Washington DC – Memorials, White House & Mist

Rosie and The Operator arrived in Washington DC without a hitch.  We are staying at the Quincy Hotel in the Dupont Circle suburb which is primarily Embassy Row, alot of the big old town house mansions have been converted to house diplomatic and embassy offices.  It is an area that has alot of restaurants and bars as well as being a working area with plenty of office blocks.

Washington DC, the countries capitol took a little while to get here, there were about 6 proclaimed capitol cities before it was decided that a permanent base was needed for the government.  The next decision was where it was going to be, a neutral ground was needed that both the North and South agreed on.  A sight was chosen on the banks of the Potomac River and land was gifted from neighbouring States.  Washington DC in Rosies eyes is a city of monuments and memorials, a seat of federal power populated with dowdy, expressionless government workers trudging like drones into building’s so big it blows your mind.

Rosie and The Operator arrived in DC late afternoon and decided in order to get abit of orientation and idea of scale of the city we would take a Night Tour with On Board Tours.  It was brilliant!

The Capitol Building stands on Capitol Hill, since 1800 this is where Congress ie: the government, meet to write the countries laws.  Washington DC has no sky scrapers….bet you didnt know that….because the statue of Freedom sits atop the Capitol, she is the highest aspirational figure in the land and nothing was going to look down on her, she is what all men should aspire to and look up. too.

During the day you can really see the enormity of the Capitol, there is another wing on the other side, every building in DC is supersized.  There are also no front and back to this building, it is built identical on either side and is either the west front or the east front.  This is where the newly elected President steps out facing the National Mall and reads his acceptance to the gathered million.  They were building the podiums in preparation when we were there.

Washington was a purpose designed city built by freemasons…everything has a meaning and purpose in their ‘religion’.  It truely is a Dan Brown novel alright and gets abit deep and meaningful for Rosie.  So Rosie will welcome you to the National Mall, described as ‘The Nations Backyard’.

It is a 1.9 mile stretch with the Capitol at one end and the Lincoln Memorial at the other end, the photo above is the middle groundish, it shows the Reflecting Pool and the Washington Monument which is the needle, behind the needle is a huge grass area leading to the steps of the Capital.  This is Americas great public space where citizens come to protest, sit in the sun or visit monuments and museums.

 

The Washington Monument was built in two fazes, it got halfway finished and they ran out of money, all of the other states were asked to contribute…Oregon didnt send a penny but sent a slab of rock….this started abit of a worldwide joke and other parts of the world sent indigenous rocks from their countries and they are embedded in the construction.  Even the Pope sent a rock from Vatican City.  You can see the colour change in the rock halfway up.

Occupying one end of the Reflecting Pool and in the middle of the Mall is the National WW2 Memorial.

 The tour we were on was a full sized busload of 40 people.  Dupree was our tour guide and he was a walking factoid machine….Rosie was in Heaven, we drove through the streets and he pointed out this and that and told the accompanying story.  The good thing about this tour is that we could get off the bus and take photos.  Rain was threatening and we got a few drips and drops…nothing serious but it did seem to keep the crowds away, which was great, then again it was 9.00pm.

During the daylight the site kind of lost its ethereal quality but was no less impressive in size and symmetry.  In the above picture the white rectangle in the middle is the Lincoln Memorial. 

This is the Korean War Veterans Memorial and is centred around a ghostly patrol of steel soldiers. The wall to the left is 100 metres and has 2000 faces etched onto the black marble by lazer, they are faces of actual veterans, every person is a real one and served in that conflict.

 It is a very eerie scene, the soldiers are about one and half times bigger than an actual man and the looks of trepidation and fear on their faces is intense.  The costumes are made for the rain and crappy weather and adds to the hellish scene being portrayed .  At night it was even more surreal and otherworldly as these soldiers loomed out of the dark.

And here is the eeerrrmm……White House in all its lit up pink glory, it too does not have a front or back….you can walk right up to a guarded fence and poke your camera through the rails. The Obamas live on the second floor….they must be in the lights are on.

                                 This side of the White House is where they have the easter egg rolling to those lucky invited guests. Jacquie Kennedy apparently re decorated the whole house, Roosevelt added a pool, Clinton a jogging track, Bush a T Ball field and Michelle Obama has planted a ‘very well tended’ kitchen vege garden that you can see from the road.

Honest Abe sits in his lonely cathedral….some things look better in the dark and The Lincoln Memorial certainly does, its luminous glow can be seen from throughout the area an the spectral man on the throne looks contemplatively out over the world.

The Gettysburg Address is inscribed on the wall of the memorial as well as other inspirational quotes from the great man.  It is said his fist is clenched as a sign of strength and the other more relaxed as he is open to ideas…..other conspirators reckon his hands say something in sign language…..The size and scale of this again is crazy…it balances the end of the mall, but it sure is one huge homage to one man. No, Lincoln was not a Freemason……in the daylight, it looses its life and looks abit mausoleum ish.

This is the Old Post Office Pavilion, it  was built in 1899 and sits within the Federal Triangle, a triangle of streets containing several huge federal buildings, including the dreaded IRS.  The IRS was formed during the Civil War to collect taxes to fund the war. The Post Office has a 400 ft observation tower, with not very good views.                      This is the IRS Building, huge eh….The Washington Monument needle is in the Background.

This is the main avenue that leads straight to the Capitol, it is the route for Presidential processions and ticker tape parades.  You would think there would be plenty of space for a vantage point…apparently the whole avenue is ten people deep for important parades.                                                            The elevator that took us up to the Post Office was a glass walled one and here is the arcade below, it has shops and an international food court.

The final word on DC from the Presidents Office……well, when we arrived we did a night tour, as Rosie said it was threatening rain….we arranged for the taxi driver that took us home  to come and pick us up at 8.00am to do a daylight run of the monuments we saw last night…..we couldnt take our car because there is no parking in this town close to the monuments…..a taxi can lurk on the periphery and all Rosie wanted was some daylight shots.    Rosie and The Operator were up early and the weather had turned, the rain was actually torrential, oh well, its only water, we have an umbrella, yay, there will be no one else about.  We waited in reception for our taxi driver….and waited and waited, he wasnt taking his phone calls.  Bloody bugger had ditched us and we were so up for it….never mind saved us $40 an hour and we stayed dry.  So we had a cruisy day, walking the shops and have a long boozy lunch.  Rosie caught up on some blogs and all was good after the hectic time we have been having.

So how did we get those daytime monument photos you may ask?  On the morning we were leaving DC we were on the road at 8.00am….the weather was grey but dry and roads were empty….not a soul to be seen.  We rocked up and parked in the empty bus parks and reshot our photos.  As soon as the clock hit 9.00am the tours buses started rolling in and the crowds thickened.  Before that we had DC to ourselves….if only for an hour.  Tomorrow we are visiting Arlington Cemetary and Mount Vernon – sure hope the weather clears up!