Alexandria/Washington DC

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We left Dublin on a Saturday morning, after an hour and half of queuing for check in, security, preclearance, more security, and more preclearance, we had about 20 minutes to run to the bathroom and grab a quick bite before boarding.

We had a 7 hour flight to Boston which was okay, we had movies and tv to keep us busy. At Boston, our flight was delayed about 10 minutes so we grabbed a quick pint of Sam Adams in the bar.
At Reagan airport, we met Emily who took us back to her place on the metro. Antony was cooking dinner when we got back, so we had a beer and a catchup before sitting down to dinner. At this stage we were pretty tired, so in an effort to stay awake a bit longer we went for a stroll into King St in Alexandria. It was a bit busy with people eating out or having a few drinks. We had an icecream to cool us down and sat on some steps and watched a lady sing some Opera. She sang The Fields of Athenry. We took a walk to the Waterfront before getting on the trolley back up to the top of King Street. Once we got home we had a drink and went to bed around 11. Didn't get up till 11 the next day.

On Sunday we headed into DC to the U Street area where we had brunch and cocktails. We had a round of Bottomless Mimosas which is basically Bucks Fizz for 10 dollars and then every refill is a dollar after that. Grand if you're a sensible American, not if you're a gang of Irish! The food was ridiculously huge. We had fried green tomatoes. Afterwards Emily and Antony went home and we took a walk to the White House which is nice but a bit underwhelming.... its kind of small! (And far away). We took a few photos and had a look around. The security was prominent, every few minutes you'd hear a cop shouting at a person for leaving their bag down! There were no bins, we presumed it was so noone could put bombs in them. We went around the back of the White House and saw the Washington monument, which is very impressive. We hung out in the park for a while and then walked to 7th Street and passed the FBI building on the way.

There was a Latino festival all along Pennsylvania Ave with music, market stalls and games. We strolled along 7th and found a sports bar to get dinner. We were only starting to feel hungry after brunch. After that we took the metro back to Emily and Antonys. The metro stations reminded us of 'that' scene in House of Cards.

The next day we set off early(ish) and got the metro into L'Enfants Plaza, which is just a short walk from Capitol Hill. We didn't need a map to find Capitol, as it towers above pretty much everything else in the city. We took a few photos and gazed at the view from Capitol Hill, down the Mall to the Washington Monument. The buildings are so over the top and imposing, and everything is white, which made wearing sunglasses essential.
It was a bright sunny day and the sky was clear which made for great photos.

Afterwards, we made our way to the Library of Congress, a beautiful building which doubles up as a museum. For all museums we had to place our bags into an X Ray machine and walk through a metal detector. Security is really high. You can understand it, I suppose. Inside the library we had a quick look around and took some photos. There was a rare copy of a bible printed by Johann Gutenburg, as well as a great exhibition about the Aztecs and Cortes.

After that, it was on to the Supreme Court which is a ridiculously large building, and looks like something out of ancient Greece or Rome. Its quite a new building, only built in the last Century. We headed inside to see the courtroom, the long corridors and statues of important judges.
At this stage we were hungry so we made our way to Union Street Station to get something to eat. After our travels a couple of years ago, and interrailing, our experiences of train stations is dark, grotty, dingy buildings. This one was the opposite. We grabbed a massive lunch in Unos Pizzeria and then waddled back to the Mall to continue our sightseeing.

Next stop was the National Air and Space Museum, where we saw a great exhibition on the Wright Brothers, including the very first plane they flew. We also went to see a show at the planetarium. It was a good excuse to sit down for a while! Next we went to a moon landing exhibition which had all sorts of bits from the moon landings over the years. Next stop was the Natural History Museum. This was right up my street, they even had a bug zoo with scorpions, stick insects, tarantulas, mantis, madagascan hissing cockroaches and loads more. They also had a leaf-cutter ant nest you could see into. We had a flying visit through the Hall of Mammals and also a great exhibition of skeletons from all animal groups. There was a huge full skeleton of a leather back turtle.
At this stage we are so tired, we headed outside and lay on the grass in the Mall for a few minutes.
We then got up and walked towards the Washington monument and took a few photos of the view from there to the end of the Mall, which took in the Workd War II Memorial, the reflecting pool and the Lincoln memorial. The sun was starting to go down so we got some great photos. It was thronged with tourists taking photos and reading Lincolns inaugural speeches.

We started to feel hungry so we took a walk to Foggy Bottom where we went looking for a restaurant recommended by the guide book. Soon hunger got the better of us so we just chose the nearest place. It was called Roti, and it was like a cross between Nandos and Zaytoon. Yum. After that we walked to Georgetown, the university district, and had a pint in an Irish bar. At this stage we were wrecked tired so we headed for home.

The next morning we slept in a little to recharge the batteries. Emily was sick so didnt go into work so we hung out with her for a while before strolling into King St for brunch and an ice coffee. We then got the metro into DC and went to the Smithsonian Zoo. It was a great day out and we were really impressed by the whole place. They had an amazing reptile house with any number of snakes and they were even target training the tortoise! We saw the Giant pandas who were very impressive and learned all about the American bison who started off with numbers as big as 300 million but in the 1800s dropped to 250 individuals. They are now at about 30,000. They were amazing to see.
We stopped off at the zoo bar for a bottle of Sam Adams and Blue Moon, as well as potato skins and chicken wings. It was delicious. We then made our way further into DC to see Thomas Jeffersons memorial. Now poor Tommy is way out, away from all the other memorials out on the waterfront. It took us an age to walk out there but it was worth it. The views of the city from there were breathtaking, and the memorial itself was much quieter than Lincolns or Washingtons. There were some geese grazing at the monument and lots of other wildlife too.

Once we had taken some photos we legged it back to the Smithsonian metro stop and got the metro to Navy Yard which was the metro stop for the Washington Nationals ballpark. We met Antony in the "Bullpen"; a disused carpark made into a bar by stacking shipping crates to corden it off. They had a stage up the top where a band was playing, there was a long bar like you'd see at festivals, there were benches and tables to sit at, tents and a play area where you could play "bags". Dave explained us the game as he'd played it before in Wisconsin. The aim was to throw your bean bag into the hole on the opposite side. Might sound easy but with a pint or two of beer inside you it wasn't. We headed into the ballpark around 8. The game had started around 7.15 but it can last about 3-4 hours so we weren't in any rush. The lads joined the queue for the $1 hotdogs while I scouted the merchandise stand and came back with a Nats cap and a foam finger. You gotta have the foam finger!! By the time the lads got the hotdogs I was starving so they got me one too, and then we headed to find our seats. When we bought the tickets on the way in, the lovely ticket lady gave us great seats at student prices. We were beginning to think these seats were fictitious, because we walked the length of the stadium and couldn't find them. Eventually we got our seats and settled down to watch the game. There's alot of standing around, so while the players we doing that they played some music like the Beastie Boys or the Fugees. In the end, the Nats won so there was great celebrations. We hopped on a metro back to King St where Antony brought us to the dodgiest bar ever. It was one small room with a pool table and the meanest looking people. They also refused to obey the no smoking law (these people were hardcore) so the bar reeked of stale cigarettes. Reminded us of nights out back home many years ago! Antony took us home through this dark park, I was very close to shitting my pants, and then we fell into bed, wrecked after another great day.

The next morning we woke late and went to the supermarket to pick up some stuff for dinner that night. We picked up some rolls and brought them back to the apartment to eat. After that, we got on a metro into the Mall and visited the American History Museum. It was absolutely huge so we chose a section to explore. We learned all about the American Independence, the expanding wars and the civil war. We saw loads of stuff belonging to George Washington. The museum was really interactive, we spent about 2 and a half hours there and only saw one section. We also saw the original Star Spangled Banner that flew over Fort Henry after they defeated the English. Its huge! Really impressive.

Afterwards we took a metro out to Arlington Cemetery where it started to rain but we decided to walk around anyway. At the entrance to the cemetery is a big memorial for women who fought in wars over the years. We visited the grave site of JFK which had a great view across DC to the Lincoln Memorial. No matter what way we turned, we just saw rows and rows of white headstones add far as the eye can see. All of the people buried there were involved in the armed forces. We walked out of the cemetery a little way and found the Iwo Jima Monument, for all the Marines who served in WWII. It is an amazing monument. It shows marines raising the American flag sheet defeating the Japanese. Around it were information points telling us about the men in the monument, most of who actually died at Iwo Jima, Japan. There was information about how the monument was made, and a bit about the famous picture that inspired it. We got the metro back to Alexandria and Dave cooked dinner for Emily Antony and me. We had a few beers before heading to bed. We had to pick up the car the next day and head to Charlottesville.

After a good night's sleep we got the metro to Huntington to get the car. The rental place was a 15 minute walk away but it started to lash rain and we had no brolly or raincoats so we got soaked. We finally got to the rental place, picked up the car and went back to the apartment to pick up our bags and say goodbye. We were on the road to Charlottesville.

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Photos

Washington Monument
View from the plane as we landed

WW II Memorial
You can see Lincolns Monument in the distance

View of the WWII Memorial, the Reflecting Pool and Lincolns Memorial
From the Washington Monument

The Washington Monument at Sunset
View from Lincolns Memorial