Around the World in 42 days - Day 27 - Washington D.C.

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Day Twenty Seven
11 March 2010
Location: Washington D.C
Hotel: Holiday Inn - Central, Washington DC

Day 27 started early. We knew we had a lot to see in Washington and only three days to do so. We were up and out of the hotel by 8:30am. We had planned to get a taxi down to the Washington Monument and get tickets for the first group up at 9am, but for some reason this didn’t happen.

When we walked out of the hotel we couldn’t see any taxis and our original plan had been to save our legs and get a taxi down to the Mall. However, with a taxi nowhere to be found, we decided to just start walking and see where we ended up.

It was a nice crisp morning in Washington. The air was cool, but fresh. It made the walk nice and kept Erin just cold enough so that she kept a decent pace with me. After about 4 blocks we noticed a Caribou Coffee on the corner and decided to grab a coffee and a snack for breakfast. We each ordered a coffee and Erin selected a piece of carrot cake for breakfast. I noticed that they had a muffin with a “French Toast” flavor and just had to see what it tasted like. Our coffees arrived and we dug into our breakfast treats. I was thrilled by the muffin and couldn’t believe that this flavor was not more widely available.

After our quick brekkie, we kept walking south towards the Mall. It was about 9am by this point and we had missed the first scheduled group that could go up the Monument. We weren’t too fussed though and were happy making our own progress.

A few blocks later we came to Pennsylvania Avenue and thought it would a great time to go and see the front of the White House. We found the area to be fairly quiet and we assumed that the hordes of tourists that would normally flock to the area were still sleeping.

We admired the front of the house and took plenty of photos. We were close enough to see people wandering around the building inside and out and I was fascinated by the snipers on the roof and couldn’t help but follow them as they walked around the exterior.

We eventually departed the White House and were soon back on the Mall. By this stage it was about 9:30am and we figured that we may as well skip the Monument and go straight for the Museums, as they would be opening at 10am. We each had different preferences, but as Erin didn’t know exactly what each Museum was about, she left the decisions to me.

Without even thinking about it, I grabbed her hand and started towards the National Air and Space Museum. A member of the Smithsonian Institution, the Air and Space Museum sits along the south-east edge of the National Mall and holds the largest collection of air and space craft anywhere in the world.

It was a decent walk from the Monument to the east end of the Mall and we arrived a few minutes after the museum had opened. After quickly passing through the security check, we entered another world and I was like a kid in a candy store.

Ever since a young age, I’ve loved space. Anything to do with space, the moon landings and science fiction has always held a fascination for me and I couldn’t believe I was finally standing in the museum I had longed to see for years. This is the place that hosts the command module from the Apollo 11 mission “Columbia”, the 1903 Wright Flyer, the Spirit of St Louis and countless other treasures.

The museum is broken into about a dozen different wings that each holds different exhibits. One of our favourites was the “Space Race” exhibit which chronicles the race between Russia and the US to get to the moon. The collections on display were brilliant. It was as incredible to see Russian space suits sitting alongside the American ones. Not only was the display informative, but the design of the exhibit and the stories told were engaging and it was the first museum I’ve been in where I wanted to read everything.

We spent the better part of the morning going through each exhibit and by lunch we had worked up a decent appetite. We wandered into the food court area and grab some Mickey D’s for lunch. We were surprised at how quickly the line moved given the crowd, and were even more surprised by the freshness of the meal. Who knew you had to come to the Smithsonian to get a decent hamburger!

After lunch, we decided to go see an IMAX presentation and then see the last of the exhibits. All the major museums around the Mall have IMAX movies showing, and we thought it would be a waste not to enjoy the experience. We chose a film called “Space Station 3D” which details the building and delivery of the International Space Station.

We entered the theatre and chose our seats. As we had our 3D goggles on we had to have the mandatory “goofy-goggle” photo. Ever since our first trip to the US and our first 3D experience, Erin has demanded photo’s at each 3D show. It’s a fun ritual that I complain about, but always agree to (I guess that’s part of the ritual too!).

The movie started and we were surprised to find Tom Cruise as the narrator. As a lifetime Tom Cruise fan (yes, I can admit it! C’mon, Top Gun!), I was thrilled, but I can’t say the same for Erin. The Narration aside, the movie detailed the building of the Space Station and what it was like for the people living onboard. It was brilliantly shot and the 3D was extremely well done.

We left the theatre and made our way around the remaining exhibits that we had not yet seen. This included the Wright Brothers originally 1903 Wright Flyer (the original plane built in 1900 was destroyed upon crashing at the end of the flight). Erin seemed fascinated by the story behind the flyer and when I reached the end of exhibit, I was surprised to find her still engrossed in the story that was described along the walls of the room.

We finally left the museum around 3pm and were definitely worn out from taking in all the exhibits. It had been a great experience and I can see why it’s the most popular museum on Earth. As we departed the museum we decided to continue our stroll from earlier in the morning and made our way up towards the Capitol Building.

The Capitol Building sits on Capitol Hill and towers over the east end of the National Mall. One of the most iconic buildings in the world, those who had not seen it before definitely would have taken notice over a year ago when President Obama was sworn in to presidency on the steps of the building.

It’s an impressive building to say the least and towers over the people walking around its edge. The building, like the Lincoln Memorial, is introduced by a reflecting pool sitting at its base. Unlike the reflecting pool at the base of the Lincoln Memorial, this one was still full of water and added to the overall beauty of the site.

After relaxing in front of the pool for a while, we made our way around the water and to the top of the highest accessible steps of the building. It was surprisingly light of tourist traffic and we were able to sit up on the ledge of the steps and enjoy the view for a while. Washington is a beautiful city and the National Mall is a great place to relax and take it all in.

We were finally back on the move as the afternoon came to close. We wandered down Pennsylvania Avenue again and then down 6th Street. We were some distance from out hotel by this point, but I was eager to visit the Verizon Center and see if we could find some merchandise for the ice hockey game we had tickets to for the following night.

I was excited to arrive at the Verizon Center, even though our game wasn’t scheduled for another 24 hours. We were disappointed to find it all closed and no shops open selling merchandise. However our luck changed when we rounded the corner onto 7th street and ran into a huge sports store. Inside the sports store we had a pick of Washington Capitals clothing and jerseys.

I started picking up everything and even convinced Erin to get a shirt, even though she’s not the biggest fan of ice hockey (go figure). I ended up walking out with an official Ovechkin Home Jersey, a t-shirt and a jumper. I was happy to finally have some hockey gear and little did I know that I had awoken a monster that would not soon go back to sleep.

We continued to wander back towards our hotel and had misjudged the distance. By the time we finally arrived the sun had disappeared completely, as had our energy levels and we were well and truly ready to fall down on the bed and relax for a few hours.

As the hours crept by we couldn’t decide what to do for dinner and eventually decided to order a pizza from a nearby restaurant that had a deal with the hotel. Mistake! The pizza arrived and it almost looked like it had been deep fried. The amount of oil dripping from it was incredible and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how it was so oily.

Needless to say, we didn’t eat much and our appetites disappeared pretty quickly. We spent the rest of the night relaxing in front of the TV and in the warmth of our hotel room.

I was growing more excited as the next day approached. After 10 long years, I would finally be going to another NHL game. And if that wasn’t enough, we would be watching one of the greatest players (if not my favourite) to currently play the game.

Paul & Erin

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