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Published: August 6th 2007
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Washington Monument
This is the view along the Reflection Pool to the Washington Monument and you can just make out the State Capital behind it. The Lincoln Memorial is directly behind where the photo was taken from. Following my couple of days in Washington DC for Army week, Fiona flew in on the Wednesday night. Jacko and I picked her up from the airport and had a quiet night at home.
After a sleep in it was a slow start the next morning. We managed to get ourselves organised and decided to head into one of the 16 Smithsonian's in Washington DC. If you're like us, you probably aren't one hundred percent familiar with the story of the Smithsonian's. They were started a while back (late 1800s) when a rich Pommy bloke by the name of Smithson left a considerable sum of money ($4.1 million pounds) to start an 'establishment for the increase & diffusion of Knowledge among men' in the US - a place he'd never actually been- and behold the Smithsonian's were started. They are a series of 18 museums of which 16 are in DC and two in New York. They have easily the most impressive collection of 'cool stuff' I have ever seen, and only one percent of their artifacts are on display at any one time!
Anyway, we decided that we should go to the Air and Space Smithsonian. It is
The Smithsonian Castle
This is the Information Centre for all the DC based Smithsonians - there are that many of them they need their own visitors centre. a place that you have to see to believe - they have so many amazing things. While we were there we saw the original Wright Brothers Plane, the Apollo 11 Command Capsule (first mission to land on the moon - still charred black from its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere), Chuck Yeager's Plane that was the first to break Mach 1, and so the list went on. Fiona was really excited that even though the National Museum of American History was closed for renovations, the key items had been moved into a wing of the Air and Space Museum. In there we saw the hat Abraham Lincoln was wearing when he was assassinated, Dorothy's red shoes from the Wizard of Oz, the first Kermit the Frog, the first filament light bulb, the Original R2-D2 and C3PO, the gloves Ali wore at 'Rumble in the Jungle', and it just keeps going....all in all it was very very impressive. On the walk home we decided to stop and have a quick look at the Capital Building which is the home of Congress - pretty much the same as our Parliament house.
Then it was off to one of the local Irish
Air and Space Smithsonian
This is the entry foyer to the Air and Space Museum. Here you can see the Spirit of St. Louis, Apollo 11 Commander module and Starship one the first commercial space craft. pubs for dinner. This pub was managed by an Aussie girl who delighted in having some Australians there so it was quite an enjoyable night. They even had 'Lamb Burgers' on the menu.
Next morning we got up and jumped on the Metro to head into the Australian Embassy and say hello to some of the Administrative Staff who have been looking after us. The Metro is fantastic - it is well designed, simple to use, the trains actually run on time and they come regularly, it really was easy to find our way around. After a quick visit to the Embassy we decided to walk around and see all the big ticket sights of Washington. On our trek we saw the Whitehouse, the Washington monument (which will be forever known as 'The Sticky Thing' - a very avid description from Fiona), the reflection pool which has been the location for a number of huge protest marches (and was also in Forrest Gump), the Lincoln Monument, Jefferson Monument, FDR Monument and also their memorials to WWII, Korea and Vietnam. That's a lot of big white buildings and statues to fit into one day......Afterwards we caught the Metro home and
Fiona's Space Walking
Fiona was so inspired by the Space Museum that she decided to 'Space Walk' everywhere. This obviously drew very strange and confused looks from the Americans as she made her way around the museum. spent a quiet night at Jacko's house cause we were pretty tired from all the walking around.
Next day we got up and headed out to catch up with another Aussie friend for brunch let's just say that it was best breakfast I have seen in years (Alison- we'll be back in October ;-). After a lovely chat and with full stomachs we headed back into town and to the Ford Theatre - the place where Lincoln was assassinated. They have kept the theatre in pretty much the same way it was the night of the assassination and it was really quite interesting to go and have a look. We also visited the house across the road where he was taken and died the next morning. After this sobering experience we went to the Washington DC 'International Spy Museum'. This place has a fantastic state of the art presentation of the history of spying, the gadgets used and the techniques are procedures that have developed. Whilst it was really entertaining and presented well, it was a weekend in the Nation's Capital.......it was absolutely packed (way too many kids and big kids). We both gradually got the shits with fighting
R2D2 and C3PO
Here's Fiona and I in front of the original R2D2 and C3PO. with the crowd and had to skip through some parts just to find some space. It soured the experience somewhat, but it was a really great museum. Being Saturday night and in Capital of the USA we decided we should go out....to an Irish pub. And what a great night we had - the entertainment on stage was Pat, an elderly Irish gentleman singing very funny songs that required patron participation. It was really like a giant sing-a-long. Once he identified we were Aussies, he referred to us as 'slow footed Irishmen' and played Waltzing Matilda for us. The yanks didn't know what the hell was going on with 3 pissed Aussies singing at the top of their lungs to a Irishman playing guitar in the United States. It was a very funny night.
Well Sunday came around with another slow start and some very fuzzy heads. It took us until after lunch to manage to drag ourselves out of the house and visit our last stop on the list - Arlington Cemetery. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Arlington, it is the American National Military Cemetery. It is the home of the Tomb of the Unknown
State Capital
Here's Fiona and I in front of the State Capital Building. This was amid a very large gospel meeting that was occurring on the lawns out the front of the building. I was actually asked if I was 'taking photos for Jesus'. Soldier which is guarded 24/7 by US soldiers marching up and down in front of the Tomb - the changing of the guard is quite a tourist attraction. Arlington has quite an interesting history though. Prior to the commencement of the Civil War it was the home of General Robert E. Lee (the Confederate General who lead the southern Armies throughout the Civil War). When he left to lead the Confederate Army, the North occupied his house and used the grounds (624 acres) to bury the war dead to ensure he could never use it later. The Government did compensate him for the loss of his property after the war but it has been the National Cemetery since. Many famous people are buried there including John F. Kennedy. However the sheer size of the place is what is the most amazing.
After leaving Arlington we grabbed our bags, jumped on a plane and headed home to Jacksonville. We really enjoyed our trip, DC is very much like Canberra (in fact the design for Canberra was based on DC), it's very green with a lot of water frontage, heaps of bike paths, loads of monuments and the city is built
The White House
This place was swarming with people. There were protests about everything from the war in Iraq to the ill-treatment of chickens!! to be very symmetrical. It really is an attractive city. It was a pretty quick visit and there's still quite a bit to see and do, however we'll be back there at least another 2-3 times whilst we are here so there should be another post or two on the stuff we haven't done yet. After all there are another 15 Smithsonian's to look through........
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Knackers
non-member comment
Are they blond tips
Homma - either the Florida sun is making your hair go blond or you have added artifical 'sweetner' to your melon. I gotta say, its not doing anything for me