Washington D.C

This was the drive to D.C but we went a roundabout way as Phil needed to stop over in Fredericksburg for some business.

On the way....................some small farms.

My quick "moving car" shots again.................I tried to get some of the trees which looked gorgeous with all their many colours.

The road was quiet.

Just coming out of a tunnel. We went through many tunnels that day.

We went past Harrisburg.

This is Harrisburg in the distance.

Finally, we came to the Fredericksburg turn off.

And then finally we arrived just outside D.C. We stayed in a "not so nice" Travellodge about 30 minutes from D.C. We felt that it was in a very dodgy area but after the first night, we felt more relaxed and it was fine.

We went for a drive after checking into our motel. Downtown D.C was not safe - well, we didn`t feel that safe so we drove back.

Downtown D.C.

The next morning, we caught a train to Union station to do some sight seeing in the city. This is the second biggest station in the world - apparently.

There were lots of shops and amazing things to eat!

We waited outside Union station for our trolley tour bus which we hopped on and off all day and had a tour of the city. We waited awhile and the 2 buses that went by were full so we wanted to give our tickets back as we were concerned that it was going to be a long wait at every stop as there were SO MANY people!! (Easter Friday) The stops were suppose to be a 10 minute wait. Anyway, we were told that we had to wait at least half an hour before we could give our tickets back, so we went outside to wait again. After about 10 minutes, the bus came and we were just about to get on when we realized that Duncan was missing. My heart skipped a beat! Phil ran back into the station and found Duncan waiting just where he had been with Phil earlier. He realized we were gone and just waited for us to find him. We told him that that was the right thing to do instead of trying to look for us. He got a big fright and so did we but thankfully we were all together again. (I feel like I aged about 2 years after that!)

Christopher Columbus - he was not the first man to discover America, the indians were the first. He was the first European to discover America!

The US Capitol in the center. To the left of the tower is the house of representatives and to the right of the tower is the Senate.

We went to an art museum which was part of the Smithsoneum museums. It was very interesting.

This was at the entrance.

We walked through some kind of rope type hanging things, not sure what they were. It felt weird.

This could have been Duncan`s drawing at 5 years old! Just because it was painted by some famous artist - it must be good art? Maybe the artist painted it when she was 5 years old?

The view from the art museum.

This was made with emty paint containers squirting paint out. I thought it was really clever.

This was made with nails. Amazing 3D art.

And bottles...............the boys loved this kind of art! Thanks to their auntie Margie who gave them an appreciation for 3D art and they did some 3D art in the garden with her when she came to visit us.

We had to walk a long way to get to the Washington monument.

This was one of the Smithsoneum museums. It is a group of museums funded by Smithsoneum who was a Scotsman and died in Italy but he never actually visited the U.S. There was a space museum, art, history and an American museum. We didn`t have time to go to all of them.

The Washington Monument has 50 flags around it, representing the 50 states of America.

This was the World War 2 memorial.

Walking to the Lincoln memorial. It took us ages and it was about 4 km.

The Vietnam Veterans memorial. The wall of remembrance which had the names of all those who died in the Vietnmese war.

And finally we got to the Lincoln memorial.

We have finally met old Abe! There were so many people inside that you could hardly move, so we just took a photo and left.

The view from the Lincoln memorial where we had walked from. It was so far and it was very deceiving as to how far it really was when we started walking. Phil kept complaining that I walk too fast, but I wanted to see EVERYTHING!

Phil had just been into the Reseve bank of America but they wouldn`t cash in his hundred trillion zim dollar notes!

The White House! It was so different being there and a bit of an anticlimax, not sure why. I expected more security and I didn`t realize it was right in the middle of the city and hussle and bussle. I would think that the presidents house would be a bit more out of the way?

Yes, been there now! Christian Americans are very worried about their country which is moving away from Christian principles with Obama. America is in a serious state at the moment.

The oldest hotel in the U.S. Abraham Lincoln also stayed here for $2.50 a night. Now it is about $500-$600 a night.

The Old post office. Apparently Donald Trump has just bought it and he wants to turn it into a hotel.

 

We didn`t really like D.C. It was probably the least likable of all the cities which we had been to. Boston was our favourite city by far. We just felt that D.C was very showy, too big with enormous buildings and just everything kind of in your face - trying to make a statement of power and strength. It was just too much for us.

The second day in D.C, we took the boys to the six flags theme park and that will be my next post.

They had so much fun!

Lots of love

all of the Frosties

xxxx