Get your O face on: Washington DC

Washington DC Fun Facts
- The National Mall is 1.4 times larger than Vatican City.
- In Washington DC there is 1 lawyer for every 19 residents in DC and 74 lobbyists for each United States Senator.
- More wine is consumed per person in Washington DC than any other state in the United States
- The Smithsonian Institute’s National Air & Space Museum is the most popular museum in the world after attracting 219 million visitors in the first 25 years after its opening.

So Washington DC the last stop on our tour =(

We spent 3 nights here it was one of my favourite stops on the tour. Being the capital of the US it encompasses some amazing history of America and the world. Full of many many museums and historical sites I was quite overcome absorbing everything it was truly remarkable.

Arlington National Cemetery

Where all american soldiers are buried. It was a sobering moment walking through here and acknowledging all these soldiers, these people who have sacrificed their lives for ours today. It made me wonder if we were faced with the same fate in the world we live in today could we be as brave, as selfless?

JFK's tombstone

Tomb of the unknown soldier. Guarded 24 hours a day with a changing of the guard every 30 minutes

HERE RESTS IN

HONORED GLORY

AN AMERICAN

SOLDIER

KNOWN BUT TO GOD

The most beautiful coloured trees I have ever seen

Our night tour lead by Chris, it was freezing but it was amazing!

The Lincoln Memorial

The Washington Monument

est. 1848, built to commemorate the first President George Washington

The White House

US Presidential fun facts

- President William Taft was the largest President, so large he got stuck in his bathtub

- 3 of the first 5 presidents died on July 4th (Independence Day) Thomas Jefferson and John Adams within hours of eachother in 1826 and James Monroe in 1831

- Teddy Bears” were so named when Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt (1858-1919) refused to shoot a small bear cub one day. The incident was reported in the news, which inspired a toy manufacture to come out with the cute stuffed animals

- Six presidents were named James: Madison, Monroe, Polk, Buchanan, Garfield, and Carter.

- Jimmy Carter is the first known president to go on record as seeing a UFO

- James Earl “Jimmy” Carter (1924-) was the first president to be born in a hospital

- The three best known Western names in China are Jesus Christ, Elvis Presley, and Richard Nixon

- After President Bush Sr. vomited on the Japanese Prime Minister, a new word entered the Japanese language. Bushusuru means “to do the Bush thing,” or to publicly vomit

- President Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) is the only president to be elected to two nonconsecutive terms. He was the 22nd and 24th president

- James Buchanan is the only bachelor president

- William Henry Harrison (1773-1841) holds the record for the longest inauguration speech in history at 8,578 words long and one hour and 40 minutes. Unfortunately, he gave the speech during bad weather and a month later, he was dead from pneumonia, making his the shortest presidency on record

The hope diamond at the American Museum of Natural History

Not sure if I mentioned it earlier way back in Durango, Colorado on our jeep tour we learnt the history of the hope diamond and the apparant "curse" it has on any woman who has it in their posession...we all remember the Titanic right

Our next museum was the National Museum of American History. I had been looking forward to this since I booked my Contiki way back when purely because there is an exhibit of pop culture artefacts from famous TV shows, movies and music. I wanted to see the famous desk Carrie Bradshaw wrote at in the good old days of Sex and the City! to my horror and blinding rage they were renovating and had minimised the space of the exhibit and the desk was no longer there my heart sank in utter devastation. So we checked out the dresses of all the first ladies and then we saw this kid wearing a Jebediah Springfield coon skin and we reminisced about our good friend the Phoenix. I was still pretty enraged about the desk and had to eat my feelings and also it was lunch time, no judgement.

Mini Phoenix

Then we went to the Holocaust museum. Having been to the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis I found it easier empathise with what happened to all the African Americans through history and I struggled to empathize walking through the Holocaust museum because I couldnt even begin to fathom what it must have been like to have lived through that and experience such brutal means of torture. The images were haunting. At the end of the musuem there is a huge circular room with candles you can light lining the wall with one central flame, I saw someone just breakdown and cry, it was so raw.

Once we reached the gift shop I made two purchases one, The Diary of Anne Frank (I have always wanted to read this) and the second, a red bracelet with hamsa symbol.

The hamsa (Arabic name) also known as the hand of Fatima (Islam) or hand of Mary (Christianity) is a palm shaped amulet made popular throughout the Middle East and North Africa commonly used in jewellery and wall hangings. The open right hand is recognised as a sign of protection in many societies and provides defence against the evil eye. The hamsa was introduced into Jewish culture through Islam retaining the Arabic name of hamsa but also renaming it the hand of Miriam referring to the biblical sister of Moses.

The U.S Capitol building

I have confused this with the white more times than I care to admit. It is the meeting place for the United States of Congress and divides the quadrants of the district.

The view where Martin Luther King Jr stood for his last speech looking over the reflective pool

I have a dream

Martin Luther King Jr

The march on Washington

for jobs and freedom

August 28 1963

Abraham Lincoln Memorial

The Korean War Memorial

Martin Luther King Jr Memorial

One of my favourite quotes in the entire world!

A wall lines the memorial with all of Dr King's famous quotes

Fun Fact: April 4 is the peak blooming date for the cherry blossom trees that line the water near this memorial date it is also the date of Martin Luther King's assassination

Franklin D Roosevelt

President for two terms (8 years) during which the great depression and World War II occurred.

In each part of this memorial running water is an important physical and metaphoric component. The four "rooms" that make up the memorial represent different points during Roosevelt's time in office. As you move through the rooms the waterfalls become larger and more intense associated with the increasing complexity of the economic depression and world war.