National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC)

When you don’t have much time, quick trips are always fun!!

This week, when I was in New Jersey, visiting my family for the holidays, I took a quick trip to Washington DC. Although it was quick, it was planned. My best friend, Yvette, and I wanted to visit the new Smithsonian Museum – National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), ever since it opened at the end of September. It’s a beautiful structure designed by David Adjaye, whose renderings and drawings I got a chance to view back in January at the Art Institute in Chicago.

We had to request timed passes in early October for the December visit. Since we knew we’d be in DC, we also wanted to see if we could visit the White House. White House tours have to be requested through your member of Congress, so I reached out to the Office of U.S. Senator Richard J. Durbin. Unfortunately, we didn’t get on the list for the White House tour, but we were able to get on the list for a tour of the US Capitol. So we were set!

We went down on the 26^th on the train. It had been over 20 years since I’d been on an Amtrak train, but it was the right way to travel for this trip…so convenient. Not stressing about driving, gave Yvette and I a chance to really catch up and relax. Once we arrived, we had grand plans to go out for drinks and dinner. I had done all the research and made the reservations, but we were both so tired that we did happy hour at the hotel and ordered room service! This gave us a chance to get some rest for the day ahead of us. The Capitol tour was only an hour, but we learned a ton from our awesome tour guide and got the chance see the beauty of the Inner Dome and the Rotunda.

After a nice sit down lunch and catch up with one of my buddies in DC, we headed over to the NMAAHC. All I can say is WOW!!! There is so much history in that building and it is very well organized. Over 600 years of history – this is not a one-day museum! We had an hour wait, just to get into the area of the museum that we really wanted to see – the museum’s below-ground floors. This area tells the story of the black experience in America, beginning with the origins of the Atlantic slave trade in the late 15th century. It was very moving…

Overall, we spent about three hours in the museum and had just enough time to get our bags from the hotel and head to the train station in Washington, DC. We were exhausted and once again, so happy that we were on the train! This turned out to be a great opportunity for us to spend some quality time together and learn more about our great nation’s history. No matter how much time you have, Washington DC is a great visit for anyone.

Tamara