thought the bug-eyed evil grin look was appropriate for the situation. I only post this picture on Kinsey's insistence.

I like this shot looking through the backdrop at the mammal exhibit. It appeals to the architect part of me.

McKinsey enjoys her trilobite fossils.

The dinosaur exhibit. They did have a heck of a lot of complete dinosaur skeletons, which was pretty neat.

I caught someone else's flash going off when I took a picture of the T. Rex., which makes it look nice and spooky. Like an ethereal dinosaur going to a movie premiere.

You gotta love the wooly mammoth, an ancient creature that Nebraska can lay claim too.

The Hope Diamond. I've seen bigger.

After we left the Natural History Museum, we walked through the Smithsonian sculpture garden, which had this nice little fountain.

There was this really interesting building housing a cafe in the sculpture garden. The steel structure of this building is really expressive.
A sculpture by Claus Oldenburg.

This is a weird sculpture by Roy Lichtenstein. The corner of the house that looks to be closest to you is actually the farthest away. Optical illusion!

We headed over to the National Building Museum and walked by the Newseum, a brand new museum on the media designed by Polshek Partnership. We didn't go in because it cost money and we don't like to discuss money.

The National Building Museum seems pretty tame on the outside...

... but check out that interior! And I thought the Corinthian columns on the National Archives were big.


Unfortunately, you couldn't take pictures in the exhibits. They were really good exhibits though. Trust me.