C&O- Day 7

I met Will and Sinclair at Bullfrog Bagels for breakfast, just a couple blocks from my AirB&B. Bacon, egg, and cheese bagel and a cup of Java was just the ticket. Then we all walked back to their apartment via my place so I could checkout.

Sinclair had plans with a friend, so Will and I walked over to the Metro and rode up to Silver Springs, MD to the National Museum of Health and Medicine. This, admittedly, bizarre museum was established in 1862 as the Army Medical Museum by Surgeon Gen Wm. Hammond to collect and study surgical specimens from the Civil War. The hope was that useful medical information could be obtained through careful study and that treatment of surgical problems encountered in battle could be improved. The mission of the museum went on to incorporate study of infectious disease, pathology, and many other areas of medicine and health.

Will and I walked the 1.5 miles from the Metro to the Museum. Inside are housed thousands of specimens and numerous well presented displays. As a doctor, I found it fascinating and I think even Will found some of it interesting. Of course there were a variety of organs in jars, skeletons with anomalies, displays of the effects of a projectile on bones, antique medical equipment and prosthetics, and lots of other things that, for the squeamish among you, I will not go into detail on.

Their most famous objects are the bullet that killed Lincoln, some autopsy specimens of bone fragments from his wound, and other items medically related to the assassination.

We spent a little over an hour there then walked back to the Metro station and went back to Union Station near the Capital. We grabbed lunch there, then returned to Will and Sinclair’s apartment.

I have since bid fair well to Will and Sinclair and moved out to a hotel by the airport for my 6AM flight tomorrow.

My week in DC is over. But what a week it was! Will and I biked over 150 miles in the DC area. We went through 7 different National Museums, logged 5 miles hiking Rock Creek, ate at over a dozen different places, had 5 ice cream cones, and all in the company of two of my favorite people in the whole world.

I will return to this blog on Wednesday to give you my final thoughts on this “C&O” experience. So, until Wednesday, Happy Trails…