Two Countries and Eleven States - Day 6 The White House and the Monuments by bike

[floridafan101]

24th October 2018

Big Day today we were off to perhaps the most famous address in the world - the White House

Negotiating the subway, our second of the holiday was easy and to be fair it was a lot less complicated system than New York. Again we had to pay for the boys no cheap/free fares sadly. Unlike NY we didn’t get passes as we only had 2 days here didn’t seem worth it. We opted for SmarTrip cards which we just loaded up as necessary, easy enough to use. We all love subways and this was a nice one, clean, airy and felt safe
Anyway back to Pennsylvania Avenue.
We had entry approval for 11.30am but turned up early in case we could get on an earlier tour. No such luck there was already a long queue ready for 11 with others like us tagging on the end.

We decided we would wait too and joined the end and waited.

Some of us with less enthusiasm than others
Someone came out just before 11.30 to check the tickets we’d been told we must bring a paper copy of the invite with us.

Anyway we went in and as you might expect had to progress through various security stages,

Secret Service agents everywhere much to the boys bemusement ‘aren’t they supposed to be secret?’
Sniffer dogs, everything x rayed etc. I did kind of expectbus to be thrown out for something at some point. I had to tell DH to be quiet and not try his rubbish jokes on the secret service guys didn’t look like they would have much sense of humour.
The tour is great if you know what to expect i.e. no West Wing, private quarters etc.

I loved seeing the gardens and the child’s football nets.

The rooms are beautiful and you can take as long as you want to walk round.

To see the East room where Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy had been brought after their assassinations was very moving.

You cover two floors and end up in a hall with the official seal. Last photo opp. Pictures were fine but no video and no large cameras.

We paused for a last few photos outside, waved to the crowds gathered at the gates and headed out.

We walked round passing various government buildings

And lots of protection

to get the classic views

We then went to the worst toilets ever! These were just by the Ellipse and were foul, dirty, no toilet paper, horrid.
We did grab an overpriced hot dog from a van there and munched it as we headed to the next part of our day.

We saw the Capitol buildings but they would have to wait we had to get on a bike!

When we decided to go to Washington it was obvious we wanted to see the monuments and then it was a question of how. A friend of mine had done the bike tour and recommended it so I booked us on the afternoon tour. It’s about 3 hours so a fair bit of cycling and I was still feeling a bit sore after the Central Park Ride but it looked like the best way to see them and would be fun for the boys.
And it was.
There’s a lot to see for sure and walking round would have taken forever!
This way you get to see the big ones
Jefferson

MLK which was fantastic!

Lincoln obviously!

Korean

Vietnam

World War

They were all impressive and we all especially admired the Korean one, very moving.
There were lots of veterans at the Vietnam memorial. A lot of the older men had a younger companion with them, to help them get around and I suppose maybe to understand more about that war from someone who’d been there.
I did smile though when I walked past one pair, the young guy in his early 20s was assisting an elderly man said shall we have a sit down and rest and his companion looked at him and said “well sure if you’re tired”
It was a great afternoon we all really enjoyed it and the weather was lovely again. It was really helpful to get the background from out guide who was very knowledgeable and friendly. He told us that planes are not allowed to fly over Washington and although they come close they veer at the last minute. Also if we see 3 helicopters over Washington it probably means the President is aboard one with 2 decoys. Never saw 3 though

Bikes dropped off with City Sights (cost $102 if you’re interested) we headed off for dinner at Bar Code restaurant and lounge near DuPont Circle. I had a Groupon deal for here $120 of food for $44. Wasn’t supposed to cover drinks but our lovely waiter let us put them on and only charged us $8. The food was gorgeous and more than worth what we’d paid

Tummies full we headed back to the hotel - fantastic day in Washington.

Steps today 17,655

States so far
New York
New Jersey
Delaware
Maryland
Virginia

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