Day Three … exploring beyond The Mall

After crashing pretty quickly last night we both had a fairly fitful sleep, with both of us waking through the night (Ian started playing iPad games at about 4 am) but in the end we both fell back to sleep and I had to wake Ian in the morning! Very un-Phillips like! Thankfully we hadn’t needed a super early start today and I think the chance to get our body clocks readjusted was probably worthwhile.

Once up though we were quickly ready to begin the next day of our Washington adventure. We stopped to grab a Subway breakfast for later in the day and a coffee for me before heading back to McPherson Square station. After all of the walking yesterday we made some readjustments to today’s itinerary to replace bits of walking with train trips instead … which served us well in the end (although I still had a few steps logged by the end of the day).

We first travelled to George Washington University in Foggy Bottom. We love to explore university grounds wherever we travel (this trip has three scheduled) because the mix of architecture and history of the spaces always amaze us. We used an Ad Lab to take us to five highlighted locations, but this also meant that we were able to see a large area of the university campus. Along the way we learnt about where James Madison signed the Treaty of Ghent which ended the war with Britain in 1812, passed plaques commemorating the careers of George Gamow and Edward Teller (notable physicists), as well as visiting the American Meridian where on one side we were on the Pacific side of America and the other on the Atlantic side. Added to this we saw some beautiful buildings spanning many different architectural styles.

We next wandered down to the Kennedy Center, which is the performing arts centre located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River. Ian had originally planned for us to just visit the building, look around outside and then move on, however we discovered on arrival that we could actually go in to the Center and explore the incredible spaces inside. We began by heading to the roof terrace which afforded views back to The Mall and across the Potomac. We sat and ate our breakfast/lunch whilst watching the planes take off (why is there an international airport that close to the city?), looking over towards Arlington and the Pentagon. Ian was able to shake hands with President Kennedy, we found the Australian flag in the Hall of Nations and marvelled at the stunning chandeliers signalling that the concert was about to start (the theatre they were all rushing towards seats 2,600). So a visit that was meant to be only about 15 mins turned into an hour and a half but was worth every second.

I should just drop in here that in our way to the Kennedy Center we passed the Saudi Arabian Embassy which is located on New Hampshire Ave which has been renamed Jamal Khashoggi Way (you may need to do a bit of research to find out the significance of this renaming). We also passed the Watergate Hotel and office buildings, site of another key moment in American political history.

Leaving the Kennedy Center we headed back to Foggy Bottom to collect our final Ad Lab clue before jumping on a train to Arlington Station. At the Arlington National Cemetery we queued to go through security (they take security very seriously here … which is okay … you just need to allow time in your day) and were then able to enter and be awed, saddened, uplifted and stunned by the expanse of the cemetery. As an Australian you see Arlington in movies or TV shows and it looks amazing but in person it is more than you anticipate. Around 400,000 people are buried here, mostly military servicemen and women.

We used 2 Ad Labs to take us on an exploration … stopping to find notable graves such as William Taft, Robert Lincoln, JFK, Jacqueline Kennedy (my name sake), Robert Kennedy, Teddy Kennedy, Joe Louis (boxer and enlisted), the memorial for the Challenger astronauts, John Glenn and Robert Peary. We also spent time at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and watched the extraordinary changing of the guard ceremony. We wandered through the amphitheatre at the Tomb and stopped to chat to one of the Vietnam Vets we had seen yesterday at the Vietnam Memorial. Our wander through the cemetery was again longer than we anticipated but worth every second of the 2 plus hours.

We exited the cemetery via a side gate (again past security) and walked to the Pentagon. Whilst you obviously can’t enter the Pentagon we were able to walk along the front, stop at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial (to recognise the 9/11 attack and those that lost their lives when the building was hit). 

We then headed to the metro station to catch a train to L’Enfant Plaza where we were booked in for some tours located near there. We had the chance to grabs some lunch/dinner and a lovely cold drink (it is hot and humid here) and to spend 30 mins on the phone getting our tickets for the Bronx Zoo and Central Park Zoo in New York (they have timed entry tickets and we needed to book them via our NY City Sightseeing Pass).

So our next stop was to the Spy Museum and to undertake our covert mission as a spy! The Spy Museum was so much fun. We were there for an hour and 45 minutes and only just scratched the surface. Everyone who attends is given a spy profile and a mission to resolve. It was great fun to go through learning about “real” spies, disguises, tools to assist spies in staying undercover whilst collecting intelligence and to use all of that to solve our own individual puzzle. My “spy name” was Robin Kimura, but don’t tell anyone. It’s a secret and could get me killed. For all my Aussie family and friends … Ian’s undercover look is Shaun Micallef! We could have stayed longer but we both achieved our goal and were happy to head off for our final adventure of the day.

We had booked in to do the Night Bus tour of Washington which was a perfect way to end our visit. The guided tour was led by Maurice (along with our driver Ideme) who had an excellent knowledge of the history, the monuments, the memorials and the various suburbs of Washington. We thought our tour was only for 2 hrs but in the end it was closer to 2 and a half hours. It was great to see the memorials lit up at night and to learn more than we had already. We had a stop at the Lincoln Memorial (amazing at night) and also drove past the US Marine Corp War Memorial (a statue of the Iwo Jima flag raising) which we hadn’t seen. 

And so ends our day. Tomorrow we leave Washington to head onwards in our journey. Next stop … New York with a short detour in Philadelphia.

Today’s tally …

Photos - 498

Steps - 22,837

Kms walked - 17.84

Ad Labs completed - 3