Washington, the place of monuments, Presidents, and squirrels

Today, we are travelling back in time. Before New York, we spent three weeks in Washington. While most of that was work, we still spent time exploring the city and being tourists.

Washington is the home of wide, uncluttered streets. Coming straight from Bangalore, with some of the worst traffic in the world (both congested and ill-disciplined), I loved being here and after a brief burst of panic driving on the wrong side of the road, I acclimatised and enjoyed driving again for the first time in 9 months! It made me realise how much I miss the freedom that driving provides. I also terrified Reza who I don’t think had expected me to be such an aggressive driver! Anyway, here’s a bunch of photos rather than talking. (All photos are Reza’s handiwork unless explicitly stated, and I think you’ll be able to figure out which ones they are anyway).

God bless America

National World War II Memorial. America is very good at things on a grand scale- this is a beautiful memorial.

The Washington Memorial (Or, as I called it, The Big Stick)

The Lincoln Memorial. The US also idolises its past Presidents (well, some of them at least).

Lincoln himself.

Washington is home to a large number of memorials, statues, museums, and art galleries. Most of these are cheap, or free. If you want to visit some of these museums or galleries, you will need to book. There are three ways to do this- in advance on the website (about 2 months in advance). At 6am on the day, via the internet. Or, chance it, on the day as the attraction opens. There are tickets put aside for every category but you do have to be on time for the two on-the-day options.

More ex-Presidential love, we visited George Washington’s estate.

A charming rural scene at Washington’s home. A working farm, he was quite an inventor and gardener.

‘Paula, what do you want to do?’ ‘Go see the butterflies at the museum’ Best $6 spent in a long time!

Went to visit Trump, sadly he was off in the Middle East. Considering last time I met a country leader he resigned shortly thereafter, it might have done the US some good if I had spoken to Trump 😉

SQUIRRELS <3 I’m obsessed! Fed the locals some nuts

I particularly like the squirrel bounding off in the background

Capitol Hill in the background, and Hogwarts on the right. Actually, it’s the Smithsonian Institute…

I took this photo. I’m not great with Reza’s camera, so he has to (patiently) set it all up for me and yell instructions at me when I take photos. So, there’s not many pics of him!

A slightly over-exposed Reza photo, in the gardens next to Hogwarts.

Not Washington this one- road trip to Virginia Beach. USS Wisconsin (BB-64).

One place I visited was the Washington Holocaust Memorial. I recommend everyone goes. It’s free…. but you have to book. I got up at 6am, booked my ticket online, then went back to bed. Worth it.

At the Holocaust Memorial, as you enter, they give you a small booklet. It details the life of an actual person. The pages of the book correspond with the floors of the building. You’re loaded into an elevator at start on the top floor. As you descend floors, the years advance, and the situation gets more and more dire. We all know how it ends. It takes a few hours to make it through the memorial, it’s incredible interesting, with loads of different information, photographs, and ways of presenting information. It’s a bit horrific, I was feeling very… overwhelmed and suffocated towards the end.