We met Tim and the tour group between the White House and Washington Monument (it was surreal walking by the White House everyday!) He was a great guy and very welcoming - he told us that pretty much without fail, he always has Aussies each tour. There were just over 20 people in our group and except for one family of Canadians, everyone else was American.
Tim gave us a bit of background to the White House and answered a couple of questions. For anyone interested in history, the White House was built when George Washington was President, however the first President to live in it was John Adams from 1800 (America's second President).
One of our highlights of the day was seeing President Obama getting picked up in his helicopter, Marine One. Ok, we didn't actually see him, but we saw his helicopter land on the South lawn of the White House and then leave once they had collected him (still a cool experience!) Here are a few pics...
This is the helicopter arriving to pick up Obama...
Marine One coming into land on the South Lawn of the White House to pick up Obama..
And here is Obama leaving, flying by the Washington Monument (ok, it was more impressive in person)...
We then moved on to talking about the Washington Monument, which is the monument pictured in the above and below photos. It currently has scaffolding around the base of it due to an earthquake about 18 months ago. Apparently you can take an elevator to the top, but this was closed due to the works being undertaken.
From the moment the tour began, Tim the tour guide had everyone engaged with a bit of trivia - his wealth of knowledge was amazing!
We visited the 3 war memorials which are part of the Washington Mall. The Washington Mall is governed by Park Rangers and refers to a huge area of the city and is made up of Presidential and War Memorials, the Washington monument, the Martin Luther King Jr National Memorial, 10 Smithsonian Museums, the National Gallery of Art, the National Archives and the US Botanic Garden. The whole city has been so well planned and thought out, including the memorials. For example, The Capitol is directly East, Lincoln is West, the White House is North etc.
The first war memorial we visited was the World War II memorial which is positioned between Capitol Hill and the Lincoln memorial. It is an open oval shape, so you can still view Capitol Hill and Lincoln while you visit, except from one point. There is a wall of golden stars known as the 'Price of Freedom' wall and each star represents 1,000 deaths during the war. The idea is that when you are standing and reflecting at this wall, your focus is there and therefore you cannot see Lincoln from this point. Here are a couple of pics of part of the memorial...
We then walked along the Reflection Pool - the first thing Tim our tour guide said about this was that it is from the Forrest Gump scene when Jenny and Forrest embrace at the anti-war rally! So that was our Forrest Gump moment!
We made our way to the Vietnam War Memorial and the story behind the thought that went into the design was fascinating. The memorial wasn't designed until 1982 - a competition was held to find the winning design. The successful applicant was a 21 year old architecture student from Yale University. Here are a couple of images of the memorial...
The memorial is made up of two walls - one pointing directly East and the other pointing directly West. To look at it from afar, it looks straight. All of the names of the US citizens who died during the Vietnam War have been listed according to the year of their death. The material used was a granite sourced from India - it is a special type of material that when polished, you can see your reflection in it (there is a reason behind this which is easier to explain in person). Every year, there are thousands of objects placed at the memorial by loved ones, including university certificates, photos, toys, the list goes on. All items are collected every night, labelled and stored in a warehouse. There are plans to build a Vietnam War museum near the memorial and rotate all of these items through for people to see them.
When people come to see their loved one's name, they are able to (with pencil and paper) copy their name if they wish. We saw one of the Park Rangers doing this for a few visitors... see the following pic...
Next was a visit to the Lincoln Memorial at the West end of the Reflection Pool - a very imposing building with large columns (it was based on the Greek Parthenon). Inside, of course, is the famous Lincoln statue...
View of the Washington Monument from the Lincoln Memorial...
Before we went inside to have a look, Tim took the group around to the back of the memorial to look at and speak about the view across to Arlington Cemetery, where the majority of Presidents are buried (see pic below, it's kind of hard to see it, but it's at the top of the green hill on the other side of the bridge).
Right in front of the Lincoln memorial was an inscription in the ground where Martin Luther King Jr stood to deliver his famous 'I have a dream' speech (see pic below).
We went inside to see Lincoln's statue - apparently the face was cast from a live mold while he was alive. It is a hug statue, however the size was as we expected (I think seeing it on TV and in movies with people standing next to it obviously helps to get a sense of scale). Also inside are inscriptions from a couple of his famous speeches...
This is the view of the Washington Monument and Reflection Pool from the Lincoln Monument...
The huge columns at the Lincoln Memorial...
More columns inside the Memorial...
Next was a visit to the Korean War Memorial. This memorial is made up of 19, 7 foot statues which represents soldiers walking through the land in Korea during the war. Beside the statues is a wall with engravings of faces from the war (and they are images of actual people who served during the war).
This wall is also reflective - when you look at the statues, you see a reflection of them and therefore, it appears there are 38 statues (this represents the 38 months that the war lasted). You will notice in the below picture of the memorial that there is a fresh wreath - every Monday, the Korean Ambassador lays a fresh wreath there to show the country's appreciation for the sacrifice of all involved.
The last stop on our tour was the Tidal Basin which is where the new Martin Luther King Jr National Memorial is located. It is such a pretty spot - the Basin is lined with 3,000 cherry blossom trees which bloom for 2 weeks every year (around the end of March, so we just miss it!) And the peak bloom happens for only 4 days.
The Memorial was very moving. The centre point of the Memorial is the statue of Martin Luther King Jr. You walk into it through two large pieces of stone on either side of you - this symbolises a section of one of his famous quotes "Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope". As you walk through, the stone of hope in front of you is his statue. Also part of the Memorial are a selection of quotes from some of his most famous speeches. There are a few pics below, including a photo of one of our favourite quotes of his...
The cherry blossom trees around the Tidal Basin at the Martin Luther King Jr National Memorial...
Apparently there was quite a lot of controversy around this memorial when it was built (actually, from what Tim told us, most memorials in Washington had some kind of controversy attached to it at time of construction for various reasons). On one side of the Martin Luther King Jr statue is this quote...
It has been paraphrased from one of his speeches, and many have argued that the phrase is completely out of context now. The original quote was something along the lines of "If you must refer to me as a drum major, say I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness". Subsequently, the quote is now going to be removed from the statue in the next few months.
Our 3.5 hour walking tour of Washington then concluded (it went so quickly, unlike reading this blog) and we headed off to a late lunch to a restaurant that Tim our tour guide recommended as one of the best places in Washington to eat. It ended up being another Irish pub/restaurant. I ordered a Thai chicken salad which advertised it as having cilantro and scallions in it - I had no idea what these were but thought they must go ok with the salad (I should've just asked someone!). Most of you probably know what they are!! It was coriander and spring onions for those who don't know!
It was late in the afternoon by the time we had finished lunch. Tim our tour guide had told us about the old Post Office building in town which has a tower you can go up in to see the city from above, so we headed there to have a look. It's a beautiful old building outside - whilst still lovely, inside seemed quite run down. The only shops inside seemed to be souvenir shops and a food court (maybe we didn't see it all). So we went up to the top to look out. It really gave us an appreciation for the layout of the city and just how flat it is, i.e. no sky scrapers (there are regulations around how high you can build). Here are some pics...
The view looking up to the Capitol...
I think the building on the right is the FBI...
The White House is in the distance in this one...
On our way back to the hotel, we walked by Ford's Theatre which is where President Lincoln was shot. Across the road to the theatre is the house where he was taken and died the next day. There was a long line to get into the house when we were there and the façade looked quite new
(due to the preservation process, we're guessing). Here is a picture of Ford's Theatre...
After a quick stop at the hotel, we were in a Taxi and heading for Verizon Stadium in Chinatown to see the Washington Wizards play the New Orleans Hornets (basketball). The Chinatown area was very different from the business-like area we were staying in.
It seemed a lot more congested and lots of hustle and bustle - everyone was out being a Friday night. The game's atmosphere was like chalk and cheese to the New York Knicks game. The stadium was probably only half full, but we both still enjoyed seeing another game. The Washington Wizards won which was good! Here is a pic from the game...
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