Personal Mini Family Vacation in Washington, D.C. Parts 1 and 2

I’m very lucky to have close family who live in the Washington, D.C. area, growing up we would visit often, and I have been to just about every museum there. But each time I go, there’s always a surprise that I haven’t seen before. Earlier this summer, my mom and I, took my daughter for the first time and she had some requests on what she wanted to see and loved it.

I didn’t take my Canon gear, just my mirrorless Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II, and the Olympus M.Zuiko ED 14-150mm f4.0-5.6 II lens. Yes, one day I will get some faster glass for it 😉 I did consider renting for this trip, but at the last minute didn’t. These are just personal, travel photo snapshots, I have more to show you in other posts coming up.

Hey everyone, I need to put this on my blog posts. I’ve been burned horribly, but understand it’s a legal thing I have to do to protect myself. Thanks for your support, here it is: All photographs appearing on this site are the property of Deirdre Ryan Photography. They are protected by U.S. Copyright Laws, and are not to be downloaded or reproduced in any way without the written permission of Deirdre Ryan Photography. Copyright ©2017 Deirdre Ryan All Rights Reserved.

When we arrived, we took a little break, then headed out to the Capital to view the monuments at sunset and in the evening lights. The last time I was here at the Vietnam Memorial was to see my father, a Vietnam Vet, in the parade back in November of 1982. He is in the front row for New Jersey(each state had a section in the parade) for helping to lead and contribute to this powerful wall. Many didn’t want this and didn’t like the design. Each item that is left at the wall is kept safe by the National Park Service. I still can’t find any full length video of the parade from the 1982 dedication. If you’re interested, C-SPAN has the dedication in their archives. If anyone who reads this does have the parade in full, I would love a link to it for my father and others, please leave a comment below.

My dad is right in the middle wearing a long beige coat and has a camera around his neck, on either side of him are two men wearing camo fatigues as he’s in the parade for the Vietnam Memorial Dedication and for all of the men and women who served in the war, they finally got the welcome home they deserved. But there was still a long way to go at the time, and to this day.

That’s me in the blue sweater holding my cousin’s hand with my Grandma Martin at the Vietnam Memorial for the first time, I think I’m around 8-9 years old.Here I am with my Grandma and Grandpa Martin, holding my cousin’s hand. I was also biting my nails, and it looks like grandma had something in her eye. The Washington Monument is behind us. And yes, I’m wearing saddle shoes, I was really into them at the time, I loved those things 🙂 I’m not sure who took these photos, my Uncle Bob and my Grandpa Martin, or my mom. We had a lot of cameras as you can see. Grandpa Martin also shot a lot of Kodachrome, so one of these days I would love to see what he captured, I have his cameras as part of my collection. The watermark is there to “hopefully” deter people, no matter who shot these pictures.

These images shot at night were all handheld.

Our daughter is really into spies and mysteries, so the International Spy Museum was at the top of her list.

They have a really cool James Bond 007 exhibit, I didn’t post everything, so that I won’t spoil it for you. But I couldn’t help but post Jaw’s teeth!

Oh and this mask, can you guess which James Bond film it’s from? Tell me in the comments below 🙂
After the spy museum, The National Portrait Gallery is right across the street, so we ate some lunch and went there. I haven’t been inside since I was a little girl, the courtyard didn’t have the roof overtop of it back then.
First, the Hall of Presidents, this is a Chuck Close portrait of President Bill Clinton.

Then we wandered around, taking in as much as we could.

One of the current exhibits is called The Face of Battle: Americans At War, 9/11 to Now. It had different sections, and then this one had mini hand drawn portraits by Emily Price, called: American Servicemen and Women Who Have Died in Iraq and Afghanistan (But Not Including the Wounded, Nor the Iraqis nor the Afghanis). A young man named Benjamin Moore came home far too soon, to our town. I photographed what was going on, also that horrible cult that goes to military funerals, were threatening to show up, and I heard that they did at the cemetery, but later left. I decided to see if he was on this wall and sure enough, Ben was there. I’m friends with his family and friends, sadly, I never got to know him. But from the stories, he was an exceptional young man.