Capitol

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On Veteran's Day we drove through Virginia and arrived in the nation's capital, Washington DC by early evening. Our hotel was centrally located downtown, just a stone's throw away from 'dubya's' place (but no, this time we didn't try to measure by throwing stones!). After dinner, Fitz took us on a night tour of the National monuments and memorials which included the Capitol building, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial (FYI Lincoln's statue is saying his initials in American Sign language!), both the Korean and Vietnam War Memorial's (which were quite harrowing) and finally we walked to the back of the White House - they were all pretty impressive as were the numerous other grand city buildings.

The next morning, we all went off separately to see different things. Washington has many things to see and do - and most of them are FREE! Emma and I first headed past the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building to the National Archives where we saw the famous national documents (the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights). Then we took a quick turn around the National Gallery (where Emma enjoyed seeing loads of Monets) before spending most of the day in the Air & Space Museum. We had to drag ourselves away in order to make it to the National Museum of American History before closing time. As it went dark we walked up the Mall, saw an amazing sunset behind the Washington Memorial and saw the White House from the other side. That evening, we took taxis to Georgetown for Vietnamese food (in a very crowded restaurant).

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