079 USA; Washington

USA; Washington
The security is very visible. We mention this to the Taxi driver and he thinks we are being disrespectful and lectures us on the importance of Washington to the world and why protecting it is worth it. I was surprised by the depth and feeling of his arguments and was a bit humbled by him.

First stop - of course, The Whitehouse. As with many things we've seen in real life it is much smaller and far less imposing than the views we get on our screens. A couple of months ago some twit jumped the fence and now you are a long way back. They've even closed the road that runs in front so the tour buses can no longer go by. One twit, spoiling things for so many.

The National Mall is awesome. Massive. Clean. It seems 10 years ago there was a big clean up throwing out the unwanted vendors and homeless. There were only one or two cafes, discretely placed and strategically placed toilets.

The day was overcast and cold. We are finding it strange being back in our jeans.

I genuinely love the national pride in America.

There are flags on their trains, on their bridges, on their public buildings, in their graveyards and in the front porch.

Jefferson Memorial. For some reason this one is stuck to the side and is quite a way away from the rest. It was difficult to get to and even harder to get away from. We were waiting a long time for any form of transport.

Their National War memorial is extraordinary but these simple words stole the limelight for me

Good old Abe. How big is this statue! The sun has come out and we are beginning to shed the layers :)
I'd forgotten how many great speeches this guy made.

The detail on this bronze were amongst the best I've seen. I found this more impressive than the actual Vietnam memorial.

There are acres and acres of war memorials and tributes to American leaders. This is one of two references to women. It is about caring rather than killing and it wasn't until I saw this that I reflected on the roles of women in Washington.

The Korean memorial. While the sculptures were not of the same quality as the Vietnam one, the way this was displayed was very moving. You got a feel for what they lived through, rather than just focusing on the names of the deceased.

 

Running out of superlatives again. This was fantastic. If you look you can see that the actual sculpture is in the rock taken from the middle of the large rock behind.

Parts of his famous speeches were engraved in the surrounding rock. Yet another great orator.

And the biggest space was dedicated to Roosevelt. A small mention was made of the works of his wife. Lots of focus on his work for the poor. Frank joins the dole queue; and maybe he'll have to when we get back to help pay for this trip!!!!

Things are big in America :)

Not the best photo of Frank but he was so engrossed that I struggled to get his attention. We visited the Spy museum. Really good in its own right but there was a focus on James Bond and they had Frank hooked.

Our photos of Capitol Hill are not that great as it has a great amount of scaffolding. Here is the Freedom statue that is at the top.

We chose the Air & Space Smithsonian. After 3 hours we were exhausted. Could easily have spent hours more. Watched a program on the Hubble Telescope in the Imax theatre. Just can't get enough of this kind of stuff. (Currently writing this at Cape Canaveral.)

No trip to Washington can be considered complete without a visit to the Iwo Jima statue,  but boy they've made it hard to get to.

Arlington Cemetery. All military people and their wives are entitled to be buried here. Acres of graves. JFK is buried here.

We finished our trip in wonderful sunshine. We took the Metro to Alexandra and had a wonderful lazy brunch by the water in this very quaint town.

Washington was very impressive. I need to go back to Canberra now and look at the place;
1) with new eyes
2) and understand how an overseas visitor experiences it

Next stop Niagara