Friday was a travel day, train into Penn and we deviated from our practice route and had a mild panic when we were not where we wanted to be, however a friendly ticket tout pointed the way and we made the queue. The bus was pretty chokka but we found 2 seats together. The bus cost us about $50 and the train was to be around $400 so it was a no contest even though it was an extra hour on the bus. The hotel is lovely, very upmarket for us, Steve got it through booking.com at a bargain price. Jumped in the pool then went shopping and found this amazing supermarket a block away. We had some leftover chicken so we heated it up in Thai green curry sauce in the coffee maker as that is the only form of heating we have, however; that and salad, yum. We went out later to do a cache and buy green tea which we had forgotten, that kept us both happy.
Next morning we hired bikes and on the way there passed the old post office with free entry into the bell tower. Up we went to a spectacular view. The guy claimed one of the best in DC as it does not have the skyscrapers that NYC boasts. Once on the bikes we followed all the virtual caches, the Washington monument and various war memorials.
Giving the President a wave. Front row!
On the way Steve discovered we could pop across a bridge into Arlington and do the caches in the cemetery there which ended up with a virtual at the Lockerbie memorial.
Lockerbie memorial in Arlington cemetery
Before this we had been held up to allow the presidents motorcade through, very exciting. While in the cemetery we realised that it was the 60th anniversary of the Korean War and he may have also taken a look at the Abraham Lincoln memorial which had been vandalised by having green paint thrown over it. Back over the river we did Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jefferson and FDR memorials and worked our way around to the White House.
Looking from Lincoln towards Washington
Lincoln Memorial - Abe, an "Honest Man" with Green paint apparent from recent vandalism
The NZ wreath at the Korean 60th anniversary
The Korean war memorial. To the left of this photo is a wall with sand blasted images of those that perished.
Martin Luther King Jr memorial.
On either side is a wall with many of his quotes etched in granite.
Very moving.
More African Americans here than at any other memorial.
We visited the Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorial after Luther King. It is huge. No photos. FDR is highly revered. I never realised that he was a four term president although he died in office during his fourth term. We then visited Thomas Jefferson's memorial. Huge Colosseum. Next the we visited the White house and there was also a plinth showing us where mile zero is. Supposedly all road distances in the USA were meant to be measured from here.
Lindsey showing off her new "Rocking Fish" T-shirt
Mr Michelin proving that he was there too.
The Presidents Christmas tree. A bit under whelming. I Think we prefer the Rockefeller Centre's Christmas tree instead.
A few more on the way back to the bikes and bussed home. Changed to jump in the pool to discover it was now pouring with rain and the pool was closed in case of thunder and lightening so we contented ourselves with a shower instead. Chilled in the room, shopped in the fantastic supermarket hot food section for dinner and now writing the blog, logging caches and watching Gladiator on telly.
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