Blogs from Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North America - page 52

So much has happened that I don’t know where to start - it seems impossible that we have only been away 3 weeks! Perhaps the Shenandoah Valley is a good place because it is so beautiful in the spring and we really enjoyed it when Phil took us there the first weekend. On the way on Saturday we went to the new Smithsonian air and space museum at Dulles airport. Aircraft are displayed in huge hangers that give much greater opportunity to exhibit some of the larger planes such as the Enola Gay (of WW2 Hiroshima fame), a 707 and a Concord. It also covers helicopters and light aircraft as well as some of the very early flying machines. One section is devoted to space travel. The museum in the city is still there and you ... read more

After the great time we had in Japan (I’ll attach a few more images to start with- but I'm having trouble uploading photos from a 1770 house in Harrisonburg,Virginia! We may have to put them up when we are back in Washington) we moved on to Chicago with all the usual jet-lag and confusion that comes from changing time zones. In addition we struck the start of a cold spell in the mid north east of the country that brought rain, cold winds and some snow. The thermals and rain gear came out and the weather didn’t stop us exploring Chicago. What a fascinating city. It has completely renewed itself after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 which destroyed buildings in the centre of the city at the rate of 65 acres an hour. The reconstruction ... read more

"Mickey is a rat! Mickey is a rat!" That's what my placard read. It's also what I vociferously chanted as I marched down Pennsylvania Ave with hundreds of other concerned citizens in a protest march against the proposed Disney's America theme park project planned for the historic Haymarket area of Northern Virgina. That was in the summer of 1994, my first summer of living in the DC metropolitan area. Later that same year, Disney's top gun Michael Eisner dropped the plans for the "theme park" without explanation. Maybe protest marches do work sometimes. Marilyn and I now live in Michigan, but two weeks ago, right on the verge of bursting cherry blossoms, we were back in DC. Mickey Mouse was there too. Actually 76 Mickeys were in DC, all of them standing stiff as plastic in ... read more

Today was the last day of touring we could do before the conference started properly. We decided to do a day trip to the county's capital - Washington DC. The trip was a uneventful 3 hour bus journey, that was made all the more uncomfortable by a big oaf in front of me who insisted on reclining his chair to the maximum amount. I had to stare at his big oily fat head the whole journey while trying to fight back fits of clostraphobia. Our first impressions of Washington were "what a clean city". Yup, I officially deem this the cleanest nicest city I've seen in the US so far. All the roads are super wide and the building exteriors look like they're washed daily. Everything smelt of order and preciseness. Washington is the capital, and ... read more

Details to follow soon! I promise!... read more