A day in DC, page 1
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I decided to visit the capital of the United States of America, Washington DC, for spring break. However, since I have a great deal of work to do over the break, I decided to try and make this trip as short as possible. So I began this trip by taking the 11pm Chinatown buson Saturday night and returned to New York via a similarly late bus arriving in Manhattan in the early hours of Monday morning.
A return fare to Washington DC from New York is $35. Moreover, the bus doesn't go to a stupid bus station, it drops you off in Chinatown!
...so my journey begins in chinatown in New York
...chinatown in DC doesn't look too different.
My original idea was to take a later bus and arrive in time to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately, many things conspired against this plan. First of all, the last bus to leave New York leaves at 11pm and, since there is very little traffic at this time of the night, it arrives in DC at 3am. Oh well... let's try to find the Capitol building... hey mister traffic light, can you please point me to the capitol? thanks.
Ever wondered what the Washington monument looks like at about 4am?
...how about that Capitol?
the funny colour changes on the monument are caused by the way the water flows off of it... yes... it was raining when I got there.
A slightly different perspective on the WWII memorial, one of the newest memorials in the capital, dedicated in 2004. The structure that dominates the centre is an arch-gazebo-thing representing the pacific operations theatre. The pillars to the left and right each represent a state or territory. The wreaths are of oak and wheat symbolizing strength and... food, yum.
...and on the ground, a plaque to remind everyone of what the memorial is actually for.
here it is again, taken with a lens with a less absurd focal length.
...another picture of the monument... once the world's tallest penis... er... structure. Until the Eiffel tower took the title in 1889
A duck! (if you weigh as much as a duck, then you must be made of wood, and therefore a witch... geddit?)
oohhh... here comes the sunrise...
except that there were too many clouds to actually see the sun rise, d'oh
This is the landing from which Martin Luther King JR delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Of course, when he did that, there were lots more people in front, and it probably wasn't 7am.
And behind him, was the statue of the man who emancipated the slaves, the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.
The poor chap had to deal with the pesky american civil war... but for his troubles, he is credited with holding the union together
...and his very famous "four score and seven" speech... rather coincidentally, there are exactly four score and seven steps leading up to the monument.
This reminded me of that movie - "Team America". You know, the easiest way to support the troops is not to go to war...
I like how all the signs have "United States" on the top, just in case you forget which country you happen to be in.
Oh, how I would like to have a tree named afer me someday.
Finally, 8:30am came around and something opened... the Smithsonian Institute visitors and information centre.
"what're you looking at?"
there were many pretty display cases, but if I wanted natural history, I could always just go to New York (I do live there, after all)
so just a quick stroll down to road... oohh... what's this, a monster truck. I wonder if it is a hybrid... it'd have a rather alarming carbon footprint otherwise
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! (this is just an indication that I am perfectly sane)
...and apart from the pretty buildings and monuments, this is pretty much the whole reason that I came here
just outside the enrance, was this funny looking thing, which looks a bit like a fancy back-scratcher for a very very large man with a very very itchy back
The Spirit of St Louis, named for the small town that supported Charles Lindbergh's first ever transatlantic flight. Notice that it doesn't actually have a windscreen... the budget was small, at about 15,000 and Lindbergh had to look through a periscope to see where he was going.
The Messerschmitt Me 262, the word's first ever jet-figher plane... unfortunately came too late to change the tide in the war.