DC in Two Days
Friday June 8, 2012
Day One:
Arrive at Union Station. Metro towards the waterfront. Drag my suitcase and all the candy two blocks to the hotel. Sweating buckets. Arrive at hotel. Too early to check in. Offload candy into suitcase and head to the National Mall. Visited the Capitol Building, the National Air and Space Museum, Washington Memorial, the White House (did not see Obama), the Lincoln Memorial (the famous Forrest Gump scene is being renovated), the Vietnam and Korean War Memorials, the Roosevelt Memorial, MLK Memorial, Jefferson Memorial... then passed out back at the hotel.
Day Two:
Early start. Off to the Pentagon and its accompanying September 11 Memorial, then to Arlington Cemetry, the Iwo Jima Memorial, the National Museum of Natural History, the American Art Museum for a special exhibition on the Art of Video Games (Shatter was nominated for this but didn't quite make it!), the National Building Museum for a Lego exhibition and finally the Zoo.
Sheesh.
So there are memorials all over the place, famous sites and amazing buildings here. Everything seems to be under construction or is undergoing some maintenance. The weather has been overwhelmingly hot but tolerable and still better than the bone-chilling winds of Wellington.
The city is also overrun with school children. I sound old for saying this, but they are horribly obnoxious, loud, rude, and have absolutely no respect for the places they are visiting. You expect a place like Arlington to be peaceful and there are even signs around the place saying please be silent as respect for the dead, but no these kids are still yelling at the top of their lungs and talking about whatever, like, ohmahgawd, girlfriend puh-please. These memorials have a lot of history behind them and they are more than just tourist attractions. They remind us of the difficult times people have overcome or the tragic loss of life.
Another early start tomorrow to get to the airport, and it's off to Ohio!
Posted by Jeremy at 3:06am on Friday June 8, 2012 :: 0 comments :: 
Train to DC
Wednesday June 6, 2012
Man, even the train has free wifi.
Yesterday we started the day at the Museum of Natural History near Central Park, only a few blocks from the hotel. The place is massive, with four floors taking me a total of three and a half hours to explore. There's plenty of exhibits on space, geology, extinct animals, cultures of the world and dinosaurs.
I did a huge candy run. So much candy. I'd say I have around five kilograms of the stuff and it was tough carting all of it to the train station this morning. Sadly I won't be eating all of it... It's mostly gifts for friends and family.
But the best part of my day was being able to witness, firsthand, the historical Transit of Venus, which will not happen for another 115 years. My luck with viewing astronomical events has never been good, and with rain and clouds forecasted for the day, it looked like it was going to be rather iffy at stages. But shortly after 6pm, the clouds parted for a brief glimpse into the heavens and the several telescopes that had been set up at the Pier 1 Cafe on Manhattan's west all caught the intense black spot nestled on the sun's rim. My thanks again to the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York for organising this event and I am totally stoked to be out of stormy Wellington for this!
The Amtrak train is cool. In the two hours I've been on the train, we've been from Penn Station in NYC to New Jersey, Pennsylvania and now in Delaware, with Maryland and finally DC to go.
Posted by Jeremy at 1:08pm on Wednesday June 6, 2012 :: 2 comments ::