Washington DC. The home of George W Bush – temporarily...

Okay, our next stop was Washington DC.  First day we were picked up by Tash’s cousin Sunil who let us stay with his family for the week.  Thank you, thank you, and thank you!  (he specifically asked for no thank yous...).  We were joined by Tash’s other cousin Murali and his family who had driven 9 hours to come and visit, which was also cool. 

On our second day in DC after getting our bearings (and being fed good curry) we went to the Udvar- Hazy museum, part of the Smithsonian National Air and Space museum near Dulles international airport.  I should mention Dulles purely because of the massive shuttles they use to ferry you across the runways between terminals.

  They look like giant moon rovers.  Most airports use buses, or feet for this purpose, so we thought this was pretty cool.  Anyway, the museum was much cooler because they have a space shuttle, a Concorde and a Blackbird stealth jet.  They also have the Enola Gay and a whole bunch of other cool things.  We went on a really good tour around the museum, led by a guide who really knew his stuff about plane design.  This was probably because he was a retired aeronautical engineer...  Actually lots of the museum tours here have been done really well.  I’ll give the Americans that �" they do a good museum!  And that was only half of the air and space museum; the other half was downtown, and I’ll talk about that in a minute.   We went bowling in the evening and Marcus won twice. Hooray!

The third day we went into Washington DC to be good tourists and look at some monuments.

  They do like their monuments...  We couldn’t get near the white house (let alone inside it) due to the increased security leading up to the 4^th of July.  However, we saw it from across the park.  It’s much smaller than you expect.  Maybe it resizes itself depending on the popularity of the president at the time.  We also saw the Washington monument and the Lincoln Memorial, which would probably have been more significant for us if we were good patriotic Americans.  And although our prime minister would like us to be good patriotic Americans, I can’t help but feel the standard Australian response of “yeah mate, it’s alright.  It’s no big pineapple though!”  After a tour around Arlington National Cemetery, we rounded off the day at the International Spy Museum, which was interesting.   I think I would make a good spy, although I may have to acquire a taste for vodka martinis.  I’ll mention that we found what Tash claimed was the best vanilla choc chip ice cream ever (which explains why we had to go through metal detectors and security screening to get to the food court).  If you’re interested, the food court was in the Reagan building (but I’m deadly serious about the security screening, and like most places in America, don’t expect good service).  The ice cream was good though...

The fourth day it was back to the museums.  We spent most of the day at the National Air and Space museum, looking mostly at the space stuff.  This place would make school projects pretty easy.

  Given that the Museum of American History was closed the Air and Space Museum has a highlights exhibit, featuring Lincoln’s hat, Kermit the Frog, C3P0 and R2D2, Dorothy’s ruby slippers, and one of Prince’s guitars.  The museum also has lots of rockets and planes etc, but hey, I’m not writing a guidebook here!  We also went to the Museum of Natural History, which is pretty cool as well, but their Australian exhibit has no wombats or Tasmanian Devils, which I thought was a major oversight.  We also checked out the Capitol building but again, couldn’t get very close due to the security situation.  We went to cold stone afterwards with Tash’s family, which was great fun. 

The fifth day was the Fourth of July.  We celebrated by going to see the Transformers move (yeah!  Go America! ).   Later on we decided to go for a walk and got caught in a thunderstorm, then headed into DC to catch the fireworks at the Washington Monument.  It was impressive, but not as impressive as the number of people there to watch it and the number of cops, national guard; helicopters etc which were out to make us all feel very safe and free...  Getting back on the train was a bit of a challenge (the lines just to get into the station nearest the monument stretched around the block!) and I’ll share with you what one of the police at the station said to the waiting crowd (and I promise you this is not exaggerating �" I was so surprised at the time that I wrote it down): 

    (Blows whistle) “Alright folks, now listen up.

  There are a lot of people in the line, it’s very hot, and we’re all very tired.  If you’re intoxicated step out of the line and go away to sober up.  We don’t want any scenes or any problems so for tonight we’re forgoing the “stop and detain” and going straight to the “stop and beat”.  If you cause any problems whatsoever tonight you won’t be going from here to the station and then home, you’ll be going from here to the hospital and home from there”.  

If it weren’t for the large truncheon he was carrying and the helicopter gunship flying overhead I would have thought he was joking…

So that’s it for DC.  It’s pretty easy to get around, lots to see if you like museums and monuments but not much if you don’t.  I would strongly suggest planning in advance if you want to go to the white house because otherwise, you’ve got no chance.  The next stop �" Orlando, Florida and Disney World!