Hello Mr Lincoln

We were quite looking forward to Washington and had a long list of things we wanted to see and do in three days.

We started off with the State Capitol building which was massive and pretty impressive - the only annoying thing was having to go through airport type security just to get a map.  That's one thing we did notice about Washington a really high police presence and loads of security checks.  A real contrast to Philly that made it did feel really quite safe.

State Capitol building

One of the let downs for us was that pretty much all of the buildings were of exactly the same design.  It looked like the architects had been to Italy, decided they quite liked what they'd seen and thought we'll have a bit of that.  It was all a bit clinical - looked like the buildings needed to be dirtied up a bit so they looked older.
That said we did a whole load of touristy things ...

• Washington Monument
• Memorial central (it felt like millions!) - Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt,  World War II, Vietnam, Korea, Martin Luther King - I think that's about it
• Had a chat with Barack at the White House
• The Pentagon - just looked around the outside and was massively dull
• Arlington cemetery - it was massive.  Visited JFK's grave site and the tomb of the unknown American soldiers - sounds quite morbid but was alright.

Washington Monument with some autumn colours

Lincoln memorial

At the White House

Reflecting pool & Washington Monument

JFK's grave site

Tomb of the unknown American soldiers

Overall we enjoyed bits of Washington but some parts were a tad disappointing and a bit 'samey'.  Not a place we'd rush back to, but good to do.

So, after 3 long days of pavement pounding we're hitting (get ready to sing along) "the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia..."

It has to be said that we are starting to feel a bit America'd (and American'd) out.  We have seen and done some amazing things, but as we journey around we are starting to see a lot of the things we have seen before.  Now starting to look forward to some very different experiences in places like Vegas and Florida - and ultimately outside of the USA!