Next stop - capital city

Once we had made our way out of Richmond, it was a short (by American standards) drive to Washington which goes beyond all my expectations. It is a really cool city with a really 'livable' atmosphere and plenty to do.

We started off at Arlington cemetery where (don't quote me on this) all the national servicemen get buried. You must have seen the picture before, fields and fields of identical gravestones signaling all the brave men who have given their life for this country. Many other great people have been buried there including John F Kennedy and his brother Robert. These are definitely the more popular sites to visit here and are immensely difficult to photograph for all the Chinese tourists practicing their version of patience (pushing in).

It is definitely worth a stroll around here and a few hours will suffice to really take in how significant a place this is to the country.

From there it's straight over the memorial bridge and before you stands the famous World War 2 memorial and behind it in the distance, Capitol Hill. Do not ask me why it is spelled 'Capitol' and not 'Capital'.

We had a bit of time to relax that afternoon and went for lunch at 'Fudd Ruckers' at the recommendation of Chris, Odilette's son, who swears by it. It's this gourmet burger place where you select the size of the pattie you want and then you add all the garnish and extras at the salad bar yourself. I have Definite hunger pains right now just thinking about it.

That evening we found a campsite a few miles from DC town center, far enough to be isolated and quiet enough for the deer to wander round the park. We saw the most peculiar thing in DC in that they have so many institutions names after Chevy Chase, or he was named after them…? They have Chevy Chase bank, streets, you name it. I also think I finally figured out what the 'DC' in 'Washington, DC' stands for, 'District of Colombia' I believe. So there's a little fact to brighten up your day.

We went back into town after the entire tent putting up was done and found a nice convenient place to park. First stop, the White House. It is pretty impressive, but I still say that Buckingham Palace has one up on it, then again a hundred times better than 10 Downing St. We spent a couple hours taking some great night photos of the Washington landmarks before we headed back to the car and the comfort of our tent. What we would have done without our inflatable mattress I don't know.

After a good night's sleep we cleared up our site and headed for town with many things in mind to accomplish. We headed straight for the Aeronautical museum which has aircrafts from the Wright Brothers' plane to the lunar modules for the Apollo missions. It was immensely impressive, but the cream on the crop was the mini exhibit they had on display there. It was all about American icons and its history, probable titled the same too.

Thomas Edison's light bulb; Alex. Graham Bell's telephone; R2D2 & C3P0 from Star Wars; Dorothy's slippers & the scarecrow; Abe Lincolns top hat; George Washington's battle regalia and musket; Mohammed Ali's gloves; Babe Ruth signed ball; Micky Mantle baseball car; Prince (or the artist formerly known as Prince) 's guitar; and heaps more that I could go on for hours about. It was very, very exciting and I have many photos.

Unfortunately this did not leave much time for us to see the National Art Gallery as our parking meter was rapidly counting down leaving us with a double quick step tour that went from the door straight to the Vermeer paintings. These are Celia's favorites as 'the way he captures the light' is apparently pretty impressive, it wasn't half bad.

That pretty much summed up our Washington stay with a drive through the Cherry Blossoms remaining we were well on our way to a place I am very excited to see.