DC

From Lexington, KY, I headed to Manassas, VA, to hang out with the one and only Dan Fisk. I got there the evening of Friday, May 6. Saturday we went to do some sightseeing stuff. Our first stop was the NRA museum in Fairfax, VA.

Even though I took a lot of pictures at the NRA museum, I could have easily taken three times as many. There was just so much interesting history and craftsmanship on display. It was a bit overwhelming.

Hermann Göring's shotgun:



Yikes.

There was a glass-top table full of weird little things. It was like a steampunk's wet dream.




The weird thing labeled 23 was apparently used to test the strength of powder.


The thing in the middle of this photo was used to light tinder, if I recall correctly. Note the combination brass knuckles/dagger/gun to the left. Awesome.


Here is my favorite of these oddities. You set a "timer" using a sundial, and at the specified time the magnifying glass focused the sun's rays on the powder, setting off the gun. Do want.


One of my favorite parts of the NRA museum, and something I was hoping they'd have, the T48!


Check out this engraving work. Amazing.


I have many more pictures from the NRA museum. If I get ambitious enough to go through them at some point I'll post more. These should be enough for now.

From the NRA museum we went into DC and got something to eat, then our next stop was the National Cathedral. I'm not into the whole religion thing, but it's an impressive building. The gargoyles and grotesques are particularly interesting, but many were hard to see. I wished I had binoculars with me.








Me, on the 7th floor:

Dan:

View from the 7th floor. You can see the Capitol, Washington Monument, and Jefferson Memorial.

Here you can see some of the gargoyles and grotesques from the 7th floor.



Next stop: New York City!