Washington, DC, is free!

LETTER FROM LAURA

Leaving for our first trip to Washington DC in 30 years - this one to visit museums and cultural sites - I grabbed Diana McCaulay's novel Dog-Heart to read on the plane.

I couldn't put it down. She captures Kingston, juxtaposing a middleclass, perhaps Mona community, lifestyle with people living in a garrison community. Flawlessly delineating complex characters, revealing their varying perspectives on the same events, she has written this generation's Children of Sisyphus. My husband read Dog-Heart on the return flight and also couldn't put it down. It is so compelling!

As for Washington, our first pleasant surprise was to find the airport close to the city centre. We'd selected historic Hay-Adams Hotel on 16th and H Streets NW, directly across Lafayette Park from The White House and discovered the next morning over delectable eggs Benedict with smoked salmon that the hotel's Lafayette Restaurant is one of the places for a power breakfast.

Senators, lobbyists, young professionals - all engaging in intense conversations - filled the place. Being close to power has its ups and downs. One day, we were awoken by a noisy demonstration across the street at the AFL-CIO trade union building, while in the afternoon, Cambodians in front of the White House called on Obama to help them gain free elections. Throughout the area, uniform-clad school groups touring America's capital were interspersed with both male and female 'suits' toting briefcases, even cases with wheels, taking papers from one important meeting to the next - all people with a purpose.

The amazing aspect of Washington, DC, for me was not its elegance. I had learned long ago that French engineer Pierre Charles L'Enfant had been chosen by George Washington to plan the city, which L'Enfant did bearing both Versailles and Paris in mind for his design, with broad boulevards and grand architecture.

ADMISSION FREE

Anyone living nearby or visiting Washington, DC, has the opportunity to become well educated by taking advantage of the variety of admission-free places in this city.

I hadn't counted on all the Smithsonian museums and gardens being absolutely FREE. New York, London and Paris can be extremely costly for a family to visit major museums, but in Washington, DC, the Smithsonian museums charge no admission fee and open every day of the year except Christmas day. There are even informative brochures available to take home and study.

The Smithsonian Castle with its distinctive mid-19th century Gothic Revival architecture was the original home of the Smithsonian, which has evolved into individual buildings for the African Art Museum, Air and Space Museum, American Art and Portrait Gallery, American History Museum, National Gallery of Art, National Museum of The American Indian, Natural History Museum, Postal Museum, the National Zoo, and more.

Some were gifts of wealthy businessmen who made their fortunes before income tax was imposed. Paintings, sculpture, and the largest marble structure in the world in 1941 was a gift from financier Andrew W. Mellon. His gift to the nation became the West Building of the National Gallery of Art. Other private donors added to the collection so that when I spent an hour and a half in the wing displaying impressionists, I saw only a third of the building's collection before tiring.

GREAT ARCHITECTURE

Paintings are my particular passion but the Dinosaur Hall in the National Museum of Natural History is hugely popular, as are exhibitions in the National Air and Space Museum and Pandas at the Zoo. Even the Library of Congress isn't just a collection of books. The building's interior is fabulous. Each museum is alive with lectures, videos, demonstrations - I am immensely impressed with what America offers in this city!

It is a purpose-built city, created to govern a nation. It's not a city built only on finance, industry, or business. The business of Washington DC is government.

Not many cities are planned and built that way. We were fortunate that my husband's friend, who was with him at the University of California-Berkeley went on to become a Congressman.

Some Jamaicans remember that Jim Moody bought a property in Montego Bay so that his sister Marguerite, a chef, could open a restaurant. He sold it but the name lives on, as does his love of Jamaica. Though now retired, our second evening he gave us a personal tour of Congress. We watched as voting was taking place in the House. Representatives walked around the floor, talking together, registering their votes with cards at the end of a pew, the votes showing up electronically on the wall. It looked chaotic.

In the Senate, which has less than a quarter of the members of the House of Representatives, Senators stand and each announce their vote. Much more gentlemanly. Indeed, the Senate is more, shall we say, plush. What a sense of history, though. Massive wall murals commemorate historic moments in early American history. Floors are tiled or mosaic, walls filled with paintings and every State of the Union is allowed to send two statues for display so foyers and hallways are bedecked with historic figures, including one of Rosa Parks which resides in the Old Hall of the House of Representatives, now the National Statuary Hall.

Washington National Cathedral is another splendour to behold as the largest Gothic Cathedral in North America with amazing stained glass windows. There was so much to see we never went to the traditional Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial or Vietnam Veterans' Memorial, though we did visit the Martin Luther King Memorial. The cherry blossoms lasted only eight days so we missed them but the city was abloom with colourful tulips, wisteria and azaleas. Washington, DC is beautifully landscaped, and in autumn the numerous trees must be marvellous. I'm definitely going back. This trip just scratched the surface of a city I urge you to explore.