washington DC

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The first touristy thing I really done was go to Washington DC with Sam. We saw the George Washington monument, which is the really tall building I'm in front of, which Sam still couldnt fit the top into. Im not sure whether you can see from the photo, but about 3/4 of the way up the building there is a colour change in the materials. Local and my personal tour guide Sam was saying that they began to build, but part way through the project the Great Depression hit and they couldn't afford to continue it until after this passed. We walked over to President Obama's White House, took some pictures and got told we had to leave. We thought something exciting was going to happen because they blocked off the whole road. So we waited hoping that maybe some interesting government vehicles would pass though, however 15 minutes the gates were simply back open. So very much so an anti-climax of excitement there! Word on the street of the White house was that there was an event happening on the south lawn, which we probably couldn't see happening from where we were anyway. But the security surrounding this place is incredible. Each car entering has to pass through numerous different security checks before they're allowed to enter including a test by a police dog. Then, after Sam unsuccessfully couldn't scalpel tickets to ride the red double decker bus we strolled down to the natural history museum, highly recommended by my Aunty Jo. Here we saw a 3D IMAX production on dinosaurs. I always think of turning around and watching the audience rather than the screen because I do believe it would be rather entertaining to see everybody flinch and ducking as they think a dinosaur has come back from the dead and is now eating them in a theatre. However the pictures them self are quite enthralling as I'm sure you know and this was no different.
We took a tour of the rest of the museum before heading out back towards Smithsonian train station. I shall make note of the little squirrel that was just hopping around the grass outside of the museum, which I did think was pretty cool! Also, last night, there was a small deer just in the front yard, and a skunk!!!!!! out the back when we were watching a movie! just like off doctor dolittle pretty much ha. Also on the wildlife note, there have been 4 or so sightings of a black bear in the neighborhood. Pretty cool huh!
So anyway, while I'm sure there were alot more things to see in DC, I do believe I had a good taste of the nations capital. As you may see from the pictures, it's not really a high rise building styled city. But there are alot of old, beautiful, very large and low buildings which are all mainly something to do with the government. Not unlike many of the older buildings we have in Melbourne but much larger and plentiful.
We were very tired at the completion of the day. Probably due to late nights, however it's so hot and humid here that it does tire you out pretty quickly. It feel's like an Australian summer but a bit more humid. So you sweat and smell delicious at the end of every day: )

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