Washington DC

We have taken a whirlwind tour of DC. We left LAX on Friday March 24th and flew to DC via Dallas.

The plan was that we spent only 30 minutes on the ground in Dallas, however because of the weather we were there for almost two hours.

It does not look bad here but there had been severe weather in the area and take offs were delayed to avoid it.
Better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than in the air wishing you were on the ground.

As we approached DC we had a chance to get some good pictures as we came in to land.

That evening we met up with our niece Jackie and her husband Jonathan, just to catch up and plan the next day.

The first stop of course was the White House, Anne had a bag of rocks she had brought with her in case she spotted you know who.

She was in disguise, just in case the opportunity arose...

Well, not much of a disguise, I think that most of her friends would have picked her out in a line up.



Then it was off down the Mall to see the sights.

 The Washington Monument and the WWII Memorial.

 Followed by the Lincoln Memorial.

 This for me, the most moving place of all, the Vietnam Memorial. I think that this is because of all those young guys who were the same age as I was but did not get the chance to grow old.

 It's hard to put into words, but you get a strong feeling of connection.

 Next day we took a cruise down the Potomac to Mount Vernon which was Washington's home.
We passed some really fancy homes along the side of the river.

 Of course it would not be a real tour without El Leopardo being along for a visit.

 The following day we visited the Capitol, and very impressive it is too!

 During the same day we had the opportunity to tour the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

 These are perhaps two of my favorite exhibits. Above is a scale model of the Spruce Goose with a model of a DC3 in the same scale.  That gives you some idea of how big this thing really is.
When I first came to California, the Spruce Goose was on Terminal Island and then moved into a specially constructed geodesic dome next to the Queen Mary.It is now on display in a purpose built hangar at the Evergreen Space Campus in McMinnville Oregon.

Below is the iconic Spitfire, the very epitome of WWII battle of Britain.

 On our final full day we visited the Lincoln Cottage located in the grounds of the Soldiers Home.

 Pictures were not permitted inside the building.
This tour was not so much like visiting a museum, but more like an interactive history lesson.
The interactive part being the guide asking questions and the group responding with their points of view.

Of course there's more than just history to see in Washington, cranes at work, one of my favorite tourist attractions!

On our final night we had dinner with Jackie and Jonathan at a restaurant near their hotel.

Here is a small sample of the cherry blossoms you have all been waiting to see.

Of course, girls just wanna have fun!


Then all too soon we headed back to SoCal.

As soon as we got home I started missing the main component of the Washington political scene.

So, I ran over to Home Depot and bought some.