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Washington DC
Entry 80 of 92 | show all | print this entry |
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Our morning began with a bit of drama.
I was coming out the shower when Julie suddenly screamed and collapsed on the bed holding her head!
Through the tears I managed to find out that she had hit her head on a screw in the door? Upon closer inspection I discovered that the was an old hinge still attached to the door frame, with a huge screw sticking out at a right angle. Julie had bent down to pick up her shoes, and on the way up she caught her forehead on the screw.
We mopped up the blood and left the scene for the CSI guys to investigate, well, we dabbed the small cut and gave the counter guy a piece of our mind. Jules was really cross, so she had a good bitch, to which the counter guy said "sorry", so all was ok after that.
We grabbed the hotel shuttle bus and arrived at Roslyn underground station at about 9:30am. We ordered pastrami sandwiches and coffee at an Italian deli and could not believe the size of them! The were almost- as big as the ones we had in Los Angeles
Jules pulled off half her meat because it was too much and we decided that we would really have to start ordering one meal and sharing it as the USA portions were made for obese people! We each ate half our samie, packed up the the other half and headed for the platform.
First stop was Lincoln's memorial. Inside the Greek inspired building sits a gigantic statue of President Abraham Lincoln. Either side of him, his famous speech is carved into the walls for everyone to read and ponder. We read the civil war speech, marveled at his wisdom and then turned to enjoy the view Abe has from his throne.
The "Reflection Pool", the Second World War monument and the George Washington monument were all bathed in the grey overcast sky. Many trees were an amazing red and orange colour which gave the entire scene a wonderful contrast to the grey skies.
We wondered down to the Korean monument and then to the magnificent Vietnam Monument. We slowly walked along the black marble and read some of the 154 000 names. It was very sad seeing the tributes that people had laid in remembrance of their loved ones.
We walked along the Reflection Pool towards the second world war memorial, enjoying the different coloured trees and the ducks on the water.
After the huge fountain at the second world war monument we walked past the George Washington monument on the way to the White House.
We first had a look at the back of the White House, before walking round to see the front. We took some photographs, but they were not that great as a gardening crew were busying with the garden and can be seen in all the photos, obscuring the view.
We then caught the underground, and proceeded to Capitol Hill. This is an impressive building where world effecting political decisions are made daily. We admired the building, took a self-portrait and then headed towards one of our eagerly awaited events - The Smithsonian.
We began with the Air and Space Smithsonian and were not disappointed. We saw Lindberg's famous "Spirit of St.Louis", space suits worn by various astronauts, we touched a piece of rock from the moon, various bits from space shuttles etc., the Wright Brother's plane and many other amazing sights too many to mention. Suffice to say we had to drag ourselves out the museum.
The next stop was the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. We wondered the halls in awe. First stop was to book an Imax movie "Monsters of the deep", and then we entered the Prehistoric Ages of the dinosaurs.
It was amazing. They have 100's of skeletons and fossils on display. I took many photos so that Luca and Steffi can study them when we get back to SA in January.
There were amazing specimens, like a massive prehistoric moose that had been discovered intact, with skin still on the bones etc. Apparently, the moose must have died in a clay area and was then frozen, so over time the moose carcass was perfectly preserved! I took a photo of this big boy for you Rob, "can you imagine hunting for antlers this big?"
The museum was brilliant, although we did give the "African Voices" sound display a miss!
The Imax movie was truly brilliant. It was a documentary of some fish skeletons that were found in the US, and how the archaeologists put together the life and death of these sea creatures. The animation of what the seas looked like, and daily life for creatures in this period was in full 3D and very well presented.
We had a few jumpy moments when spear like snouts suddenly came rushing at us from the screen and our 3D glasses nearly fell off!
When the movie was finished, the mutton was closed, so we did not get to see the Kimberly Diamond, but we had seen enough for on day so we started making our way back to the underground and then to our hotel shuttle bus at Roslyn.
We tried calling Brian and Shannon from a number of call boxes and even from the hotel lobby, but no cigar. So we sent them an email and hit the Washington traffic at 7pm.
The traffic was fine and we drove into the Bartholomew drive-way at 9pm, to great welcome of dinner and good coffee.
Leah was ready for her story, so while I read her another bunch of pages, Brian, Shannon and Jules gathered in the living room for a summary of the previous two days.
After we all chatted for a while Jules and I headed for the guest room and were quickly sound asleep.
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