A visit to Washington DC
This was another place which was in my bucket list to visit.
Although it is not an exciting or happening place like Vegas, it is a must
visit place I would say.
We landed in Washington on 24th night at around 11
PM local time.
The airport was not crowded at all. Most of the terminals were deserted and it was a shocker. I had never seen an airport as empty as this was.
We had planned to stay in Washington for 2 days and leave on
27th afternoon to Jersey city. We were 5 of us and had one checkin bag
and 5 cabin bag. As soon as we collected the checkin bag we uber’d to Airbnb house.
The house was a 2 bed room independent house and had a well equipped kitchen.
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/23361676?s=51.
We were all tired and as soon as we came to the house we dozed off.
First day – 05/25/2018
We had planned this day as a light day without any museums.
We started from house at around 11 in the morning and headed directly to white
house. This was one of the few things which was a must for us to visit. We had
a nice view of white house both from the front side and from the back side, we
took pics. Just by seeing whitehouse we felt like it was worth visiting Washington.
Although the white house was not as elegant as our imagination was, it was
amazing. The feel which we get standing in front of white house is beyond explanation.
After whitehouse we saw Washington monument. It is an
obelisk on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George
Washington, once commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and the first
President of the United States. We did not spend much time around this
monument, the next stop was African American history and culture museum. We did
not go inside the museum but visited the building from outside. This is a beautiful
building which looks like 3 inverted pyramids one on top of other. At this
point we were hungry and tired. The temperature was 880 F and it was
burning hot. We took a small break and ate some home made food(huli avlakki)
and headed to Capitol building. We did not spend much time anywhere among these
places, we just took some photos and we were heading to the next place. Capitol
building and supreme court are opposite buildings, hence we took some pics in
front of supreme court and headed back. There were few other memorials pending
in the list. We headed directly to Albert Einstein memorial, followed by
Lincoln memorial and Korean veteran memorial, Vietnam veteran memorial. All
these memorials are very close to one another and can be visited in half a day.
After visiting all these memorials we were tired and were done for the day. We
headed back home at around 5PM and had maggi and took a nap. At 7PM we had hot
tea and played cards and called it a day.
Second day – 5/26/18
Second day was dedicated to pentagon and museums. We started
our day at around 11AM, headed directly to pentagon. This is a must visit place
in Washington DC just like visiting white house. This is the headquarters of
United States Defense. We were not allowed inside the building and no tours
were available as it was a weekend. We had to just stay in the building
premises. Pentagon was also attacked on 9/11 and around 184 people were killed
on that horrible day. There were plenty of benches on the premises which were either
facing the building or facing away from the building.
Every bench had 3-4 names written. The benches facing the
building signified people who were in the plane and died, benches facing away
from the building signified people who were in the building and died. It is worth
a visit.
After pentagon we headed to international spy museum. This museum
had all kind of devices, bugs, guns which spies across countries use. There were
guns in cigar pipes, cyanide in eye glasses etc. It had detailed explanation
and visuals of how a spy works and the risks to their lives associated with
their job. Truly amazing. After the spy museum we headed to Air and Space
museum. This museum had all kind of aircrafts, planes, jets and their
mechanical details. Also it had couple of huge planetariums. We bought tickets
for a show called ‘Dark journey’, it was about how galaxy was formed, how big
bang explosion happened etc and it was for 25 min. I couldn’t control but to
take a good energizing nap in that show. After this museum we were done for the
day, we did not waste any more time and headed back to house, had hot tea,
played cards and called it a day.
If I come back again I would visit only white house and
pentagon again. Others are not as exciting as these two. Overall it was a great
visit to Washington and ticked mark one of the places in my bucket list.
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