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We are finally getting over our jet lag. This is the first time we have slept through the whole night!! After a quick breakfast we set off for the day headed straight for the capital building (parliament). Because we are Australian we were allowed to sit in session in the House of Representatives. We listened to many 1 minute speeches that had the common theme of the San Bernadino massacre and tighter gun laws in particular not allowing people on the no fly list being able to purchase weapons. It was an experience to remember. After a quick lunch at maccas we set off to the White House. We couldn't actually go inside the White House which was disappointing but it was incredible how big it was from the outside. The White House has over 400 doors over 300 rooms and 35 bathrooms!! Out the front of the White House was the national Christmas tree. It is surrounded by 56 smaller trees representing all of Americas States and territories. Next we had a quick stop at Washington monument. It's 552 feet tall and it faces the capital building, the White House, Abraham Lincoln's memorial and the Thomas Jefferson memorial. This place is full of monuments!! Then we walked to the Abraham Lincoln memorial. In this memorial there is a giant marble statue of Lincoln surrounded by famous speeches he did. This memorial overlooked a body of water reflecting Washington monument. Behind the Lincoln memorial is the national cemetery Arlington. We took a bus tour to see the tomb of the unknown soldier and the graves of over 400 000 American soldiers. We watched the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier which was an awesome experience and we saw the burial site of John F Kennedey. Then we headed back to the hotel for dinner. At 7:00 a bus picked us up to do a night tour of all the monuments again. We also saw the Vietnam and Korean War memorials as well as the United States Marines memorial. The monuments looked incredible fully lit up especially the national Christmas tree which had over 5000 lights on it! Over the day we walked 26 500 steps. That's over 20km! It was our biggest day yet. We are looking forward to a good nights sleep before all the museums tomorrow.
Jack
It was quite warm today and such blue sky - t-shirts/no jackets during the day!! Quite unseasonal. We saw our very first squirrels too!!! So so cute! V
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Vicki Gallen Its a special place isn't it? Trust me, not many Aussies get to see a sitting, I have been twice and never got in, even with my election credentials. So jealous of that. Did the graves have the wreaths on them? If you had gone around the path to your left you would have seen Robert and Edward Kennedy's graves. The squirrels scared me, one just popped up beside my foot while we sat on a bench. Scared the life out of me! The tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the changing of the guard is so memorable. Hopefully you saw all the memorials for the space crews over the road from that. So much history in there. I would have loved to have done a night tour. Are you going to the Forensics museum? No idea where it is, just heard about it after we had come home. Creepy but interesting.