4th Day of Washington Trip: Tuesday - Part 2

We ate and went out to wait for the tour bus. We were to wait right in front of the Old Post Office Building right next to Ben Franklin’s statue (which I took a picture of!) There were police cars up and down Pennsylvania Avenue. We wondered what was up… We saw so many tour buses as we were sitting there…

The tour bus came promptly and we boarded. It took them awhile to get someone there from the office to check that we were on the list and paid. Then it took them another while to figure out who was going to be our tour guide. Meanwhile, the police had asked us to move along on Pennsylvania Avenue so we had to circle the block. Finally, our tour guide, Barbara, boarded the bus and we were off. It was still daylight at this time… just a little after 7. Our first stop was the Jefferson Memorial, which I was very excited about since Mom and I had not seen it yet and we wondered when and how we would get there! It was amazing… not as amazing as the Lincoln Memorial, but great in its own way. We got back on the bus and went to the area of the Korean Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and Vietnam Wall. Since Mom and I had already seen the last two, we got off and took some pictures of the Korean Memorial and then got back on the bus, rode with Sam, the driver, around to the other side and waited for everyone to return to the bus. It was dark by the time we left there. Then we went to the WWII Memorial, and we definitely wanted to see it all lit up. It was just as beautiful, if not more so, than in the daylight. The tour then went by Arlington (just passed it by) on our way to the Iwo Jima Memorial. Again, I was excited cause Mom and I had not made plans to go there. It is HUGE. It is so much larger in person than you can tell on TV. I was a little bummed because right before the tour bus arrived, the batteries went dead in my “good” camera. I put in the extra set I had brought with me, and they were dead, too! UGH. This is the camera with all the cool settings – including a night setting. So I just had to suck it up and use my new little Polaroid digital. It takes great pictures normally, but I wasn’t sure if it would be up to my standards for night pictures. Well, I found a night setting on it. The photos are not great, but I can deal with them. They are better than nothing.

Oh, and we met the funniest couple from California while waiting for the tour bus. They were so much fun. She and I hit it right off. And he could throw out the zingers, too!

After Iwo Jima, we headed back into downtown and went to the White House. Well, you don’t actually go “to” the White House anymore… Pennsylvania Avenue is now permanently blocked off so you have to get out at the corner and walk by the White House. I got a couple of beautiful pictures of it lit up. We also saw Blair House across from the White House – this is where guests stay. This week, the prime minister from Israel is visiting, so the Israeli flag was flying on the house. It was also lit up, and our tour guide figured that they were having some function there that the president was attending.

The tour guide told us the story of how Blair House came to be. Used to, guests stayed in the White House… on the same floor as the First family. Well, during WWII, Winston Churchill was visiting the Roosevelts. Eleanor Roosevelt walked out into the hallway late one night and found Churchill in just his nightshirt, holding a brandy sniffer in one hand and a cigar in the other! Mrs. Roosevelt asked him, “Winston, what are you doing?!” to which Churchill replied, “I’m looking for Franklin.” Mrs. Roosevelt told him, “No you’re not!” and steered him back to his room. Soon after that visit, Mrs. Roosevelt impressed upon Congress the need for a separate guesthouse for guests, and Blair House was born! LOL

We took our pictures and were standing there with our tour guide listening to her when all of a sudden a policeman came over to us and told us we either needed to get moving or cross the street. So evidently the party was ending at the Blair House and the president needed to be escorted back across the street!

We caught the tour bus at the end of the block and headed to our final stop, the Capitol. It was also beautiful, lit up. We took pictures, listened to the tour guide tell us the story of how the dome was finished during the Civil War. You would think the country would not have the money at that time to finish such a large project, but Lincoln was adamant. He felt that the country seeing that dome going up would be good for morale and show them the country was continuing on.

We found out that one of our tour passengers needed to get to Union Station to catch a train, and our wonderful bus driver, Sam, was going to take her there. I realized then that would be a better place to catch a taxi there from where the tour originated. So we got off at Union Station about 10 pm, got in the taxi quere and got a taxi very quickly. The driver was very nice (much more friendly and knowledgeable than the one yesterday). He was from Pakistan, spoke excellent English, had lived in the area for 10 years, and worked part-time driving a taxi. He brought us right to our door. We were wiped out! We went to bed very shortly after arriving back at the condo. Thank goodness we didn’t have to get up real early in the morning!