Washington Mall

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October 24th 2010

Published: October 28th 2010

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Richard and Paula

Front of the White House

Day Two
The Blue Skies of Washington - Did we mention it was warm here? Jeans are becoming a bit much and shorts are beconing..speaking of clothing..

Lesson of the day: Not much is happening in Washington on a Sunday. Do not try and get your laundry done and we highly recommend that you don’t carry your bag of laundry around the dead streets for a few hours trying to find the laundry mat called Soapy Joes that by all accounts no longer exists…

Anyway, after packing in that idea, and turning our underwear inside out, we wandered past the White House, being very surprised at how close one can get to it. We bumped into Kris Allen (American Idol winner when Adam didn’t win) who was in DC for a concert. When we say bumped into, we mean, There were about ten tourists including us at the back entrance of the White House, (where you can get much closer) and one of them and his mate turned around and walked towards me and I thought “Hey, that guy looks exactly like Kris Allen. Then, Paula shuffles up to me and whispers “Is that um..

Back of the Casablanca

from American Idol” “Kris Allen?” I said.. “Yeah, I think so”. So we kind of hesitated for a minute in shock until it was too late to get a photo or anything without chasing him down the street. We confirmed later that it was definitely him when we checked on his twitter page about his whereabouts. If you’re interested, he didn’t need to pee once while we saw him, compared to Craig Parker, this guy is a camel!!

We then ventured to the pointy in parts monument (aka Washington Monument) and marvelled at its height and pointiness and number of American flags surrounding it. Planes kept appearing to collide with it as it is just by Ronald Regan airport and the flight path is directly in line.

Next was the Forrest, Jenny…Forrest, Jenny memorial (aka Lincoln Memorial). Paula got told off again! This time for trying to take her iceblock up to Abraham Lincoln. The Memorial featured in 'The Planet of the Apes' when Mark Walberg returned to earth and found that the Abe Lincoln statue had turned into one of Ape Lincoln.
We headed back past the Korean War Memorial which is of about 20 statues of

Trying to look like Tourists

a platoon of soldiers and then Paula went home while I headed off to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. Notable exibits included the actual Apollo 11 command module that splashed down into the ocean and returned the astronauts to earth, The Spirit of St Louis - The plane Charles Lindbergh used to cross the Atlantic for the first time, Intercontinental Ballistic Nuclear missiles, a piece of moon rock (I touched it!!!) and lots more.

Afterwards, we caught the Circulator Bus, (Just like the Link Bus) out to old Georgetown (The original town before D.C was created) and had dinner and drinks with Paula’s old school mate Emma who now works for the British M.O.D and has been seconded to D.C for 5 years. As has happened to me many a time, everyone was asked for ID so they could wear a little green ‘over 18 bracelet’, except me who when I offered ID, they just gave a sympathetic smile and passed me by. This has been happening to me since well before I turned 18 so I’m used to it, although not entirely amused.

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