Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
As the hostel provides a breakfast included in the price we made sure to be there at 9 to make the most of it as when travelling you need to to keep the costs down!
The breakfast was pretty good consisting of a man asking you to greet him in a language other than your native tongue then you could help yourself to bagels,bread,cereal,yoghurt,muffins and orange juice with a choice of cream cheese,peanut butter,butter and jam to compliment it all. Two bagels,some cereal,yoghurt,orange juice and a muffin each later we was getting showered and ready to head out with the cameras again for our only full day in Washington, D.C.
A little way down the road wearing shorts and vests we felt a few drops of rain but it looked relatively bright so we decided after already being caught out in the rain in New York, we still wouldn't bother going back for the rain jackets as it would be fine..
We walked just under a mile down to a Walmart store as we needed to get a GPS for when we hired a car. The thing with hiring cars in the USA is they will charge you like $100 to hire a GPS for a week with your car, but you can buy one for like $80 + tax. The Walmart did not have any GPS at that location so we just grabbed a drink and was just about to leave when I spotted some sleeping bags and remembered the whole reason to hire a car was to go camping and see rural areas of the USA which was why we needed a GPS in the first place. The original plan was to get a GPS,tent & sleeping bag from the Walmart so we could then go camping with the car we were renting!
Back around the shop we went but we couldn't find a tent anywhere. Eventually we asked someone who took us to the tents which strangely enough were located with all the other sporting goods in the shop, an area we for some reason didn't look in!
We decided that the new plan was to find somewhere that did sell GPS navigators then pick one up the next morning on the way to collecting the car then get to the Walmart with the car to collect the sleeping bags and tent.
Now this was all sorted we headed out to see all the other things D.C. has to offer starting at the capital building then walking through the gardens towards the Washington monument. The Capitol building is having extensive repair work done on the dome on top so looked more of an eyesore than impressive which is a shame as when it's all done it will look incredible as it usually does.
When we reached the Washington monument we got the cameras out then the rain returned so we took cover on a stage with a roof on nearby as it was quite heavy at this point.
We waited it out for a bit but eventually got kicked off just as the rain was dying out luckily then walked to the war memorial a bit further up and spent a while taking pictures there trying to get different effects with the fountains and mini waterfalls.
Just above the war memorial is the reflection pool with the Lincoln memorial at the other end. We done a couple of pictures then sat down and had a rest in some cover from the rain which was back again. Our legs were shot to bits when we had set out in the morning let alone now hours later with more miles covered.
Eventually we walked the last bit to the Lincoln memorial and took cover inside there whilst enjoying the view down to the Washington monument. It is the setting of many famous moments in history such as Martin Luther Kings "I have a dream" speech as well as scenes in many films such as Forrest Gump where he talks about the war in Vietnam and is re-United with Jenny running through the reflection pool. We stayed and took pictures once the rain had subsided then headed out towards Arlington cemetery seeing some unusual fish and a terrapin in the river on the bridge over towards it. It was 7pm by the time we reached the cemetery, the exact time it shuts! So we made our way back towards the White House with the intention of getting day photos but unfortunately around the back where we wanted to get pictures the most it was shut off as President Obama was having a picnic so we couldn't get anywhere near the back but around the front we could hear the music which was pretty cool. We took a couple of pictures here in the day then headed to find something to eat and pretty quickly as the rain again had returned and this time it was torrential. Being that it was even later now most places were shut so we ended up having to settle for another McDonalds although I think Rich was happy about this anyway being a bit of a fan!
We then ran the couple of blocks back to the hostel in the monsoon and watched a bit of basketball whilst finding somewhere to get a GPS then getting all the addresses of the camp sites we wanted to stay in and the state parks we planned to visit. It turned out literally next to the Pentagon City subway station there was a best buy store which done GPS so in the morning we got up and showered,done our washing then went to breakfast before putting it in the dryer then having a shower and getting sorted whilst this went on. Once all done and ready to go we checked out of the hostel and made our way to the nearest subway station the caught the blue line train to Pentagon city, got a GPS, then headed back on the blue line to Ronald Reagan airport to collect our car.
- comments