American Flag
Thought I'd include this as we haven't had a flag picture yet. Its Memorial Day long weekend this weekend - lots of activities in DC. This includes a huge influx of motor bike riders, (almost all Harley Davison)who are also linked in some way to Service Men and Women. They go under the name of Rolling Thunder and they also advocate for the rights of veterns upon return from duty.
Marine 1
View of Marine 1 from our hotel window. Marine 1 has been flying around the area for the last 2 hours. Marine 1 departs from the grounds of the White House and he might have been on board this flight... Security is tight - as we are staying 2 blocks from the White House, we often get halfway down a street and then told by police to turn back as the road is now closed.
Segway tour
Here's Colin in front of Blair House (just down the street from the Whitehouse) on a segway. I have used editor's rights to ensure that no photo of me on a segway makes it into the public domain! No spills for us, but they are hard work & at the end we were glad we only did a 2 hour tour and not a three hour tour. Blair House is famous as the place for visiting dignitaries to stay - when they are in residence, it becomes international territory. This is where John Howard stayed when receiving his Freedom Medal from best buddy George W. immediately prior to Barack Obama's inauguration, thereby relegating the Obama's to a hotel. Made big news in Washington, as well as in Australia.
Capitol Building
View of the Capitol Building from the front (Eastern side) - originally the building was meant to be entered from the East & Washington would spread out in that direction, but the farmers farming the land were reluctant to sell & so Washington has spread west into swampland. You can tell which way is front and back by the way the statue is facing.
Lady Freedom
By an act of Congress, Lady Freedom (the statue on top of the Capitol building) has to be the highest point in Washington (as nothing can be higher than Freedom!) which means most buildings in DC are no taller than about 12 stories. Seems reallys short compared to NY.
Inside the Capitol
View inside the dome (or rotunda) of the Capitol building. It took 80 years and 3 head painters to complete the mural at the top of the picture.
Old House Chamber
Every state is entitled to supply (or have commissioned by Congress) two statues to represent their state in the Capitol Building. They must be made of either bronze or marble and as long as the statue has been there for 10 years, they can replace their statues.
Memorial Day concert
Its Memorial Day on Monday, so they have a concert on the lawn of the Capitol Building on Sunday night (with a dress rehearsal tonight). I think there are a few artists staying in the same hotel - but I don't recognise any of them. This photo is the back of the stage. There's heaps of security, including 2 Hazardous Material Response Trucks, police on bikes, scanners etc all around the Capitol.
Library of Congress
The Great Hall of the Library of Congress. A fabulous hall & was also completed on time and under budget. It took 10+ years to complete & if you were a craftsman you didn't get paid until the job was done. It was a job however, that made your reputation for the rest of your career!
Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the USA. It could be a bit hard to tell how large it really is from this photo - have a look at the next but one photo.
More Supreme Court
I liked this photo so decided to include it - enjoy!
A sense of scale
The person in the photo gives you some idea of how massive the columns truly are. Amazing!
Washington Monument
A still evening meant the reflecting pool did its job well. We'll be taking the elevator up the Washington Monument on Monday evening - all 555.5ft! If you look carefully you might be able to see a slight colour change 1/3 of the way up the monument. They ran out of money and in the intervening 30 years, the quarry that supplied the original stone closed & meant they had to source more which didn't match perfectly.
Lincoln Memorial
Here's the Abraham Lincoln memorial - really beautiful but crowded - this photo doesn't really show how busy it was.
No peace for Abe
Poor Abraham Lincoln - there's no peace for him - so many people wanting to salute his contribution. There's heaps of school groups on excursions - mostly they blend in, but this group chose a lime green t-shirt as a way of spotting each other quickly. A good idea when there are about 1000 other people around.
Inside the memorial
Apparently Abe's hands form an "A" and an "L" in sign language. Two of his most significant speeches are engraved on each wall one to his left and one to his right. Some inspired writing there!
Rolling Thunder Parade
Either there were an awful lot of them or they were looping back around the 4 mile circuit!
How to tell the status of a war hero
There's a code to statues (although not always 100% accurate) - if the horse has all 4 feet on the ground, the person got through unscathed, if 1 foot off the ground, the person was wounded, if the horse is rearing the person didn't make it. This one is of Andrew Jackson - I don't think its accurate.
Bald Eagle statue
This statue is near the hotel & I liked it so took a photo.
Space Shuttle
Here's some lego men in conversation about the space shuttle. It was at the National Air and Space Museum.
Statue at the Capitol Visitor's Centre
Located at the Capitol Visitor's centre, this is a cunning interpretation of the requirement to have the statue made out of bronze or marble. Underneath the space suit, the statue is made of bronze. It is of Jim Swigert who was command module pilot of Apollo 13.
Lunar module
Here's a mockup of a lunar module.
The Wright Flyer
This is the original 1903 Wright Flyer - the first plane to fly - the canvas was replaced in 1985 which is why it looks new.
Trans Atlantic Flyer
This plane flew across Antartica, but fell 40 miles short of the original landing point & therefore had to hike for 6 days to reach land. I don't know if they actually had penguins stand this close to the plane.
Red, white and blue (purple!)
As its Memorial Day weekend there's a lot of red, white and blue (or in this case purple) to celebrate the event.
Memorial Day Parade
Looking down Constitution Avenue to the start of the parade on 7th St- the flag was suspended by crane and the minute the last band passed, it was lowered to the ground!
Looking up Constitution Avenue
Looking the other way along Constitution Ave towards 17th St (the conclusion of the parade). The policeman has a whistle in his mouth, not a giant cheese twistie!
Ernest Borgnine
Serviceman and Academy Award Winner. One of the best bits of the parade.
Cavalry.....
There were plenty of horses in the parade.
So you need a pooper scooper
Every group of horses had a cleaning unit right behind!
Union or confederate?
Confederate, I think.
Battle of the Bands
This band were pretty good.
Have hat, will travel
These guys had the best hats.
Shoes
These guys had by far the best shoes!
Natural History Museum
Really impressive elephant in the foyer of the Natural History Museum.
T. Rex
Pretty scary, except for the puny T. Rex arms.
Black sheep of the squirrel family
All of the other squirrels seem to be a red/grey colour - this one is a fair bit darker.
White House - the back door
Technically, this is the back of the White House, as its address is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Will post the front view later, when I have a decent photo.
Vietnam War Memorial
At the beginning of the war memorial, just after memorial day. It's been raining heavily, so a lot of the flowers are not in the best shape now.
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
The front view of the White House.
Herbs at the White House
You may remember the White House recently advertised their herb garden - this is it!
Its not easy being green
At the Smithsonian (National Musuem of American History) they have all manner of things - including the ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz, Dumbo (from the Disneyland ride - Sharon you'll be pleased to know they picked the purple one!) and my favourite - Kermit. He was originally made from Jim Henson's mother's green coat.
It seemed like a good idea at the time.....
Congress commissioned a statue of George Washington (naming the city and state after him weren't quite enough it seems) and so were keen to have a statue for the Capitol Building. They wanted it to look historic, so they plonked George's head on the body of Zeus. This was Victorian times (a little prudish) and so the sight of the bare chest was a bit too much for the inhabitants of Washington to bear - not to mention the fact that the statue was so big they needed to have 3 attempts to ship it and then wouldn't fit through the Capitol doors - so it ended up at the Smithsonian.
Space Shuttle Enterprise
This space shuttle has never been to space, it is simply a training shuttle. It was originally called Constitution, but a campaign by Trekkies got its name changed to Enterprise (as in Star Ship...)
The front view
Another view of the Space Shuttle Enterprise. It can be seen at Udver-Hazy Centre at Dulles Airport, Washington.
Also at Udver-Hazy...
This is a Piper Cub, the first plane as part of the collection. They now have over 300 things relating to flight and is an extension of the collection located in the building on the Mall in Washington (National Air and Space Museum).
National Museum of Natural History
Today we got to the mammals - really liked this tiger. Fron the second story he looked as if he was pouncing on the passersby below.
Weather not so good today
This is a view of the Jefferson Memorial on the Tidal Pool. No-one was keen to take out a paddle boat today - it was about 16 deg C and they had about 2 inches of rain overnight.
Jefferson Memorial
Again, looking across the tidal pool.
Jefferson Memorial - inside the rotunda.
The statue is 19 feet tall, just 0.5 inch shorter than the Statue Freedom.
FDR memorial
A bit further around the tidal pool from the Jefferson memorial is the FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) memorial. This shot is from the section devoted to his second term - the one where the US is struggling with the Depression. He is the only president to have been elected to the office of President for more than 2 terms.
Strawberry Shortcake and Bourbon Walnut Pie
Mmmmm - delicious!
View from Washington Monument
The weather wasn't the best - it was quite rainy. This view is looking towards the Lincoln Memorial.
View from Washington Monument
This is looking 180 degrees in the other direction towards the Capitol Building.
Stones inside the Monument
On the way down, on the inside of the monument there are a number of stones commemorating Washington's contribution. This is one of the largest and most elaborate and comes from New York.
Washington Monument at night
If you look really carefully at the bottom you can see a shadowy figure - its Colin and gives you some idea of the scale. He is 6 foot 2 inches, it is 555 feet, 5 & 1/2 inches.
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