Archive for the 'washington' Category

Museums and Memorials

We have spent the last couple of days exploring Washington D.C. – which is mostly museums and memorials.

First up is the Capitol Building. Pretty impressive and it looks a bit bigger than the one in Austin which we seen.

Capitol Building

Capitol Building

We also went to the Museum of Air and Space which Rob enjoyed a lot. It wasn’t too “kiddified” and it was free admission which made it all the more enjoyable.

The Moon Lander!!

The Moon Lander!!

Second-up was our third Museum of Natural History which we have seen in USA. It was pretty good, but I think the one in Chicago was by far the best one we have seen. The one in D.C. did have the Hope Diamond though (along with dedicated security guards) which was nice to see.

Hope Diamond

Hope Diamond

Next up was the Vietnam War Memorial. It is a big wall with the names of all of those killed or missing in action. What makes it more interesting is that people leave things next to the wall (medals they have left over from one of their relatives that died, photos etc) and they just leave them there until some official goes around and collects them every night (they take them to the Smithsonian Museum).

The Three Soldiers

The Three Soldiers

Vietnam Memorial

Vietnam Memorial

The reflective wall of the Vietnam memorial

The reflective wall of the Vietnam memorial

Lastly was the Korean War Memorial which is made up of numerous soldier statues in a staggered pattern. It’s quite an amazing sight.

Korean War Memorial

Korean War Memorial

So we are all done in Washington D.C. now – heading to Orlando for some theme park fun tomorrow.

Leeane

The Capital

Washington D.C reminds me of Austin for some reason, maybe it’s because one of the first things we saw was a nice pub with close to 200 beers available – three of which I have now tried.

That’s what we did at the end of the day though, I probably should mention what we did and saw after getting to the hotel but it’s hard to recall since it was so hot and muggy today that I think my brain melted. Luckily, Leeane took pictures to jog my memory.

First things first, we went to check out George W.’s place and his small army of police (both secret and normal) that surround it.

George W.'s place

George W."s place

He’s got a massive backyard but suprisingly no Hills Hoist to dry his undies.

The Washington Monument is the logical next choice to go see as it towers over the horizon and is easily the tallest thing in the city.

Washington Monument

Washington Monument

The sights are all nicely connected so we couldn’t help but check out the Reflection Pool. If it wasn’t so algae ridden it would have been a nice day to take a dip. In fact I’m surprised the pool even reflects with all the stuff growing in it.

Reflection pool

Reflection pool

Reflection pool 2

Reflection pool 2

As we’ve seen so many times in movies, there was a political rally happening at the base of the Honest Abe’s memorial, in this case an Obama rally. We happened to bump into the old fella and get a happy-snap with him.

Me and Obama, just hanging

Me and Obama, just hanging

Of course, Honest Abe was overlooking everything that was going on from his throne at the top of the steps.

Honest Abe

Honest Abe

Abe"s view

Abe"s view

Rob

PS – And Braden, in case you are wondering his head IS filled with carmelly, carmelly corny corn and there ARE nose goblins under his chair.