I spent most of my ride north from South Carolina on the Silver Meteor in sleep mode. At Richmond, the kindly man I met when embarking departed. I awoke around 8 AM or so, as the train chugged through the fields of north central Virginia, over which the sun was shining through the veil of the clouds.
I soon recognized that we were in the Washington, DC, Metro Area when the tracks passed by the Franconia-Springfield Blue Line Metro station. The train followed the Blue Line corridor all the way to Alexandria, on tracks also used by the Virginia Railway Express commuter trains on their weekday morning runs. I got some pretty good views of Alexandria around the area where I once stayed on a short family trip to the area in 2004, and of the city of Washington as we neared Union Station.
We arrived a bit after 9 AM, about two hours late. But there was still plenty of time for me to spend in the illustrious city, and I took full advantage of it, especially to see one very spectacular place: the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
It seems that every time I've been to Washington, DC, in the past, there's at least one place I had thoughts about visiting, but didn't get the chance. Last time, during our summer 2011 trip, that place was the National Shrine.
When planning what I wanted to do during my layovers in DC on this trip, I floated lots of ideas, including the monuments on the National Mall. But that all changed when the federal government went into shutdown mode, and the monuments got barricaded--though I'm still not sure why that was really necessary. Interestingly, I wasn't really affected all that much by the shutdown until I went on this trip, as many NWS employees who were supposed to attend the NWA meeting, and even give presentations, couldn't come. And then there were sites I thought about seeing but couldn't. But in a sense, this was a blessing in disguise because if there was no shutdown, I would have been too tempted to pack in too much into too little time. (The shutdown also partly influenced my decision to walk around and go to Georgetown during my layover on Sunday on the way to South Carolina.)
At a certain point--I'm not sure if it was before or after the shutdown took effect--I floated the idea of going to the National Shrine. As I thought about it more and more, it really began to appeal to me as a way to spend my layover, especially in light of the shutdown. A professor I know at ValpU told me it had some spectacular artwork, and it had meaning for me as a spiritual place. Fortunately, it was one of the few sites in Washington, DC, that doesn't charge admission and wasn't affected by the shutdown. And surely the Church itself will never shut down so long as we, the people of the Church, do our part to keep it open, as God does His.
So after arrival at Union Station, I got some breakfast there (pancakes at Johnny Rocket's), and then made my way to the Metro Red Line and rode it three stops north to the Brookland-CUA station. Then I walked the short, approximately 10-minute distance, along Michigan Avenue, to the campus of Catholic University of America, and the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
At 11 AM, I went to the main desk on the lower level to start a guided tour, with a woman named Teresa. The Shrine has a main church, a crypt church, and, lining the sides of the church on both levels, 70 chapels and other oratories. Chapels have an altar where Mass is said. They range in sizes from literally being a small space in a wall where one priest stands to say Mass, to a large room that can hold twenty people. Oratories don't have an altar, but instead have a place to pray, with a particular devotion. There are so many things to see that an hourlong tour isn't sufficient to cover all of them, but Teresa showed me some highlights, and even took me to some areas I wanted to see.
She started off by telling me a little history. Bishop Shahan, rector of CUA, proposed building a shrine to Mary, Immaculate Conception, the Patroness of the United States of America, back in the 1910's. The Pope at the time, Pius X, gave approval for the project. He was the Pope who emphasized the Eucharist as a common rite for lay people, and also established Confraternity of Catholic Doctrine (CCD). There is a Chapel dedicated to his memory in the Shrine.
The Shrine building itself was finished in the 1950's, but work is still being done even unto today, with the addition of new Chapels, like one that was just finished a couple of years ago. The day I was there, crews were installing a new piece of artwork.
There are many Chapels dedicated to certain countries' expressions of Roman Catholicism, like Our Lady of La Vang of Vietnam, Our Lady of Lebanon, and Our Lady of Siluva of Lithuania. One notable Chapel was to Our Mother of Africa. This Chapel had artwork representing Africans' experience in America, including diagrams of the slave ships, and an artistic piece (see below) showing their progression from slavery through Jim Crow and to greater integration into US society.
In the Upper church (see below), Teresa showed me the artwork underneath the dome, and beyond it toward the apse. They showed scenes from Creation, of Jesus Christ, and the End Times. There were also pictures showing scenes of New Testament stories with their Old Testament counterparts. And there were statues of famous Jesuits and Franciscans.
Around noon, we concluded the tour, and I headed down to the Crypt Church for Mass. When I got there, the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament was going on, and the smell of the incense lingered as I took my seat in the pew. (Notably, when Benedict XVI came to the United States for his tour in April 2008, he led a Vespers service in this Crypt Church with all the US bishops. He walked up and down this very aisle, and a picture in the cafeteria shows his procession in. On display in the crypt level is the chair Benedict sat in during his visit to the Shrine.)
Following Mass, I lingered for a little while longer in the Shrine before leaving, soaking in the special experience I had had in this awesome place. It was filled with such beautiful artwork, and brought together so many traditions from all over the world under one roof, speaking to the experience of faith. It was also an opportunity for me to celebrate my own faith. And this visit was timed so well as a way to celebrate a personally important occasion: the day before I visited, October 15, marked 8 years since my Confirmation. In this uplifted state of mind, I walked back to the Metro.
When I got back to Union Station, I decided to take a walk once around the US Capitol. (Notably, I was in Washington, DC, on the very last day of the federal government's shutdown, and I saw some people with protest signs by the Capitol.)
I then went back to Union Station and did a little shopping, especially at the Alamo Flags kiosk, one of my favorite stores ever. Then I bought my dinner, and subsequently went to my boarding gate, where there was already a line of people waiting to embark.
By the scheduled time of 4:05 PM, the train was on its way out of Washington, DC, bound for Chicago. I settled into my seat next to a friendly woman named Kimberly, as I took in the sights in the city, the suburbs, and beyond into the rural, scenic Appalachian highlands. (As we traveled along, I pulled out my dinner, a Greek grilled turkey sandwich on pita, which impressed Kimberly.)
We were making pretty good time as night fell, until we got to Cumberland, MD. I wasn't exactly sure at the time what happened, but from what I could tell, there was a collision between the train and a car. (This news article has an account of what happened.) I don't remember feeling anything like a collision, but the incident was serious enough that the train had to stay still on the tracks just outside the station while the police investigated. The train finally pulled into the station an hour late. And there were a few more delays that occurred due to freight traffic during the night. Also in the night, I caught some glimpses of such cities as Pittsburg and Cleveland.
As we headed west from Toledo, the sun began to rise over the fields of northwestern Ohio and northeastern Indiana (see picture immediately below).
Shortly before 11 AM, we arrived at Chicago Union Station, bringing to a close another great trip engaging with the world of weather and through the scenes and sights of the eastern United States. To top it off, I traveled on the train, which, in the end, is a simply enjoyable way to get around and see this amazing and scenic country.
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