Washington D.C.

We’ve just completed two very full days in Washington DC. Having failed to sleep well on the Amtrak service from Fayetteville, we recaffeinated at Union Station, dumped our stuff at the hostel, and staggered out in the direction of the White House.


Obama’s on holiday, can you believe it? But instead of the President, we spent the day with a wonderfully knowledgeable ex-history teacher, who gave us a free foot tour of the major National Mall monuments. It lasted a good three hours, encompassing the Washington Monument, the White House, the World War II, Vietnam and Korean Memorials, and the Lincoln Monument. It was fantastic to learn about the symbolism of each monument’s design. We even got a sneak peek of the soon-to-be-opened Martin Luther King Memorial.

The walking tour was exceedingly worthwhile, apart from the horrifying blisters that resulted from trekking for three hours in thongs. My feet did not appreciate all the touristing we did in the afternoon, visiting the American History Museum (and Lincoln’s top hat), the National Archives (with the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence) and the view at the top of the Old Post Office. We gave up around 6:30pm, when the lack of sleep and blisters finally did us in.

But not to worry! We got everything else on the list done today. We set out for Arlington Cemetery this morning, and visited J.F.K., the tomb of the Unknown Soldier (and the interminable changing of the guard), Taft, and the beautiful Robert E. Lee house. Next stop was the Smithsonian, where we had unfinished business in the form of the Air and Space Museum (‘there’s no air in space!’) and the Natural History Museum. Both were extremely worth the cost of entry: nothing at all.

I remember visiting the Air and Space Museum at around the age of seven, but it was fantastic to go back and actually appreciate all the Cold War Space Race stuff. And the Natural History Museum! Unbelievable. I could have spent another three days going through all the exhibitions. There were the dinosaur fossils, of course – Hev, you would have loved it! Then there was a fascinating room dedicated to modern and historical issues of racism in the US. We completed our tour with the mammals exhibit, which felt a bit like entering an incredibly well-stocked zoo with a no-cage policy that had been frozen in time.

In other words, we did absolutely every single thing I’d written down to do in Washington. And tomorrow: Philadelphia!