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Published: November 9th 2012
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Washington D.C.
We just could not get enough of th guy A visit to the capital of the good ol' US of A - WASHINGTON D.C. It was a pretty short visit, but we did manage to see quite a few things during our time there. This was both our first time here and when I always heard Washington D.C. I always thought monuments and museums - well I was not far off.
It all starts with THE NATIONAL MALL AND ITS MONUMENTS. You can probably call it the biggest museum in the world, because this area just stretches for miles and miles lined with museums and monuments. We kind of started right in the middle, walked to the one end, walked all the way back to the other end and then walked back to the middle again - yeah we tend to walk a lot when we go on trips. We always joke that we get more exercise on these trips than we actually get when we are at home. We started our journey at the WASHINGTON MONUMENT. A simple structure and yet pretty awe-inspiring. There were clouds all around so it was actually pretty cool to go stand right-up against the building and look straight-up while the clouds moved
Washington D.C.
Washington Memorial around the tip of the monument. Even walking away from the monument it creates a pretty imposing view as it completely dominates the skyline for as far as you can see. Definitely a lot of opportunities to take some really cool pictures of other things with the monument in the background.
Next-up was the WORLD WAR II MEMORIAL. Another grand structure with a pretty fountain. It has some really neat architecture/inscriptions. From here on it is just memorial/monument after memorial/monument. The VIETNAM VETERAN'S MEMORIAL is a very simple structure (yet really beautiful with the black marble and inscribed names). Still a very, very emotional place - not as emotional as the World Trade Centre, but still many, many people standing around and crying. A big thing for people to do is to take a white paper, put it over the name and just use a pencil to scribble over the name and get a nice "imprint" of the name. And the surprising thing is that there are still so many people doing this so many years later. There are some really nice "illusions" created by the monument, but you'll just have to go there for yourself to see them.
As always and as we have said in previous blogs. The best way to do these things is to join a tour. They have tours all over the place in Washington. You learn a lot about the history, the significance, the purpose, the good, the bad,... We did not do a tour on this occasion, but when we saw a tour group at a monument we joined in at the back and just listened to the interesting facts. We are junkies for facts and history. Next up - KOREAN WAR VETERANS MEMORIAL. What a moving memorial this was. We did not know this existed. It was a really, really fascinating memorial. "Metal" soldiers (looking as if they are alive) in a knee high field of bushes - looking like they are searching for something.
And last but not last the grand daddy of them all - the LINCOLN MEMORIAL. A grand structure with roman columns with the imposing Mr. Lincoln on the inside sitting on his chair. A very, very imposing figure as he is there. You can only wonder what he was like back in the day. Definitely the highlight of our trip. Got some really, really
Washington D.C.
Washington memorial with American flag cool pictures. Also an incredible scene standing on the stairs at Lincoln Memorial and looking back across DC towards the Capitol with Washington Monument right in the middle. Definitely do yourself a favor and visit the Lincoln Memorial at night. Just as during the day (just a couple notches better) the view at night is spectacular. Mr. Lincoln himself is lit-up as well. Unfortunately the reflection pool was under construction while we were there so the "view" was not as spectacular as it could have been, but it was still pretty awesome.
HISTORIC GEORGETOWN is only a short cab ride away. Definitely old, historic and a treat to walk through with some really cool ARCHITECTURE. Old buildings with unique little stores, old pubs/bars, beautiful gardens and old houses. We picked historic MARTIN'S TAVERN as our "watering-hole" for the afternoon. The beers were good and so was the food. We had some good chunky New England Clam Chowder, French Onion soup, Fish & Chips and Shepherd's Pie with beers all around. This is supposedly where JFK proposed to Jackie and they have a plaque at the booth where it happened. The food and the beer were really good and it
Washington D.C.
Flags around the Washington Memorial just had that old atmosphere feel about it. We walked around GEORGETOWN and made a quick visit to GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY (a very old and beautiful campus with some really old buildings). HEALY HALL at GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY is definitely the outstanding building on campus and is surrounded by some beautiful old trees.
We made a quick trip to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to say hi to the president and from there walked all the way to the Capitol. By this point it was dark already so we got to experience the NATIONAL MALL AT NIGHT. We walked allllll the way across back to the Lincoln Memorial so we did a lot of walking.
So there you have it, but we are not done. The real reason we visited Washington D.C. was the CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL. Yep - we did not go for the monuments or the statues or the Whitehouse or historic Georgetown (although those were all nice things to see) - we went for the CHERRY BLOSSOMS. The biggest concentration of cherry blossoms in the U.S. Trust me - before this we did honestly not even know of the existence of cherry blossoms. It was beautiful. The lower basin
Washington D.C.
Washington Memorial from the World War II Memorial was covered with cherry blossom trees and they were in full bloom (they only bloom for a couple weeks a year). Rent a little paddle-boat and paddle around the lower basin and take in the scenery.
Well - that was DC. Short and sweet. We got a couple things checked off - 3 to be exact, including the National Mall and its Monuments and historic Georgetown. So 157 down and 5,168 to go.
Til next time from historic D.C.
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