We tried to get to a few places today. There are warnings out for the next snow storm to impact the east coast. Washington does not currently have snow however this is expected to change dramatically overnight.
Its amazing how different things can be to the image that you have created in your own mind. It is also amazing at how ridiculously naïve I am. I thought that the White House was sort of in a country area ofWashington
All in all Washington is a fair bit different to what I had imagined. It is very manicured and almost perfect with its symmetry. It does not scream money and opulence. It says "power and dignity". It does not have buildings more than 15 stories tall as there is no building that can be higher than the tallest point of the Capitol Building, as there can be nothing "higher than freedom" which is what the Americans value above everything else. What an awesome concept to have.
Its amazing how different things can be to the image that you have created in your own mind. It is also amazing at how ridiculously naïve I am. I thought that the White House was sort of in a country area of
All in all Washington is a fair bit different to what I had imagined. It is very manicured and almost perfect with its symmetry. It does not scream money and opulence. It says "power and dignity". It does not have buildings more than 15 stories tall as there is no building that can be higher than the tallest point of the Capitol Building, as there can be nothing "higher than freedom" which is what the Americans value above everything else. What an awesome concept to have.
All of the museums here are free. The Americans believe that there should be no cost placed on anything of educational value in relation to its history that would prevent anyone from visiting it over and over again. I found this amazing.
Today is Abraham Lincolns birthday. We visited his memorial and found people dressed up in all sorts of costumes to commemorate this. The memorial absolutely blows your mind with its strength and grace. As I said earlier it is much larger than I imagined. There are several flights of stairs to climb to get into the top of it, where a larger than life Abraham Lincoln sits on his chair and looks out towards the Capitol which is several kilometres away.
Today is Abraham Lincolns birthday. We visited his memorial and found people dressed up in all sorts of costumes to commemorate this. The memorial absolutely blows your mind with its strength and grace. As I said earlier it is much larger than I imagined. There are several flights of stairs to climb to get into the top of it, where a larger than life Abraham Lincoln sits on his chair and looks out towards the Capitol which is several kilometres away.
As I said yesterday, the Washington Memorial is currently undergoing some repairs following an earthquake in 2011 and therefore is closed. It is still a structure that can be seen from afar and it commands your attention.
We also visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. We had wanted to get to the one at Dulles Airport as this is apparently the better one, however given that we were passing the other location in town we decided to stop there (just in case we couldn't get to Dulles tomorrow due to the snow). Well what a mind blowing museum for any aviation enthusiast. It not only has the education value of teaching about the history of air and space flight, and displays on how air travel works etc......but it also has things like real life versions of Skylab and the Hubble Telescope. It has the actual "Spirit of St Louis" suspended from its ceiling - which is the first aeroplane to make the first flight across the Atlantic (Charles Lindburgh) and "The Voyager" which was the first plane to fly non-stop around the world. This is just a couple of the many examples.
We also visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. We had wanted to get to the one at Dulles Airport as this is apparently the better one, however given that we were passing the other location in town we decided to stop there (just in case we couldn't get to Dulles tomorrow due to the snow). Well what a mind blowing museum for any aviation enthusiast. It not only has the education value of teaching about the history of air and space flight, and displays on how air travel works etc......but it also has things like real life versions of Skylab and the Hubble Telescope. It has the actual "Spirit of St Louis" suspended from its ceiling - which is the first aeroplane to make the first flight across the Atlantic (Charles Lindburgh) and "The Voyager" which was the first plane to fly non-stop around the world. This is just a couple of the many examples.
We managed to see a number of the buildings in Washington today such as the J Edgar Hoover Building (FBI Headquarters), The Treasury Building, Union Station and The Ford Theatre (where Lincoln was shot). This was done via a hop-on/hop-off bus that we had bought tickets to ride (sounds like a song lyric). Whilst this enabled us to drive around the city unobstructed, it also allowed us to experience other tourists up close and personal. I would love to say that this was a pleasant experience however it was not.
We had a group of loud.....no.....VERY loud teenagers on board who were apparently visiting from the deep south. Their mixture of Cajun and English gave that away. In particular there was one girl who sat behind us squealing top note in response to one of her friends chanting "Obama. OBAMA!" over and over. In between her earth shattering screeches she jammed her thumb firmly in her mouth and sucked on it whilst draping herself over a couple of seats. The more sensible of the group continually told the squealer to "shert errrp" which I nearly stood up and applauded. Do you know those movies that show the sequences, where a person is actually picturing themselves hurting another person before being snapped back to the present? Yes well that was me. I pictured myself throwing my elbow back onto Thumbelina's nose and shutting that screech up for good. Just in case we wondered if indeed we were having a good time on board or not, the traffic held us up, and the bus driver held us up further, just to make sure that we were sure that we would never get on another bus with teenagers again. It was an excellent way to see the city however.
Tonight a snow storm threatens to halt our activities for the next day or so. What we do tomorrow will depend on that!
We had a group of loud.....no.....VERY loud teenagers on board who were apparently visiting from the deep south. Their mixture of Cajun and English gave that away. In particular there was one girl who sat behind us squealing top note in response to one of her friends chanting "Obama. OBAMA!" over and over. In between her earth shattering screeches she jammed her thumb firmly in her mouth and sucked on it whilst draping herself over a couple of seats. The more sensible of the group continually told the squealer to "shert errrp" which I nearly stood up and applauded. Do you know those movies that show the sequences, where a person is actually picturing themselves hurting another person before being snapped back to the present? Yes well that was me. I pictured myself throwing my elbow back onto Thumbelina's nose and shutting that screech up for good. Just in case we wondered if indeed we were having a good time on board or not, the traffic held us up, and the bus driver held us up further, just to make sure that we were sure that we would never get on another bus with teenagers again. It was an excellent way to see the city however.
Tonight a snow storm threatens to halt our activities for the next day or so. What we do tomorrow will depend on that!
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