Turning 24

On our fourth day in the capital we had decided to visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.  We arrived  a little early so were able to re-visit the WWII memorial in daylight and it was just as stunning.

The Holocaust Memorial Museum is another of the free museums that DC offers and it was presented and delivered excellently.  There are 3 floors which take you from the beginning in the 1930s through to the aftermath of the Holocaust and the Nuremberg Trials.  It is impossible to describe everything we saw, but suffice to say, that a lot of time and money has been spent making this museum widely accessible and very informative.

After the museum we headed up towards Dupont Circle to explore a new area of the city.  However, it was such a hot day that we only made it to the first ‘circle’ (Thomas Circle) which was buzzing with a bit more life than downtown, so we explored that instead!  Before going to Thomas Circle we had purchased tickets, for later that day, to see The Dark Knight (which was consistently sold out throughout the day) and so after our explorations we set off to get to the cinema in plenty of time.  By 6.30pm we were in the queue and the film was not due to start until 7.30pm!  The lines were crazy but thankfully we were very near the front so managed to grab some excellent seats and a tub of popcorn the size of a beach ball - it was HUGE! Needless to say the film was excellent and we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

The next day we got up early to try and beat the heat of the day as we wanted to head to Virginia (on foot!) to visit Arlington National Cemetery where John F. Kennedy and his wife are burried, along with his brother Robert Kennedy as well as other Presidents and historical figures.  The cemetery itself spreads out as far as the eye can see and is built on what was once a colonial plantation.  The JFK memorial has an eternal flame burning in his memory and a fantastic view of the Washington Monument.

And we saw Robert Kennedy’s memorial too…

We didn’t spend a terribly long time at the cemetery, for obvious reasons, and we were soon headed back in the direction of downtown.

That afternoon we decided to explore Georgetown, an historical area where the stunning Georgetown university, dating back to 1789, is located.  The streets of Georgetown are lined with beautiful old houses, shops, and restaurants giving us plenty to see and do.  After strolling through the downtown area we walked to the university and admired the old buildings there – sadly we did not think to capture this on camera.

To reward ourselves for all our walking we decided to have a nice lunch out at a local pub.  I chose to have a very American burger and chips whereas Jords opted for the more ‘English’ plate of fish & chips!  Both washed down with a pint and thoroughly enjoyable.  After our pub lunch we decided to walk to Washington National Cathedral. 

It was a truly stunning building and we were both shocked by the clean outside appearance of this Cathedral, both being used to rather weather worn and much much older specemins in England, not to mention the brightness of the stained glass windows.

Thid was a particularly beautiful example that I loved…

The photo doesn’t do it justice somehow.  After the Cathedral we headed back to our old favourite place – the fountain in the sculpture garden where we could cool our weary feet and relax with a book.  It was a great end to an exhausting day! 

Officially 24!  Woke up very early on my birthday and Jords hurried me downstairs to give me my presents.  I had a lovely card, a bar of dark Ghirardelli Chocolate with citrus pieces and a New York City Encounter travel book!  We then checked our emails and I had an email confirmation from Jords advising that we were going to see the Lion King on Broadway in NYC on the 3rd August!  I was amazed!  It is a show I have wanted to see for many years as I’ve heard great things about it…and now I’m finally going to see it!

Off on very much the right foot for the day we set off downtown in the beautiful sunshine.  It was at this point I advised Jords that, as my Mum always reminds me, I’ve very rarely had bad weather on my birthday.  We popped into a coffee shop for a deluxe breakfast before setting off towards the zoo.  Within 10 minutes the sky had become very grey and we felt pretty certain that the heavens were shortly to open.  So we changed our plans and headed for the National Archives.  Thinking that it wouldn’t be very busy this early in the morning, we were shocked to see a queue, and even more shocked when it started to pour with rain!  We got pretty drenched but it was all good fun!

I promise it’s not sweat!!!

The National Archives houses some very important documents.  First they have one of the 4 remaining copies of the Magna Carta, and once we were inside we were able to view it before getting in line for the next 3 documents.  These consisted of the most important documents to many Americans.  The Declaration of Independence, The American Constitution (below), and The Bill of Rights. 

The declaration had faded so much you could barely read it, the Constitution was in impeccable condition – especially the signatures, and the Bill of Rights was also pretty faded.  It was a surprisingly good way to spend my birthday morning!  We didn’t get out until 2pm and when we finally emerged it was to beautiful blue skies and intense heat!

We decided to follow through with our original plan of paying the zoo a visit as it was another free one!  Although all the animal shows were done in the morning it was a lot quieter in the afternoon, making walking around more of a joy!  The most exciting animals by far were the Hippos and the Giant Pandas.  They were just adorable!

After exhausting ourselves at the zoo, we made a beeline (or should that be beerline) for a pub we had read about with over 1000 beers to choose from!  We arrived and were instantly in heaven – if only we were any good at making decisions!  Jords took over and chose some great beers for us to sample. 

Look how many options there were on that one page…there were at least 10 pages!

A couple of bottles later and our appetite was huge.  We therefore did only what was right on my birthday and went back to Georgetown, to a restaurant called Pizzeria Uno (a Chicago pizza place) and gorged ourselves on pizza yet again!  It was amazing!  A fantastic birthday – my first away from home – and Jords certainly made it special!

Finally the day had arrived for us to check out of hostel hell and into hotel heaven!  We checked out as late as possible from the hostel and by 12pm we were at the Sofitel Hotel just one block away from the Whitehouse!  We were made even happier when we were informed we could check in straight away – we had expected to be turned away until 3pm.  The room that Jords had booked was just beautiful…

Flat LCD wide screen?!  We were spoilt!

We wasted no time in abusing the facilities on offer to us in the hotel and after changing into our gym gear we headed to the basement!  The gym had individual TV monitors on each machine, free oranges and bananas, free towels – the works!  Being poor travellers we abused the free fruit on more than one occassion!  We spent the best part of an hour in the gym before showering and setting off towards the supermarket to buy our treats for the night.  And the result of our shop was…

Pretty healthy hey?!  That doesn’t quite show the full picture – in hiding were 2 bags of kettle chips and a whole apple pie!  We settled down in our lovely room, with our flatscreen TV, and watched Atonement.  5 minutes before the end of the film there was a power cut due to the huge thunderstorm overhead and we were in darkness for about 10 minutes.  Luckily I had my handy head torch so we didn’t have to sit in the dark, but Jords did think he needed to take a pic of me with it on!

This photo was taken in the almost pitch black!!!  However, once we had power, we finished the end of our film, and went to sleep in one of the most comfortable beds I’ve ever been in…