After visiting the Lincoln Memorial it was off to the US Capitol. What a lovely building it is. If you want to see something that resembles the strength of America you only need to look at the US Capitol. First of all it is huge, has a large sweeping dome and looks quite Classical (in the Greek sense, although I could be way off with my description). The Australian Parliament House is pissweak in comparison to the US Capitol. I would have loved to sit inside the Congress and Senate chambers - oh well, not to be. The only thing I can say is that the Australian Parliament's flagpole is bigger. Take that America! LOL. There were no pollies (politicians) about today as it is Thanksgiving Sunday today.
Next stop involves American History. Where exactly? The National Archives. The home of the United States Declaration of Independance. The history of the United States is interesting in all aspects and the Declaration of Independance is no exception. I'll give a brief history lesson in a sec.
On display in the National Archive is one of the versions of the Magna Carta (yes, the document signed by the old kings in England saying that the king is not above the law and a whole bunch of other stuff), the Declaration of Independance, the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
History lesson time - so how did the United States of America eventuate? Well first of all there were a dozen British colonies. The British smashed the French ending the Seven Years War and started taxing the Americans to pay for the cost of the war (I think Tea Tax was one of the taxes). This effectively gave the Americans the shits, resulting in the 'Tea Party' incident resulting in the close and fortification of the port city of Boston. The colonies got together and wrote to the King. They got barred. So independence it was. How is that for a story! What about in Australia? Some blokes posed the question "How about Australia? Forget about this separate colony business" and England agreed. No declaration, no wars, nothing. Awww...
Last stop of the day (as it was nearing closing time for all of the museums and galleries) was teh National Air and Space Museum. Note: there are actually two parts - I went to the National Mall part. Anyhow, what a cool museum. I could spend a whole day here, unfortunately I had approximately 45 minutes. When the lights went out and the guards were ushering us out the door I was sad, very sad indeed. I am going to have to come back to Washington D.C. to finish off the museum. Ah well.
So what did I end up seeing? Well I saw the Welcome Centre, the Milestones of Flight exhibit, How Things Fly exhibit, Looking at Earth exhibit and finally the exhibit detailing the timeline of the Space Race. Some notable pointers - I got to touch a piece of the moon. Woohoo! Got a camera movie of me doing so - quality stuff. Another pointer is aerial photography. In World War 2 the Allies made use of stereo photographs (for 3D effects). OMG it's cool! I saw a bridge and a coastline of one of the river banks in 3D, truly amazing. The photos were that aged yellow paper colour, but it was all in 3D. Something that is recommended for viewing by me. The story of the Space Race is a real thriller and it was great to see replicas about the place.
Darkness befell Washington D.C. and it was time to head to our prearranged accomodation. I did no organisation whatever and it was a great relief. Many, many thanks must go to my cousins Kara and Jason for arranging the DC trip and accomodation. We stayed the night at a place called the River Inn. Luxury. I got the couch, but it was still luxury. Beats the cheapy hostels that I was staying at in LA and NYC, that's for sure! Obviously the River Inn would be much more expensive than hostels but its worth it. Yep, definitely. The bedroom was quite lavish, too - but I didn't get to sleep there. No complaints from me.
The US Capitol
The Washington Monument
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