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Day 1 I woke up at 3.30am as my flight was an early one. I opted for an early flight so that I could make the most out of my first day in Washington DC. My mum and stepdad picked me up and took me to London Heathrow airport; I could see that my Mum was really worried about me going travelling alone, but I assured her that I’ll be okay. Also mum now has a laptop so she’ll be able to Skype with me whilst I am away.
On the plane at Heathrow, I was talking to a lady sat next to me who was English but had been living in DC for eight years and she was telling me some useful tips like using the open double decker buses to explore the city. I then looked up and saw Tom Daley (Olympic Great British diver) he then sat two rows behind me with some other boys and girls that are also GB divers. They were all wearing the Team GB tracksuits, so this confirmed everything.
Once I arrived at Washington Dulles International and had gone through customs and collected my luggage, I picked up a shared
taxi which cost me $26. The taxi took me directly to my hotel, but I was unable to check-in at the hotel until after 3pm and it was only 11am, so I asked if I could leave my main luggage at reception and decided to walk down to see the memorials, after all it was Memorial Day!
As I started exploring, I had learned that I had missed the parade by about 20 minutes so I decided that I would go straight to the World War II memorial. On my way to the World War II memorial I walked around the Constitution Gardens Pond and took some nice photos of the lake with the Washington memorial in the background. The weather was really hot, about 32c, the sky was blue. It was nice to see some warm weather as England was cold and wet when I left. I continued walking and reached the World War II memorial. There was lots of people about, and so many flowers and wreaths. The Americans are so good with their memorials and showing their respect to those who have died. I respect the Americans as they are a proud nation, whereas back home
we are too afraid to be British/English as don’t want to offend anyone. An example that comes to my mind is the young army lad, Lee Rigby, who was murdered in broad daylight by Islamic terrorists and his family are fighting for a memorial to be placed near to where he was killed. Had this happened in America, I know the Americans would have a memorial for Lee. Anyway, after exploring the World War II memorials, I ventured to the Martin Luther King jr memorial and then went around the Tidal Basin lake and visited the Thomas Jefferson memorial. As the weather was so hot, I stopped for some water and had an American colour ice lolly. I then saw a bridge to Virginia and thought I’d walk over to visit the Arlington Cemetery. However, after walking for quite some time I discovered that I had walked over the wrong bridge. I felt I was near, but as there were so many main roads to cross, I decided to head back to the Thomas Jefferson memorial. I had walked for a good hour or so and was really hot from the humidity that I stopped off for a cherry flavour
Ice pot; this was so refreshing. I then headed towards the Abraham Lincoln memorial site, took some pictures and then went to the Vietnam memorial. I then realized the time was about 3.30pm, so headed back to the hotel that I was staying at.
Once I checked-in, I went to my hotel room which was on the 5
th floor. The room I was staying was awesome. The bed was a super king size bed and so comfortable. I also had a balcony, a kitchen, built in wardrobe and a spacious bathroom with a power shower. I felt really hot and sweaty, so decided to have a shower and then get changed to go out. I was so tired and badly sunburnt – I had left the sun cream in my luggage at the hotel. Once I was showered and changed, I headed out to TGI Fridays. Once at TGI Fridays It felt weird asking for a table for one. I also got asked for ID when ordering an alcoholic drink with my steak. Surely this shouldn’t be happening any more, I’ve just recently turned 30. Anyway after dinner I headed back to the hotel and was in bed by
7.30pm (12.30pm UK time)
Day 2 I woke up fairly early, got showered and dressed, then caught up with the latest on Facebook and also my emails too. I then skyped with Esther as she had my Mum’s laptop with her. It was good to say hello and check that the new laptop was working correctly. After skyping, I headed down to the hotel restaurant to have breakfast. I had to eat some buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup and sausages, and to drink I had coffee, orange juice and water. The service was so good that I ended up paying just slightly over 20%!g(MISSING)ratuity. The food and the tip ended up being quite expensive so I decided that this would be my last time eating there.
After having breakfast, I decided to adventure out. I got on the metro and headed into the main section of DC to see the White House. I couldn’t believe how amazing the White House looked and to be standing outside it after seeing it on telly for my whole life. After walking around the White House, I then saw a guy selling open bus tours. The company was
called Big Bus and the guy sold me a 48 hour unlimited ticket on four different coloured routes around the city, it also included a river cruise, entry to Madame Tussauds and the spy museum. I decided to do the red route first and toured around the Capitol building and Union station first. I first got off at Union station, however it was incredibly busy so I didn’t stay around too long. But I got to take some photos of the outside of the building. I then headed down to the Capitol. Wow, this building was huge and truly amazing. I walked around the building taking photos and the decided to take a free tour inside. As the building is in use, the tour only showed three rooms, but this was still incredible to be inside. After the tour, I then went over to the Library of Congress. This building is truly amazing and has books that are thousands of years old.
After touring around the Capitol area, I decided that I would do the river cruise as it was another hot and beautiful day. The tour bus took me over the other side of the capital where I
had to change buses to pick up another route to go directly to the river cruise. However, when I was at the bus stop to catch a connecting bus, I was only about a 40 minute walk away from the harbour. Instead of walking, I felt lazy and decided to stick with catching another bus. This was a bad move as I ended up spending two hours on the bus due to being stuck in city traffic and going around the DC rather than directly to my next destination. By the time I had reached the harbour, the sun had gone and it was raining, and the last boat had just left. I felt really annoyed as I had lost precious exploring time for nothing. On the positive side I guess I did get to see more of the city from the open bus.
As it was raining and getting late, I decided to walk back to my hotel which was a few blocks away. I got showered and dressed then headed to the other side of the city to 10
th street as wanted to go to Hard Rock Cafe. When I got to the Hard Rock Café, there
was no queue to get inside and hardly any people inside. This is the first time I have ever been to a quiet Hard Rock Café. The waiter said that the city is fairly quiet between spring and summer cross over and that I had come at a good time. For food, I ordered a spicy burger and for pudding I had an Oreo cheesecake. I couldn’t eat all my cheesecake so was allowed to take it back to the hotel.
Day 3 I decided to do the green route bus journey which was the north area of DC. I had to walk about 20 minutes to pick up the yellow route bus which then took me directly to where I needed to get the green one from. Before jumping on the bus, I called into a small supermarket to get some water and some fruit to eat for breakfast. Since my arrival, I had been eating so much junk food that I felt like I should eat something healthy.
Once I had got my connecting bus for the green route, I then headed further north of DC until we got to Smithsonian’s National Zoo.
I was debating whether to do the zoo or not as we have so many back home, but then I discovered it was one of the oldest zoos in the world and more importantly it was home to some extinct animals from the wild. I must admit I am not one for seeing animals cooped up in small enclosures. However, these animals have good size enclosures. The only negative side to this is you can’t always see the animals as they are hiding, but I’d rather they had more space. I tried to go around the zoo as quickly as possible but there are so many animals to see. I spent about 3 to 4 hours exploring around the zoo, but it could have been longer if I had taken my time.
After exploring the zoo, I hopped back onto the bus and headed to the city’s cathedral. This cathedral is the 6
th biggest in the world. When I reached the cathedral, I was taken back as to how big it was. It truly is an amazing site. The architecture is gothic with a modern look. I decided to go into the cathedral to explore. The cost of entry
is $10 and I must have spent a good hour looking around. One of the highlights was seeing the mosaics in the basement.
After exploring the cathedral I got back on the green bus route connected onto the yellow and explored around Georgetown. This part of DC has some small pretty homes in different colours. It also has a selection of shops and I stopped off for a sneaky hotdog in Five Guy’s. After having food, I headed to the harbour of Georgetown where I picked up my free river cruise. The cruise was nice and relaxing and I had the opportunity to have a whiskey and coke to help relax.
After the cruise, I got the bus back to my hotel. I got washed and showered and then popped to a nearby supermarket and brought a massive chicken salad. I decided this was a healthy option and involved me spending less money.
Day 4 Esther helped my Mum and stepdad connect to me via Skype. I was weird seeing Mum on Skype as never thought she would do this sort of thing. Mum looked happy to see me and relieved that I was
okay.
After skyping with the family and getting ready, I adventured outside. It wasn’t very nice weather wise and looked like it was going to rain. I decided that as its going to rain that it would be a good idea to see some of the free museums. I first visited the American History museum and felt that America had more history than I had ever realized. I felt I learned quite a bit about the past presidents Washington and Lincoln, America’s independence from Great Britain and the slavery of black people. I spent lots of hours at this museum that I had concerns I might not have enough time to see another one and I really wanted to see the Air and Space museum so had to start working my way quickly through the museum. I did manage to get over to the Air and Space museum and although it closes at 5.30pm this is only for last entry and so you get an extra two hours to see things after the front doors are closed. This museum is great if you’re into space and aeroplanes. I worked my way quickly through the aeroplanes so that I had
more time to read about space as this was more of an interesting topic to me. The museum has a planetarium with two different showings so I did both of these and they were really amazing. I actually felt like I was in space. I ran out of time so decided I’d finish off the last few sections of the museum the next day. As it was getting dark and I was already in the centre of DC, I decided to hang around and take some photos of the White House and Capitol while it was all lit up. The photos came out really well.
Whilst I was waiting for it to get dark, I walked around the White House are searching for somewhere to eat. I could only find junk food places so waited until I got back to Foggy Bottom and found this really large supermarket that sold lots of healthy food, such as a salad and fruit bar. I must admit that I’m surprised that not all the eating places are near to each other and in the centre of DC. The restaurants all seem to be spread out all over the place. I have found
this to be a bit annoying.
Day 5 I woke up to find that my Mum was keen on skyping again so once I had skyped with her I got ready to start exploring as today was my last full day in DC. The weather was looking gloomy, but the sun appeared to be trying to break through the clouds. I decided to head over to Arlington Cemetery in Virginia to see all the graves and the John Kennedy gave and memorial. I took the metro which was two stops away from where I was staying in Foggy Bottom. Once I got to the memorial, I could tell it was going to be hectic as there were people everywhere. I walked around and saw hundreds of white gravestones. I think I read or heard that there are about 200,000 graves at this site. I carried on walking until I got to the John Kennedy memorial/grave. There were lots of people looking at the grave but I managed to get a few photos. The memorial of Kennedy has a flame torch. I kept walking around the grave site and then eventually saw some guards laying some new
wreaths and doing a small parade and then there was a remembrance where lots of the American people put their hands on their hearts and music was played. This seemed like some kind of American tradition.
After seeing the cemetery, I decided to finish off the last sections of the Air and Space Museum as this was about space travel to the Moon and Mars. This didn’t take me long to finish this museum so I then went to the American Indian Museum. To be honest, I was hoping there was going to be more about the red Indians, but they did have lots of their clothing and other historical items. The focus seemed to be more on the present red Indians, rather than the past. The museum also talks about other Indian tribes and cultures in North and Central America. I was done at this museum after 2 hours.
After seeing the American Indian Museum I was conscious of time as I was meeting a couple in the evening who I had been speaking to on Travel Blog, but I worked out that I had enough time to go on the outskirts of DC to find a
Cheesecake Factory. From my present location I had about 8 stops, so it didn’t take long to get there. Once I got to the Cheesecake Factory I learnt that I could do a take away so I opted for this as could take it back to the hotel to eat and get packing for my flight to Costa Rica. I ordered a Red Velvet Cheesecake which had strawberry and white chocolate in it. Yum!
Once I got back to the hotel, I started to pack my stuff for my flight the next day as it was an early get up and ate my cheesecake at the same time. The cheesecake was too sickly to eat all at once so saved half of it for later. I then got ready and walked to Florida Avenue to meet Merry Jo and Dave who I have spoken to on Travel Blog. We had arranged to meet at the Nora restaurant. This restaurant was in my top 10 best eating places in my Washington DC guide.
Once I arrived at Nora, Merry Jo and Dave were there to greet me. It was so good to meet them as they are both very
passionate about travelling and have seen so much of the world. They have some great experience and useful tips to share. I enjoyed listening to their stories. The food in Nora’s was pricey but was very tasty. After a few hours it was time to save goodbye and head back to my hotel for my final night in DC.
I got back to the hotel and luckily I had packed most of my stuff so I literally went to sleep knowing in a few hours I’d have to get up for my taxi ride to the airport.
Next stop; San Jose, Costa Rica!
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Visited 
D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Touring DC
Hi Alan, the last couple of weeks have been busy for us and we are just getting around the reading your blogs. We truly enjoyed meeting you and hope our paths cross again. You took full advantage of your time in D.C. You've really seen a great deal.