DC! + I forgot to mention some other stuff I did earlier
So far I've had two and a half days in DC. I arrived around noon on the first day and met a relative with whom I am staying. He's my mother's cousin, I think that makes him my second cousin... Anyway, he's a bigshot lawyer with a HUUGE house (as previously mentioned). Then I wandered around the National Mall for a bit - this is the big expansive grassy place in the middle of DC with the Capitol Building at one end and the Lincoln Memorial at the other. The Washington Monument, a giant obelisk, is in the middle. I visited the last two on my first day, and they were pretty impressive. The Lincoln Memorial is modelled after the Parthenon, with lots of columns. There's a lot of Roman-style architecture in DC - you can't move for all the fluted corinthian columns, pediments, coffers, arches, vaults and domes. No one really lives in DC, it's mainly museums, businesses and government buildings. In NY I observed a lot of concrete masquerading as stone in Roman-style facades, but in DC everything really IS stone - usually granite or marble (if it's under cover). Pretty fancy!
So, Lincoln is like 10m tall - very imposing. I took pictures. There was a talk about it while I was there, and I think I might have offended someone by knowing more than the ranger about fasces (which are depicted on the front of the chair Lincoln is sitting on).
The Washington Monument is really really tall. 555 feet, however much that is in metres. You have to go up in a lift, because they no longer let people use the stairs - too many medical emergencies. There are 900 steps, apparently. I also saw the White House, but I couldn't get very close to it because of the police presence. I'm not sure if this was normal, people seemed confused. It might have had something to do with it being Pearl Harbour day though, I noticed the flags were all at half-mast.
The next day I headed to the Museum of Natural History. This was the first non-art museum that I'd been in! Unfortunately I didn't really have time to go through it properly - I could easily spend two days there. I did get a chance to go through the butterfly pavilion, which was just lovely. It's a small tube-shaped room with lots of plants in it and dozens of butterflies of all species just fluttering about. You can go inside and stand among them - it was wonderful! Other highlights included seeing the Hope Diamond - very big and very famous, and the dinosaur skeletons. I think I'm going to have to go back tomorrow though, because I missed the Easter Island head.
Next I wandered over to the National Art Gallery, a huge imposing edifice of stone with a big dome in the centre, and lots of columns. Inside it was pretty breathtaking as well, in a very opulent way. I got to see most of the West building, it not being very large. It also has a sclupture garden, with some very cool sculptures. One was a this 2d house that gave the illusion of three-dimensionality by having the different facets (two walls and two sections of roof) at angles to each other - but bent TOWARDS each other rather than away from. Kind of like when you look at a 3d drawing of a cube it can either be coming out at you or receding into the paper - it was very cool.
In the evening I went back to the house I'm staying in, plopped myself in front of the huge tv n the couch which is also a lazyboy somehow, and watched 2 hours of comedy central :D Later I had a nice long shower in my ensuite, and went to sleep in the giant bed with a million cusions and the softest pillows :D
I could sleep in that bed forever.
Today I was up and about a bit earlier, in order to waste less time. I went to the Air and Space Museum first - again, I didn't really have time to do it properly. I walked through and looked at stuff, but didn't take the time to read most of it or really understand aviation and spaceflight. Mostly I just ogled the planes and spaceships for a few hours. It was pretty cool. Then I headed next door to the Museum of the American Indian, which was fascinating! I've been reading a couple of books (courtesy of Malu) partially set in American Indian culture just after the American War of Independence, and it was especially interesting to find that tribe and learn more about them. The author did some serious research!
After I'd seen just about everything there, I headed over to the Capitol building, which houses the Senate etc. It looks pretty impressive - more Roman architecture. I couldn't go in though.
This evening, my second cousin (?) and his wife took me out to dinner at a fancy Japanese restaurant. I had creme brulee for dessert :) I'm feeling very full now. I think I will have a bath.
Oh, and here's the extra plus thing - I totally forgot to mention that on Friday my brother and I went to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty! Unfortunately, I couldn't go up in the crown - tickets had sold out weeks in advance and I didn't get on with it fast enough. We did get to go into the actual moument though. It was a crazy rush though. You can get to the Statue from NY or New Jersey, and there's a certain allotment of 'munument' tickets for each departure point, for some reason. They were all sold out in NY, so we ended up buying tickets for New Jersey, for the ferry leaving at 9am. We bought the tickets at 8am. After a crazy rush out the door, we rushed to New Jersey but got stuck in traffic and ended up getting to the ferry building a few minutes before it was meant to depart. We literally ran the 400m from the parking lot to the ferry building, dashed through the security line, dashed back to get my cellphone because I left it in the machine, raced out and through a series of ropes to make the ferry before it left...only to sit there for the next 10 minutes as several groups just kinda wandered up...
Ellis Island was kinda cool - it was really interesting to see the immigrant experience, and how it changed. When we got to Liberty Island we only had about an hour and a half before we had to get back on the boat (in order not to be late for something later in the evening), so we got in line for the Statue straight away. It took mroe than an hour to get into the monument - lots and lots and lots of waiting. By that stage we had about 15mins - we basically raced up the 145 steps to the top of the pedestal (the elevator was broken), took a bunch of photos, walked around a bit and raced back down. Then the locker we had our stuff stored in malfunctioned, so that took time to sort out and we ended up missing our ferry :( So we wandered around for an hour until the next one showed up and raced back from New Jersey in time to apologise to my sister-in-law for being late. It was a whirlwind experience, but pretty good!
As I said, I think I will go have a bath now. Tomorrow I plan to check out the Holocaust Museum and the Library of Congress, and maybe the Museum of American History. In the evening I might take a tour of the monuments 'by moonlight'.
So, Lincoln is like 10m tall - very imposing. I took pictures. There was a talk about it while I was there, and I think I might have offended someone by knowing more than the ranger about fasces (which are depicted on the front of the chair Lincoln is sitting on).
The Washington Monument is really really tall. 555 feet, however much that is in metres. You have to go up in a lift, because they no longer let people use the stairs - too many medical emergencies. There are 900 steps, apparently. I also saw the White House, but I couldn't get very close to it because of the police presence. I'm not sure if this was normal, people seemed confused. It might have had something to do with it being Pearl Harbour day though, I noticed the flags were all at half-mast.
The next day I headed to the Museum of Natural History. This was the first non-art museum that I'd been in! Unfortunately I didn't really have time to go through it properly - I could easily spend two days there. I did get a chance to go through the butterfly pavilion, which was just lovely. It's a small tube-shaped room with lots of plants in it and dozens of butterflies of all species just fluttering about. You can go inside and stand among them - it was wonderful! Other highlights included seeing the Hope Diamond - very big and very famous, and the dinosaur skeletons. I think I'm going to have to go back tomorrow though, because I missed the Easter Island head.
Next I wandered over to the National Art Gallery, a huge imposing edifice of stone with a big dome in the centre, and lots of columns. Inside it was pretty breathtaking as well, in a very opulent way. I got to see most of the West building, it not being very large. It also has a sclupture garden, with some very cool sculptures. One was a this 2d house that gave the illusion of three-dimensionality by having the different facets (two walls and two sections of roof) at angles to each other - but bent TOWARDS each other rather than away from. Kind of like when you look at a 3d drawing of a cube it can either be coming out at you or receding into the paper - it was very cool.
In the evening I went back to the house I'm staying in, plopped myself in front of the huge tv n the couch which is also a lazyboy somehow, and watched 2 hours of comedy central :D Later I had a nice long shower in my ensuite, and went to sleep in the giant bed with a million cusions and the softest pillows :D
I could sleep in that bed forever.
Today I was up and about a bit earlier, in order to waste less time. I went to the Air and Space Museum first - again, I didn't really have time to do it properly. I walked through and looked at stuff, but didn't take the time to read most of it or really understand aviation and spaceflight. Mostly I just ogled the planes and spaceships for a few hours. It was pretty cool. Then I headed next door to the Museum of the American Indian, which was fascinating! I've been reading a couple of books (courtesy of Malu) partially set in American Indian culture just after the American War of Independence, and it was especially interesting to find that tribe and learn more about them. The author did some serious research!
After I'd seen just about everything there, I headed over to the Capitol building, which houses the Senate etc. It looks pretty impressive - more Roman architecture. I couldn't go in though.
This evening, my second cousin (?) and his wife took me out to dinner at a fancy Japanese restaurant. I had creme brulee for dessert :) I'm feeling very full now. I think I will have a bath.
Oh, and here's the extra plus thing - I totally forgot to mention that on Friday my brother and I went to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty! Unfortunately, I couldn't go up in the crown - tickets had sold out weeks in advance and I didn't get on with it fast enough. We did get to go into the actual moument though. It was a crazy rush though. You can get to the Statue from NY or New Jersey, and there's a certain allotment of 'munument' tickets for each departure point, for some reason. They were all sold out in NY, so we ended up buying tickets for New Jersey, for the ferry leaving at 9am. We bought the tickets at 8am. After a crazy rush out the door, we rushed to New Jersey but got stuck in traffic and ended up getting to the ferry building a few minutes before it was meant to depart. We literally ran the 400m from the parking lot to the ferry building, dashed through the security line, dashed back to get my cellphone because I left it in the machine, raced out and through a series of ropes to make the ferry before it left...only to sit there for the next 10 minutes as several groups just kinda wandered up...
Ellis Island was kinda cool - it was really interesting to see the immigrant experience, and how it changed. When we got to Liberty Island we only had about an hour and a half before we had to get back on the boat (in order not to be late for something later in the evening), so we got in line for the Statue straight away. It took mroe than an hour to get into the monument - lots and lots and lots of waiting. By that stage we had about 15mins - we basically raced up the 145 steps to the top of the pedestal (the elevator was broken), took a bunch of photos, walked around a bit and raced back down. Then the locker we had our stuff stored in malfunctioned, so that took time to sort out and we ended up missing our ferry :( So we wandered around for an hour until the next one showed up and raced back from New Jersey in time to apologise to my sister-in-law for being late. It was a whirlwind experience, but pretty good!
As I said, I think I will go have a bath now. Tomorrow I plan to check out the Holocaust Museum and the Library of Congress, and maybe the Museum of American History. In the evening I might take a tour of the monuments 'by moonlight'.