We went to go to see the race today. We got to the Smithsonian metro stop around 12:30 PM, a half hour before the race began. It was TSA-style security to get in with a Nats Park twist of only allowing clear bags. The woman in front of me had her nice handbag inside of a clear bag and security said they could not allow the non-clear bag in. They advised her to empty her non-clear bag into the clear bag and to throw out the non-clear bag. She declined and went home.
We saw a flyover of Air Force One (the new one, gifted by Qatar) escorted by F-35's, and then a B-2 flyover also escorted by F-35's. The F-35's flew back around and did some tricks.
The bad news was that they built only a small amount of grandstands and they were first-come, first-serve. They were long filled to the brim by 12:30 PM. So we had to stand some 50 feet away from the street (closer than that was for handicap only) meaning that kids couldn't really see the cars go by and adults could only see the tops of the cars if they stood up on their tippy-toes. After two laps we decided there was no value to standing there so we found another spot, in front of the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, where there was a gap in the wall and you could see the cars zoom by quite well. We stood there for 3-4 laps before deciding that was all we really needed to see. We checked it off the bucket list.
Then we went into the Smithsonian. It was EMPTY. You see, several Smithsonian museums including the Natural History and the Hirshorn were entirely within the ticketed area of the race, meaning that only people with race tickets could enter. We had all of the less popular exhibits to ourselves and there were usually only 2-3 other families in the big exhibits with us. A ton of people were using the Smithsonian just as a restroom as its restrooms were much nicer than the Portapotties set up by the race (though these were nice Protapotties by any standard). Outside the Smithsonian they had a bunch of race cars of various kinds that were not in the race and thus you could see them up close and get your photos taken.
