Crimson Bisque

Monday, July 10, 2006

Day 1 Washington: June 30 2006

Leaving NYC involved an early morning start, or we’ll have been stuck in early morning traffic! We woke up late though, at 630 instead of 6 like planned, but we managed to leave the flat at 715, 15 min later than planned, which is pretty damn good if you ask me.

Arriving at Union station Washington, I ended up carrying aaron’s bags and he did mine. For the record, I got the better deal (obviously!) turns out I packed all the heavier stuff nearer to the top of the suitcase. All those who took even BASIC physics would know that the CG of the bag was in a bad place.

We managed to get to our hotel, but realised we took a roundabout route after we headed back out to the train station to get some lunch. The food court of the train station had loads of food: from greek to Mexican to Chinese to Indian. Turned out to be more expensive than expected though.

Then it was off to the capitol building. We had great hopes of going in to look at the interior. But unfortunately, it was closed! July 4th celebration prep, and they had cops everywhere, so we could only get façade pics!

Next up we walked to the Smithsonian museums. The great thing about these museums is that they’re free! Yes they are rich enough so that you don’t have to pay entry fees to any of the museums. We only had time for one or two museums, so we went into the National Air and Space Museum. I think Marc would have liked it. All about places and spacecraft, and even aircraft carriers! We spent like 3 hours in there! Just as well though, the sun was blistering! We were so dehydrated and exhausted from the heat and the sweating that followed.

Thank goodness it was slightly cooler when we got out at 530pm (when the museum, and every other government building in dc, closes). So we decided to head to the memorials (which close at 1145 pm earliest).

As there are no subway stations near the memorials, we had to walk to them all.

First up, the crown jewel of memorials, Washington Memorial. The good thing is that it’s tall, simple, and rather striking in the Washington backdrop, so you know if you’re walking in the right direction. The bad thing is that it’s tall. So it always seems nearer than it actually is. On the way though, we passed through the American Folk Life Festival. Various states had little exhibitions and food stalls. It was rather quaint and we had a nice time wandering past the Smithsonian castle en route to Washington Memorial.

When we FINALLY got there, we realised we couldn’t go in cos once again we required time passes. But it was ok, we had 2 other memorials to walk to so we had took some pictures and then headed onwards to the Lincoln Memorial. It was a really long walk there, but we passed thro’ the pool of reflection, Constitution Gardens and The Vietnam WWII Memorial.

It was well worth visiting the memorial though! One of the most famous memorials in the USA. President Lincoln sitting on the chair, in a greek temple like structure, looking every bit the regal man he is.

Next up was the Franklin D Roosevelt memorial. Passing by the tidal basin, we arrived there to find loads of water falls, and with lots of thought provoking words from the man himself, made it a very peaceful place.

Unfortunately, aaron’s camera decided to take a rest as well. It pretty much died on us, the shutter won’t open, so we literally had to sit down and fiddle with it for a while. Did it no good though, the shutter just refused to open.

So we moved on with to the Jefferson memorial, built pretty much like a round greek temple, with once again, wise words from President Thomas Jefferson.

We finally decided to walk back to Washington Memorial (the memorials take you in a circle basically) and take the train from the Smithsonian Station to Union Station, which btw, is air conditioned (both the train and the train station) and CARPETED! Definitely one up new york, where you could sweat just standing there waiting for the train.

We had dinner at America in Union Station, which essentially has over 100 dishes from the various cities in the USA. I had clam chowder and crab cake burger, which left me with a tingly tongue, cos of my shell fish allergy ( I can’t take too much!); Aaron had butterfried cattail and ribs for dinner. Lovely!

That brought an end to day 1 in Washington. We were totally exhausted, but we saw so much that I felt it was quite worth it!

Inscribed @ 11:48 pm