Mini-Trip to the National Cathedral
 

Many local organizations take advantage of the proximity to Washington, D.C. and I was able to join a bus trip to the National Cathedral for a tour and afternoon tea.

It was an hour trip from Edgewater Md. and the bus driver took Rte. 50 to New York Ave. to Massachusetts Ave. If you are driving, I'd suggest a GPS because there are a couple of traffic circles to navigate and Mass. Ave. can disappear or turn up even without one taking a turn!

The Cathedral now has an underground garage for bus parking. The driver loves it as before he had to find a legal place to park and wait and still return in time to pick up his travelers. A real challenge.

We had a wonderful docent and a cute tea. Details to come as soon as I find my little notebook.

We exited the bus to find a gift shop. Turns out it is the temporary home of the damaged Herb Cottage. The D.C. area experienced an earthquake in 2011 and the National Cathedral was damaged. You see, each block was hand-made and simply stacked upon the other. Without reinforcement, the rocking caused the steeple to fall off. But that was not the cause of the Herb Cottage's damage. No, it was the crane brought in to reach the steeple. The crane that blew over and landed on the Herb Cottage.

A few steps from the shop are restrooms and elevators. The elevators take us to ground level and about a 30-ft walk to the cathedral itself where we are met by one of the docent team and given brochures. We have about an hour to explore before our guided tour. We are pointed to the newest gift shop on the same level as the Nave and to another gift shop on the crypt level.

There is a visitor's lounge and several chapels also on the crypt level. During the holiday season, crèches from all over the world are on display. I explored both gift shops, the lounge and saw the crèches and found an elevator back to the nave.

There our group waited for our guide, Jane. If you are interested, do go to the link: http://www.nationalcathedral.org/ for more information. What I did jot down was that NC is the 6th largest in the world and the 2nd in the U.S. (St. John the Divine in NYC largest). Although it is an Episcopal church, anyone may worship there. It is one tenth of a mile to the cross on the altar that looks quite small--Jane says it is 5'9" high!

She directs us to the black protective netting between us and the ceiling and then to some of the amazing stained glass. One of my favorites was done by Rodney Winfield

http://rodneywinfield.com/Home.html

honoring the Apollo moon mission. A real moon rock is embedded in a large moon that hovers over a greeny black earth (described that way by the astronauts).

Jane will show us other contemporary scenes and tell us there are 240 windows. One by Rowan LeCompte has 10,000 facets. We will also see the War Memorial chapel donated by Great Britain. One of its windows shows D-Day parachutist. And, the Queen Mother helped needle-point the kneeling pillows.

As we walk toward the altar, we pass chairs with 200 (?) more needle-point pillows depicting famous Americans (?).

A 10, 650-pipe Aeolian-Skinner organ also amazes us.

200 people are buried here including Helen Keller and her beloved Annie Sullivan. Only one president, Woodrow Wilson.

We leave Jane by a statue of Abraham Lincoln. His goodbye to his neighbors is engraved on the wall.

And now, to Tea!

Thanks for your report about NC...didn't know about Helen nd Annie buried there. In our town (Watertown) is Perkins School for the Blind and Helen Keller was a a graduate.

One marvels at these cathedrals. So many in Europe. Think of the hours in construction and the skilled labor regarding stained glass windows. As a matter of fact where we attend church (www.2ndchurch.org) is modeled after Salisbury...quite different from the usual white steeple Congregational-UCC-UU type in New England.

It's really a beautiful place, isn't it? We love the Rodney Winfield window - just stunning!

Did you get up to see the gargoyles, or is the roof still damaged (we drive by often, but can't really tell)? One of my high school classmates sculpted a couple of them.

Want to hear about tea - maybe we'll go sometime.

Nice link, Ozarksbill, thank you. You're right, so unlike the iconic New England church. You reminded me that our docent said that the early stained-glass windows were intended to be pictorial biblical stories since few could read.

StCirq, I don't recall the roof being an option when we were there. So, no, we didn't get up there.

Tea info to come.

It took maybe elevator 3 trips to the tower to accommodate the 90 people (more than one group) who had come for tea.

Each table had cloth covers and napkins, tiered silver servers and a tea pot requiring both hands to lift. There were 5 of us at our table--2 couples and moi. One of the men noticed immediately that each of us could have one of the treats. Like the uncouth folks we were, we each grabbed one of each thing and started trading off what we didn't want. The 2 couples traveled together and were very congenial company.

I forgot to take a photo but can remember a crustless egg salad sandwich on whole wheat, a round cucumber sandwich on white bread, a rolled-up jam sandwich also on white. Let's see...cranberry scone, chocolate-covered and -stuffed eclair. Also, everything was in miniature. There were a couple more but I'm drawing a blank. Jam and whipped cream (instead of clotted cream, eh?) were served also.

Being solo made it easy for me to excuse myself to fine the "cunningly hidden" single WC and to explore the tower area. Photos and views were interesting. I missed an exhibit about earth quake repair.

I returned to the garage-level Herb Garden shop and noticed pretty embroidered tea towels and herbs. Lots of other things--books, toys, dishes, gifts, etc.. A bottle of Red Monkey herbes de Provence was $3.95, FYI.

BTW, the price of the tea is $30.00; tour $10.00
The bus part was quite expensive but bus rental has gone up a lot with the higher price of gas.

Washington National Cathedral interested me because it is a modern building. Even so it took from 1907 to
1990 to complete. As mentioned above, each stone was hand-carved (according to Jane). I didn't think to ask what modern machinery was used to make the project take less time. Even so, no doubt more than one generation of workers can take pride.

Also, modern stories in the windows were of interest. I'd love to take another tour just about those.

A very interesting visit.

Thanks for the report How interesting! I've been to visit but never taken a tour. Will have to look into it the next time I travel to DC! My favorite part was the windows and also the beautiful roses in the garden when we were there in the late summer months.

Thanks, WingsGal. DH and I took ILs in the nice weather many years ago. One used to be able to do brass rubbings--haven't heard about that lately.

Thank you so much for the lovely report. We took the stained glass window tour and tea on our visit in 2007. The tea was fun. Not something that you do every day.

It sounds like a very interesting visit. I would have never thought of tea at the National Cathedral, but it sounds like fun too!

Thanks gardendiva and Toucan2.

I love that you write up these reports on local sites. Reminds me of places to visit and revisit. thank you!

You are welcome. Still having nice thoughts about that GTG.