A Family History Mission: A Visit to Washington, D.C.

The National Archives, Washington, D.C. 

No. 28

Note: You can do a Google search for "A Family History Mission" to see all the previous posts in this ongoing series. You can also search for "James Tanner genealogy" and find them.

No, I am not feeling like a tourist. Living in Annapolis gives us both a different perspective. Our first visit to the downtown area of Washington, D.C., which, by the way, is entirely within the area covered by our mission, the Washington, D.C. North Mission, was a major expedition. Annapolis, Maryland is really quite some distance from downtown D.C. It takes from around an hour to two or more hours depending on traffic. However, we realized that traveling downtown was only the beginning of the challenge. We realized we would also need to find a parking space.

We decided to avoid the parking problem by taking the Metro or train into town. After doing some research, we found that there is a Metro SmartTrip Card that works for all the rail lines and the busses. We had to drive into D.C. to buy our cards for $2 and then load them up with some cash, but that made for an easier way to get around.

It has been some years since I rode a subway train. I used to ride the subway all the time in Buenos Aires, Argentina, but I think the last subway we rode was years ago on the Boston MTA. We had an uneventful trip downtown and a marvelous, but limited, initial tour of the National Gallery of Art. I guess it is important to know that being a Senior Missionary has some advantages not readily available to younger missionaries. We are specifically encouraged to take advantage of cultural and historical places in our mission area.

As the photo above shows, we are going to spend some time in the National Archives and the Library of Congress.