Washington DC is the home of American government, so of course there is lots to do and see. For the 5 days we spent in DC we toured around and had a great Washington experience.
The first day we smashed all of the famous buildings and places. For 8 hours we walked and walked and walked. First we went and saw Capitol Hill. The building is so powerful looking and a bit intimidating but is a beautiful architecture. Towering columns, fresh white paint, and statues of people and to finish it off a huge dome based on the one I saw in Florence. It definitely looked like somewhere where humongous decisions were made.
The first day we smashed all of the famous buildings and places. For 8 hours we walked and walked and walked. First we went and saw Capitol Hill. The building is so powerful looking and a bit intimidating but is a beautiful architecture. Towering columns, fresh white paint, and statues of people and to finish it off a huge dome based on the one I saw in Florence. It definitely looked like somewhere where humongous decisions were made.
We walked on, stopping at the Smithsonian Air and Space museum (which I’ll talk about later). The Washington Monument came next. It hurt my neck looking up at the tall obelisk. Unfortunately they were still fixing it because of an earthquake that happened years ago so there was scaffolding on it. We ran to the White House. Why did we run? Marine 1 (Obama’s helicopter) was flying over our heads on its way to the White House. I sprinted across the field and bellied up to the fence in hope of a glimpse of this famous American president. I was too late but something strange happened. The helicopter came back and landed again. I thought maybe the president had forgotten his handkerchief. They were off again but then came back! The pilot kept doing it. I heard someone say Obama was in New York so the Marine 1 pilot was practising. It must have been a new pilot. We were very lucky to have been there. It’s not everyday that Marine 1 fly’s over your head 15 times!
We moved on to the reflection pool and chucked a few pennies in it. Some of the pennies look really old. Soon we came to the Abraham Lincoln statue. It was probably 8x the size of the real Abraham. He looked regal but also kind like he knew what he was doing. White seems to be the colour for important buildings and statues in America so of course Abraham was made out of white marble. His famous speech was written on the wall too. To get home we had to walk for another half an hour to get to the subway. The walk to the subway pushed our limits just a bit too far especially Timmy. Let’s just say we were happy to get home and sit down.
The Smithsonian museum collections are incredible. It is the biggest set of museums in the world with 19 museums and 8 labs. We went to both the air and space museums and the museum of natural history. I think the museum of natural history in New York is better presented. In Washington, they have a stuffed polar bear put up high where you can’t see it. If that were in the New York one it would have a beautiful mosaic behind it and scenery matching it’s natural habitat and they would make it look like it was catching a fish. The New York museum felt like you were in a frozen zoo. But apart from that the Washington was pretty good. I loved the air and space museum. We went to both the one on the Mall and one out near the airport. I preferred the huge museum at the airport. It was an old aeroplane hangar. It had a Concorde, the space shuttle, Discovery, the Enola Gay and a lot of other strange and wonderful aircraft. The Enola GayOne looked like a banana, another was a glider that looked like something out of Star wars and a helicopter with a cockpit so small I’m sure the pilot would get claustrophobia. The area was absolutely massive! Everywhere you turned you would see at least 30 aeroplanes. The other museum had a lot of important amazing aircraft and spacecraft like one of Amelia Earhart’s planes and part of first spacecraft to the moon, the Apollo 11 but it didn’t have the giant machines that made the other one so spectacular.
We went shopping and went to a hat shop that has a machine that sews your name into your hat. Its really cool watching it write you name in the side of the hat you chose.
We also went and saw the Pentagon where all of the military secrets of America are kept. I saw a lot of army, navy, marine and air women and men. They were all kitted up in their uniforms. I also got to see the FBI building, the J. Edgar Hoover building, which was not really what I expected, it was just the same as all of the other buildings on the street.
What I liked about Washington D.C. was that it was it had beautiful low-rise buildings like Paris, a interesting history like London, great museums like New York, a pleasant clean metro like Tokyo, Beijing and Shanghai and lots of trees and a calm chilled feeling about it like, well like Washington DC.
We also went and saw the Pentagon where all of the military secrets of America are kept. I saw a lot of army, navy, marine and air women and men. They were all kitted up in their uniforms. I also got to see the FBI building, the J. Edgar Hoover building, which was not really what I expected, it was just the same as all of the other buildings on the street.
What I liked about Washington D.C. was that it was it had beautiful low-rise buildings like Paris, a interesting history like London, great museums like New York, a pleasant clean metro like Tokyo, Beijing and Shanghai and lots of trees and a calm chilled feeling about it like, well like Washington DC.
Me outside the FBI
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