Day 15 - Botanicus perfectus

Our last full day in Washingtown DC (dirty clothes), and I have to say that we started the day with all of our clothes clean - Rhonda excelled.  The plan for today was the National Botanic Garden, some more museums, and a stroll to Georgetown.  The Botanic Gardens were beautiful.  They are not large, but are filled with small sections on themes, such as: Hawaii, deserts, jungle, medicinal plants, endangered plants, and other stuff (or, to give it its correct Latin name, otherus stufii).  A series of shots of the outside and inside are shown below.



I'd hate to have to clean the windows

Orchids

A steaming pile of jungle

I never knew cactus could be so pretty

A king-sized planter

After the Botanic Gardens,  we strolled up the National Mall and visited the Hirshhorn Museum (also called the donut - since it's a circular shape with a hollow centre.  The building is great and there was an amazing piece of sculpture outside - a column built from tubes of steel and wires that just seems to float in the air.

The outside of the Hirshhorn Museum

Inside the donut



You can't see too many Henry Moores 

The amazing column

Then it was on to the Smithsonian Castle and a couple more art galleries.  The Castle is not a museum, but is an interesting building. 

The Smithsonian Castle

It is, however, sadly devoid of punctuation. 

Apparently you can enter staff as long as you enter other people as well

The other art galleries, the Sackler and Freer Galleries featured Asian art and the work of James McNeill Whistler.  Fabulous collections and beautiful buildings, most of the galleries are actually under ground.  Below is a photo of the staircase in the Sackler Gallery.

After that it was back to the hotel for a short rest, before walking to Georgetown and having a final dinner in Washington.  On our way we saw the Mexican Embassy, which features a couple of preserved houses.

The plaque shown below was fixed to the front of the Embassy.

Georgetown is a beautiful, older area of Washington, full of interesting eateries and shops. 

The "Old Stone House", the oldest house and property in Washington

We had dinner at an interesting restaurant called "Thunder Burger Bar".  It was yummy, and, to be completely honest, probably did not provide a balanced diet.

Anyway, that's enough for today's blog.  Rhonda raised a martini to you all during our Thunder Burger Bar dinner.

Day 14 - Segways rock

Another day, another great experience.  Rhonda and I had a great experience almost two years ago on a Segway ride in Canberra with our nephew Regan, so we thought we'd have a Segway ride in Washington.  Because this is the USA we upsized the experience and booked a two-hour ride (plus half an hour of training).  Anticipating a good time we set off on the Metro and then had a short walk to the Segway office.  We'd have had a shorter walk but we took a wrong turn.  On our way we saw what are possibly the worst laid cobblestones in the history of cobblestones.  Thankfully we didn't have to ride over them at any stage.

THE SEGWAY RIDE WAS BRILLIANT!  The training was well run, but we both surprised ourselves with how much we remembered - a bit like bike riding, once you can do it you never really forget.  A total of eight of us assembled and watched a short video on some key safety aspects, then we went out for training.

Our leader Sarah (on the right) giving us an extra safety briefing and demonstration

 We set off and the whole trip was fantastic.  Sarah took us to a lot of places around the National Mall, stopping every now and then to tell us about the significance of the sites.  Our first big stop was at the Capitol, where we could pose for photos.  Unfortunately, but for obvious safety reasons, we couldn't take photos while riding.

Intrepid riders

I think we were all amazed by how far we went during the two hours, but given that the maximum speed of the Segways was about 20kph we shouldn't have been surprised.

Taking a break near the White House - note how well we lined up the Segways

Highlights of the ride were Sarah's commentary, the scenery, and feeling smugly superior to people walking.  Sadly, all good things come to an end, and we finished feeling very happy, but surprisingly tired in the legs.  On our walk back we discovered how popular food truck are here (for those of you who have seen the recent movie 'Chef' you'll have an idea of how popular they are).  We saw the line up below outside some office buildings.

Then it was time to take the Metro back to the hotel.  One of the enduring memories we'll have was how many people are addicted to their 'smart' phones.  Connected and yet paradoxically disconnected at the same time.  The art of conversation is sadly dwindling.

We were too tired for much sightseeing in the afternoon, but we did manage to find Macys, a large department store.  Rhonda bought some lovely tops, and I got a beautiful Pierre Cardin tie for $30 - somebody in Australia is ripping consumers off.  I'll finish with a sign today.  They don't encourage short-term parking in Washington.  The prices on the sign below are fairly typical of parking costs in car parks (metred parking on the street was cheaper for short-term parking).

First hour $12, each hour after that (on average) less than $0.62

 

We'll be back later with our next instalment, covering the National Botanic Garden and a walk around historic Georgetown.

Day 13 - Original number of states in the Union

Another day in beautiful Washington - with a visit to the Capitol building (the seat of government).  We caught the Metro to the National Mall and visited the National Museum of the American Indian.  The museum covers indigenous people from throughout the Americas, and is a fantastic looking building.  The collection seems a bit sparse, but what they have is well laid out and very interesting - providing lots of insights into the culture of the people.  Some shots are below.

Beautiful building

Bronze statue of a Buffalo dancer

Rhonda viewing a pop-out drawer of exhibits

Love the building

We then walked up the National Mall towards the Capitol, and it is both huge and impressive.  Up to now we'd only seen it from a distance - up close is a whole new experience.

View from the front

Closer view from the front - visitors enter from the rear of the building - glad we had plenty of time to walk around

View of the back of the Capitol

Inside the building was a different world - it seemed almost normal size.  The tour was very interesting and we both admired the grandeur of the building.

Emancipation Hall - where visitors enter and register for tours

Richard in the exact centre of Washington, one floor below the central dome of the Capitol

Typically (this seems to be happening to us a lot), they were renovating the dome!

Close up of decoration below the dome - it's painted not carved

It looks carved - very well done

The great man

Rosa Parks - Google her if you don't know who she is

 

Beautiful statues and decorations

We were able to get tickets after our tour to visit the House of Representatives to see democracy in action.  Unfortunately we couldn't take photos.  Both of us were struck by how modest the House of Reps was, and by the fact that all members are arranged in a semicircle facing the speaker's chair.  The arrangement seems less adversarial than in the Australian parliament.  We walked back after our visit and admired more epically grand buildings.

Library of Congress

Supreme Court

National Archives

Final shot of Capitol - threatening skies but thankfully no rain

In case you are tired of seeing columns on buildings (they do love their columns) here's final shot of a squirrel - because we could.

Vermin

Tomorrow we do a Segway tour - see you then (actually we won't see you, but you know what we mean).

Day 12 - Pentagon and beyond

We set off for the Pentagon and the tour we had booked online.  You aren't allowed to take photos of the building so we've downloaded a photo from the internet to show you how massive it is (it's the world's largest low-rise office building).

The only place inside where we could take photos was in the waiting area for the tour to start.  Rhonda gave a very impressive speech calling for world peace, until she realised that world peace would make the Pentagon redundant.  A member of the honour guard came to take her away.

The tour was excellent, and bizarre.  We had two guides, who swapped roles halfway through.  The guides walk backwards while conducting the tour, something they have to practice for.  It's so they can keep their tour groups in sight the whole time.  The building is very impressive - it has 7,754 windows (the guides said that everybody remembers that statistic) which stop people spying from outside the building and are bullet proof.  The inside memorial to the 59 victims from the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11, and the 125 workers from the Pentagon was small but moving.  

After the Pentagon we moved on to the National Cemetery at Arlington.  It contains over 400,000 graves and they still bury between 25 and 35 bodies a day.  We took a bus tour of the cemetery and spent time at the gravesite of John F. Kennedy (Jacqui is buried next to him, and two children, one either side) and then the site of the tomb of the unknown soldiers (one each from WW1, WW2 and the Korean War- there was a fourth 'unknown', from the Vietnam War, but he was identified by DNA recently).

The JRK gravesite

JFK again

A wreath for Australia, outside the tomb of the unknown soldiers, laid that morning by Bill Shorten during a visit

Saluting the Australian wreath during the ceremony for the changing of the guard

Graves, graves and more graves

A beautiful rose in the gardens at Arlington

We enjoyed our time at Arlington, in a sad and reflective way, but were impressed by the experience.  Next stop was the Lincoln Memorial, about a half hour's walk away.  It is impressive during the daylight, and even more impressive at night.  Some daylight shots are below.

The back of the Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln was huge!

The view from the side of the Lincoln Memorial, down the National Mall to the Capitol (which is about 3.5 kilometres away)

We went back to the National Mall in the evening to take some twilight shots, shown below.

We saw a squirrel on our way to the National Mall - the little varmints are everywhere (everywhere there are trees and grass)

Fountains at the WW2 Memorial

The WW2 Memorial again

The Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln as the lights come on

Washington is beautiful when the lights are on

By the time we got back to the hotel it was quite late, and our legs hated us.  I must say we are sleeping very well here.  No signs for today, but a general comment on signage - it's rubbish.  It shouldn't be difficult to know where you're going, but it often is.  Tomorrow we're booked in for a tour of the Capitol building.  'Bye for now.