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Published: August 15th 2010
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On Friday we caught the Amtrak express train from New York to Washington DC. The train was a very comfortable way to travel and the guy announcing information on the train was hilarious. He was probably over 60 years old, but he spoke like a 20 year old American DJ.
As was New York, Washington DC is very different than we expected.
On Friday we checked into our very comfortable Hotel and then set off on a walk to see the sights. We visited the White House which is just on the next block and saw it from the front and back. We got to see the first veggie patch too.
We visited the main monuments - Matthew made me walk 1000 miles again!
We thought we would try Southern food although there was nothing wrong with our meal and it was a nice restaurant - Southern food was nothing like we imagined. It was really plain and bland. We thought it would be flavoursome and spicy.
On Saturday we headed out to the Spy Museum first - It was great, so interesting. At the start of the museum you are encouraged to select an identity and you
then continue through the museum with that identity and need to satisfy check points by answering questions correctly from information you gather throughout your training. The training covers all types of spy things, like lock picking to disguise and everything in between. The museum also takes you through the eras of spying, from different countries, different wars and different times. We ended up spending approx 4 hours there, it was really good.
We then headed to DuPont Circle to go to the textile museum which was very sweet, it was a smaller private museum. We stopped for a 3pm lunch at a great little place near the metro station and headed to the Smithsonian Institute.
We went to the Air and Space museum - Wow is the only word for it. It was huge. The actual original Wright Bros plane was there. The museum has replaced the material, but the original material is under glass. The rest of it is totally as per that first flight. There was a massive space section that included actual rockets and Nasa Apollo space ships - I don’t know what to call them. There was the 1st docking station where US
and USSR hooked there crafts together - just hanging there in the museum. There is the actual space suit worn by Neil Armstrong when he set foot on the moon and everything you can imagine. I really look forward to visiting this museum again with a bit more time.
After this we did a power walk through the Museum of natural history and saw things like the Hope diamond.
We returned back the hotel at 7pm feeling quite tired.
We had a drink downstairs and watched a drama unfold 2 blocks away - it turns out an electrical transformer caught fire and there were stacks of fire engines, police cars and the bomb squad investigating. It was only a block from the white house and all the streets were blocked and evacuated up to our corner - thank goodness they didn’t make us evacuate - we’re way too tired.
Ok well I better go and finish packing, we’re heading to LA tomorrow at 915am, and then Matt picks up his really ugly car for our drive to Vegas.
I really recommend visiting Washington DC - it’s a really sweet place. About the same size as Adelaide.
Really clean and nice and easy to get around on the subway. There is so much to see and do (mostly free too). Also, Washington DC feels quite European. The buildings have European influences and there are many French places, hotels, shops etc.
Chat to you from Las Vegas!
Hope you are all good too!
Cheers Emma
Hey Matt here,
I must say I’m really impressed with the USA, everyone is friendly and helpful, Washington is great, as Emma said not at all what we expected, certainly not how I imaged it, I thought ”lots of government buildings and some museums” but it’s so much more, super clean, beautiful architecture, huge parks and gardens and heaps to see and do. We would love to come back here, our stay in DC has been way to short. The Smithsonian Museums are amazing and I could probably spend a week just in the Air and Space museum alone!
Anyway I’ll let the pictures do the talking.
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