Washington, DC

I woke up at my usual time of 6.30am and left at 8am. I drove to Washington, DC (Laurel is about three quarters of an hour from it) and managed to find somewhere (free as the meters aren’t in use on a Saturday!) to park near the centre. I made my way to the Capitol (yes, they spell it like that!) Building in time for the 10am tour that I was booked on. The only other time I’ve been a tourist in Washington was in 1994 which was during my first visit to the US. Then you could wander all over the building as I remember looking at the kitchens and even the boiler room but, of course, it’s all different now. First of all we watched about a 15 minute long film about the history of the building and US government and then we went around as a group. We all wore headsets so we could hear our guide fine but we only really saw about three rooms which were the Rotunda, the old government room and the crypt.



The Rotunda:

Part of the freize around the Rotunda:













Washington has crossings that count down the number of seonds until the lights turn red again:


I got out at about 11.15am and asked a guide where the statue of Abraham Lincoln was that I saw in 1994 and was told that it was 2.2 miles down the road near the river. I don’t remember it being that far away in 1994! On the way I decided to stop off at the Air and Space section of the Smithsonian which was really interesting. My interest is mainly space exploration and I was especially pleased to see that Alan Shepherd (my friends will know why!) was mentioned several times including a book that he had used on his flight and signed. There was a café in there too so I had some lunch and then wandered down Constitution Avenue some more.

The capsule from Apollo 11:




The next item was the Washington Monument which is basically a Cleopatra’s Needle but much, much bigger. They also do tours to go inside it but I hadn’t booked one (next time!).




I next came across a massive monument to the Second World War that I had absolutely no recollection of seeing in 1994! This worried me as I have pretty good recall so I asked the ranger there and it was only built in 2004 which explained it! Today there were about 100 veterans visiting it and holding a brief ceremony. They have pillars with the names of all the states and on either end areas about the battles in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. I did have to get used to the fact that they believed that the war didn’t start until 1941!











I the walked down to the Abraham Lincoln monument and it was actually smaller than I remembered it from 1994! It’s very impressive though and was really peaceful even though there were loads of tourists there.













I next walked past the Vietnam War memorial and decided to make my way back via The White House. Obviously nowadays you can’t get very close to it but I took a few photos from the fence. I then walked back to my car and was absolutely shattered as it was 4pm by then and I’d been walking since 9.15am!

The Vietnam War memorial wall:

This photo gives an indication of how many names are on it:

The White House:



Washington, DC to Maple Shade, NJ was supposed to be two and a half hours but I stopped for some petrol and at a chemist to stock up on my favourite brand of US shampoo so I got there at about 7pm but then I just could not find my hotel! Eventually I asked at another hotel and my SatNav had taken me to exactly the correct address but the hotel was back off the main road and was difficult to see! I finally checked in at about 8pm. I just dropped off my case and left again to go out to dinner as I was ravenous by this time. Before I left home I had put the nearest restaurants that I like onto my schedule so tonight it was an Applebee’s and I had a gorgeous chicken pasta dish.

I got back to my room by 9.30pm and started writing my review of yesterday’s gig. My hotel is an Extended Stay America which is a chain that I haven’t used before. It’s okay but nothing special (except for the price) but I’m staying in better hotels when I’m there for 2 nights. This is the only hotel on my trip which doesn’t have complimentary Internet access but $5 for access isn’t too bad. Unfortunately though for some reason it won’t allow me to update my website!

I got to bed at about 11.30pm and thankfully it’s lovely and peaceful here.

(I won't usually take as many photos as this!)