Washington DC

The thought of how to tackle a place like Washington DC in 3 days was a bit much for us. Thankfully, Bluey has another of his fantasy sports buddies, Rich who lives in DC and emailed a detailed plan of attack to cover off all of the famous landmarks as well as a few lesser known places of interest.

So, we set of on Tuesday morning with a plan (a pipedream I called it, as Bluey was on a mission to cover as much as possible in the first day). We were on the Metro by 9.45am (early by our standards) and heading to our first stop - the US Capitol Building. The U.S. Capitol is a massive building. The ground floor is allocated to congressional offices. The second floor holds the chambers of the House of Representatives in the south wing and the Senate in the north wing. Under the dome in the center of the Capitol Building is the Rotunda, a circular space that serves as a gallery of paintings and sculpture of American historical figures and events. The third floor is where visitors can watch the proceedings of Congress when in session. We got to sit in this area of the House of Representatives (but couldn't do so in the Senate as is was having repairs carried out) during a guided tour of the place. It was quite interesting.

A very impressive building from the outside as well as the inside

The Rotunda in the centre of the Capitol Building is a favorite amongst those who visit

The top of the Rotunda has several famous painted scenes as well as this Latin
scroll with the phrase 'E Pluribus Unum' meaning 'Out of Many, One'

Principal author Thomas Jefferson presenting the Declaration of Independence signed on the 4th July, 1776 

From the Capitol, we walked down the road to the Native American Museum, which had Native Americans performing, lots of art work but best of all, a Native American Cafe. Bailey and I both had Buffalo for lunch - awesome.

From here, we went to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. This place pretty much covered everything from the time the Wright Brothers first fixed wing powered flight in 1903 through the growth of air travel to what we have now. There was a large portion of the museum dedicated to military air travel and unmanned aircraft as well as a massive focus on space travel, which began way back in the 50's, all the way to what may be happening going forward. What an amazing journey through air travel.

A replica model of Apollo 11 - it is a replica as most parts of this spacecraft never returned to Earth

Many reproductions of the Wright Flyer have been made, but this is the actual 

airplane built and flown by the Wright Brothers flew in 1903

At this stage, Bailey and I were starting to tire but as Bluey pointed out, the next few things were within walking distance (all down the stretch of parkland known as the National Mall), if we checked them out today, it was less we had to fit in tomorrow. We fell for it. Out of the Air & Space Museum, we wandered across to Smithsonian Institutional Building (known colloquially as The Castle) and from here on to the Natural History Museum and then to the National Holocaust Memorial Museum. This museum was dedicated to the plight of the Jewish community in Nazi led Germany & Poland in the lead up to & during WWII. We also got to walk through an area called - Remember the Children: Daniel's story. This took us on a journey of the way things changed in the lives of Jewish children through this . This was an amazingly touching story through the eyes of a young boy and what he endured and how he survived this horrific time in history.

The Natural History Museum houses this 45.5 Carat Diamond. Most of us know it as the Hope Diamond. It is world renowned for its flawless clarity, deep blue color and colorful history.

Next on the agenda was a visit to the National War Memorial. An iconic figure that can be seen from pretty much every part of DC. We then walked on to the Washington National Momument, the WWII Memorial, along the Reflecting Pool, past the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial and up to the Lincoln Memorial. The Lincoln Memorial was completed in 1922 as a dedication to the 16th President of the United States (who was assassinated in 1865). The statue of Lincoln is 19 feet tall, and sits in a massive temple overlooking the Reflecting Pool and has been the site for many famous speeches in the years since.

The Smithsonian Castle

The view over the Reflecting Pool to Lincoln Memorial from the National Monument

The National Monument looking from the War Memorial 

The 19 feet high Abraham Lincoln statue inside the memorial building

Gena, Bailey & Riley from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial

By this time, Bailey was literally out on his feet. So, Bluey hailed down a Cab and we took the short trip back to our hotel. Bailey and I were too tired to go out for dinner, so we ordered in Pizza and Bluey & Gena went to a Sports Bar around the corner for a feed. of course, any place that provides food, cold beer and 28 TV's covering all number of sporting events is always a great place for Bluey - he loved it.

Pictures to follow soon.

~Riley