The next morning, I got up and ready and headed down to use the Subway to meet my friend Ethan so we could go exploring.
After trying a pretzel for the first time (not terribly great to be honest) we went and learnt some stuff around Washington D.C
I think we only saw one museum on that second day but it basically took up the whole entire day.
We went to see one of the many Smithsonian museums they have located around Washington DC.
We ended up choosing The Museum of American History.
It was actually pretty interesting reading about the ‘history’ of America.
They had everything from the toys kids used to play with growing up in America, stuff about Abraham Lincoln and the Star-Spangled Banner Flag.
The Flag was the garrison flag that flew over Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor during the naval portion of the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812.
The flag has fifteen horizontal red and white stripes, as well as fifteen white stars in the blue field. The two additional stars and stripes, approved by the United States Congress‘s Flag Act of 1794, represent Vermont and Kentucky’s entrance into the Union.
They also had “The First Ladies Collection” which pays homage to the wives of many commanders-in-chief. There’s more than two dozen gowns, fine china and other furnishings from First Ladies.
There’s heaps more to write about but I might just put some pictures up instead.
After exploring the museum for many hours, we went and saw The White House!
It’s so bloody perfect I wish I lived there. I didn’t get to see Obama though, he was obviously critically ill or something and didn’t want to get me sick.
Once back at the hotel, I got ready for drinks at this Irish Pub.
I wasn’t sure what to expect but it was actually really good.
It was $10 at the door and you got unlimited drinks for the next 2 hours. No wonder so many people were there haha.
The drinks however got to some people a little bit too much…
Haha I love this guy.
I however did not spew so it was a win for me that night!
I didn’t really think about Washington DC when I signed up for this trip. I knew it was the capital but was kind of oblivious to how much history and museums there are here!
Washington was one of our longer stops. We arrived on Friday afternoon and didn’t leave until Monday morning.
When we arrived in Washington DC, we went to the Arlington National Cemetery which is the final resting place of more than 400,000 fallen heroes from the fronts of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the veterans of World Wars I and II, the Korean conflict, Vietnam, the Cold War and America’s Civil War
We went and saw The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier which pays tribute to an unidentified American soldier from World War I and we also watched the changing of the guard.
The tomb is guarded 24 hours a day, every day of the year by tomb guard sentinels. They’re considered to be the best of the 3rd U.S Infantry Regiment headquartered at Fort Myer, Virginia.
It was pretty cool to check out the changing of the guards. They change every hour and it’s pretty intense to watch. I could never do their job because I get too impatient even sitting at my desk all day.
After watching the guards, we went and viewed the grave for John F Kennedy and his brother and deceased children.
When Mr Kennedy died, his wife Mrs. Kennedy had expressed a desire to mark the president’s grave with an eternal flame similar to that of the French Unknown Soldier in Paris.
A propane-fed torch was selected and lit by Mrs. Kennedy during the funeral of her husband. The Eternal Flame burns from the center of a five-foot circular flat-granite stone at the head of the grave. It’s specially designed so there’s a constantly flashing electric spark near the tip of the nozzle which re-lights if it’s extinguished by rain, wind or accident.
After visiting the cemetery we checked into our hotel Days Inn and I got ready for our dinner.
We were all meant to wear ‘American themed’ clothing but I couldn’t find any clothing with the flag or colors on it when we had our lunch stop that day so just dressed normally.
Dinner was next door at the Italian restaurant. It was basically a buffet pizza bar and a bowl of salad which was fine but the pizza was only 3 different flavors. Pepperoni, cheese and one with olives all over it. So it was a bit un-interesting.
Once we’d finished dinner, we had a 4 hour tour around Washington!
Another old Contiki tour guide who lives in Washington came on the coach and took the tour for us.
Our first stop was Capitol Hill.
It didn’t look like the above picture though, more like this…
They’re re-do ing the dome part I think so they had lots of scaffolding up around it.
Here is where the Senate and the House of Representatives come together to discuss, debate and deliberate national policy and craft the country’s laws.
Apparantly the Pope is coming to Washington DC later this month and is going here. Oooo… exciting…
After that, we had more of a drive around the city and saw the Washington Monument which was built to honour George Washington the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and the first president of the United States.
We then took around an hour’s walk around lots of memorials.
Such as the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial which was along the Tidal Basin, as well as the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial.
My phone never takes very good pictures in the dark it seems…so that last picture I’ve added that someone else has taken.
We finished off our tour at the Lincoln Memorial which was really nice in front of the water. It was built in white stone with 36 iconic columns and honors the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln Memorial at night timeAnd during the day (credit to Google for the pictures)
When our tour was over, we went back to the hotel and headed next door to the restaurant again to have some drinks.
Not too many people were keen to go out so I went with Rob, Johnathon and Geoffrey (the usual going – out crew) and took an Uber more into the city.
We found a club and went there for the night.
It wasn’t too bad but wasn’t terribly exciting either. I think I left around 1am after trying to be a good wing – woman for one of the boys and then having a late Mexican 2nd dinner haha.
On Thursday it was off to Raleigh!
It’s the capital and the second most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is known as the “City of Oaks” for its many oak trees, which line the streets in the heart of the city.
As I’m writing this blog 3 days after being in Raleigh my memory is pretty shit. We arrived late in the afternoon at our hotel and all got our room key. For some reason a few of us had our own rooms so I was one of the lucky ones who got my own king sized bed for the night 🙂
When I got to my room I had a shower and quickly put my washing in the washing machine.
After my last attempt at washing them with no powder they weren’t smelling the greatest.
We had an included dinner at a buffet restaurant called ‘Golden Corral’ just before 7pm so after getting ready we all met on the bus and headed off there. I thought since it was a buffet it’d be pretty average but I was surprised at how good it was. There was just so much to choose from.
They had a hot buffet set up with all your Beef and Chicken dishes. They had Enchiladas, Fish dishes, Macaroni & Cheese, Meat loaf, Onion Rings, Pork Chops, Pork Steaks, Ribs, Potatoes either fried or mashed or made into fries. They even had rice dishes and Sandwiches, some Turkey and Hot Vegetables you could load your plate up with. They had a Salad Buffet set up too with vegetables and fruits.
My favorite part was the Dessert though. Cheesecake, Soft-serve Ice-cream, Scoop Ice-cream, Candy to put on top of it, Cookies, Chocolate Pies and Tarts. Yum!!
Took this picture off Google to give you an idea of what it looked like
After dinner, we headed out to go bowling. I’m not the best bowler, but after a few drinks I was doing pretty well. Still ended up loosing though!
Bowling finished about 10pm. Me, Jonathan and Robert thought it was too early to go back to the hotel so headed across the road to a bar and had a couple of drinks after the bowling.
Nothing was really happening so we headed back to the hotel after wards.
Raleigh was a pretty quiet time for me. Hence why this blog is so short and my memory is shit.
I do however remember my key card not working for like the 100th time on this trip. I always put it near my phone and it deactivates it which makes it impossible to get into my room until I re-activate it at the Reception area. Grr.
After exploring the museum for many hours, we went and saw The White House!
ThePassportPrincess 