Thursday, September 22, 2011

US Holiday - Day 12 - Washington DC - Day 2

Day 12 - Tuesday 20th September

Mum and dad please forgive me. I didn't take your advice about taking an umbrella and today the day started out with rain and I was umbrellaless.

Grabbed a coffee on my way from the hotel to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Only took me about 15 minutes to get there. I had searched along the way for a shop to buy an umbrella but there are no stores in this part of town. I was sort of hoping that they would have something in the gift store and once I got through the security check it was the first place I went to. Nothing on the first floor so I headed to the lower floor and bingo, found a small umbrella that I could stash in the backpack. OK, with that now dealt with it was time to check out all things aeronautical.

The main foyer has some amazing pieces. They include the Apollo 11 capsule, X-15, X1, SpaceShipOne to name just a few. This place is really amazing. You move to other parts of the building you then get to see a V2 rocket, a mock up of the Hubble Space Telescope, a Skylab module. Then you head up stairs and you are able to look at the original plane created by Wilbur and Orville Wright. There was also a planetarium so booked a ticket and enjoyed the shop narrated by Whoopi Golberg.

I spent around 3 hours in the museum before heading along the mall towards the Lincoln Memorial. The weather had improved and a few patches of blue sky became visible. I got a few shots of the Washington Memorial which is still closed after the earthquake from a few weeks ago. There are some cracks in it that still need to be OK'd the engineers.

From there passed the WWII memorial and onto the Lincoln Memorial. This is a fantastic monument and there were a lot of people enjoying it. Took pics and video before making the journey past the Vietnam Memorial and then onto the White House and the south lawn. I then walked around the other side of the building for some other additional shots. Then walked back towards the hotel passing numerous federal buildings including the FBI building. 

Weather again tomorrow is not looking good. Rain again is forecast so we'll see how it turns out.

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