USA Day 32 - Mr & Mrs Silvestro Go To Washington

Total States Visited: 22
Where Are We Sleeping Tonight: Capitol Skyline Hotel, Washington DC

Our first stop this morning was the huge JR Cigars Discount Outlet which not only stocked tobacco related items, they stock just about everything, from kids toys to touristy nicknacks, and of course, firearms. Clare found in the candy section an area dedicated to cupcakes. Needless to say, she had to buy some cupcake bandaids, cupcake dental floss and a box of cupcake bites!

 

Wanting to have as much time in Washington DC as possible, we continued on quickly, stopping only for gas, and of course, we had to get at least one photo of us in front of a state sign. Continuing through Virginia, we couldn't help but notice a car with a custom made rear bumper... made out of wood... weird...

 

Driving in to DC, passing heaps of state troopers, we saw the giant Pentagon. I never really grasped just how big the building is until I saw it. I knew it was big, but it is really big! You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is... :)

 

We checked into the fabulous Capitol Skyline Hotel which, from the outside, looks like it was originally an old government office, but has been lavishly refurbished on the inside. We can see the capital building from our hotel room, but then again, can't you see it from every hotel room in DC? If movies taught me anything, it is that you can see the Eiffel Tower from every room window in Paris :) Deciding not to trust our view, we got the hotel shuttle bus to drive us in to the National Mall.

Starting outside the American Indian Museum, we were in a great spot to get a good photo of the US Capital Building. Then we walked down towards the giant pointy thing known as the Washington Memorial - it was so surreal to see it in real life after seeing it in so many movies. As we were walking there, we were amazed to see groups of people relaxing in the Mall, including several games of softball being played around us. We accidentally walked through the outfield of on but they didn't seem to mind. The Smithsonian Castle was a cool building that stuck out amongst the buildings as you don't generally see castles in big cities.

 

 

Arriving at the lavish Second World War Memorial, we were disappointed to see that the reflecting pool has been removed! The signs say that they are repairing the foundations and the reflecting pool will be replaced in a couple of years :(

Passing the DAR building, we were off to see The Whitehouse. Sadly we just missed President Obama as he had just flown away in his helicopter. We did however get to see that they have an organic veggie garden! The post 9-11 security is definitely obvious with roads barricaded and armed secret service officers (they weren't being that secretive) patrolling the area. We would have loved to go on a tour but sadly it is practically impossible for non US citizens to get on a tour, with Australians not being allowed at all :(

With the sun setting, we returned to the Second World War Memorial for sunset. After playing around with a timed exposure, we walked up to the Lincoln Memorial. We have learned a lot about how slaves were treated in US history, and about their Civil War, that we couldn't miss seeing the tribute to such an influential politician. Next up we visited the Korean War Memorial with the ghost-like statues.

 

We started walking back to our hotel but after walking all afternoon, and considering we had to walk the entire length of the National Mall with throbbingly sore feet, we decided to catch a cab back. Back at the hotel, we decided to venture out and find some cheap food. Directly across the street was a McDonalds. With no energy to drive pr walk further than across the street, McDonalds is what we had. True to McDonalds form, they tasted just like the McDonalds at home...