Washington D.C.

Washington D.C. was everything I thought it would be and more. My aim was to see as much as possible, monuments and museums galore. 

This was the final stop on the Grand Southern tour and was the longest at a 3 day stint. On the final night we had one final blow out party to commemorate the trip and to start the goodbyes. While we travelled together the next day through Philadelphia on the way to New York, this was the last time we had to drink and party together. We had a t-shirt signing party. Everyone bought white t-shirts and we spent the evening writing notes, drawing pictures and saying goodbye. And did all of this while drinking, so you can imagine the comments that were being made! I also managed to face off against 4 Aussies in a battle of Flip Cup and won! It was probably my crowning moment. Needless to say I did NOT feel like a box of fluffy ducks the next morning on the bus!

While we were in Washington for the weekend so were 30,000 Boy Scouts for their National Jamboree and 10,000 African-American woman from a National Sorority for their conference. You'll no doubt see numerous geeky scouts, and beautiful black woman in my photos!

Meanwhile here's what I did and saw in Washington during daylight hours:

Arlington Cemetery. 

Arlington is in Virginia, on the other side of the river from Washington D.C. Arlington Cemetery is where America bury anyone that served in the military service, or during battle, and their spouses too. Presidents are buried there too. It was a very somber place and seeing rows upon rows of white marble headstones, up and down the hills really showed the toll this country has taken during conflicts. We visited the site of John F. Kennedy and Jackie Onassis then went to the changing of the guard at the gravesite of the unkown solider. 

Marine Memorial.

I feel a little bad that I don't remember the name of this site, but you'll know the statue when you see it. It's a dedication to all Marines that have given their life in the name of USA, with a large statue of 6 men erecting a large flag in Iwo Jima. It was here that I came to respect the level of respect and honour that American's show their armed forces and those that gave their lives in battle. 

Nighttime tour of Washington City

On this tour we had a local guide that talked about living in Washington, the diversity of the city and showed us the highlights of the sites. We stopped at the Capitol Building, the Washington Monument (which is currently covered in scaffolding and wrapped in plastic for maintenance work. Locals already thought it was fellic looking and now that it's covered in plastic you can imagine the jokes!), Jefferson Memorial, Franklin Roosevelt Memorial, Martin Luther King Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korean War memorial and the Vietnam War Memorial. All of these were very big and very well done, true dedications to the heroes and presidents and the great work they did. 

Smithsonian Museums. 

Get this, if you were to go to each exhibit and spend one minute at each item on display at each museum and did this until you saw everything in the storage facilities too, it would take you 89 years to see everything in the Smithsonian collections! Needless to say I compromised on what I saw! The Smithsonian Museums are numerous Museums dedicated to various things. They line the National Mall between the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building. On the first day I went with a small group to the Holocaust Museum (almost made me cry), the Natural History Museum (where I went in the butterfly house and saw the National Geographic Nature Photography winners for 2012), the Sculpture Garden (New Zealand does Sculpture art better!) and the National Museum of modern Art. 

On the second day we went to Newseum (a relatively new museum dedicated to the Press, with exhibts on famous headlines like the Unabomber, 9/11, JFK, etc) Did I mention that some of these Museums aren't in the Smithsonian Museum cluster, so heaven knows how long it would take to see EVERYTHING in Washington?! I missed seeing the Spy Museum and the Air & Space Museum, along with numerous Art Galleries and Museums. Oh well, guess I'll have to come back!! 

The White House.

We walked in the blistering heat (I've honestly never sweat so much in my life!) to both sides of the White House. It's a giant White House. With large lawns. And that's honestly about it. It is much smaller than it looks in the movies, or shorter I should say, it always seems so long in the movies, like Buckingham Palace long, but it's not.