Washington Day 2, We dodged a bullet! (Literally...)

Best day yet for weather today in D.C. You needed no coat today! Lots of sun! When we were making our last minute plans this morning, on what we were going to do today... one of the suggestions was that we visit the National Zoo. There is no fee to enter the Zoo, and they have 2,000 animals! We decided not to go to the Zoo, and maybe a good call. We decided to tour downtown Washington instead. When we arrived home this afternoon, I had the local NBC TV News on and turns out there was a big shooting outside the front of the National Zoo this afternoon, with two people being shot! ( They both survived!) Whew.... dodging bullets! I will listen to Judy more often, as she swayed the table on what to do today!

Instead of the Zoo we decided to take the Metro back downtown and just walk around and visit a couple of the highlights! First off, was the Old Post Office. "What???..." you ask... We had heard that they have a great tower tour you could take for free! Why not!

We made it to the windows right above the big clock you see in the tower above! What a view, as it is about 300 feet up. This is an old building, and at one time, $3 million was set aside for it's demolition! However, very recently Donald Trump has come to the rescue, and will spend $300M to renovate this building into a 5 star Hotel! The Tower will apparently survive and you will still be able to go up for a great view of Washington! The building will close for 2 years for the renovations to take place. Check out the pics I took from the top today just below...

Lincoln Memorial...

A great shot of Capitol Hill...

View of the bells in the bell tower from above... they are hand operated by pulling a series of ropes!

The above picture is inside the Post Office, where all the floors are now empty, waiting for renovations into the Hotel. Good luck with your renovations Donald!

After the Post Office, we were pumped, so headed down to see if the Obama's were home... I think they were, but they were very busy as it was the annual Easter Egg Roll! Thousands of kids come here for this event each year, held out on the back lawn. The pic above is the Front Yard. The red strip at the bottom of the pictures is the tulips... yup, it is spring!

Sure looks like the Guard above is keeping an evil eye on Judy, and what might be in her purse! Actually, he was keeping an eye on a demonstration being held in front of Judy... the Ethiopians were demonstrating about something... who knows what.

Lots of tulips around, these again, right in front of Obama's House.

There are lots of statutes and monuments around Washington... that is the White House in the background...

We left the White House, and walked downtown Washington... above is the entrance to Chinatown...

Ya, just to rub it in... Washington does have a hockey team... the Washington Capitols, and yes, they are in the playoffs, and play home games above, at the Verizon Centre, which is right in the heart of D.C.

We walked past the Canadian Embasy, and viewed the art work outside... you decide. There are no exhibits to view at the Embasy, so we carried on.

Judy has the Capitol in her hand... we headed up to visit the Capitol Building, glad we did!

Certainly, it is the landmark building in D.C. It is impressive, and the pictures just do not do it justice.

You are not allowed to bring your Swiss Army Knife inside the Capitol Building! Duhhh.... ya think I might have known this... right! Once again I had to leave my knife outside somewhere, and this time I did not retrieve it. Oh well, it was wearing out anyways.

You are not allowed to take pictures inside the Capitol Building, but we got to see the House of Representatives and the Senate Hall. We could not see the Rotunda, as it is under construction...rats!

The picture you see above, is taken from right about where I was standing! Many times have I watched the Presidential State of the Union Speach on TV, which is delived from the Podium in the centre! History, history, history... very impressive place to visit!

Above is a view of the Senate... we were up in the gallery on the right side... this is a file picture.

 

The two pics above are file pictures of the Rotunda, or the large dome structure in the centre of Capitol Hill. We could not get in here due to renovations... too bad.

I love the pictures you can get looking down the Washington Mall, this one above taken from the front of Capitol Hill, looking east to the Washington Monument.

Now you would think that was enough for today, and it should have been, but instead we headed over to see if we could get in the National Archives Building... and we did.

Again, you could not take any pictures inside the Archives... however we got to see it all.

One of the neat documents I came across, was the Application that Richard Nixon made in 1937, to apply for Job, with the U.S. Department of Justice, as an FBI Special Agent! Above is only a small portion of the application it was about 5 pages long, but very, very basic. Just like any application for a job. Mr. Nixon never heard what happened to his application, even going through a job interview. Herbert Hoover eventually told him, when he was elected President, that his application was approved, however there was a funding freeze on at the time, so he was not hired as a Special Agent!

We have figured out that we will need about 1 year to get around and visit everything here... it is just way too much, but we are trying! We have two more days here, so will keep going!

Jan left a comment on last night's blog... want to know how to get around Washington and what our Park is like. I cannot send you an email Jan, as I do not have you email address. We choose to drive our Jeep two miles to the nearest Metro Station, and Park for $4.50 a day. You can get a bus right from our Park on the hour, but we choose the convience of our own car, and never any real heavey traffic out here.

The Metro is very easy to use, and takes you right downtown in about 20 minutes for less than $5.00. It depends on where you get on, and where you get off. This way, you avoid driving downtown, and the rush hour traffic which is crazy here! You can buy the Metro Pass right at our Park Office. Here are a couple pictures of our Park I took this afternoon... it is very large, and has many different type of sites, including a restaurant inside the Park!

We had to pay $53.50 a night, with our CAA Discount... very expensive, however it is close to Downtown Washington. Travel is a big thing around here, and I think this is the easies way to do it, if you are in an RV.

Anyhow... gotta go and rest up... day 3 tomorrow...

Till tomorrow...

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